Sociology-crime/deviance-class/power/crime

Question 1

How does functionalism explain class differences in crime?

Answer 1

Law is a reflection of societies shared values, so crime exists where people haven’t been equally socialised into the shared culture as modern societies have a complex division of labour with different classes and subcultures

Question 2

How does strain theory explain class differences in crime?

Answer 2

People engage in deviant behaviour when their opportunities to achieve in legitimate ways are blocked, which is more likely to happen to the working class

Question 3

How do subcultural theories explain class differences in crime?

Answer 3

Start from Merton’s idea-working class have less opportunities so end up in a delinquent subculture (Cohen-working class more likely to commit utilitarian crime) Cloward and Ohlin- illegitimate opportunity structures and range of crimes within the working class due to different subcultures/areas

Question 4

How does labelling theory explain the class differences in crime?

Answer 4

Don’t see crime statistics as valid and focus on why the working class become criminals (labelling)

Question 5

What crime theory do marxists agree with?

Answer 5

Labelling theory-that law is enforced disproportionately against the working class and so crime statistics cannot be taken at face value

Question 6

Why do marxists criticise labelling theory?

Answer 6

It fails to examine the wider structure of capitalism within which law making, law enforcement and offending take place

Question 7

What type of theory is marxism?

Answer 7

Structural-sees society as a structure in which the capitalist economy determines the shape of the superstructure, which is made up of all other social institutions, including the state, the law and the criminal justice system with a function to serve the bourgeoisie and maintain capitalist economy

Question 8

What are the three main elements in the marxist view of crime?

Answer 8

Criminogenic capitalism, the state and law making (and selective enforcement), and ideological functions of crime and the law

Question 9

What is criminogenic capitalism?

Answer 9

Capitalism causes crime by its nature as it’s based on exploitation of working class, damaging them and giving rise to crime. Poverty means crime is needed to survive, only way to get goods advertised is through crime, and alienation and lack of control lead to frustration/aggression and then non-utilitarian crime. Though its not just working class, as greed and self interest encourages capitalists to commit white collar/corporate crimes. Gordon-Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system, so is found in all social classes

Question 10

What is the state and law making (and selective enforcement)

Answer 10

Law making serves interest of capitalist class only. Chambliss-laws protecting private property are corner stone of capitalist economy. Introduction of English law to Britains East African colonies forced them to work, serving economic interests of capitalism. Snider-Capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws to regulate activities of businesses and threaten profitability

Question 11

What are ideological functions of crime and law?

Answer 11

Laws are occasionally passed to appear to benefit the working class eg workplace health and safety laws. Pearce-benefits ruling class as it keeps them fit for work (false class consciousness) and these laws aren’t rigorously enforced (selective enforcement causes divide in crime rates) The media then fuels this by concealing the fact that it is the nature of capitalism that causes criminals

Question 12

what are the strengths of the marxist view of crime?

Answer 12

It puts into wider structural context the insights of labelling theory and selective enforcement of the law

Question 13

What are the weaknesses of the marxist view of crime?

Answer 13

Largely ignores relationship between crime and inequalities such as ethnicity and gender that aren’t class based. It is too deterministic and over-predicts working class crime. Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates, eg homicide rates in Switzerland are 1/5 of USA, though marxists argue thats due to lack of state welfare provision. Criminal justice system does sometimes act against the interests of the ruling class eg by prosecutions for corporate crime, though this is rare (false consciousness). Left realists argue that Marxism also ignores intra-class crimes such as burglary, which causes a lot of harm to the victim

Question 14

What are neo-marxists?

Answer 14

Sociologists who have been influenced by many of the ideas put forward by marxism, but they combine these with ideas from other approaches such as labelling theory

Question 15

What has been the most important neo-marxist contribution to our understanding of crime and deviance?

Answer 15

The New Criminology by Taylor, Walton and Young

Question 16

How do Taylor et al agree with marxists?

