Discuss the six possible reasons that criminologists have cited to explain apparent ties between class and crime. Which explanation, if any, do you agree with and why?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Some criminologists have suggested that evidence for a link between class and crime is weak.
(1) Stress from poverty. Poverty produces pressures that may lead individuals to engage in offending behaviors.
(2) Lower class values: A differential value system between the classes leads to behaviors that foster criminal behavior. Members of the lower class might have values that are more supportive of violence or offending than the values of other classes.
(3) Violence leading to lower social class. Violence itself, either experiencing it or witnessing it, can create situations where individuals’ social class status is decreased. For example, victims of domestic violence will have problems finding and maintaining employment and this could reduce their social status.
(4) Inequality breeding crime. Individuals with less power have fewer resources, and these limited resources potentially create situations where members of the lower class turn to crime in an effort to level the playing field. Offending may be an adaptation to the inequality.
(5) Inequality breeding differential treatment from the justice system. Many have suggested that the higher arrest rates among the poor reflect the power that the upper class has over the lower class in the creation and application of the law. Some criminologists argue that the powerful use the criminal law to exert and maintain their power over the lower class. Moreover, some criminologists point out that a range of harmful behaviors by the powerful (e.g., discrimination and pollution) are neither defined nor treated as violations of the criminal law.
(6) Methodological limitations. Researchers have noted that arrest data and self-report data yield different conclusions about the presence and strength of a relationship between social class and crime. While arrest data might suggest a relationship between class and crime, self-report data—where individuals are asked to report their own offending—show no relationship.