Explain the relationship between socioeconomic status and outcomes in the criminal justice system.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The banking crisis damaged the national economy severely and forced the U.S. government to "bail out" a failing banking industry. Yet few banking officials in the United States were held legally accountable for their actions. The entire episode added credence to the notion that in the legal system, different rules apply to different people, depending on their social-economic status and the nature of their crime. The criminality of a deviant behavior is relative and based on societal or community values, norms, and standards, as well as social status and perception. Additionally, the wrongfulness of a criminal behavior is not necessarily related to the harm caused by the act. For example, faulty and ostensibly illegal loans by bank officials caused great personal pain and anguish, but these actions were often justified as overzealous business practices of people "caught up" in a quest to be successful. Corporate leaders often attempt to justify actions of corporate criminals as simply bad judgment by lower-level employees, even when the leaders actually encouraged a culture of fraudulent criminal activity in the name of personal gain and corporate profit. This differs from the possible perceptions of and reactions to "welfare fraud," or fraudulent behavior by recipients of public assistance. People relying on benefits such as food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have passed means tests (qualification requirements) documenting their dire economic circumstances. Presumably, people struggling to provide for children and families sometimes falsify information to qualify. Although their actions are illegal, their desperation to provide for family members is perhaps more justifiable than the greed of corporate criminals. Yet the general public often views "welfare cheats" with more scorn than corporate criminals. Although welfare fraud has an economic and political impact on government spending for social services, that impact usually pales in comparison with the extent and depth of the pain caused by greedy financiers and investment bankers.