Application: Social Problems and Social Responsibility Perspectives
Consider a financial investor, an average working person in the United States who entrusted all of his life savings to a brokerage firm. Five months after the investment, the person learns the brokerage firm was a scam and lost all of his money. What perspective might you attribute this crime? Perhaps it is the personal responsibility of the people in charge of the firm, or perhaps it is a social problem stemming from a lack of governmental regulations. In this application assignment, you look white collar crimes and others and examine if these crimes are best answered from a social responsibility or a social problems perspective.
To prepare for this assignment:
Review the reading selections in Chapters 9, 10, and 11 in your course text. Pay particular attention to the descriptions of and information pertaining to crime against persons (homicide, rape, robbery, and assault); crime against property (larceny-theft, burglary, stolen property, and arson); and white-collar, corporate, or organized crime.
Using the Internet, or current news reports, select one actual crime from each of the categories ( crimes against persons, crimes against property, and one from either white-collar, corporate, or organized crime).
Select a video from the Learning Resources that exemplifies one of the crimes you selected, and review the video again. Pay attention to the way in which the real-life case demonstrates the crime, and consider whether it is better explained by the social problems or social responsibility perspective.
Think about whether each of the crimes you selected would be better explained by the social problems or the social responsibility perspective and why.
The assignment (1-2 pages):
Select one actual crime from each of the following crime categories: crime against persons, crime against property, and one from white-collar, corporate, or organized crime.
Briefly describe each crime.
Explain for each whether you think the type of crime is better explained by the social problems or social responsibility perspective and justify your response. Be specific and use examples to illustrate your points.
Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.