Summary: The Victims of the Queensland Robbery
The carjacking and the assault of its owner that occurred in Sunnybank, Brisbane, four days ago, has shocked the local community (Jackson, 2017). On Wednesday, at approximately 3.45 a.m., five men appeared near the Mains Road shopping center. They targeted two cars with passengers inside. Before the criminals approached the cars, their owners (a man and a woman) gathered in one of the vehicles (Mitsubishi Magna).
The criminals approached the vehicle, dragged the woman out of it, and assaulted her, whereas the man was punched in the head several times. After one of the group members took the keys to the other vehicle, they hijacked both cars leaving the victims outside (Jackson, 2017). Given the current condition of the victims, the criminals must be charged with not only hijacking the cars but also with the infliction of grievous bodily harm to the man and the woman to whom the cars belonged.
Theories: Explanation and Commentary
The analysis of a crime can be carried out from the perspective of numerous theories, and the Social Structure Theory (SST) is one of them. Generalizing the existing description, one may state that SST defines the disadvantaged position of certain parts of society as the primary cause of crime (Siegel, 2016). The specified social groups are termed as the underclass in the SST framework and are stratified further into disadvantaged and truly disadvantaged populations, i.e., the segments that represent the middle and the lowest levels of the underclass (Siegel, 2016). According to SST, the problem of crime is geared by the presence of the culture of poverty, which fuels the process of social division and makes crime levels escalate (Siegel, 2016).
The Social Conflict Theory (SCT) is yet another theoretical framework that allows deconstructing crime as a social phenomenon. SCT suggests that the people that top the social hierarchy are striving to retain their power and position, thus, building the social structure that helps them maintain their current advantage (Hawes, 2015). Therefore, because of the artificial barriers built between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, i.e., the upper and lower classes, the phenomenon of crime occurs as the means of releasing the pressure.
By assuming that people are born with ascribed characteristics since they belong to a specific social class, SCT implies that achieved characteristics, i..e, the ones that can be developed due to specific efforts, are inhibited in the representatives of the lower class. Hence the social pressure is relieving itself in crime (Hawes, 2015).
Theories Application: Deconstructing the Crime
To explore the causes of the crime and the way in which it represents the relationships between the members of Sunnybank, one may have to use the SST framework. Particularly, it could be argued that the culture of poverty that has been in existence in the identified area served as the premise for the assault and the carjacking to occur. An overview of the economic issues that have been in existence in Brisbane and especially in Sunnybank, shows that the criminals are likely to belong to the disadvantaged members of the society.
Therefore, the robbery can be seen as the effect of the artificial social division combined with the lack of opportunities for economic advancement for the representatives of the impoverished Sunnybank population. The hijacking of the car, thus, can be explained by the absence of other options for earning the required amount of money and purchasing the necessary items for the representatives of the Sunnybank area. At this point, one must note that the specified explanation implies social and economic inequality as the primary cause of the crime. While SST helps shed light on the issue of hijacking the cars, it leaves the violent behavior of the robbers unexplained, which means that a different theoretical framework for analyzing the issue may be needed (Siegel, 2016).
Viewing the accident that took place in Sunnybank from the SCT perspective, one may assume that the crime occurred due to the economic imbalance between the social groups that populate the identified area. Indeed, a closer look at the environment in which the residents of Sunnybank live will reveal that the suburb is characterized as quite dangerous due to the sharp contrast between the low poverty rates of the local population and the vast number of expensive shops and entertainment areas for the few representatives of the local elite (Hawes, 2015).
In other words, the combination of the unsuccessful placement for the elements of the entertainment industry for the upper class and the extremely low-income levels among the local population create the environment in which crime, primarily, robberies, burglaries, and thefts, becomes highly probable. Enhanced with the presence of the elements of luxury in one of the poorer areas of Brisbane, the tension between the economically insecure members of the Australian society and the representatives of the elite that visit the area for entertainment purposes releases itself in crime.
The specified perspective is supported by the fact that the crime under analysis included not only carjacking but also the elements of explicit violence toward the owners. It could be assumed that the assault was the effect of the emotional issues that have been accumulating in the members of the lower class, such as bitterness toward the representatives of the upper class because of the social injustice.
References
Hawes, L. C. (2015). New philosophy of social conflict: mediating collective trauma and transitional justice. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Jackson, E. (2017). Man bashed, woman assaulted in Qld robbery. The Australian. Web.
Siegel, L. J. (2016). Criminology: The core. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.