Study: Crime rates rise when parolees returned

Maybe we should just put more cops on the street. Oh wait, never mind. Studies show an increase of police also raises the crime rate because there are just more officers to bring to the light crime that is already there. You see in the study of Criminal Justice, there is this concept called the dark figure of crime, which is to denote that we do not know how much crime is really out there because it has not yet been reported or discovered. So when using the word, "crime rates" it can have various statistical meanings. During the 1960s, self-report studies began to yield data showing that crime and delinquency were distributed much more evenly through the social structure than indicated by official statistics, which reported more crime in lower-class environment. This means that middle-class participation in crime goes unrecorded while the lower class is subjected to discriminatory law enforcement practices.

In addition, I had an epiphany when my girlfriend and I were talking about crime, and reflected on my undergraduate criminal justice studies of conflict theory. The conflict view depicts society as a collection of diverse groups (owners, workers, professionals & students) who are in constant and continuing conflict. Groups able to assert their political power (those with lots of money) use the law and the criminal justice system to advance their economic and social position. Laws, which define what a crime is, therefore are viewed as acts created to protect the haves (the few: those with lots of money/mainly the upper class) from the have-nots (the many: those without lots of money/mainly the lower class) while most of the middle class sit and watch from the sidelines pretending to be one of the haves.

According to Criminologist Richard Quinney, "criminal definitions (law) represent the interests of those who hold power in society. Where there is conflict between social groups, those who hold power will be the ones to create the laws that benefit themselves and hold rivals in check."

According to this view, the definition of crime is controlled by those who possess wealth, power, and position. Crime is shaped by the values of the ruling class and not by an objective moral consensus that reflects the needs of all people. Crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the poor.

It is said that even crimes/laws prohibiting violent acts such as armed robbery, rape, and murder may have political undertones. Banning violent acts ensures domestic tranquility and guarantees that the anger of the poor and disenfranchised classes will not be directed at their wealthy counterparts.

Furthermore, Quinney adds that, "Crime is a function of power relations and an inevitable result of social conflict. Criminals are not simply social misfits, but people who have come up short in the struggle for success and are seeking alternative means of achieving wealth, status, or even survival."

This scholarship showed that the justice system in the United States was tilted toward the wealthy and powerful. Crime is defined by those in power. The term power, as used here, refers to the ability of persons and groups to determine and control the behavior of others and to shape public opinion to meet their personal interests. Because those in power shape the content of the law, it comes as no surprise that their behavior is often exempt from legal sanctions. Those who deserve the most severe sanctions (wealthy white-collar criminals whose crimes cost society millions of dollars) usually receive lenient punishments, with the exception of a few headliners, while those whose relatively minor crimes are committed out of economic necessity (petty thieves and drug dealers) receive stricter penalties especially if they are minority group members who lack social and economic power.

In conclusion, my position is that it is not the release of prisoners that increases crime, but instead, it is the legislators in the state assembly and senate who pass new bills that criminalize behaviors that prior to legislation were not criminal, the lobbyists, and the special interest groups that advocate for the legislation of new laws that define crime.

I know that as an employee of a media group Ms. Nix, it is your job to report on issues that will maintain and increase the circulation of the newspaper, and in the end, you are simply just trying to make a living, but it would be nice if mainstream media would publish more stories on issues such as, violations of human rights due to racism, sexism, and imperialism, unsafe working conditions, inadequate childcare, inadequate opportunities for employment and education and substandard housing and medical care, crimes of economic and political domination, pollution of the environment, price-fixing, police brutality, assassinations and war-making, violations of human dignity, denial of physical needs and necessities and impediments to self-determination, and deprivation of adequate food and blocked opportunities to participate in political decision making. These are issues that many sociologists, and I consider to be true crimes, but as the media is also a powerful force that shapes the outcome of the social conflict, news networks and media companies would lose advertisement revenue if they began to rattle the cage which is owned by the few haves (wealthy/rich and powerful upper-class) of this country.

Pedophiles definately need to stay locked up and sent to general population instead of being housed in a sensitive needs yard.