Social Problems

The following sample essay on “Social Problems”: discuss and look at what crime is, what social problems are, and what sociological problems are, how they over-lap and I will also look into what sociologists do.

The reason Crime occurs can best be studied using the two theoretical approaches, The Social Conflict theory and Symbolic Interactionism. Both theoretical approaches look at crime from two different angles, each broadly and narrowly, providing a comprehensive study on the various aspects of crime. However, first it is important to determine what crime truly is, the different types and characteristics within it, and current statistics.

Crime is described and defined as a harmful act or omission against the public which the State wishes to prevent and which upon conviction, is punishable by fine, imprisonment or worse still, death (Business dictionary). Crimes represent a type of formal deviation from social customs and norms administered by a certain authority or state. A research was conducted between criminology research and policy youth and concluded that crime is critically evaluated from the modern social trends in the world today.

Depending on the country or authority, crimes are divided into categories by law, the exact age of the offender the severity or intensity of crime or offence, the potential punishment that can be undertaken as a result of violation of the law.

Society today has seen various people and crimes have originated in the community around and spread to be a crisis. Biological and psychological explanations have not fully given any explanation of how and why crimes rates are associated with certain location or even social backgrounds for people.

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Sociological explanations have found their ways to explain the social platform of crime, also, the increase in the number of crime rates, and to give us some possible solution from it. According to the functional perspective, social structural theory suggests that most crime is due to the fall of society norms including societies organization and the root crime problem is from the society itself rather than ones biological or psychological life. Society has been disorganized in such a way that certain numbers of socials characteristics experienced in neighbourhoods is the major contributor of high crime rates. The social problems point of view holds that social issues, such as poverty, discrimination and the collapse of traditional social institutions contribute to crime within a community. Lack of access to quality formal education, prevalent domestic violence and inadequate positive socialization opportunities are tied to the prevalence of crime. Experts believe that the root of the social crime problem must be addressed by supporting social programs that improve quality of life and prevent the development of criminal behaviours.

Society at large keeps a unified stance about some social problems, such as murders, theft and accidents caused by driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Violence and drug abuse are crimes that are undesirable in the society. However, some crimes are only viewed as a problem by certain groups of people. For instance, young people who play disturbingly loud music at a house party may not see their behaviour as problematic but may still receive a noise complaint. Wherever there is crime, there is something wrong with that society. Crime is the most visible result of societal failure (Fennelly.A 2018).

Theorist William Chambliss, whose study on saints and sinners showed the difference between crime and class. The saints who are people that are very high up in society like judges, politicians, or doctors and the roughnecks who are people that are of working class and lower. The Saints were higher class individuals who were perceived as well dressed, highly achieving, diligent students. However, the Saints would cheat during tests, lie to the school to leave town and play pranks and drunkenly drive in another town. On the contrary, the Roughnecks were middle class teenagers who were treated as criminals, would steal from local stores to buy alcohol, fight constantly and receive barely passing grades in school. Deviance is challenging action against any regard of social order, and crime can be considered a deviant act that breaks law. Since the community regards the Roughnecks as criminals and the Saints as good kids, the words crime and deviance will be used interchangeably. To describe, analyse, compare and resolve the communitys perception of the two groups, the two groups mannerisms and the differing careers, a few sociological theories can assist. The Functional Theory of Crime can somewhat explain the two groups behaviours. It postulates that that crime and deviance occur when the collective conscience is weakened, anomie, which is the condition of normlessness, pervades society. With relation to both The Saints and The Roughnecks, the collective conscience may have been weakened in the sense that the Saints and Roughnecks were indifferent to their respective socio-economic cultures or that having fun was not part of their cultures (Hill.N 2015).

Is crime a social problem or a sociological problem we may ask?…Well social problems are problems that effect members of society. Some examples would be drug problems, domestic violence, lack of education, vandalism, unemployment, obesity, drinking, and racism. Sociological problems would be questions or problems that interest sociologists or the study of society. We define social problems as the activities of individuals or groups making assertions of grievances and claims with respect to some putative conditions. The emergence of a social problem is contingent upon the organisation of activities asserting the need for eradicating, ameliorating, or otherwise changing some condition (Spector and Kituse citied Hester and Eglin, 1992.p.1).

