Crime: The Consensus View, The Interactionist View

There are three primary theories in psychology which help to give meaning in defining what is identified as crime. Although the notion of defining crime is not a simple matter, these three theories shed light on the subject. The most straightforward answer to contextualising crime depends on factors or variables within a society. In today's society the most common meaning 'crime' has depends on three views. The Consensus View, The Conflict View, and The Interactionist View. These views are the variables that model the criminal justice system.

Defining crime is very broad. However, to simplify the subject matter, the traditional meaning states that a crime is an offence that results in community punishment. The current situation exists because what crime is depends on the community. To further elaborate, the reason defining crime is not simple is due to the fact that what is considered right and …show more content…
If this was the case then the definition of crime would have an entirely different meaning to what it would have had in a consensus society. The conflict view proposes that society is a collection of groups like a cake as a whole cut up into parts, and that crime is a direct result of capitalism. With this model crime itself is a conflict, and happens because of conflict. The different parts of the cake (society) are in conflict with each other and as a result crime occurs. Thus, authorities must lay down ground rules or a criminal law that serve to protect the rich. But if the rich themselves make up the rules because of social conflict, then this would justify that crime occurs because of disagreement due to capitalism. Crime is defined as what the authorities make it.

The subject matter of crime is a very broad area. But perhaps crime is dependant on every individual and what their perspective on crime is. For example, if a person kills in self-defence is that considered a