Criminological Perspective

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On November 11, the L.A. Times released an article that titled, “3 men accused of stealing from 31 El Pollo Loco locations in Southern California”. The report states the men stole a total of about $225,000 in cash over the past three months. Using different sociological perspectives we are able to determine reasons why these crimes were committed and thus overall improve our understanding of the criminology involved in this case. Key perspectives such as critical, classical, biological and psychological, and sociological will be discussed when analyzing the explanation of the crime. Next we shall discuss the way in which the criminal behavior plays a role in the crime and finally how the news and public will address this situation and the men …show more content…
According to the theory above, the men had thought about this crime and decided that the riches that they could possibly gain from this heavily outweigh the suffering that would go on if they got caught. A key idea to classical theory is that the legal punishment must be severe enough as thou to deter any criminal behavior. Obviously these men thought they riches would bring more delight than any punishment they would bear from this crime, and so they robbed. Tagging on to classical theory is the neoclassical ideology of rational choice and deterrence theories. These two go hand in hand with the classical idea that as human beings we have the freewill to do what we please, and if we find it rational enough to commit a crime, we will do it. And so comes the deterrence idea, that to stop further crime from being committed, the punishment must convince offenders that their criminal act will not be worth it. According to Ave Mince-Didier, a licensed and current public defender, a robbery can lead to 20 years in federal prison, and possibly even more depending on harm done and weapons used. Although the penalty was high the men were willing, and perhaps routine activities theory can open our eyes to further possibility of why they did it. Founders of the theory Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus Felson claim, “Crime and victimization are more likely when three factors are simultaneously present 1) motivated offenders, 2) attractive targets, and 3) an absence of guardianship” (93). After reading this theory, we may purpose that the scene of the crimes were examples of all three of these categories. However, instead of a person, it was multiple stores, and the lack of surrounding police was the absence of guardianship. The main idea of rational choice idea is that the crime is thought out and rationalized in

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