Causes Of Crime By William Chambliss And Michelle Alexander

Crime is well known for being the result of criminals deciding to participate in wrongful actions. The textbook that we use shows us that perspective is just too simple and there is more to why people decide to commit crimes. There are macrosocial, microsocial and other theories on crime, but both William Chambliss and Michelle Alexander show us their similar viewpoint on what causes crime. Given both of their arguments and the three articles we were given we can see how social structure and power can effect the decisions of people. William Chambliss’ view on the causes of crime focuses mainly on the different between the powerful and the powerless when it came to why they offend and what results from their crime. He believes that if we focus …show more content…
The lower-class roughnecks that we are introduced to in this study were more likely to be looked at in a negative light than the saints were even though throughout the study, Chambliss observed the Saints’ participating in more illegal behavior. The two groups of boys both participated in illegal activities but since the Roughnecks were apart of the lower-class in the community and didn’t have the means to leave the town to behave badly, they were put into the spotlight causing the town to notice when they were up to no good. The opposite is said for the Saints because of their higher social class they had more access to the necessities of leaving the town. This made the Saint’s fall off of the public radar, which made it easier for their behavior to go unnoticed. The point of this study was for Chambliss to observe two groups of boys that come from different families but still participate in the same illegal behavior. From this study we can conclude that the boys upbringing wasn’t necessarily what caused them to commit crime, but the biases of the community did not help them from stopping. Chambliss also says that selective perception and the labeling theory play a role in how the Saints and Roughnecks were being treated. The selective perception can be seen through the teachers who said that the …show more content…
In the case against David Becker, who had admitted to committing one of the indecent assaults, he was only given two years probation when the sentencing guidelines suggest the defendant would’ve gotten two years in prison for his crimes. The other case presented is that of Brock Turner, who was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault was only sentenced to six months in jail, in which he only served three of. Its only natural to think that if there was a minority being tried for these cases then the outcome would’ve been different, which goes with Alexander’s