MCJ 5135Unit V Research PaperColumbia Southern UniversityMCJ, Lecture notes of Accounting

Download MCJ 5135Unit V Research PaperColumbia Southern UniversityMCJ and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! MCJ 5135 Unit V Research Paper Columbia Southern University MCJ 5135: Theory of Crime and Criminology Unit V Research Paper Overview The theory that I have chosen as the topic of my research paper is the economic theory. This theory has been around since the 1800s with two main theorists, Karl Marx, and William Bogner. This theory attributes capitalism and the disparity of the rich and the poor to the main causes of crime (Daigle & Hagan, 2020). The United States treats capitalism as an undeniable part of our government; this has created a direct cycle between poverty, crime, and recidivism. Changing the economic system could cause a positive change to the criminal justice system and crime rates through the lens of the economic theory. There is evidence to show that the criminal justice system acts under the assumptions of the economic theory. Through my research, I have determined that law enforcement agencies and officers work under the assumption that poverty creates crime. Agencies tend to place more offi- cers within low-income neighborhoods, specifically, majority-minority neighborhoods. More of- ficers in these neighborhoods lead to more documented crime creating a cycle of policing (Dwivedi et al., 2017). After the accused are arrested by law enforcement they then have to navi- gate the judiciary system. The economic theory is directly confirmed by the methods in which our criminal justice system uses cash bail. The accused are often required to pay cash bail before they are ever placed on trial (Boggs & Brock, 2020). This directly contradicts our other judiciary laws such as trial by jury or innocent until proven guilty. Since the United States leans so heavily on capitalism, our government and economy have created the prison industrial complex. This has led to private prisons and inhumane practices that only strive to make a profit for the stakehold- ers (Cummings & Lamparello, 2016). The greediness of capitalism has created this privatized system that increases incarceration and recidivism rates. In regards to recidivism, the functions of parole and probation have been twisted into creating more revenue for the criminal justice sys- tem and punishing poverty (Ruhland, 2016). Parole and probation impose harmful monetary practices such as fees and fines that make it almost impossible for low-income ex-convicts to function in our capitalistic society. Every facet of the criminal justice system can demonstrate the impact of capitalism and poverty on crime. Research When researching the relationship between the criminal justice system and poverty, there was a positive correlation between low-income neighborhoods and documented crime. In one re- search article, authors surveyed members of low-income neighborhoods; they found the majority of the community has a distrust for the police. The communities that they surveyed were also documented to have a higher police presence than the average community. Having this higher percentage of police officers did not reduce crime but instead increased the crime rate and cre- ated distrust (Dwivedi et al., 2017). This article demonstrates that policymakers and the police force believe in the economic theory of criminology; they believe that poverty causes crime. In regards to the judiciary system, the bail procedure reflects how this system views poverty as one of the causes of crime. According to Boggs & Brock, the cash bail system goes against the rights of the accused by holding them in jail even if they have not been proven guilty (Boggs & Brock, 2020). Our judiciary system is built on the idea that people are innocent until proven guilty, but requiring bail of the accused in turn labels poor people as if they are automati- cally guilty. This indicates the judiciary systems’ belief that criminals and crime in general stem from poverty. The incarceration and prison system in the United States has dramatically changed over the past couple of decades. Private prisons or for-profit prisons have started to grow and become