In July 1992, Rachel Nickell was attacked and murdered, her throat was cut, and she was stabbed 49 times then sexually assaulted. The sensitivity and cruelty of this case from the beginning, police faced pressure from the public and media to solve it. The investigation was carried out by Scotland Yard officers of the Metropolitan Police. After collecting evidence from a crime scene, there was […]

Introduction “The public’s knowledge of crime is primarily derived from its depiction in the media. The media affects the public’s opinion of crime and punishment, and its perception of the police. If the media is responsible for the headlines, the conclusion is that it influences the public’s attitude regarding crime incidents.” (Muraskin and Domash 2007). Crime stories are covered extensively by the print-based media seemingly […]

A key aspect of criminology is the study of criminals and individuals who partake in criminal activities. However, what has remained extraordinary is the lack of interest that has been placed upon studying crime in relation to social demographic profiles, especially those regarding gender within traditional criminology. It was not until the 1970’s that such issues were addressed as Feminist criminology sought to challenge traditional […]

Self control theory, also known as General theory of crime is a criminological theory about the lack of an individuals self-control, which is the main factor behind criminal behavior or conformity. Self control theory places much of its emphasis on parental upbringing it suggests that individuals who were ineffectually parented before the age of ten develop less self-control than individuals of roughly the same age […]

Sociologists investigate the effects of society on criminal and deviant behaviour and seek to understand individuals and their situations. They do this by gathering and utilizing information on age, gender, social class, race and ethnicity. Crime is specifically associated with behaviors that break the formal written laws of any given society; for example, British law states that seatbelts must be worn whilst driving a car. […]

Since Marchese Beccaria who, as one of the first mentioned that the real purpose of punishment is “is no other than to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society, and prevent others from committing the like offense” (Baccaria 1764), many researchers as well as general community have begun to concentrate on the notion of personal choice when explaining what pushes offenders to commit […]

Does punishment really deter crime? One could say no since the rate of crime is stable instead of declining. “The interaction between crime and punishment is certainly a complex one. In simple terms, one might anticipate that, if crime rates increase, there should be a corresponding increase on prison population…On the other hand, if punishment levels increase, crime control theory suggests that deterrence and incapacitation […]

The social disorganisation theory was one of the most important criminological theories developed from the Chicago School of thought, namely research conducted by Shaw and Mckay (1942). Shaw and McKay (1942) used spatial maps to study the residential locations of juveniles referred to Chicago courts, they discovered that rates of crime were not equally dispersed. Instead, crime was concentrated in certain areas and interestingly remained […]

There are many theories of crime which fit into four different models each explaining crime through varied approaches, in this essay I will be discussing the weakest of these theoretical explanations of crime and the strongest. The weakest theory of crime is Biological Positivism which is part of the Predestined Actor Model which is a positivist model explaining criminal behaviour based on scientific factors beyond […]

This paper is going to provide an understanding about how and why African American males are incarcerated at higher rates than any other race and how it is growing. It will also show racial disparities on sentencing, crimes and overall treatment. You will have a better understanding of how the family structure has been destroyed as a result of incarceration creating segregation within the African […]