Patrick F. Fagan in “Disintegration of the family is the real root cause of violent crime” addresses the main causes of violent crime in context of modern day affairs. Fagan’s approach to inform readers of his opinion is a strategic method of integrating examples of his research into his evidence supporting his position. He ensures to acknowledge major opposing theories and he is very well organized in stating his supporting proof. Although Fagan uses his expertise in marriage as a basis for argument, his open mindedness shows a deep understanding of his point that the underlying cause of violent crimes can be accredited to illegitimacy. Throughout his essay, Fagan revisits his idea of Illegitimacy being essential to creating a violent criminal. …show more content…
He uses an example of a young man who was born into a fatherless home; he has gone through the first 4 stages of becoming a violent criminal. This young man has arrived at the final step, Fagan describes it as “his 16-year-old girlfriend is pregnant”. His largest argument that he uses to tie the article up is a hypothetical example that he created to support his thesis. This is an extremely weak example as it comes with no validity for the reason that it’s imaginary. There is no doubt that Fagan would mold this example to perfectly fit his thesis which in turn creates an invaluable …show more content…
This direct relationship Fagan has with individuals affected by a broken family allow for him to have a better understanding of the causal factors that create criminals. Fagan’s deep understanding comes with the advantage that he is able to write an article that is easy to follow. He offers his arguments as “summarized in five basic stages” (Fagan). Which create distinct segments that isolate each section leading up to creating a violent criminal. By formatting his essay in such a manner, Fagan entices readers to continue to read as a simplistic approach often offers stronger arguments as they are clearly laid out rather than hidden by a complex format or excessive use of difficult
There are many views on crime and deviance and many theories to why they occur.
Morris (2000) argues that we should see youth crimes as a social failure, not as an individual level failure. Next, Morris (2000) classifies prisons as failures. Recidivism rates are consistently higher in prisons than in other alternatives (Morris, 2000). The reason for this is that prisons breed crime. A school for crime is created when a person is removed from society and labeled; they become isolated, angry and hopeless (Morris, 2000).
Eysenck, H.J., & Gudjonsson, G.H. (1989). The causes and cures of criminality. Contemporary Psychology, 36, 575-577.
When the social, educational, financial and health needs of a person are not satisfied through the family then they may be inclined towards criminal activities. There are some other family related factors that affect the behavior of children and they might go for criminal activities. Some of these factors include adaptation of bad parenting practices and styles, neglecting the child, child abuse and trend of criminal behavior in the family which is then learned by the child. It also includes a family history with mental illness, teenage pregnancy, substance use, school dropout and interpersonal conflicts among the family members (Cassel & Bernstein, 2007).
Violence in America’s society is definitely a major problem. This problem can be traced back as far as fetal development. It seems that in most cases of bad treatment, the families come from poverty or bad neighborhood areas. The whole main purpose of this speaker was to develop a good understanding on why most of the violent crimes occur in today’s hurting society. It is not rocket science to realize that most angry violent acts are due to a disturbed child or individual that lacked attention, love or care. Violence is not a new problem, scientists are just finding out new facts about how it starts and how it can be prevented.
As a social process theory, drift and Neutralization sees a crime to be a part of wider social interactions. It views social order as non objective and non consensual and posits that there is not a single fundamental social goal that is held by all social groups; rather there are many different overlapping social values within a society, both conventional and delinquent: legitimate and illegitimate. Drift and Neutralization Theory posits that individuals learn values and delinquent behaviours through their exposure to sub-cultural values. “Deviant or delinquent (or criminal) subcultures do not reject ‘dominant’ values and beliefs. Instead, there is tension between inclinations to adhere to mainstream values and beliefs.” This sees that criminals can drift between deviant and conventional behaviours and how to use various techniques of neutralisation to rationalise their criminal activity. In analysing McVeigh’s motives, his learned sub cultural values can be examined to demonstrate how he was able to rationalise his violations of the law and how he came to drift from non delinquent to delinquent actions. The techniques of neutralisation; denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of
“Domestic violence is a violent confrontation between family or household members involving physical harm, sexual assault, or fear of physical harm” (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). In most places domestic violence is looked on as one of the higher priorities when trying to stop crime. Domestic Violence cases are thought to be influenced by the use of alcohol, drugs, stress or anger but in reality, they are just learned behaviors by the batterer. These habits can be stopped as long as one seeks help (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). For instance, a child is brought up in a household that is constantly involved in criminal acts. As this child grows up, the criminal lifestyle will be synonymous with his/her behavior. With that being said, it is also a given fact that if a household and its members are surrounded with violence, the relationships between one another will be strained. Eventually this will end up in a divorce or even worse, death, depending on how far the violence goes. If there is violence in a family, then the ones who are affected by it may feel like they deserve it because of what the batterer is accusing them of doing. Battering occurs among people of all races, ages, socio-economic classes, religious affiliations, occupations, and educational backgrounds (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). Domestic violence can affect families in more aspects than one; the husband-wife relationship, the children, and also the financial stability.
