Criminology

However, criminological knowledge often conflicts with social understandings and perceptions of crime. Discuss why this may be the case.

( Sutherland argued that “the objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime, and treatment.” However, criminological knowledge often conflicts with social understandings and perceptions of crime. Discuss why this may be the case.)

In your answer you should reflect on ONE of the categories of crime which is Violent Crime AND provide reference to at least ONE explanation of crime which is the theory that could apply with violent crime.

“However, criminological knowledge often conflicts with social understandings and perceptions of crime. Discuss why this may be the case.”
This is the main question asking and the Sutherland is just a statement.

The purpose of this essay, asking you to ‘discuss’ a statement, is to assess your ability to conduct high quality research to construct an argument. You need to provide evidence (i.e. examples and references) for each claim that you make.

‘Discuss’ requires that you present both sides of an issue, and conclude with a statement of your own position.

Firstly, the essay question gives you a proposition – it states that criminological knowledge does, in fact, conflict with social understandings/perceptions of crime. In discussing this prompt, you can agree with it, disagree with it, or come to some kind of middle ground (e.g. it does conflict in some aspects, but not in others)

So it might be easier if you break it down into its component parts. For instance, it might be a good idea to start by looking for articles or books which discuss “social perceptions of crime” – within this topic it might also be helpful to look at media perceptions of crime and to do some research into academic literature which covers that topic.

In terms of “criminological knowledge” – that is a quite a broad term, so you might not find a specific definition. Basically it just refers to how criminologists understand crime – how often it occurs, who commits it, and theories which might explain why it occurs. What the question is asking you to do outline how criminologists understand crime, and analyse whether this does, or does not, conflict with how broader society understand crime. That’s quite a broad topic, so to help frame your analysis you’ve been asked to reflect on one category of crime and one theory we have examined during the course to help support your argument.

Once you’ve picked your crime and theory, you might want to look at how criminologists explain their operation and then compare and contrast that to social theorists’ understanding of that crime, or community perceptions of that crime.

In answering this, you might also want to consider what criminology is, and what its aims are (referenced in the first part of the question, and the material we covered in the first 2 weeks of the course).

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