Creating Crime

In my last OPD paper, I talked about reading law making and creating crime and I tried linking it to my experiences I had with OPD. I mention the social construction of drug scares and how the government use scare tactic sustain social control. I talk about the political aspect behind creating laws and how politicians uses crime to control public interest that put a large number of people jail for non-violent drug relate crimes. I also discuss how much harm that an average American would experience from corporations than a street crime. This paper will discuss law enforcement, arrest, the court system and labeling criminal.

William Chambliss discuss the results of the RDU crime control efforts around three distinct activities: the rip, or undercover drug purchases; vehicle stops; and serving warrants.

The intensive surveillance of black neighborhoods and the pattern of surveillance of white neighborhoods have the general consequence of institutionalizing racism by defining crime and drug abuse as problems of young black men.

Crime control policies contribute to the disruption of the family, the prevalence of single-parent families, and unemployment.

Another result is the transfer of scarce resources from desperately needed social programs to criminal justice.

Although the crime rate has not changed significantly in the last 20 years, the creation of a moral panic over crime has been brought about by a coalition of political, law enforcement, and media interests that accounts for the growth of the crime industry.

Reversing the process will be more difficult than instituting it and will require political courage, shifts in emphasis in law enforcement, changes in media coverage, and research and dissemination of results by social scientists.