Please upload your assignment to Canvas as a .doc or docx by October 12 at 11:59 pm. I expect this activity will take you two to three hours to complete.
Full credit answers will address each part of the prompt below. Your response should be numbered in the same way as the questions. (for example, PART 1, Question 1, followed by your response, and so on.)
Objectives
- Engage in dialogue about crime with someone outside class
- Consider perceptions of crime, crime rates, and law in your community
- Apply theories and insights about crime and crime rates to real-world attitudes
In this exercise I ask you to 1) have a conversation about crime with someone in your community and 2) reflect on their responses in light of what we have learned about crime in the first few weeks of class.
Instructions
Identify a person who is willing to have a brief conversation with you about crime (also known as a “respondent”). Your respondent may be anyone you wish (a friend, a family member, a stranger)but they cannot be a student at Ohlone. This conversation will likely last 15 to 30 minutes.
In this conversation make sure to ask questions to address the prompts covered in Part One. You can take notes during the conversation or write down notes immediately afterwards. Summarize your notes in your response to the prompts in Part One. Your goal in Part One is to record your respondent, not analyze their views.
After you have addressed the prompts in Part One, consider the questions in Part Two. Using your course materials, reflect on your respondent’s comments in Part One to answer the prompts in Part Two. Your goal in part two is to analyze their views.
Part One: Talk to someone and note their response
Briefly describe your respondent(one or two paragraphs)
Briefly describe the person you talked to. Note at least one way that your respondent is similarly socially situated to you. (for example, you have a similar occupation, age, gender, race, etc.). Note at least one way that this person is differently socially situated than you are (for example, you have a similar occupation, age, gender, race,, etc.).Please only include general descriptions. DO NOT include the person’s name or specific identifying information.
Ask your respondent to define “crime” in their own words (one or two paragraphs)
This can be a confusing question for someone who has never considered it. The person you speak with probably won’t have a straightforward definition of crime right off the bat. You will discover it through conversation. To get at the answer to this question, you may wish to ask some follow-up questions. For example, you might ask for some examples of crime. Or you might give some examples of actions (e.g. lying, jaywalking, robbery) and ask whether or not the person views those as crimes. Or you might ask where the person first learned about crime. Or ask for some examples of crime depicted in media or encountered in everyday life.
Summarize your respondent’s comments in one to two paragraphs.
Ask your respondent to describe their impression of crime in society today (one or two paragraphs)
Here are some questions you might ask to get at this question (these are examples. You don’t have to answer all of them). Is crime increasing or decreasing? How does the amount of crime now compare to when they were growing up? Do they perceive a difference between the crime rate in their community and the crime rate nationwide? Is crime a major social issue today? Do they feel that your community is safe? Why, or why not? Are particular types of crimes becoming more or less common? Where they get news about crime in the community?
Summarize your respondent’s view in or two paragraphs
4.
Ask your respondent what CAUSES crime in society today (one or two paragraphs)
Here you might go back to examples of crimes from prompt number two and ask your respondent why people might do this action. Some other questions you might ask include: do you think that everyone commit crime for the same reasons? Do you think that people can have more than one motivation for committing a crime? How do you know why someone commits a crime?
Part Two: Reflect on your interview
Consider your respondent’s definition of crime (or, if you never settled on a definition, your respondent’s overall comments about crime).
Reviewing our materials from class—especially chapter one of the textbook and our group discussions—how would you characterize your respondent’s definition? Is it legal, moral, sociological, or some combination of the three? A full credit answer will engage directly with our course materials.
Summarize your reflection in one to two paragraphs.
Consider your respondent’s perception of the crime rate.
Review our materials from class, particularly chapter one and the supplementary assigned reading on crime data from week two. How does your respondent’s perception of the crime rate match with what we have learned about crime data and the crime rate? specifically, does your respondent's perception of crime match with crime trends in Fremont? California? the United States? How does your respondent's perception of the crime rate match with perceptions of crime in society? A full credit answer will engage directly with our course materials.
Summarize your reflection in one or two paragraphs
3.
Consider your respondent's view of the causes of crime.
Review our materials from class, particularly chapters three AND chapter four in our textbook. How does your respondent's view of the causes of crime relate to the criminological theories we have discussed in this class? Which approach to criminology most aligns with your respondent's views? A full credit answer will briefly explain the criminological view we learned about and related to the respondent's answer.
Summarize your reflection in one to two paragraphs.
4.What
is one thing you found surprising about your respondent’s comments? Why did it surprise you?
Summarize your reflection in one to two paragraphs.