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1.6: Conflict View

  • Page ID
    15897
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    Conflict view sees society as a collection of diverse groups that can include owners, workers, wealthy, poor, students, professionals, younger older, and more. This view recognizes that the creation of laws is unequal and may not have consensus like in the example discussed previously. [1]

    [2] There are many examples we use in the criminal justice field that demonstrates the conflict view in action.

    Edwin Sutherland: White Collar Crime

    [3] Specifically, he was concerned with the criminological community’s preoccupation with the low-status offender and “street crimes” and the lack of attention given to crimes that were perpetrated by people in higher status occupations.

    White Collar Crime, that sparked lots of debate. [4] However, there is a limited focus on white-collar crime and even less enforcement of it in the United States. From the conflict view, this would be because white-collar and corporate crime is committed by the ‘haves’ and they write their laws and define what is or is not a crime. Going back to how we define crime in society, white-collar crime is still a contested one.

    [5] However, there is a limited focus on white-collar crime and even less enforcement of it in the United States. From the conflict view, white-collar and corporate crime gets committed by the ‘haves,’ and they write the laws and define what is or is not a crime. Going back to how we define crime in society, white-collar crime is still a contested one.

    ucr.fbi.gov/nibrs/nibrs_wcc.pdf
    [6]

    1. Hawkins, D. (1987). Beyond anomalies: Rethinking the conflict perspective on race and criminal punishment. Social Forces, 65(3), 719–745, doi.org/10.1093/sf/65.3.719
    2. Boundless. (2016). The conflict perspective. Sociology – Cochise College Boundless, 26.
    3. Sutherland, E. (1940). White collar criminality. American Sociological Review, 5(1), 1-12.
    4. Sutherland, E. (1949). White collar crime. Dryden Press.
    5. Sutherland, E. (1949). White collar crime. Dryden Press.
    6. Barnett, C. (N.D.). The measurement of white-collar crime using: Uniform crime reporting (UCR) data. U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation

    This page titled 1.6: Conflict View is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alison S. Burke, David Carter, Brian Fedorek, Tiffany Morey, Lore Rutz-Burri, & Shanell Sanchez (OpenOregon) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.