Answer 16

Agree that capitalist society is based on exploitation and class conflict/characterised by extreme inequalities of wealth and power. That the state makes and enforces laws in the interests of the capitalist class and criminalises members of the working class. Also that capitalism should be replaced by a classless society

Question 17

How do Taylor et al’s views also differ from Marxists?

Answer 17

Much of their book is a critique of existing theories of crime and deviance, including marxist and non marxist approaches. They call it critical criminology. They believe marxism is too deterministic

Question 18

Instead of a deterministic view, what type of view do Taylor et al take?

Answer 18

A voluntaristic view (free will). They see crime as a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor. I particular stating crime often has a political motive eg to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. Criminals aren’t passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism, they are striving to deliberately change society

Question 19

What did Taylor et al aim to create?

Answer 19

A fully social theory of deviance-a comprehensive understanding of crime and deviance that would help to change society for the better

Question 20

What are the two main sources of Taylor et al’s theory?

Answer 20

Marxist ideas about unequal distribution of wealth and who has the power to make and enforce the law, and ideas from interactionism and labelling theory about the meaning of the deviant act for the actor, societal reactions to it, and the effects of the deviant label on the individual

Question 21

In their view, a complete theory of deviance needs to unite what six aspects?

Answer 21

1) The wider origins of the deviant act in the unequal distribution of wealth and power in capitalist society. 2) The immediate origins of the deviant act-the context in which the individual decides to commit the act. 3) The act itself and its meaning for the actor eg rebellion against capitalism. 4) The immediate origins of social reaction-reactions of those around the deviant eg police, family and community. 5) The wider origins of social reaction in the structure of capitalist society, especially the issue of who has power to define and label others. 6) The effects of labelling on the deviant’s future actions

Question 22

How do feminists criticise critical criminology?

Answer 22

It is gender blind, focusing excessively on male criminality and at the expense of female criminality

Question 23

How do left realists criticise critical criminology?

Answer 23

It romanticises working class criminals as ‘robin hoods’ who fight capitalism by redistributing wealth, however in reality these criminals mostly prey on the poor. Also Taylor et al don’t take such crime seriously and they ignore the effects on working class victims

Question 24

How does Roger Hopkins Burke criticise critical criminology?

Answer 24

It is too general to explain crime and too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime. However Hall et al have applied Taylor et al’s approach to explain the moral panic over mugging in the 1970s

Question 25

What are Taylor et al’s thoughts on critical criminology since creating the theory?

Answer 25

All three have changed their views since publishing their book. However Walton and Young defend some aspects of the book’s approach, arguing that it laid some of the foundations for later radical approaches that seek to establish a more just society, such as left realist and feminist theories

Question 26

Who created the term ‘white collar crime’

Answer 26

Sutherland

Question 27

How did Sutherland define white collar crime?

Answer 27

A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation

Question 28

What was Sutherlands aim?

Answer 28

To challenge the stereotype that crime is purely a lower class phenomenon, however his definition failed to distinguish between two types of crime (Occupational and corporate)

Question 29

What is the definition of occupational crime?

Answer 29

Crime committed by employees simply for their own personal gain, often against the organisation for which they work eg stealing from the company or its customers

Question 30

What is the definition of corporate crime?

Answer 30

Crime committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goals, eg deliberately mis-selling products to increase company profits

Question 31

What is a problem of white collar crime?

Answer 31

Many of the harms caused by the powerful do not break criminal laws. Eg some may be administrative offences such as a company failing to comply with codes of practice laid down by government regulators

Question 32

How do Pearce and Tombs overcome this problem?

Answer 32

They widen the definition of corporate crime to “any illegal act or omission that is the result of deliberate decisions or culpable negligence by a legitimate business organisation and that is intended to benefit the business” this includes civil laws

Question 33

What does Tombs argue about the differences between the two offences?

Answer 33

It is more about who has he power to define an act as a crime than about how harmful the act is, eg powerful corporations can influence the law so that their actions are not criminalised

Question 34

What does Tombs argue about the harm caused by corporate crime?

