Crime as a Social Construct
Crime refers to any act that goes against the set of laws in a country or a given society. This perception of crime is held by the majority of societies but most of these societies overlook some important aspects of crime (Dowler, Fleming, & Muzzatti, 2006). When talking about crime, one must consider some important questions that enable us to have a detailed description of the criminal acts. One such question is who is tasked with coming up with the laws of the society and why are the laws made. The social values and social norms determine what acts are criminal and which ones are not. These norms and values vary from society to society and therefore what is a crime in a certain community may be acceptable in another society. Social norms and values are affected by religion, culture and also races and society. Violation of these values and norms results in either a crime or a deviation (Dowler et al., 2006). It is therefore vital to differentiate between a crime and a deviation depending on the magnitude of violation of the social norms.
The Social Construction of Crime
The statement crime is a social construct is a broad topic that can be discussed at length with both sides of the story making sense. Some people do agree with the statement but others oppose the statement. I do agree with the statement that crime is a social construct. In simple language, social laws are responsible for the construction of crime in the society. The individuals in power have been given the authority to convert the social laws in the society into the criminal laws that are used as a reference whenever a crime is committed (Simon, 2017). The point of crime is a social construction is well portrayed by the fact that an illegal act in one society may not be illegal in another region or culture. Therefore, it was up to that certain society to decide that a certain act is legal or illegal. If the society did not sit and decide that then that specific criminal act would be inexistent and consequently crime would also not exist.
The Role of Power in Creating Laws
People in power are responsible for creating rules and regulations. They also decide which acts are criminal and which are not. The sad part of the story is that those in power have different intentions when making various laws. It is hard to differentiate when they are doing it for the sake of the society and when they are doing it for their selfish gains. Governments create different laws in different places of the same country. This is because they have different agenda in every law as they make laws that suit a given social order that they desire.
The Changing Nature of Legal Norms
The legal norms keeping changing. New criminal laws are enacted year in year out. For example in the early 90s, rape within marital boundaries was completely legal. However, today rape within a marriage is a crime (Simon, 2017). The law regarding rape between couples has been changed by the society. An act that was not a crime is now a crime and is all as a result of the society. Therefore, the society and its legal norms are responsible for creating this crime. The society has created crime and has grouped it into groups with the varying level of punishment depending on the seriousness of the crime (Perri, 2011). Without the social values and norms, most of the acts that are considered to be criminal would not be viewed as so.
References
Dowler, K., Fleming, T., & Muzzatti, S. L. (2006). Constructing crime: Media, crime, and popular culture. Canadian Journal of criminology and criminal justice, 48(6), 837-850.
Perri, F. S. (2011). White‐Collar Criminals: The ‘Kinder, Gentler’Offender?. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 8(3), 217-241.
Simon, J. (2017). Governing through crime. In Law and Poverty (pp. 97-115). Routledge.
