Review your response in the Week One Personal Crime Occurrence Evaluation assignment. Based on what you learned in this course:

List the crime theory or theories you think best explain the occurrence of crime.

Write a 350- to 700-word summary.

Provide theoretical support where needed, to include recommendations on crime control and crime reduction policies you would implement based on your crime occurrence explanation.

Provide APA citations and reference page consistent with APA guidelines.

Week One Personal Crime Occurrence Evaluation

Criminal activities are acts that go against the beliefs of what a society think is right. Human beings are raised in different families and environment. The upbringing of an individual determines how he/she will end up in future. Most crimes are reported from poor communities.

Every person is brought up in different families and conditions but there is a common ground that each family should adhere to. A "healthy society" sees the education system playing a huge role on ensuring children and students as a whole, know what is right and what is wrong. Every person's freedom is limited by following rules but it good for the person as well as the society. Criminals become into being when some part of the society flops in bringing up the young individuals in a social manner which in turns make the individuals to be detached from the society in a way.

Anyone that goes against rules at any point of their life has to be punished. Children at schools are given suspension and detention times depending of the type of "inappropriate behavior' they committed. The consensus view has helped in bringing peace among people in the society. In current times there is an increase of the number of people that are being incarcerated. It is hard to tell if there is increased crime rate since people that are being imprisoned are majorly from minor communities. The poor and the minor races. The whites have the highest population generally but they are lowest population behind bars. Most of the inmates originate from the black and Hispanic communities.

The conflict view of crime is about injustice in the criminal justice system. Different social groups have different perspective of criminal justice. There are groups that are advantaged and those that are disadvantaged by the system. The lower class have no say when it comes to deciding what is right and what is wrong. The powerful and the rich dictate what kind of rules should be followed. The conflict view of crime shows that major crimes go unpunished while the minor ones are the ones the system is focused on. Individuals involved in deciding wrong and right will not suggest rules that will hinder them in doing what they want. The lower-class freedom is regulated by the upper-class people.

Currently, race plays a role in deciding what type of penalty a criminal should face. The white race is socially dominant and therefore the criminal justice system is in favor of the white people. The system is bias when it comes to minor groups such as the Blacks and Hispanic. Studies carried out by American society of criminology have shown that a third of back men residing in the United States will be imprisoned at a point in their lives. This number does not concur with the white-man imprisonment or imprisonment of any female from any race.

Interactionist view depends on an individual's understanding and experience. Crime is a label that is put on activities that are believed to be deviant to normal behavior. The activity itself is not a crime, it has been labeled a crime by the society. The interactionist perspective can use a unique scenario where what was labeled a crime will be seen as legal.

For instance, a soldier killing a person while at war is not considered a criminal. It is a crime for a soldier not kill while at war. In the other hand, the criminal justice system has labeled killing as a serious crime. Interactionist view suggests that labeling of crime can easily lead to the victimization of minor groups. A good example is police believing a black man is most likely a criminal. The labelling of individuals being criminals lead to them becoming criminals.

Crime data is obtained from courts. Individuals that are arrested are recorded in files. Each one has a file that shows when and where they were arrested, what they were arrested for and their personal details.

The advantage of relying on court's data is that it is easily available. Its disadvantage is that it can be bias. These data can also be obtained from police officers who do the actual arresting. The advantage of this is that the researcher can ask the police one on one question. After that he/she will use his/her judgement on whether the arrest was right or wrong. Its disadvantage is being lied to by the officer. Prisoners and former prisoners can give good feedback concerning crime. This is because they were able to mingle with other imprisoners and therefore they have first hand information.

Criminal system is biased to some extent and it is important for scholars to study it and come up with the truth. The more truth is published the more the society is shaped into justice. The judiciary will understand what choices they have been making wrong and correct them. Different perspectives of scholars will have common grounds and the society will understand what crime is and people will be able to avoid it. The truth will also make people to fight for their freedom.

References

Boggs, S. (1965). Urban Crime Patterns. American Sociological Review, 30(6), 899-908.

Terance D. Miethe, Michael Hughes, David McDowall; Social Change and Crime Rates: An Evaluation of Alternative Theoretical Approaches, Social Forces, Volume 70, Issue 1, 1 September 1991, Pages 165-185,