4.2 Structure and agency in the explanation of the crime problem The social sciences are both united and divided by the debate over structure and agency. That debate turns on the degree to which people are either free to act as they choose or are constrained by forces beyond their control and possibly beyond their perceptions. Structural explanations of human behaviour argue that an unrestrained freedom of action is an illusion. Human behaviour is neither random nor purely self-determined. There is always a range of constraints, rules, pressures, es
4.1 Exploring the claims about crime The claims of the common-sense story of crime that we unearthed in Section 3 were, broadly speaking, about the start of the story (how things were then) and the end of the story (how things are now). But most stories have a middle. A middle that gets you from the beginning to the end, that explains how one state of affairs is transformed into another. The former claims are primarily descriptive. The claim in the middle would be explanatory. It would need to address questions lik
3.4 Interpreting the crime problem The Whole City, My Lord, is alarm'd and uneasy. Wickedness has got such a Head, and the Robbers and Insolence of the Night are such that the citizens are no longer secure within their own Walls or safe even in passing their Streets, but are robbed, insulted, and abused, even at their own Doors … The citizens are oppressed by Rapin and Violence. (Defoe, 1730, quoted in Reiner, 1996, p.2) 3.3 Quantitative and qualitative evidence The Tables above provide official quantitative evidence: evidence, data or information which is expressed in numerical terms. On the face of it, this clearly shows that recorded crime increased significantly throughout the twentieth century, albeit with some ‘dips’ in recent years. Common sense is confirmed. But there are problems with these data. Remember, we are looking here at crimes recorded by the police. Do you think that all crimes are recorded? There might be different 3.2 Counting the crime problem What kind of evidence would support the claims of the common-sense narrative? Where would it come from and where would you find it? Most social scientists would start with the people who actually spend their time counting these things – governments. Government agencies of all kinds spend a great deal of time and money producing official statistics, recording crime rates, conviction rates, the size of prison populations, and so on. 2.1 Social attitudes towards crime Crime, then, is a social construction. We had to break down the definition of crime and the process of recognising crimes to explore that. This is an analytical approach to the issue, which simply means unpacking an idea or a process into its separate components so that we can examine them more closely. But most of the time we don't think about crime analytically. We think about it as a narrative, as a story. At a personal level we may tell the story, over a drink, of our 1.3 Summary Crime has multiple meanings. Those meanings are socially constructed. The most important differences in the meanings of crime occur between strictly legal definitions and those that relate crime to the breaking of other codes and conventions – normative definitions. These may be formal moral codes like religions, or more informal codes of socially-acceptable behaviour. Both these ways of thinking about crime vary historically, across soci 1.2 The recognition and pursuit of crime Whatever crime might mean, it can still land you in trouble. So given our answers to the questionnaire, why aren't we doing time at Her Majesty's Pleasure, or paying off an enormous backlog of fines? Not only the meaning of crime, but also the transformation of a potentially criminal act into conviction and imprisonment, is an irreducibly social process. 1.1 The meaning of crime What is a crime? Good question, but how to go about answering it? For most of us, most of the time, crime is something other people do. So why not check that against personal experience? Have a go at the questionnair 10.2 Other sources of help 10.1 Further reading 9.2 What is reflection? 9.1 Reflection and the four main phases of learning how to learn 8.3 Exploring 8.1 Introduction 7.3 Review the whole process 7.2 Learning from feedback 7.1 Reviewing 6.3 Making a self-assessment 6.1 Implementing
Activity 1
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
Learning how to learn: a process we all engage in throughout our lives, but no single method of learning guarantees success. This unit aims to make the process of learning much more explicit by inviting you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study as a way of increasing your awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process – and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
