Regarding the first part of the topic question “am I a criminal?” depends on the definition of a criminal. The legal definition is “someone who has been convicted by a court of law.” The drawback to this definition is that there are those individuals who are undetected, unreported, not arrested, not prosecuted, or found not guilty. I am one of those individuals who were never detected by law enforcements; I was never arrested nor was I ever prosecuted. Therefore, according to the legal definition, I am not a criminal.

The second type of definition of a criminal is the offender definition. The offender definition states that a criminal is anyone who violates the law. According to the offender definition, I am a criminal because I have broken numerous laws including

In regards to my stealing, once again, none of the traditional stereotypes of a thief held true. While I have the tacit knowledge to steal from a restaurant, there is only one restaurant that I take from. Stealing is not my whole career, I am not someone who is supporting a drug addiction, and I am not male. Overcoming these negative stereotypes for both marijuana usage and theft requires the usage of neutralizations.

Another example of negative stereotypes is that of the thief. Some traits that conventional society labels a traditional thief is that he is a deceitful male who is stealing for his own personal gain, or because he is trying to support his drug addiction, so he steals to sell for quick money. This person would steal from anyone (family and friends), and his career is based on stealing for his own personal usage.

While knowing your rights and how to work around the law, drink a few beers without throwing up, or steal from a restaurant are prerequisites to committing a crime, the internal beliefs must be present that allow an individual to engage in these acts. That is, the conscious of an individual must be eliminated, neutralized, or justified before a crime can occur. This is known as the subjective availability, the second part of opportunity theory.

The performance structure is the opportunity to perform the learned roles once a skill has been acquired. For example, the classroom is one of my legitimate learning structures. In one of my Administration of Justice classes, I learned my rights as an American citizen, and I learned the basics of the law and what I can do/cannot do. The performance structure would thus be everyday life how to act legitimately in society. An example of how objective availability is related to an illegitimate field was at a party where a lot of underage drinking was occurring. I knew from taking the class that a police officer is not allowed to enter a residence without a search warrant. Therefore, I did not have to let him in the house, and since he did not physically see anyone drinking, I spared everyone at the party a charge of underage drinking.

In addition to the above examples, there are several other instances of how objective availability has determined whether I have successfully engaged in a crime in the past, or whether I will engage in a crime in the future. For these, both learning and performing structures are located in the illegitimate field. Since I am not twenty-one, my performance structure for drinking consists of knowing individuals who are twenty-one (or older) and are willing to buy me alcohol. The learning structure for drinking alcohol occurred in my sophomore year in high school when I first started drinking with my friends in their basement. I learned many things that year such as if you drink fast and repeatedly, you will get sick, or if you consume milk after drinking liquor, you once again will get sick. Thus, these instances (where I learned from trial and error) helped me become a good enough drinker so that I no longer get sick or have hangovers from alcohol.

Some topics in this essay:
Honor Society, Administration Justice, Lake Ontario, , Garden Outback, Merton Sutherland, Meanwhile Sutherland’s, Differential Association, Army ROTC, Sam Goodman, negative stereotypes, subjectively acceptable, conventional society, learning structures, objective availability, subjective availability, underage drinking, definition criminal, success goals, performance structure, crime subjectively acceptable, emphasized success goals, subjectively acceptable objective, legitimate illegitimate fields, stealing own personal,