Crime and the American Dream
The American Dream is something that's been incorporated into children's lives since day one. As Americans we have a perception that our country is superior to others, because every person is supposed to be treated fairly and have equal opportunities. However, the American Dream has also brought about more crime than anywhere else in the world. Americans feel that the measure of a person success is based on monetary status, no matter how the person obtained that status. This is where crime evolves into American society. Crimes are most often committed in order to obtain some sort of monetary profit. Robberies and murders are frequently committed based on the need for a higher status in the economic world. Messner and Rosenfeld have established a theory that allows us to see why these crimes are committed. The crime rate is dramatically increasing in our society, and these two authors have proposed a theory that could possibly help Americans turn our society around.
Ethel Smith (left) and Fanny Rosenfeld (second fro...
Burning Money is Financial Crime and Waste in Chin...
US Violent Crime RateWhen analyzing our society sociologically we can break it down into two parts: cultural structure and institutional structure. These two parts can explain a lot about our society, and more specifically crime. Crime in our society is mainly due to the breakdown in the institutions that we are involved in. There are two main institutions that are present in our society that define us as a society. They are economic institutions and non-economic institutions. Americas high crime rate is largely due to the invasion of economic institutions into non-economic institutions. Non-economic institution such as schools, religion, and politics are falling apart because they are allowing economic institutions to affect their development. If I were to develop a hypothetical society I would focus on rebuilding process of school systems and religious institutions. I would begin...