Major trends in the sociological study of crime for the past quarter of a century include a movement away from concrete studies of crime and criminals toward more general theories of deviance and social control, the development of labelling theory as a dominant perspective in sociology, a concentration on applied, “impact” studies, and the growth of conflict theory. One consequence of these trends is that we have withdrawn attention from the offender to those who are part of the social control network. A need to refocus our attention on the nature of criminal activity is suggested. Second, we should devote more resources to the study of so-called “white-collar crime.” Our failure to do so is documented, along with reasons for the failure and suggestions for some directions such studies might take (Wheeler.S 1976).

Crime rates in Ireland have increased significantly over the past year, with all crime rising except homocides.

• Crimes associated with gangland have also risen; drug crime by five per cent and weapons offences – which includes gun crime – is up by 11 per cent.
• Attempts to murder and related crimes, increased by 13 per cent last year, kidnapping and related offences were up by eight per cent.
• Robbery and extortion crimes increased by 4.5 per cent.
• Burglary and related offences were also up; by three per cent. And theft and related offences also increased, by eight per cent.
• Public order crimes increased by seven percent.

Garda sources said increased disposable incomes have seen excessive drinking and drug taking. Some of the increases in crime recorded last year are linked to the rebounding economy in that way, the sources suggest. (Lally.C 2018)

The recorded counts of crime events often represent an underestimation of actual crime counts. The reasoning for this is that some crimes tend to be underreported while counting and recording rules typically record only the most serious offence in any complex criminal transaction. Actual crime data may be incorrectly categorised or re-categorised which may distort the findings of particular studies. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) found that 35 percent of the offences without a charge or summons sheet attached were incorrectly designated as detected, based on current Garda detection rules. This has the effect of reducing the overall number of detected crimes by 16 percent. (Brosnan.S 2018)

Public and political interest in issues of crime and punishment in Ireland has grown substantially in recent years. But debate tends to be poorly informed and rarely rises above the level of hollow rhetoric. This is an area where important decisions are made in a vacuum. Rhetoric and reaction, rather than reason and principle are the primary forces shaping criminal justice policy. Over the past five years the official crime rate has declined sharply. This has been offered as support forthe politics of zero tolerance. However, there is a range of alternative explanations which are rarely discussed but equally plausible. The reduction in recorded crime has been accompanied by a major redirection of criminal justice policy. This book explores why a punitive political consensus has emerged at a time when, according to the Garda statistics, society has become much safer. Electoral fragmentation, the politicisation of the law and order debate, cyclical social trends and a cynical misinterpretation of the public mood have all contributed to the creation of an environment where the desire for vengeance has begun to shape public policy. The War on Crime provides a radical critique of criminal statistics, locates Irish crime patterns in a European context and suggests a new framework for analysing trends in crime and its management (ODonnell.I and OSullivan.E 2001)

Even though Ireland has major problematic crimes it could be argued that many of the most serious crime problems are now to be found in developing countries. Yet these problems have received only scant attention from criminologists and crime scientists, most of whom work in developed/Westernized nations. Crime scientists have a special role to play in studying these crimes because their work is oriented to solutions and it is this kind of practical help that the developing world most needs. Using crime opportunity theory, the articles included in this issue examines a selection of these crimes, many of which are relatively uncommon in the west: maritime piracy, illegal fishing, poaching of endangered animals, gang warfare and homicide and ransom kidnappings. They illustrate how crime science methodologies and techniques can be harnessed in seeking to understand and prevent crimes in the developing world. Many developing countries are plagued not just by ordinary volume crimes, but also by culturally-sanctioned violence against women and gays and serious forms of transnational crime such as sex trafficking, drug trafficking, murderous incursions by militias, and theft of natural resources including valuable minerals, endangered animals, fish stocks and timber. (Natarajan.M 2016)

Reduced crime rates provide a positive impact economically because a country has the resources, goods and services to better manage society within the country. On a national scale, most of the developed countries don’t experience violent crime because social factors are better managed that results in a healthy economy on a national scale. However, developed countries can experience violent crime at local levels within urban areas. Within an urban area, there are two kinds of neighbourhoods to take into consideration; developed neighbourhoods and developing neighbourhoods. A developed neighbourhood is a community that is socially developing. Whereas, the developing neighbourhood is a community that is socially declining. The developed neighbourhood has a positive balance between the environment, society and economics.