Crime and Society, Questionnaire Example

Using Chapter 1 from our textbook and 3 additional references, discuss how different people might view diversity both as a strength as a problem to society.

Diversity is essential in today’s society. As innovations and advances in technology continue to shape the way that people interact, communicate, and view others, people will continually be in contact with individuals that are different than them. Diversity is significant in recruitment and admission in higher education institutions, workplaces, and throughout many industries. Diversity includes and is not limited to racial groups, disabilities, genders, religious, national affiliation, sexual preferences, and others. The practice of diversity has help to change the incoming classes make up and has helped to change curriculum. The strengths in having a diverse organization is the different ideas and knowledge that people from various backgrounds can offer. (Pearson 2009, pg. 5) These diverse ideas can be put towards good use with family structures, community issues, communication styles, authority, community leader structure, and gaining the cooperation of the c community.

The problems however are the downsides to diversity that serves a challenges within the society. According to Robert Putman (2007), the downside is that fewer people vote, less volunteer, less give to charity, and work within their communities. (Jonas, 2007) In more of contradictory to a world that is embracing diversity, those living in diverse communities are found to distrust their neighbors more. In academic settings where diversity is encouraged, the downsides are that there are influences of unconscious assumptions and biases. (Fine, Handelsman 2010) According to the textbook those that see diversity problems within society harbor negative attitudes that vary from prejudice, avoidance, and hate crimes, out of lack of understanding other groups (Pearson 2009). The criminal justice system has contributed to these negative attitudes in the past and in the present.

Describe why is it important to study diversity within the criminal justice system? Elaborate on the relationship between law and difference. (Chapter 2).

As evident within the textbook, the criminal justice system has contributed to the negative attitudes and actions of accepting diversity in society. “The United States remains a country in which decisions must be made about the meaning of difference (Pearson, 2009, pg 5). The criminal justice system has created laws that were used to exclude immigrants, justified the exploitation and discrimination of Native Americans and African American and ensured that the rights of women, children, gays and lesbians rights weren’t protected. The criminal justice system is perceived as a strong arm of status quo, which ensures conformity to the laws by enforcing conformity to norms and values not regulated by law. (Pearson, 2009, pg, 6).

It is essential in this aspect that diversity must be studied to stop racial disparities, and profiling of people of different cultural backgrounds. Illustrated in Chapter 2 is the social construction of society where some groups have more power than others when defining who is different. People are biologically different which is evident in their outward appearances, however these difference rarely matter to the individual but are made to matter through social interactions with others. The textbook defines “difference” as, the term used to describe the social and cultural meanings attached to human variation” (Pearson, 2009, pg 11). Studying cultural diversity within the justice system is bringing attention to the different genders, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, affiliations, and other differences that the criminal justice system must respect in accordance with peoples’ self-identification. Why it is best acknowledge the differences, in respects to the law, the stereotype that the law views as criminals does not automatically register as, white-collar offenders and government officials. Instead they target minorities, which carries extreme bias with police officers, judges, and prosecutors which is not only unethical but illegal. Greater attention must be made to law and cultural diversity.

After reviewing material from Chapter 5, elaborate on: 1) How social class shapes the definitions of crime? 2) How social class influences patterns of victimization and wrongful behavior, and 3) How fundamental changes in our society are presently altering the way the criminal justice system deals with lower income populations.

Society is socially constructed into separate classes that typically place a majority of the American population into the middle or lower classes. An increase of Americans have begun to sink to the lower class that toes the lines of poverty, due to lack of employment, resources, adequate housing, and rampant criminal activities. Social class shapes the definitions of crimes due to the negative stereotypes that many in society hold. According to the textbook, “social class is a critical component of social difference in the United States” (Pearson, 2009, pg. 57). Social class has a major influence on different individuals experience with the criminal system. (Walker, Spohn, 2009, pg. 15) The inequalities in the social system contribute to the increase criminal behavior in Africans Americans and Latinos. Social class also plays a major role in victimization, some individuals believe that most crimes are “more normal or appropriate for some racial and social class groups than others” (Walker, Spohn, 2009, pg. 31).The criminal justice system takes class into consideration, very few middle class or upper class systems are charge with street crimes, and are most likely to avoid imprisonment. The population in the prison sees that most inmates fall into the lower class, which can point out the disparities as a result of the unfair treatment that targets the poor, or that poor people are over involved in crime. Laws have been created to treat white collar crime leniently while crime committed by the lower population. Those that have the power can define what constitutes a crime, with the help of economic, political, and social influences. Media plays a major part as well, but the perception of crime as it pertains to the lower class is due in part that these perception coincide with the predominant rhetoric of the political leaders, and the focus of criminologists that have only focused on street crimes, and not white collar crimes committed by upper class citizens.

