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Explanatory Understanding Of Crime Essay

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Many academics in the field of social sciences have focused much of their research on the topic of crime. Scholars of many disciplines have tried to attempt answer the question why humans commit crimes. Max Weber defined explanatory understanding and adequacy on the level of meaning as ways to understand why people act certain ways in the world by contextualizing these reasons to cultural norms. By using Weber’s definitions, we can understand why people commit crimes of larceny, vandalism, and weapon possession, and why rates for these crimes differ between men and women. Focusing on larceny and vandalism, adequacy on the level of meaning may help identify the causes of these crimes. To understand why people commit crimes or act the way they do in certain situations, one can turn to Weber’s definitions of explanatory meaning and adequacy on the level of meaning. Firstly, Weber defines …show more content…

Weber states that “a motive is a complex of subjective meaning which seems to the actor himself or to the observer an adequate ground for the conduct in question. We apply the term ‘adequacy on the level of meaning’ to the subjective interpretation of a coherent course of conduct when” the action is “recognized to constitute a ‘typical’ complex of meaning” (98-99). What Weber means by this is that when there is a complicated reasoning behind an action, a subjective interpretation must be applied in that situation. It is misguided to oversimplify a complex situation because the entire perspective of the situation can be lost. Once the subjective interpretation can be matched up with our cultural norms and rules, then we have reached adequacy on the level of meaning in understanding that situation. Adequacy on the level of meaning can help us answer questions that are difficult to answers, one of these being why do people commit certain

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