Myths and Reality of Crime Assignment
As we learn in the video, , our justice system tends to focus on street crime, often ignoring much more significant problems such as white-collar, corporate, and state crime.
Write a paper discussing the myths and realities of crime. Please elaborate on the following points in your essay:
- Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal. Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in this video.
- Describe how society defines crime. Do not provide a definition – instead, explain how the definition is reached.
- Discuss how society decides what to define as a crime.
- Present a clear statement about a particular crime, something we know to be absolutely true. Illustrate how we know that this is an accurate statement.
- Present an example of a widely held myth or misconception about crime and society. Determine how we know that this is a myth. Explain why this myth is so difficult to abandon.
The paper must be three to four pages in length and formatted according to APA style. You must use at least two scholarly resources other than the textbook to support your claims and subclaims. Cite your resources in text and on the reference page. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
The beginning of the term crime started from deviant behavior, the word used by society. Deviant behavior involves in violation of social customs which are usually, unacceptable, therefore, a warrant of disapproval agrees by the majority of society. Such behavioral acts can be categorized as crimes during some occasions. Majority of Americans believes that indulging in alcoholism, public nudity, stealing, prostitution etc; as deviant. People who perform such acts known are as deviants (Goode 2004).
Deviant activity is the mode of transferring and exposing through different mediums such as, electronic, print etc; content that consists of violence and other socially unacceptable acts. They represent in a way that the majority of us accept it as entertainment without noticing that we are conditioned to it. Deviant behavior involves adapting behavior which is socially not acceptable and against the social norms and its values, therefore it is widely disapproved by the masses. People who perform such acts are known as deviants.
This approach was not based on complex realities. With the changing social, psychological, economic and political conditions, the definition of crime also changes. Crime was viewed as the mixture of legal, law enforcement and penal responses formed by society. With these conditions, from time to time, crime started including various actions as robbery, drugs dealings, murder and violence. These were common deviances which were later termed as crime. Functionalists argue that societies consist of inter-related social institutions such as schools, mass media, political systems, the Church and the family each of which contribute positively to the maintenance of stability of society as a whole (Haas, 1964). From functionalist perspective, crime occurs when members of society do not get any opportunities to achieve economic goal. For example, if a person from lower class would not get any opportunity to earn enough amount of money to feed his children, he would conduct crime to get monetary benefit.
Conflicts exist when and wherever people have contact. Because people are organized into groups to seek a common mind, the likelihood of conflict increases greatly. The conflicts have a negative connotation for many people. All conflicts are not the same, they vary and in many respects, facing up to conflicts at all levels. We have disagreements with family, friends and co-workers. “The conflicts are rarely resolved …
Discussion Questions (DQ)
- Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
- Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
- One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
- I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
- Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
- In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
- Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
- Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
- Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
- Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
- I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
- I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
- As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
- It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
- For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
- Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
- Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
- Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
- The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
- Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
- If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
- I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
- As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
- Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
- Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
- Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
