Ethnicity and Crime: Criminal Behavior Redefined

Abstract

Studies dealing with the definition of crime have primarily been concerned with developing hypotheses and theories of universal crime commission and definition. These theories of human behavior may appear plausible on paper but do not work well with people. All the theories of human behavior contain some truth. However, variables do not function one at a time nor can one theory explain all human behavior. These reasons justify studying human behavior from a social context perspective. This paper examines why one ethnic group can be heard praising a behavior while another ethnic group is doing the opposite. Factually, ethnic definition of behavior is the consequence of Ethnic Differential Opportunity Definition (EDOD) which states that (behavior) crime is what your ethnic group says it is. The U.S. Supreme Court is slowly accepting the EDOD. In Small v. United States (2005) the highest court narrowed a federal law that prohibits anyone convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year from possessing firearms, 18.U.S.C.$922(g)(1). The court ruled that the law does not apply to those who were convicted in (outside their ethnic group) foreign countries. Frankly speaking, it means that felony conviction (crime) does not count and could not be used as the basis for anything if it occurs outside your ethnic group (country).