Describe conflict theories of crime causation, including radical criminology and peacemaking criminology. What sorts of crime-control policies might be predicated on the basis of such theories?
What will be an ideal response?
The conflict perspective believes that conflict is a fundamental aspect of social life and can never be resolved. The key elements of the conflict perspective include:
• Society is composed of diverse social groups, and diversity is based on distinctions that people hold to be significant.
• Conflict between and among groups is unavoidable because of their different interests and values.
• The fundamental nature of group conflict centers on the exercise of political power.
• Law is a tool of power that furthers the interests of those powerful enough to make it.
Radical criminology focuses on the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and other resources that is especially characteristic of capitalist societies and places blame for criminality and deviant behavior on officially sanctioned cultural and economic arrangements. 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. Since conflict theories see social inequality as the cause of crime, the only way to combat this is to change the balance of society through a redistribution of wealth and power. In reality, most agree that policy alternatives that change the present system incrementally will help.
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Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
When a crime requires a mens rea of specific intent, a person is culpable only if he or she voluntarily commits the underlying criminal act or acts
A. out of negligence or recklessness. B. by accident or carelessness. C. with the intent to achieve a particular result. D. by mistake.
Match up the example in the left column with whose role it belongs to in the right column. Answers will be used more than once
A) Defense Attorney B) Investigator C) All three—investigator, prosecutor, and defense attorney D) Prosecutor 1) Attack an officer's credibility. 2) Meet with officer for a pretrial conference. 3) Cross-examine an officer. 4) Testify in court 5) Provide the prosecutors will all information relevant to the case 6) Attempts to secure a conviction 7) Review all reports 8) Cooperate fully with prosecutors 9) Dress professional 10) Act as an expert witness