The sociological imagination lets us analyze how society's history might influence this abusive behavior. At the same time, drive away from blaming the victim and the abuser. As Mills (1959) said, “sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individual” (p. 5). In other words, the social imagination helps us broaden our perspectives on how to reflect on how we can influence to stop the continuation of domestic violence. In addition, when we make the connection between the history and the person, we can help the victim understand they should not blame themselves for the problem. Later this will help them to take the first step in removing themselves from the environment and seek for help. In all, Mills' ideas help us learn in what ways can be help to stop the
Criminologists and sociologist have long been in debate for century's to explain criminal behaviour. The two main paradigms of thought are between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Nature is in reference to a learnt behaviour where a multitude of characteristics, in society influence whether a person becomes deviant such as poverty, physical abuse or neglect. Nurture defines biological features which could inevitability lead to a individuals deviant or criminal behaviour, because criminality is believed by biological positivist to be inherited from a persons parents. However, I believe that criminal behaviour is a mixture of characteristics that lead to deviant acts such as psychological illness & Environmental factors. Therefore, this essay will aim to analyse both biological positivist and psychological positivist perspectives in hope of showing to what extent they play a role in criminal behaviour. Firstly, the essay will look at Cesare Lombroso's research on physical features and how these ideas have moved on to then develop scientific ideas such as genetics to explain criminal behaviour. Secondly, the essay will focus on external factors which may be able to explain criminal behaviour such as the social influences, life chances and Material deprivation.
The importance of integrated theory relies on these social institutions to create a theory of the causes criminal behavior in the sense that it links to the family who is bonded to the offender in which he learn most of his behaviors from due to lack of guidance or support of his or her goals while growing up. This is where he attaches himself to peers to seek the sense of feeling important within society; this is where the child feels valued by doing crazy things with his friends who value him, but don’t have his best interest in mind. This type of social control illustrates that the individual takes into account the opinion of others to help guide his or her decision in life, which could be right or wrong therefore, it is important to enhance this individual with positive guidance with support by their
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals; a branch of sociology. More accurately, it is the study of crime as a social trend, and its overall origins, its many manifestations and its impact upon society as a whole. That makes it more a form of sociology than a law enforcement tool. But the trends it studies have a huge impact on the way the police do their jobs, the way society treats its criminals, and the way a given community goes about maintaining law and order. The writer will describe and give examples of the three perspectives of viewing crimes. The perspectives that will be highlighted are the consensus view, the conflict view or the interactionist view. Each perspective maintain its own interpretation of what constitutes criminal activities and what causes people to engage in criminal behaviors (Siegel, p.12).
Criminals are born not made is the discussion of this essay, it will explore the theories that attempt to explain criminal behaviour. Psychologists have come up with various theories and reasons as to why individuals commit crimes. These theories represent part of the classic psychological debate, nature versus nurture. Are individuals predisposed to becoming a criminal or are they made through their environment.
In summary, violent crime, the force or threat of force upon a person was once worse than it is today. Over a period of thousands of years, many transitional periods would occur on the road to less violent crime. These transitions of decline were The Process of Pacification, Civilizing Process, Humanitarian Revolution, The New Peace, and The Rights Revolutions. Today, television portrays violent crime much worse than reality, while other crimes much less in comparison to actual. Finally, police presence alone will not stop violent crime; however, a systematic approach at policing changes
Crime is sometimes blamed on the family, with poor parenting, lack of discipline and family breakdown often associated with youth crime. A recurrent theme in academic research has been to investigate the relationship between delinquency and a range of family related factors. Early studies explored child-rearing behaviour, parental discipline, the criminal histories of parents and family size and income. Popular theories in the 1950s and 1960s related juvenile delinquency to material deprivation, broken homes and to the growing number of ‘latch key’ children who were left unsupervised after school while their mothers went to work. All of these presaged current concerns with discipline and the role of single-parent families.
The causes of crime seem to be indefinite and ever changing. In the 19th century, slum poverty was blamed; in the 20th century, a childhood without love was blamed (Adams 152). In the era going into the new millennium, most experts and theorists have given up all hope in trying to pinpoint one single aspect that causes crime. Many experts believe some people are natural born criminals who are born with criminal mindsets, and this is unchangeable. However, criminals are not a product of heredity. They are a product of their environment and how they react to it. This may seem like a bogus assumption, but is undoubtedly true.