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Social inequality theory
Contributions Of Functionalism To Education
Social inequality theory
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The mantra of the United States advertises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as inalienable rights in the quest for the dream of living free to follow your aspirations. Our founding fathers could not have foreseen the greed of today’s capitalism, the challenges of individual identities not native of her people, nor the discord that would come from the ability to follow those individual dreams while following the entrenched Americanized social systems. The truth may be found in a mantra, which was never meant for all Americans. “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, a great ideal, but one which seems to apply only those born into privileged white families, and who are considered the elite within the social stratification. Social stratification is explained by Mona Scott (2012), as the position a person holds in the social hierarchy of society used by white dominant ideologies to ensure dominance over the non-white population (p. 175). Ethnic Stratification that is, the position, worth or wealth an individual is given within the social stratification and hierarchy based on perceived worth due to ethnicity or race (p. 37). Biased ideologies of an individual’s ethnic status, place unequal deviant labels upon minority individuals. The choice to define morality of societal norms based not on the individual rights of the person, rather the greater good of society, leads to biased, discriminatory treatment of minorities within the social stratification. Based on the work of our author Mona Scott (2012), Functional theorists express being unequal and having unequal access to education, work opportunities and socio-economic status is fundamentally necessary for society to function, it is in the equality of distribu... ... middle of paper ... ...t to oppress another’s individual rights based on that morality of a functioning social construct? Works Cited Bensman, J., & Gerver, I. (1963). CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE FACTORY: THE FUNCTION OF DEVIANCY IN MAINTAINING THE SOCIAL SYSTEM. American Sociological Review, 28(4), 588-598. Hagan, J., Shedd, C., & Payne, M. R. (2005). Race, Ethnicity, and Youth Perceptions of Criminal Injustice. American Sociological Review, 70(3), 381-407 Olzak, S., & Shanahan, S. (2003). Racial policy and racial conflict in the urban united states, 1869-1924. 82(2), 482. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/229921128?accountid=8289 Scott, M. (2012). THINK Race and Ethnicity. Boston: MA, Pearson. William, H. R. (2006). CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF RIGHTS. Stanford Law Review, 58(6), 1997-2050. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224067636?accountid=8289
The US Justice Department statistics 2003 and onwards demonstrates significant disproportion in the incarceration rate of minority African American and Hispanic men between the ages of 25 and 29 years as compared to the rate associated with White men of the same age. Bell (2007), proposes that as minority groups grow in numbers within the dominant group they will experience greater equality. However, rate of incarceration among minority males remains alarmingly high and as compared to their White counterparts. As with health care there are racial disparities that will influence outcomes when an individual is brought before the criminal courts. Additionally, there is significant correlation between a person’s level of education and the likelihood of his involvement in criminal activities. Studies and statistics have shown that among male high school dropouts there is high incidence of unemployment, low income and rate of illicit drug use as compared to men with degrees from four year colleges. Further to this, although the rate of school dropout and even arrest is not significantly different across the race lines, literature alludes that African American men have a higher rate of conviction for the same crime committed.
Historically, the United States has prided itself as the most egalitarian and autonomous nation in the world. Political figures and institutions have attempted to uphold the theoretical ideals of the nation, while in practice often fail to fulfill their promises to the people. This gap between our fundamental values as delineated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and our discriminatory practices such as slavery and gender discrimination can be found in competing political ideologies which purposefully exclude marginalized peoples. The framers built the United States for the white man; every other person’s rights came, and continue to come afterwards. Once one people’s freedom is postponed, the same oppressive strategies
Functionalism argues that inequality is important and necessary because it “motivates people to fill different position in society that are needed for the survival of the whole of society.” [8] The rewards, i.e. wealth, prestige, and power and the resulting wealth gap ar...
In many nation states, it is noticed that there is a disproportionate number of black people especially those youngsters going through the criminal justice system. The overrepresentation is illustrated by related data released by the U.S. Department of Justice and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. In America, almost 3500 per 100,000 residents of the black male were sent to jail in 2013 which was over seven times more than the ratio their white counterpart had and in England and Wales, 8.5% of young black people aged between 10-17 were arrested during the same period .This essay aims to explore the reasons behind the ethnic overrepresentation in the criminal justice system and believes that the higher rate of offending for some race groups and the existence of systematic racist which partially stems from the contemporary media distortion are attributive to the overrepresentation.
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
PDF. See the full text of the document. Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. The "Racial Formation in the United States." 1994.
Hope II, John. “Trends in Pattern of Race Relations in the South Since May 17, 1954.” Phylon 17.2 (1956): 103-118.
Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf Pearson Education. (2008).
In today’s society, race and socioeconomic standing can determine the quality of treatment one receives while in the criminal justice system. Racial inequality and discrimination seems to be a permanent fixture within the criminal justice system, and the juvenile justice system is no exception when it comes to that form of injustice. As it is depicted in the PBS documentary, a teenage boy named Shawn from a white, upper-middle class family was first arrested after he stabbed his father multiple times while he was sleeping in a brutal murder attempt. Apart from the attempted murder charge, Shawn also racked up a charge of sexual assault against a fellow juvenile hall cellmate and also a drug charge when he got caught smoking pot while he was
"Declaration of the Rights of Man - 1789." The Avalon Project. Yale Law School, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
The issue of explaining human rights comes from the political conceptions of human rights. The political stance is
Shelden, R.G., Brown, W.B., Miller, K.S., & Fritzler, R.B. (2008). Crime and criminal justice in american society. Long Grove, Illinosis: Waveland Press, INC.
The debate between whether to follow the utilitarian view of rights or the natural view of rights is one of the many puzzles associated with rights, which include; whether we have rights, what these rights are, where they come from, and whether or not they are timeless or context specific. These have an effect on both natural and utilitarian rights in the way they mould the human mind, our values, morals and ethics.
Simmons, A. John (1992). The Lockean Theory of Rights. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 127.