Running Head: SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Sociological perspective is a branch of study that seeks to understand the individual person through or in the totality of his social paradigm. It is a school of thought that sees the individual through their social or interactive environment in their view; the individual person has no distinct persona away from his immediate human social structures such as Government institutions and societal long established cultures and traditions (Mills, 1959). Therefore to better understand an individual one would do better by studying the influence of the social facts and social forces a round the object of the study as well as how they play, interact and intertwine to produce their potential outcome.

It is the ability to see identity and understand how various social forces shape and determine the actions of each individual in the society. Such forces include things like norms and values, motives of the individual, the country of existence, the period in time, the people one associates with and the actions the individual does and how they influence and affect other people.

Therefore good understanding of sociological perspectives can allow us to understand how and why different sociological situations play out differently on different people in different circumstances influencing their way of thinking and various patterns of behaviour. For instances, the emergence of the industrial revolution tossed the world into a new world hitherto known, before leading to a great challenge and strain on the traditional value system like families and religious practices (Keen, 1999). It also led to a drastic shift in personal as well as communal decision making process leading into decline in the formal role of both family and religion in the life of an individual. The growing power of science took a greater role in shaping and controlling the social life leading to major changes in social reality of family life, as matter went technological hence beyond one individual or a family as a new climate of individuals, in summaries and free choice ushered in a new climate of privacy and the concept of moral responsibility.

It is adopting and coping with this new world order that individuals and law enforcement agents find themselves embroiled in a wake of crimes which can only be understood through an elaborate process by which people are seen in the light of their social paradigm and their strive to understand and make sense of their lives together with one another (Keen, 1999). For instance, by thoroughly studying the circumstances under which each individual lives, it is possible to anticipate and understand why and how in cities where poor people live next door to the superrich exhibit higher rate of crimes related to mistrust and resentment and consequently plan accordingly with a firm understanding of the fast changes occurring in the social, cultural, economic and political spheres of people world over, we gain vital insights into global crime; white collar crimes as well as understand why in some cases, what was once considered socially a deviant behaviour is now a commonly accepted normal behaviour and vice versa.

In the same breath a good understanding of sociological perspective can allow policy makers in understanding the role played by correction and rehabilitation institutions such as prisons, formative institutions like the families and other social stratification systems in contributing or alleviating the issue of crime in society (Mills, 1959). In a nut shell, sociological perspective or imagination is the only mirror in the society of man as the most dynamic of all beings.

References

Mills, W. (1959). The Sociological Imagination. Chapter One: The Promise .Retrieved on 3rd March 2011 from:

http://legacy.lclark.edu/~goldman/socimagination.html

Keen, M. F. (1999). Stalking the sociological imagination: J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI surveillance of American sociology. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.