crime
From a sociological perspective, explanations for criminal- ity are found in two levels which are the subculture and the structural explanations. The sociological explanations emphasize aspects of societal arrangements that are external to the actor and compelling. A sociological explanation is concerned with how the structure of a society or its institutional practices or its persisting cultural themes affect the conduct of its members. Individual differences are denied or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behavoir is sought in the patterning of social arrangements that is considered to be both "outside" the actor and "prior to him" (Sampson, 1985). That is, the social patterns of power or of institutions which are held to be determinative of human action are also seen as having been in existence before any particular actor came on the scene. In lay language, sociological explanations of crime place the blame on something social that is prior to, external to,
Durkheim's anomie, the deregulation of social life, may be another such feature, as yet inadequately applied to the explanation of crime. It is among these differentials that sociologists and many laymen con- tinue to look for generators of crime. The pure reactive hypothesis claims that the social structure produces a "reaction formation" in whom its rules disqualify for status. Therefore, there is a measureable regional culture that promotes murder. The organization of large scale theft adopts new technologies and new modes of opera- tion to keep pace with increases in the wealth of Western nations and changes in security measures. Fighting and hating then become both duties and pleasures. "Culture conflict" is one such general aspect of a society's structure that seems to promote criminal- ity. The emphasis given to this idea by the structuralists is that both the goals and the means are given by the pattern of social arrangements.
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