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Crime and Social Inequality

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Crime and criminalization are dependent on social inequality Social inequality there are four major forms of inequality, class gender race and age, all of which influence crime. In looking at social classes and relationship to crime, studies have shown that citizens of the lower class are more likely to commit crimes of property and violence than upper-class citizens: who generally commit political and economic crimes. In 2007 the National Crime Victimization Survey showed that families with an income of $15000 or less had a greater chance of being victimized; recalling that lower classes commit a majority of those crimes. We can conclude that crime generally happens within classes. Property Crime can be defined as the unauthorized …show more content…

Age also has an impact on crime. Certain age groups are more likely to commit specific crimes; a prime example is teenage years. Teen are affected by peer pressure that can influence them to do things out of the ordinary. As many teenagers do not have a regular source of income, they can be tempted to shoplift to acquire clothes, cds, or other objects to fit in. Studies have found that this declines after high school when individuals must get a job to support themselves. Age can also be an indicator of what ages are most likely to be the victims of specific crimes. A 2008 study by the Department of Justice found that most victims of violent crimes were between the ages of sixteen to nineteen and declined slowly after that. From this the Department of Justice was able to conclude that violent crimes are less likely to happen to individuals sixty-five and older. Race is the fourth major influence on crime. Race is one of the most controversial influences, like gender, is often a force behind hate crimes. One blatant example of crimes against race is the Holocaust in which Hitler declared the extermination of the Jewish race and slaughtered millions of others deemed to be inferior to the “master race”. The “master race” is often the motive behind supremacist groups; like the Third Reich, the Ku Klux Klan considers whites to be the master race, and during the 1900s lynched countless African-Americans and homosexuals. However, by dividing social inequalities into,

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