Essay Sample on Labelling Theory: Racism & Criminal Justice System

Introduction

Imagine, African American men are arrested for alleged crimes. The sheer fact that they are blacks is used to attribute crimes to them. Over time, they develop aggressive behavior, sometimes designed to assert themselves and protect their identity from prejudice. Such behavior again predisposes to more crimes. The experiences of African Americans, including predetermined perceptions that they are criminals, are among the reasons they psychologically get attuned to crimes. As espoused by the labeling theory, people get deviant if deviant or criminal attributions are placed on them. The criminal identity or label predisposes them to act aggressively.

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Reflection

Through my academic research, I knew that different theoretical approaches attempt to improve how people understand motivations and causes of criminal activity. However, this exercise helped me to demystify how complex crime is. It is not easy to tell forthrightly with confidence what makes an individual have criminal behavior. This means that as much as crimes may attract similar sanctions of the criminal justice procedures, their etiology is diverse. Moreover, it is interesting to know that criminality is contextual. This means that the environment in which one lives, prevailing social, economic, and political situations greatly influences criminal behavior patterns. Imperatively, addressing crimes in society should revolve around addressing possible disconnect in social, economic, and political systems.

It was challenging to effectively capture the graphical relationship between the pictures and their associated criminal theories. Much of the pictures encompassed sociological and psychological aspects of life hence a lot of insights needed to elucidate their relationship with deviance. I learned that an effective criminal correction should, at all times, attempt to uncover all the underlying inspirations and motivations for a crime on an individual criminal basis.

Conclusion

Through this, it will be possible to develop individualized interventions and corrections that prevent repeat crimes or recidivism. Unilaterally approaching crimes without cognizance of their uniqueness may not yield benefits to society. Critical elements of the different crime theories should be used to attain a more comprehensive solution to deviance behavior. Through such theories, it will be easy to counter predisposing factors to crimes proactively.

References

Abdillahi Mohamed Sanbalooshe. (2017, Oct 26). Somalia Doesn’t Need Tears. Help Us Fight Terrorism. The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/opinion/somalia-united-states-terrorism.html

Have, Have-Nots: News Group Examines Wealth Inequality Ahead of 2020 Elections - Karma. (2020). Retrieved 25 July 2020, from
https://karmaimpact.com/have-have-nots-news-group-examines-wealth-inequality-ahead-of-2020-elections/

Illustrating Equality VS Equity - Interaction Institute for Social Change. (2020). Retrieved Jul 25 2020, from https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/

Race and the Criminal Justice System. (2020). Retrieved Jul 25 2020, from
https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-race-and-criminal-justice/

Tim O'Brien. (2013 Dec, 2). Gap between rich and poor is widening. The Irish Times. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/gap-between-rich-and-poor-is-widening-1.1613830