What are the three major criminological perspectives?

How can I apply the three major perspectives of sociology when talking about child abuse?

• Could you please explain to me how can I apply the three major perspectives of sociology when talking about child abuse?

• Answer:

  you do it by looking at the different -concepts -focuses within the issue -research questions each perspective provides Concepts: conflict: power/inequality/alienation/ideology/e… labour of housework functionalism: dysfunctional families/functions of deviance/ interractionism: social construction of 'the self'/labelling theory/primary andsecondary deviance/social construction of deviance/moral panics Focus: conflict: connecting personal problems with wider structures and ideological values and their historical development including current changes functionalism: how definitions of crimes enable people in society to develop certainty about who they are and what their social values are/whether some families are more dysfunctional than others interractionism: interractionsim: how some people are more at risk of being labelled as deviant/the effects of labelling on the risks of commiting further (secondary) crimes/how some behaviours are labelled as deviant/how some forms of deviance become 'moral panics' From these two sets of differences you can devise the kinds of research questions that sociologists would use any one of these perspectives todevelop research questions. For example: "who has the power to define certain behaviours as 'child abuse?'