How do the social process theories apply to Jodi Arias and her crimes?

Social Process Theories

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Social Process Theories

According to the social process theory, the maintenance and exposure to destructive social relationships among people potentially makes them criminals. Criminality, thus, becomes a basis of people’s interconnections with social institutions, establishments, and processes that can result in social learning, labeling, or social control  (Siegel, 2016). Jodi Arias was a hardworking photographer who met a successful and handsome man, Alexander, who was her dream man, or some would call prince charming. After happy moments, the relationships turned sour and red flags realized. Friends stated that Arias was obsessed with Alexander, as when he decided to end the relationship, she could not accept it. She decided to hang on to the ‘un-existing’ relationship characterized by strange and unusual behavior, toxicity, volatility, and tension. Thereafter, Alexander was shot and stabbed at least 27 times. According to this story, social process theories apply to the development of her crimes. Primarily, Arias’ case fits patterns developed by social process theories. This is because the motivations of causing the murder were socially involved, where she felt emotionally manipulated and abused by a person she thought was her soulmate. Moreover, throughout the story, Jodi confessed that she had violent confrontations, especially when she dropped Travis’s camera (Kouri, 2013).  This shows that Jodi was exposed to a destructive relationship that she chose to maintain hence resulting in the murder.

Sociologists argue that women who mostly commit murders take place within domestic spheres whereby a possible violent argument, confrontation, and physical abuse is involved. Men, on the other hand, are likely to murder due to economic gains (Kouri, 2013). Moreover, through social learning and labeling, people exposed to destructive and harmful labels develop criminality behaviors. Based on this argument, Jodi’s case fits within the social process theories that the exposure to abuse in the domestic spheres resulted in Jodi murdering Alexander. Negative labels and destructive relationship resulted in learning criminal activities.

References

Kouri, K. (2013, June 23). Jodi Arias from a Sociological Perspective. Retrieved from Social Criminol: https://www.longdom.org/open-access/jodi-arias-from-a-sociological-perspective-2375-4435.1000e101.pdf

Siegel, L. J. (2016). Criminology: Theories, Patterns and Typologies. Lowell: Cengage Learning.