Crime is not something unique to one country or culture, it can be found all over the world and has been present for as long as history goes back. There are many theories on why crimes happen ranging from individual responsibility to responsibility of societal influences. However, some countries suffer from much higher crime rate than others and the United States of America happens to be such a country. This paper will look at how societal influences, more specifically, the concept of the American Dream, affect crime rates in the country. It is the idea that the basis of striving towards economic success, seen in the foundational ideas of the American Dream, is the very same factor that allows the nation’s crime rate, such as in white collar …show more content…
It is exceedingly high relative to its industrialized status and other nations (Maume & Lee 2003). Robert Merton looked into this and developed classical-anomie theory. The basis of this theory states that crime is not only stem from the individual, but also from the society itself. As stated by Schoepfer and Piquero, America’s culture is founded in Universalism (2007). Universalism is the drive for success that is usually revolved around material objects. Malaysia is also becoming a more industrialized, materialistic culture, and because of this, it has seen a significant rise in crime (Teh 2009). Merton also agreed that there were strains in American society and that the idea of the American Dream and how it actually works, along with other social structures, is a reason there is crime in this country (Maume & Lee 2003). Since the creation of Merton’s Anomie theory, it has undergone several changes and additions. Cloward and Ohlin added to his theory on what happens with youth violence in gangs in urban areas (Messner & Rosenfeld 2007). While this theory has gained favor since the 1980s on, Messner & Rosenfeld felt that it was incomplete; they state that Merton looked over the institutional structure of the society and went on to make their own version known as Institutional-Anomie theory (2007). Institutional Anomie theory take a close look at the economic, political, educational, and …show more content…
White collar crimes do not garner as much media attention as that of violent crimes (Trahan, Marquart, & Mullings 2005). This is an odd fact because white collar crimes cost society much more than violent crimes do (Messner & Rosenfeld 2007). While there are many different definitions for white collar crime, Schoepfer and Piquero describe it as a nonphysical crime that is used to either obtain goods or to prevent goods from being taken (2006). People who commit these crimes are looking for personal or some sort of organizational gain and are being pressured to be economically successful from the idea of the American dream. The authors suggest that there are two types of people who commit crimes, those who have an immense desire for control and those who fear losing all they have worked hard for (Schopfer & Piquero 2006). Both groups have different reasons for turning to crime, but both groups commit the crime to benefit themselves. It was found that higher levels of high school drop outs were directly correlated to levels of embezzlement in white collar crime (2006). Because they are drop outs, they are less likely to be successful legitimately and turn to crime more often than their graduate
Robert Merton (1938) argued that members of American society are socialised to want the culturally defined goals such as the ‘American dream’ where success is attributed to material wealth. When they are denied access to the legitimate means, they resort to illegitimate means such as criminality and deviance to attain what they have been taught to want. (Lanier&Henry,1998) It could be argued that America is organised for crime due to its overwhelming significance placed on material success. This may explain why America has the highest rate of imprisonment, in 2000 approximately two million men and women were serving prison sentences. (Fleisher&Decker,2006) Similarly, Toy and Stanko (2008) identify that being part of a society that attributes achievement with material wealth are other factors which may influence becoming gang affiliated. (Harris et al, 2011)
...at the American culture places economic success at the pinnacle of social desirability, without listing legitimate ways for attaining the desired goal (Merton 672-682). Today, the American Dream no longer reflects the dream Adams had, but instead, the idea that one can only call themselves truly successful if they have become rich, regardless of the way they got there. The American Dream does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it, but with the media strongly persuading people that money guarantees happiness, people are encouraged to do whatever it takes, even it means disregarding their morals, so that they achieve ‘success.’ The inability to achieve this goal often leads people to destructive, and ultimately life-threatening criminal behavior as their feelings of anxiety and frustration over this vision of the “American Dream” get the best of them.
Summary: White-collar crime and those that commit it have very little attention. In Choosing White-Collar Crime, Neal Shover and Andy Hochstetler (2006) discuss the participation in white-collar crime is chosen. Shover and Hochstetler use rational-choice theory to explain the decisions made by white-collar criminals. The authors look at a few areas of white-collar crime: the lure, the predisposed and tempted, self-restraint, oversight, and the threat and choice.
Currie felt that capitalism is the main source of crime, particularly the high rate of violent crime in the US. Capitalism comes in multiple forms like compassionate capitalism, keiretsu capitalism, and continent or harsh brand capitalism. Elliott Currie believed we ‘America’ live in a market society, also call market economy. Currie expressed that economic inequality has had a direct impact on criminal behavior.