A) How history pervades women’s differing experiences within the criminal justice system? B) Discuss both women as offenders and as victims.

Women are a group that has continually being discriminated against, although granted equal rights nearly a century ago, there are still many inequalities in pay rate, legislation, executive positions, and as offenders and victims within the criminal justice system. Research on feminist equality has posed two major questions. One that theorized that lower class women committed crimes because they were acting out a desire to achieve equality with male offenders, and secondly because of the feminization of poverty due to the dominance of female headed households. (Miller, 2009, pg.247) The patriarchal double standards that sees females committing some crimes are seen as immoral and need to be corrected. More women are in jail for drug related and property offences. The justice system has treated women more harshly for “misconduct” from the juvenile system to adult facilities. Political leaders have used the women’s reproductive system as a mechanism that has sought to police and control women.

Women are seen as victims before they actually are. However, they are underrepresented in most crimes, even though there are majority victimized by males. The textbook points out that spousal rape can carry a lesser charge or probation. (Pearson, 2009, pg.143) This is a sign of gender discrimination against women as victims, as society has resisted seeing the husband as the “offender”. Women that are criminals’ can show signs at young age due to abuse, molestation, and other crimes. These crimes can carry over to adulthood which affects their socioeconomic status. Women represent the fasting growing population of incarcerated inmates, in prison there are overly controlled receiving more writes up and misconduct reports than males. (Miller, 2009, pg.83) Women as victims are rarely taken seriously and those that are offenders are punished harsher than men in serious crimes.

Elaborate on minority youth involvement in the criminal justice system. In your discussion, include information on minority youth as offenders and victims.

It is clear from research, media, and the textbook that minority youths are overrepresented in the justice system. The juvenile system was created to house delinquents that committed crimes. The juvenile system is viewed as an essential role in development for youths as it attempts to fill the gaps from being in violent neighborhoods, poverty, absent fathers, and lack of educational resources. (Pearson, 2009, pg 182). The disproportionate number of minority youth in the justice system can be seen as a bias from the justice systems that differentiates harsher punishments to minority youths than whites. While there is debate that the overrepresentation is due to their racial differences that are more prone to commit more crimes. As the offenders minority youths are perceived more by officers to have committed offenses due to their personality traits and attitudes, while their white counterparts commit crimes because of their social development. It is their unconscious racial stereotypes that lead them to perceive minority youth offenders negatively and punish harsher.

As the victims, minority youths, minority youths are more likely to be transferred to adult courts even for the same offenses as their white counterparts, which increases the chances that they will re-offend. (Walker, Spohn, 2009, pg. 445) Minority youths, particularly African Americans have a higher risks of victimization in violent crimes. Minorities have higher rates of victimization due to living in disadvantage environments, in a majority single-parent home. Research has determined that African American and Latino youths are more prone to violent crimes because they are more likely to be away from home. (Walker, Spohn, 2009, pg. 448) The lack of police involvement into these communities creates opportunities for minority youth to become susceptible to stranger and non-stranger violence compared to white youths.

References

Fine, Eve, Handelsman, Joe. (2010). Benefits and Challengesof Diversityin Academic Settings. The Board of Regents of the Univ. Wisc. System. Retrieved from http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/docs/Benefits_Challenges.pdf

Jonas, Michael. (2007). The downside of diversity. Boston News. Retrieved from http://boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/

Miller, J. Mitchell. (2009). 21^st Century Criminology: A Reference Handbook. Volume 1. California. SAGE.

The Criminology and Criminal Justice Collective of Northern Arizona University. (2009). Investigating Difference: Human and Cultural Relations in Criminal Justice, Second Edition. Northern Arizona. Pearson.

Walker, Samuel, Spohn, Cassia, Delone, Miriam. (2009). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (The Wadsworth Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series. California. Cengage Learning. 5^th Edition.