What Are Three Sociological Explanations for Crime and Which of Them Seems to Be the Leading One, Essay Example

Sociologists investigating crime are inclined to view the topic from their individual viewpoints. A functionalist would inquire the reason for people breaking the rules, while a Marxist would ask to name the creator of the rules and point out the ones who benefits from enforcing them. Interactionists would ask “How did this person become processed or labeled as a deviant and what the consequences of attaching such labels are?” (Sampson, 2000). The explanations of crime are absolutely different in every theory of etiology, but we will try to define three of them, having the most impact.

The explanation of crime lies in three different planes: anthropological, physiological and social. Let us stick to the last one. To the category of social factors we can reckon the impact of crime on the social environment in which the offender lives. Under the social environment term we see not only the number of people or that part of society, in which the offender exists, but also the social institutions and the State political system, in contact with people living in the state and society. Thus, the concept of social environment includes the influence of family, the social class, wealth sharing, public opinion, life in and out of towns, education, upbringing, religion, war and many others.

In my opinion, the main three explanations of crime are family influence, education and social environment. I do not think that any of those needs explanation – it is obvious. But of course, it is only for each of us to decide what causes crime and what are we capable of to prevent it.

References

Sampson, R. J. Laub, J.H. (2000).Whither the Sociological Study of Crime? Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 26: 711-714