Social Construction Of Crime

Many would argue that crime is something that people have socially constructed they have been made to fear something without asking questions. Crime has several definitions, but a common definition can be said to be “ an Act that is deemed by statute or by the common law to be a public wrong and is therefore punishable by the state in criminal proceedings.” Secondly, social construction can be defined as a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society; a perception of an individual, group, or idea that is 'constructed' through cultural or social practice. This essay will give a brief summary of the power approach. Then, it will discuss in depth the approach in reference to gender and ethnicity.
The power approach, …show more content…
Many feminist groups can be seen to argue that the social construction of crime is bias to the sexes. Through out the historical contexts of criminology many argue that it is not gender neutral and does not apply to women committing crimes, this can be said to “ignore socially constructed relationships between men and women that are associated with femininity and masculinity”. It can be said that this is the reason because aside from sexual solicitation males offend more than females. Another arguably fact is that men and women are treated different by the criminal justice system it can be seen with sexual offences men are seen to be treated more tolerant than women who commit violent offences debatably receive strict treatment. It has been researched that the reasons women commit less crimes than men are due to the fact that females have greater social skills and are less willing to take risks; females are also more observed and controlled by their parents when growing up . This argument can be seen in families with a mother and father, but mainly when the father has most of the power due to him having a higher paid job than the mother. Girls are debatably less violent than boys because they are taught such behaviour, for example boys can be said to be taught to hide emotions and to protect themselves and family, which can lead them to have to very masculine at a young age. It could be said that men commit …show more content…
In early European history it can be said that race and crime was not an issue until other ethnic minorities started to migrant into the United Kingdom. The race issuse of social construction can be said to have been portrayed in the media in the 1970’s after the Metropolitan Police report was released. This police report discussed the growing rate of black youth being involved in crimes, and how the black communities had conflicting issues with the police. On the contrary the Select Committee reported in 1973 that majority of minorities were law-abiding citizens. The second reason is argued to be when the police specifically started to develop statistics on the crimes that black people were involved in, it showed that the black youth were mainly involved in robbery, theft and muggings, this can be said to have made the public nervous about their safety. In 1981 the Scarman Report questioned the validity of the police reports in regards to black people, crime and policing. Another reason for social construction of the black community is said to be due to the sense of black criminality, the whole black community was held under this depiction and were seen as disorderly and criminal. The Asian community is also constructed to be criminal but before this portrayal, they were said to be passive, inward-looking and self- regulating. When these communities were