I have to do a research project?

Question

Can somebody give me some ideas, my iterest is crime & deviance but I want to keep it simple and straight forward.... I am a second year under-graduate

Answer 1

Let us start first by defining crime and deviance:

*Deviance-the behavior (how people act), ideas (how people think), or attributes (how people appear) of an individual or group that some people in society find offensive.
*Crime-a behavior or act that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions which ranges from Minor (misdemeanor) and Major (felony/serious crime).

I’ve asked many students to picture a criminal or name a crime and almost always I get similar images: male figures dressed head to toe in black committing some act of theft or violence. But there is a lot more diversity to criminal behavior than most people realize. Most often when asked to think about crime, people think of 1.Street crime. Street crimes are acts of violence, destruction or theft against individuals or their property. It includes burglary, auto theft, arson, assaults, rape, homicide, you know, all those dirty, scary behaviors we think of as CRIME and often occur on the street, hence its name. But although street crime gets a great deal of attention and publicity, it is only one of many kinds of crime.

Courtesy of the entertainment media, the second kind of crime people often think of is 2.Organized crime. Organized crime is a business that engages in illegal goods or services. Often organized crime operates just as any other known business, but what makes it criminal is the products or services offered.

Most people don’t realize that legitimate business can also engage in criminal behavior. A third category of crime is 3.Corporate crime. Corporate crimes are when a legitimate business while engaging in legal goods or services breaks the law. This includes behaviors such as fraud, knowingly marketing faulty products or price fixing. In the case of corporate crimes, it is the business practices that are illegal.

Related to corporate crime is a fourth category, 4.White Collar crime. White collar crime is when an individual in an organizational setting commits a crime during the course of his or her daily activities. The distinction between Corporate crime and White Collar crime is often based on how many people were involved. If the illegal behavior is committed by one person acting alone in a business or organization, then it is white collar crime. White collar crimes are actually the category of crime that is most frequent. Almost everyone has committed a white collar crime at some point. This category of crime includes things ranging from something as small as taking home company goods without permission, Such as office supplies or making long distance telephone calls on an organization’s telephones to larger issues such as embezzlement, insider trading, tax or credit card fraud.

A fifth category of crime, also related to Corporate crimes, is 5.Environmental crime. As it sounds, these are illegal behaviors that specifically harm the environment, such as toxic dumping, pollution, clear cutting forest areas, and harming endangered wildlife.

The newest category of crime is 6.Computer crime. While most people don’t necessarily think about this as criminal, because of its newness it is often in people’s minds. Clearly using a computer to "scam", endanger people or for pornographic or fraudulent purposes falls into this category.

7.is Victimless crime. Victimless crimes are the most controversial and subjective category in crime. These include behaviors that are surrounded by much debate and whose criminal status changes over time and place. For example, included in this category is prostitution, illegal in some places, but not all, and behaviors for which there is a great deal of controversy such as suicide or helmet laws.

Last, but not least, and a category of crime that most people rarely think of is 8.Political crime . Political crimes can fall into two categories: Crimes by the government and crimes against the government. Included in this category are issues such as terrorism, treason, assassinations, spying, police brutality and so on.

Hope this helps. Goodluck!

Answer 2

Why not study the education system within the prison environment? There are quite a number of websites. Try looking at things like the Skills for Life strategy etc, they cover crime and education.

Answer 3

The old question of whether punishment actually deters future crime needs a modern up-date.

Answer 4

What about researching my question:-

Is there a greater incidence of "Junior"s in Jail, than in the general population ?
Is there a greater proportion of men named after their father in the jailed population than in the general population ?.

e.g. John Smith jnr, Joe Bloggs III, i.e. the "mini-me" phenomenon.