3. Explaining class differences in crime Flashcards
Outline Functionalist view on class differences in Crime
Functionalists see law as a reflection of societies shared values, and crime as the product of inadequate socialisation
- Miller argues that lower class developed independent subculture with its own distinctive norms & values that clash with those of mainstream culture, and this explains why lower class have higher crime rate.
conforming to subcultural norms such as toughness and pursuit of excitement can lead to conflict with law.
Outline strain theorists view on class differences in crime
Strain theory argues that people engage in deviant behaviours when their opportunities when their opportunities to achieve in legitimate ways are blocked. e.g. Merton argues American’s society class structure denies WC people opportunity to achieve the ‘money success’ that American culture values
As WC more likely to be denied legitimate opportunities to achieve success ( e.g. through educational achievement & good job) thus more likely to seek illegitimate means of achieving it.
Merton calls ‘innovation’ the use of new deviant means such as theft, fraud to gain wealth. mertons view this explains why WC has a higher rate of utilitarian crimes ( crimes for material gain) than MC.
Outline subcultural theorists view on class differences in crime
Subcultural theories start from Mertons idea that WC suffer from blocked opportunities to achieve success by legitimate means. E.g Cohen sees WC youths as culturally deprived -have not been socialised into mainstream , MC culture.
As a result, he claims , they lack means to achieve in education & find themselves at bottom of official status hierarchy. Their failure to achieve gives rise to status frustration
The delinquent subculture they form is solution to the problem of status fustration. By inverting mainstream values such as respect for property, WC youths can gain status from their peers e.g vandalising property.
Cohens theory thus helps to explain why WC appear more likely to commit non-utilitarian crime.
Cloward & Ohlin build on Merton & Cohen.
Cloward & Ohlin use concept of illegitimate opportunity strctures to explain why diff crimes are more prevalent within WC. They identigy a criminal subculture in stable working-class neighbourhoods that offer professional criminal career opportunitgy , a cponflict subculture of gang violence in poor areas & ‘retreatist’ drop out drug subculture made of those who fail in both legitimate & illegitimate opportunity structures.
Outline labelling theorists view on class differences in crime
Labelling theorists:
- Reject view that official statistics are useful resource in explaining which class commits most crime
- instead of seeking supposed causes of WC criminality, they focus on how & why WC people come to be labelled as criminal. They emphasise the stereotypes held by law enforcement agencies that see WC as ‘typical criminals’ & power of these agencies to successfully label powerless groups like WC
Thus labelling theorists described as ‘problem makers’.
They do not see official crime statistics as valid social facts or useful resource. Rather, crime statistics are a topic whose construction must be investigated by studying power of control agents to label WC people.
