Who to blame for Homelessness? U.S. Today published a front-page article about homelessness, which received a wide variation of responses from its readers. I was provided three different responses in the form of letters sent to the editor from readers. In the letters, the writer approached the social issue of homelessness in either one of two ways: System-blame or Person-blame. System-blame is an approach, stating that the cause for a social problem is related to a whole system rather than a single individual. The System-blame approach, I lean towards, has both its cons and its pros. The cons are that to some extent a person must be held accountable for their actions, and also that some individuals have physiological problems. However, the positives of this approach outweigh …show more content…
To emphasize my point, I’ll apply the two approaches to the social problem of stealing. To the social problem of stealing, possible reasons to why people may steal: 1) The Strain Theory, meaning that when all available normative options are exhausted –people resort to deviant behaviors to accomplish objectives. 2) The Learning Theory, People learns certain habits and attitudes of people around them, so if you have friends steal, you’re more likely to steal through interaction with that person. 3) The Labeling Theory, the seriousness of a situation depends on how some labels it, so if you’re in an environment that doesn’t believe stealing is wrong –you’re more likely to steal. 4) Which is a Person-blaming approach, some people without external influence can have a feeling of entitlement to things that don’t belong to them. Explanations 1-3 took a system-blame approach and that last one took a Person-blame approach. I believe the Strain Theory and the Learning Theory are the best explanations to why people steal. Through this example, I tried to show that there are multiple explanations to why people steal, but how a person views a social problems vary depending the influences of people
There are many views on crime and deviance and many theories to why they occur.
The sociological imagination leads Ralph to homelessness in many ways. Sociological Imagination is how a person perceives the world, the political and social politics, the economics, or the geography. Those factors are going to partake in his journey of how he became homeless and what Ralph’s life is like now.
There are two sociological ways to approach social problems, one being the “system-blame” approach and the other being the “person-blame” approach. With the “system-blame” approach, the responsibility or “blame” for social problems is put on the institutions as a whole, such as the government, religion, etc. The other, the “person-blame” approach , is a bit more narrow-minded in that it focuses on the individuals affected by the social problem. For example, a person using this approach may argue that the wage gap between the sexes exists because women just aren’t working hard enough, that they work for less hours than men, or that they just seek out low-paying jobs. On the opposing side, someone using the “system-blame” approach might argue
The proposal of Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory in explaining criminal deviance is based on three concepts. The first concept is that people are not naturally inclined to commit crimes. Rather, their transition towards deviant behavior begins when they experience strain. The second concept is that once strain is present, depending on the severity of the stain, a person becomes victim to their own negative emotions like anger, jealousy, and frustration. Their response to those negative emotions may expedite their transition. The third concept looks at a person’s ability to cope with the strain and negative emotions. If a person has poor coping abilities they tend to become overwhelmed by the strain and the negative emotions they are feeling as a result of strain. Poor coping abilities may cause someone to commit crime in hopes of rectifying their situation. (Agnew, 2011)
Personally, I believe that the overwhelming number of historical cases of theft conducted by the poor can be attributed to a whole host of potential motivations. Firstly, the motivation to survive, many of those who were distinguishable as impoverished were often unable to live subsistent. Nevertheless theft was perceived and punishable in a very serious manner. However, the economic climate of the 18th and 19th century was begin to boom as a result of industrialization. The overwhelming pressure to cater to the emerging notion of consumerism promoted further potential for crime to arise, because the poor would often engage in pickpocketing or begging, whereas women often engaged in shoplifting to acquire goods for her family to outwardly
Sociologists see deviance as a collection of individuals, conditions, and actions that society disvalues, finds offensive or condemns. In part because gangs as deviant groups violate societies norms through crimes such as theft etc. Various explanations exist to explain the formation of gangs; Howard Becker, an American sociologist, claims that negative labels excaberate deviant behaviors by excluding individuals (Skatvedt & Schou, 2008). Further, individuals cannot distinguish between false needs such as watches, cars etc. and true needs (food, water, etc.) (Marcuse, 1964). Thus, the strain theory suggests that the inability to legitimately achieve socially desirable goals such as having
General Strain Theory was discussed by Robert Agnew, and first published in 1992. According to General Strain Theory individuals engage in crime because of strains or stressors which produce anger and anxiety (Agnew, 1992). Crimes become the outlet that the individual uses to cope with or remedy the strains or stressors. Agnew states that there are three different types of deviance producing strains.
The actions of thieves can be related to a slippery slope. They may start out by stealing something small, but nothing is keeping them from stealing something of more worth, so the tendency is to escalate their behaviors.
Shoplifting is a major problem in today. The temptation of not paying for something, just hiding it away and saving your own money is a large factor for some people. The culprit just thinks he's getting a product for free and doesn't know what he's actually doing to himself and the community. Shoplifting effects everyone, yourself and the everyone in the local neighborhood.In this essay I'm going to explain some of the circumstances of stealing from local stores, or any store. After I've been caught stealing I found out how wrong it is and how it is a disadvantage to everyone.
On a normal of our everyday life, we find ourselves going to work or heading somewhere to meet up with a friend. While on the way there we pass someone that we don’t know sitting down on the ground alongside with him is a cart from a store filled with old clothes that either found or got from someone, some trash, maybe something small to eat to help with his hungry stomach growling throughout the day. You wonder how he got themselves into a position like that? Yet sometimes we know how he got there, although, we don’t always know someone else’s story. You leave some money by his foot to help get himself somewhere for a short time. Homelessness has increased over the years, from 1990s up until now. I believe that we can help these get back into a better environment for their life with the help of local shelters, food banks, donations from churches and schools, and many more things we can do in Licking County.
Homelessness is a crucial factor as to why Americans don’t achieve the ideal “American Dream”. Homelessness is a social issue that affects a widespread group of people, ranging from single individuals to families each year. Many of those who are currently homeless, don’t choose to be homeless, but are forced into living on the streets for reasons such as a financial crisis, divorce, unemployment, mental illness, drug or alcohol abuse, or even a natural disaster that triggers the rising problem of how these individuals will survive. Annually, 3.5 Americans experience an episode of homelessness. That is 75,000 people experiencing homeless each night that others of more comfortable means will never have to experience. (Thompson). Homelessness
People commit robbery for endless reasons. However, many argue that poverty is a factor that plays a huge role of influencing someone to commit a crime. Poverty is defined as a feeling of hopelessness because one does not have the financial means to support oneself and the loved ones to the standard that society has deemed fit and appropriate. Robbery is an act of taking goods or
Simply put, Theft is when a person, without authorization, takes the property or services of another, with the intent to commit the crime.
unique perspectives will differ in how they view the nature of a social problem. The
deeper into this assessment then I did the other one in order to find the explanation of the