Christine Vu

Sociology 1 Dis1G
11 April 2014
A Crime by Any Other Name Abstract
One of the biggest threats to our wellbeing that seems to infiltrate our society is the
prevalence of crime. In this article Jeffrey Reiman analyzes our societys interpretation of a
Typical Criminal and how the criminal justice system plays a significant role in influencing
our thinking of this way. Although crime is defined as a threat that causes misery and suffering,
our understanding of crime is directly correlated to a specific expectation, in which the
government and criminal justice system have implanted in our minds. Although many people
deny this fact, social status has been one of the main factors that influence our interpretation of a
criminal. Crime to us is simply an image that has been constructed by the criminal justice
system, which in reality is a distorted mirror of the dangers of society.
A stereotypical description of a criminal is a young black male, who is poor and has a
low social status. A typical crime, with the assistance of media such as television, is perceived to
conventionally be one-on-one harm, which indicates that physical aggression was involved.
However, crimes can be cause indirectly by individuals as well, similar to the death of the ten
miners that Reiman discussed. Although the higher authorities did not physically get involved or
harmed the men, they persisted and allowed the ten miners to work under such dangerous
conditions. Indirectly, these high authorities allowed for the opportunity to happen by subjecting
the men under the conditions even when they were fully informed about it.
Unknowingly, we are being deceived to accept this false and conventional model of a
criminal, which diverts us from realizing the higher authorities responsibility in the situation. In
this way, the criminal justice system distorts reality and with this established model, well-to-do
people, who are just as dangerous as these criminals, are given the opportunity to slip away
from blame.