Relationship between Power and Crime Essay Example

a way of life and approaches of doing things. Crime, on the other hand, refers as a function of power relations. People commit crime because they have come short in the struggle for success and have sought an alternative way of achieving it.

The behaviors of those who are in power are always exempted from the legal sanctions because they are the one who shapes the contents of the law. According to Siegel (2015), the people who deserve severe punishment always receive lenient penalties whereas those of minor crimes are severely sanctioned. Those who deserve severe sanctions are the white collar criminals- they that commit corruption that casts a country into millions of dollars debts and those of minor crimes are those of petty thieves, and drug dealers receive severe penalties especially when they are from the minority group who lacks the economic and social power. People in authority usually use the fear of crime as an instrument of maintaining their control over the society.

According to Siegel (2015), the nature of every society controls the direction of its crime. He argues that criminals are not social misfits but are the products of the social and the following economic system. The society produces its amount and types of crimes that it deserves and it each has its distinctive measures on how to deal with it. In an advanced technological society, the people with political and economic power control the manner in which the systems of the criminal justice enforce the law and definition of the crime. The wealthy people are involved in activities that are supposed to be described as an offense such as sexism, racism, and

profiteering but are not although administrative law are there to control the illegal businesses but are not enforced, and the offenders are lightly punished. All this happens because the essential feature of capitalism is to create new markets and expand businesses. The wealthy are shielded from street crimes because they live in areas they claim to be far from crime. The people in power usually use the fear of the offense as means of controlling the society. The middle-class people are diverted from caring about the crimes of the powerful through their fear of the powerless crimes.

Criminal behavior is also linked with critical feminist whereby gender conflict emerges as a result of social and economic struggles that is prevalent in postindustrial societies. The author of the book Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime argues that patriarchy and class conflict is marked in a capitalist society. Men control women at home both economically and biologically while the capitalists control the labor market. Because men have more powers than women, it is said that women commit fewer crimes in the capitalist than males because they are isolated in the family (Siegel, 2015). As women are separated in the family, they have fewer chances of engaging in the white collar and economic crimes. Women are sometimes forced to commit the less severe self-destructive crimes because they are in the capitalist society. The Marxist vision of crime in the society mentions how people influence the justice system in the community. Marxist viewed crime as the product of enforcing law policies where individuals are labeled with their know-how with the police where they are denounced and sheltered into a life of the

offense. He also associates criminality and the inequality that is found in the capitalist society.

White collar crime is committed by people occupying higher social positions in the society as part of their jobs. It does not involve violence but is generally a money-related crime that includes bribery, business fraud, embezzlement of funds and other similar offenses. The crimes usually go unknown by the public. On the other hand, blue collar crimes are one that includes theft and is committed by the average people (Siegel, 2015). They are committed as a way of improving the living conditions of the person. The crime is highly visual to the society and always attracts police. The difference in crime committed shows the inequality between the social classes. The punishment for committing the offense is also different and disproportionate. The person who has stolen and murder experience a severe punishment than the individual who has embezzled the society funds. For example, having a casual worker and a CEO in a company, and a casual worker vandalizes a local business while the CEO commit fraud, the casual employee would be probably arrested and fined, possibly even taken to prison to serve for several months while the CEO might only receive a slap on the wrist. The difference shows how power can be used to cover crimes committed by people in bigger positions.

The Social Conflict theorists build their argument on labeling theory by looking at the role of the state in creating offense. They take the argument a bit further by showing that crime is only generated to keep the ruling and dominant class of people in their positions in the society

and contrary, crime is used as a way of keeping the working class and poor people in their place within society. Those in powerful positions construct the criminal offenses with the purpose of keeping the lower classes in their place and generate laws to help the powerful in society. Richard Quinney, one of the foremost theorists on this matter, argued that crime is a social construct and it is a deliberate sensible choice to label appropriate behavior as criminal (Siegel, 2015). Crime is created by authorized representatives in a politically organized culture, the gap between the ruling classes and the working classes.

State organized crime is a crime that is committed by the state officials in pursuit of their jobs as state representatives. It shows how people in power oppress others who are powerless. Human right violation is one of the crimes a state is involved in, at times, people are held in custody without trials and use disappearance and executions in riding themselves in political dissidents. Another human right violation organized by state involves the correctional system operations in notorious nations of depriving detainees of their necessities. State violence is one of the states organized crimes. The officials engage in violence to maintain their power over insurgent groups. There is the use of police officers of the army to perform the act (Siegel, 2015). The team commits kidnapping and assassination by use of violent methods to intimidate and deter the opponents from political activities against the government. There is also state-corporate crime where state officials abuse the state authority when working with private organizations. It is an alarming state because the regulatory law that aims

to control private corporations is scaled back. All this happens because those in power are protected by the government and the legislation in the country won't impacts their lives.

Reference

1. Siegel, L. J. (2015). Criminology: Theories, patterns, and typologies. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.