White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be
4 Sims, A. Barbara. 1997. "Crime, Punishment, and the American Dream: Toward a Marxist Integration." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 34:5-24.
From an anomie-strain perspective, for example, societies that have high expectations of their population, but do not give them legitimate means to achieve those expectations, cause a significant portion of that population to achieve through illegitimate methods (Thio, 2010). From this perspective, therefore, we can predict high crime rates in the United States because a significant portion of the population cannot reach success as defined by its emphasis on wealth. This perceived relative deprivation is reinforced by the fact that television and movies generally present the norm as being middle class people wearing expensive attire while the actual middle class, as defined, can barely afford necessities. It is also reinforced by the actual reality of just how much more the wealthy have combined with the obscuring effects of an inaccurate federally defined poverty
Shover, N, & Hochstetler, A. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
1. Reiman explains that the idea that white collar crime is taken less seriously is because it protects the elite classes. For example, if the public believes they should fear the poor more than the rich, the rich can commit more crimes and go unnoticed because the population is focused on the poor Reiman explains that that the way crime is explained does not exactly fit what we think crime is. He explains that the notion that white-collar crime being harmless is based on the idea that white collar crimes do not end in injury or death is false because more people’s lives are put at risk than “lower class” crimes. Reinman thinks it is necessary to re- educate the public on white-collar crimes for economic
characteristic types of criminal behavior. They noted that the extents were “high enough to question the assumption of aggression being independent of general constructed violence, theft, and drug use” (Gottfredson and Hirschi. 1994:39). They explained that characteristics of aggression represented two different positions in a single model. For example, in a hostile attribution bias model, permitted for a specific act to process various forms of crime and delinquency. However, it explained how diverse forms of crime and delinquency are compared to criminal offenses to other types of behavior. Messner and Rosenfeld conducted a more complexed model directing on culture (the American Dream) and our social structure (the dominance of the economic structure) as a means to explain weaken institutional controls (Chamlin and Cochran
Conversely, the frequency of crime (property and violent crime) according to Van Dijk (1999) in Ackerman and Murray (2004 p.424) in many regions of the world is related to problems of economic hardship among the young. For example, Ackerman and Murray, (2004 p.424) showed that “more than half of the victimization rates in 49 countries (representing all world regions) for burglaries, thefts, and thefts from cars can be explained by level of urbanization, economic deprivation, and affluent lifestyle”. Even though the concentration of crime is said to be closely related to social class (deprivation), the spatial consequences of crime progressively blighted neighbourhoods, due to the non-stationary status of the class.
Apel, R, & Paternoster, R 2009, ‘Understanding “criminogenic” corporate culture: What white-collar crime researchers can learn from studies of the adolescent employment-crime relationship. The Criminology of White-Collar Crime, vol.1 no. 1, pp. 15-33.
Scholars have often debated the primary causes of criminal behavior and its correlation to economic factors. It is hypothesized than an unemployed person may resort to illegal methods to obtain money due to a lack of unemployment opportunities. Several studies have targeted the unemployment rate as having an adverse effect on the increase of crime rate. Researchers have observed the rates of property crime, violent crime, and motor-vehicle crime in order to determine the potential of a correlation between crime and unemployment (Aaltonen, Macdonald, Martikainen, & Kivivuori, 2013; Kleck, G., & Chiricos, T. 2002; Sookram, S., Basdeo, M., Sumesar-Rai, K., & Saridakis, G. 2010).
In this questionnaire, researchers try to compare societies in the past and and present. When dealing with crime sociologist might ask “Why are the crimes rates higher now than what they were 50 years ago?” In this study to help focus sociological imagination, we might try to gain insight to explain why the crime rates have risen. To see the world in a more sociological perspective we are then required to look at the the difference in crime between past and present society. Researchers might consider that there is more deviance now than before, which could result in a higher crime rate. The society in the present could’ve developed subcultural groups who adopted norms, that encouraged or rewarded criminal-like behavior. This is one way a sociologist can look at this situation as a developmental
Can you believe that 60% of rural children in the United States are living in poverty? Poverty is one out of many problems that America faces today. So, where does this all start? It starts with education. Education plays a huge role in this problem because most of America is not fully educated. They cannot get jobs to support their families, like farming and such. So, what about the families in poverty that live in metropolitan areas? They are faced with more problems than people in rural communities. They turn to crime because it is the only way they can provide for their household and family. By examining the causes, rural crimes and statistics of poverty, crime does foster poverty.