Essay on Crime: Criminology and Social Learning Theory

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Crime is defined as “An action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law” Before taking this course what came to mind? At first I would think of the usual crimes: Murder, robbery, assault, theft. I would associate the aforementioned crimes with typical scenarios, poor neighborhood, scorned lover, evil psychopath. Since taking this course I’ve learned of many crimes and many different scenarios and learned that they all have a part in the immense world of criminology. While these scenarios and different situations are all touched on, I was given a broader there are white collar crimes, green collar crimes, and enterprise crimes. While these scenarios still occur and happen quite frequently. There are many other issues that contribute to these issues, and this is the beauty (figuratively speaking) of crime and criminology there are so many variables which can all be attributed to many things. Robberies occur in more lower class neighborhoods, but why are the lower class neighborhoods, lower class neighborhoods? Upon nearing the end of the semester and taking in the class I was asked to answer has my thoughts and perspective on crime causation changed or evolved. Has my opinion from part 1 changed or stayed the same? In order to properly give my current perspective I must first give an idea of my writings on the first paper. In summation I wrote that crimes happen because of how men and women are nurtured, that people in low income are more susceptible to crimes because of lack of resources and attention from the government. Has my opinion and crime and causation changed no. It merely substantiated that which I thought and gave further credence to what I thought. My perspective on crime and causation of crime is still the same. Income and capital are big components in crime. What has changed and gained perspective is my knowledge of these other variable that contributes to crime. Theories that speak exactly on what I thought in my head but didn’t know. Social Disorganization Theory, Cultural Deviance Theory, and the one which I found to be the most profound Social Learning theory. What I took away the most from this class was How critical the issue of money and the economy was in the causations of crime and how all these theories are directly or indirectly associated with money. Social Learning theory contends that a person isn’t born being able to act violently. They pick up the behavior through life experiences through seeing other people most notably people in their family or people they admire. The young boy who grows up in a low social class in a low income area looks up to a drug dealer. He sees the drug dealer getting money and inertly admires to be him; he then grows up to be a drug dealer. This is also an example of social learning. Social Disorganization is the theory that says neighborhoods that disorganized in transitional areas are more susceptible to crime. These people have little to no chance of just leaving neighborhood because of lack of funds and then cycle perpetuates itself. “The truly disadvantaged who inhabit the disorganized, jobless ghettos face dim prospects. Public transportation often fails to provide access to many job locations, and employers of all races harbor stereotypes about poor blacks, especially black men, and often refuse them work.” (Scott) This quote corroborates with what I mentioned previously. That Social and economic class have a big effect on crime.
Poor cities are more susceptible to crime “This has been a pattern since 2002. If we don’t respond appropriately, the problem in poor, black communities’ could further spiral out of control. We have no hesitancy to spend millions on preventing terrorism but just don’t seem to want to spend money on preventing street violence that plagues millions of Americans” (Katel) If the government doesn’t try to help and organize these areas of concerns in these low income families
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