Introduction
Socialization of the relationship between value development and delinquent behavior have been offered from a variety of perspectives, including the differences in value orientation in delinquency areas, the importance of differential associations the effects of lower-class culture and of neighborhood values, the importance of the concept of anomie and many more kinds. My kind of sociological perspective on deviance and social control draws upon the values of the environment or society. My view before was that if criminal justice police officers give the offenders a good beating, then these delinquents will reform and fear punishment. I did not understand that value systems run deep. That means that the juveniles need to be approach on all levels if there is to be any improvement. Value development is seldom addressed directly as the focus of treatment. Instead, it is usually incorporated into such concepts as self-image. The critical point in the theoretical approaches cited is that one’s social environment is the source of one’s value orientation. Consequently, efforts to affect the youth’s values or socialization process must be directed at the environmental source as well as at the individual. Each of these sources identifies a different environmental factor, thus interventions should relate to the particular environmental factor which is influencing the specified subgroup of delinquents. In terms of the considerations on the theory, methods of study and approaches to social control, what will guide me are questions that are related to this theory. For instance, which behaviors should society control with a firm hand, and which should remain beyond the grasp of the law? While efforts have been made to increase society’s control over some behaviors that are considered a danger to the general public, in other instances, efforts by noninterventionists have limited the power of the justice system to regulate human interaction. A number of recent efforts stand out to illustrate the extension of social control by the justice system. For example, the federal government’s most recent drug control legislation significantly extends the government’s ability to control drug importers and distributors through the use of mandatory prison sentences. A number of states have passed legislation toughening penalties for drunk drivers to curb the flood of alcohol-related highway fatalities. The federal government has attempted to crack down on the distribution of pornography by significantly increasing its obscenity prosecutions (Pfohl).
In theory, racial disparity in sentencing is supposed to have been eliminated with the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, said to be designed “to eliminate sentencing disparities and state explicitly that race, gender, ethnicity, and income should not affect the sentence length” (Mustard, 2001, pp. 1-2). In practice, however, we have already noted that disparities in sentencing are a fact, caused by many overt and subtle factors related to race. The Sentencing Project concludes, in a study that rigorously used credible evidence that “racial bias continues to pervade the US criminal justice sentencing system”, and that race has historically been a major determinant of sentencing outcomes (The Sentencing Project, 2005, p. 17).
In particular, a study has found out that blacks, males and offenders who have low educational attainments and low incomes are generally sentenced to longer jail terms than most. Also, the same study found that blacks and males are less likely to not be sentenced to jail terms when the option for no jail terms is present. Moreover, blacks and males are also less likely to have their prison terms reduced, and are more likely to have their jail terms adjusted upward by the courts (Mustard, 2001, p. 1).
Body
The Sentencing Project offers more proof, based on its findings, on the prevalence of racial disparities in sentencing. In a recent study, the group found that young, black and Latino males are harshly sentenced compared to other defendants, especially when they are unemployed. They also found out that black and Latino defendants are disadvantaged when it comes to factors related to the legal process, such as with regard to trial penalties, sentence reductions due to substantial assistance, criminal history, pretrial detention, and type of attorney. They discovered, moreover, that blacks who harm whites receive harsher sentences than blacks who harm blacks and whites who harm whites and non-whites. Also, blacks and Latino defendants are more likely to be sentenced harshly compared to whites. Finally, they found that in the majority of the cases they examined, defendants are more likely to receive the death sentence for crimes against white victims, and that minority defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites (The Sentencing Project, 2005, p.2). The above study looked for evidence of racial disparities in sentencing in the areas of direct racial discrimination, interaction of race/ethnicity with other offender characteristics, interaction and indirect effects of race/ethnicity and process-related factors, interaction of race/ethnicity and type of crime, and capital punishment (The Sentencing Project, 2005, p. 3). Racial disparity in sentencing is a fact. It reflects racial disparities in the other aspects of the criminal justice system in the US, as well as the racial disparities in the society in general. Because it affects many aspects of the system, solutions to the problem must be found not only during the sentencing process, but also in other aspects of the system itself, notably in the area of policing, prosecution, and laws legislation.
“Learning” is the cognitive process of acquiring knowledge or skill. Psychologists have proposed a rich spectrum of theories to explain the processes underlying how we come to know what we know. Understanding the processes that govern learning is ultimately important to the psychology’s quest of deciphering human behavior. Learning essentially provides the interface between individuals, as well as between individual and his or her environment. Without learning, a person would not be able to gain the necessary skills in order to survive. Therefore, the proposed sociological theory of value development and delinquent behavior is important not only because learning is a natural part of our being, but also because it is essential to our survival. Since value development is usually not referred to directly in the issue of the poor, this time, the proposed theory will be used and incorporated into such concepts as self-image. As stated early on in the paper, what is critical in this theoretical approach is that one’s social environment is the source of one’s value orientation and thus, the efforts to influence the youth’s values must be directed at the environmental source as well as the individual.
Works Cited
Mustard, David (2001). Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the US Federal Courts. University of Georgia. 2008. Web.
The Sentencing Project (2000). Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers. 2008. Web.
Pfohl, Stephen. Images of Deviance and Social Control. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social. Sciences/Languages. 2008. Web.
The Sentencing Project (2005). Racial Disparity in Sentencing: A Review of the Literature. 2008. Web.