Define and comment on the conflict perspective theory of crime causation, including social policy and peacemaking criminology

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A theoretical approach that holds that crime is the natural consequence of economic and other social inequities. Conflict theorists highlight the stresses that can arise among and within social groups as they compete with one another for resources and for survival. The social forces that result are viewed as major determinants of group and individual behavior, including crime.Society is composed of diverse social groups, and diversity is based on distinctions that people hold to be significant, such as gender, sexual orientation, and social class.Conflict among groups is unavoidable because of differing interests and differing values. Hence, conflict is inherent in social life.The fundamental nature of group conflict centers on the exercise of political power. Political power is the key to the accumulation of wealth and to other forms of power.Laws are the tools of power and further the interests of those powerful enough to make them. Laws allow those in control to gain what they define (through the law) as legitimate access to scarce resources and to deny (through the law) such access to the politically disenfranchised.Peacemaking criminology holds that crime-control agencies and the citizens they serve should work together to alleviate social problems and human suffering and thus reduce crime. Radical criminology is a conflict perspective that sees crime as engendered by the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and other resources, which adherents believe is especially characteristic of capitalist societies.