Sociological Imagination And Recidivism

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A sociologist by the name of C. Wright Mills created the idea of sociological imagination and believed that everyone needed “to think critically about the world around us,” which is where the sociological imagination plays a role (Conley 2015: 4). The sociological imagination is defined as “the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces,” (Conley 2015: 4). It encompasses both the personal and social aspects in society. This idea can be easily applied to everyday life for all the members in society. An example about the sociological imagination and relating it to society is coming from the journal. The general theme was about judging oneself and how you perceive …show more content…
You are comparing your experience and relating it to a broader context in society. “Think beyond the familiar routines of daily life, daily culture and immediate culture,” and expand your thoughts and ideas surrounding the United States criminal justice system and realize the effects it has on our society as a whole (Dreiling, Michael. 2015. Lecture Slides: SOC 204_week1_2015: Page 4). Especially, when comparing the recidivism rates and the impact that has on our society as well. The sociological imagination can allow you to see things in a new way that you have not before and expand your thinking by seeing these different perspectives. It can open your mind by seeing through a different lens than you may have been looking through before. It can also help you make connections to the world around you and better understand your society. In the context of the recidivism rates, the sociological imagination can expand our thinking by broadening knowledge and seeing this social issue in a new way and connected it to society. A sociological perspective can assist in elevating human understanding to propose courses of action in order to address the social issue of the recidivism rates in the United States. Public policy plays a huge role in this social issue since it encompasses laws and regulations within the United States, which has an impact on our criminal justice system. Our current policies are to sentence people to the maximum amount of time in prison for the crime they committed in order to reduce their chances of committing a crime in the future. The idea behind this is to prevent criminals from wanting to commit a crime again because they served a decent amount of time already, thus leading to decreased criminal activity and hopefully decreased recidivism rates. This is known as the deterrence theory, which implies that “crime in general, and

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