Which if any social problems are most important in contributing to criminality in society Can they
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
This essay shall discuss the social problems which are prevalent in current society and discuss the impact that these have upon the rate of crime. Although poverty, unemployment, poor education, and others are linked to criminality our proposal is that not one of these factors but all operate in a cyclic fashion perpetuated by the capitalist system in contributing to crime. We shall analyse the way in which these social problems have been addressed in order to reduce crime and discuss the alternatives.
Current social problems in the UK include poverty, homelessness, lone parenting, crime, asylum seekers, poor education, unemployment and drug abuse. These factors are interrelated and can be said to reinforce one another (Percy-Smith, 2000). There are three ways in which these problems are seen to arise; Firstly those who see these problems as self-imposed blame the individual for lack of motivation, and an over reliance upon welfare creating a culture of "welfare dependency" (Murray, 1984); Secondly the problems are seen as a result of the system in lacking in jobs leading to reduced opportunity and motivation to find jobs (Wilson, 1996) and Thirdly there is a proposal that society deliberately rejects the "underclass", stigmatising them and stereotyping them as criminogenic, and drug ridden (Bauman, 2000). This essay shall discuss all three of these viewpoints in relation to crime.
The last third of this century has seen a dramatic change in the marketplace which has had a detrimental effect upon our society and its problems. The shift from Fordism to Post-fordism has resulted in a loss of a great deal of jobs such as mining (due to the privatisation of electricity) and construction (due to the freezing of capital receipts of council house sales). As a result male unemployment soared from 5 per cent in 1979 to 12 per cent in 1983 and, after a fall which bottomed out in the election year of 1987, rose yet more steeply to 14 per cent in 1993...