Answer 34

It has enormous costs: physical (deaths/injuries/illness), environmental (pollution), and economic (to consumers, workers, taxpayers and governments)-it is widespread, routine and pervasive

Question 35

What are examples of the wide range of acts and commissions, covered by corporate crime?

Answer 35

Financial crimes (eg tax evasion), crimes against consumers (eg false labelling and selling unfit goods), crimes against employees (eg sexual and racial discrimination), crimes against the environment (eg illegal pollution), and state-corporate crime (harm committed when government institutions and businesses cooperate to pursue their goals)

Question 36

Why is state-corporate crime becoming increasingly important?

Answer 36

Private companies now work alongside government in many areas eg in marketised or privatised public services such as education, winning armaments contracts with foreign governments, and the ‘war on terror’

Question 37

What is an example of state-corporate crime?

Answer 37

Private companies contracted to the US military have been accused of involvement in the torture of detainees during the American occupation of Iraq

Question 38

What does Carrabine et al note?

Answer 38

We entrust high status professionals with our finances, our health, our security, and our personal information. However, their position and status give them the opportunity to abuse this test

Question 39

What is an example of abuse of trust?

Answer 39

Accountancy firm KPMG admitted in the USA to criminal wrongdoing and paid a $456m fine for its role in a tax fraud, while a UK tribunal found a tax avoidance scheme devised by accountants Ernst and Young for wealthy clients unacceptable. Described by a Treasury Spokesperson as ‘one of the most blatantly abusive scams of recent years’, the scheme could have cost the taxpayer over £300m per year

Question 40

How can accountants and lawyers abuse trust?

Answer 40

They can be employed by criminal organisations eg to launder criminal funds into legitimate businesses. They can also act corruptly by inflating fees, committing forgery, illegally diverting clients’ money etc

Question 41

How does the respected status, expertise and autonomy of health professional provide scope for criminal activity?

Answer 41

The USA has seen large number of fraudulent claims to insurance companies for treatments that have not actually been performed. While in the UK dentists have claimed payments from the NHS for treatments they have not carried out

Question 42

What the most notorious case of abuse of trust?

Answer 42

GP Harold Shipman who was convicted in 2000 of murder of 15 of his patients, but is now believed to have murdered at least another 200. In 1976 he had been convicted of obtaining the powerful opiate pethidine by forgery and deception, and in the same year obtained enough morphine to kill 360 (in the name of a dying patient). But he only received warning

Question 43

What does Sutherland say about abuse of trust?

Answer 43

He says that this is a reason why white collar crime a greater threat to society than working class street crime because it promotes cynicism and distrust of basic social institutions and undermines the fabric society

Question 44

What factors lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 44

The media, lack of political will to tackle corporate crime, the crimes are often complex, de-labelling, and under-reporting

Question 45

How does the media lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 45

The media gives very limited coverage to corporate crime, thus reinforcing the stereotype that crime is a working class phenomenon. They describe corporate crime in sanitised language, technical infringements rather than as real crime. Eg embezzlement becomes ‘accounting irregularities’, defrauding customers is ‘mis-selling’, deaths at work are ‘accidents’ rather than employers; negligence or cost-cutting

Question 46

How can lack of political will to tackle corporate crime lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 46

Politicians’ rhetoric of being ‘tough on crime’ is focused instead on street crime. EG while the Home Office uses crime surveys to discover the true extent of ‘ordinary’ crime, it does not do so for corporate crime

Question 47

How does the fact that crimes are often complex, lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 47

Law enforcers are often understaffed, under resourced and lacking technical expertise to investigate effectively

Question 48

How does de-labelling lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 48

At the level of laws and legal regulation, corporate crime is consistently filtered out from the process of criminalisation. Eg offences are often defined as civil not criminal , and even in criminal cases, penalties are often fines rather than jail. Investigation and prosecution are also limited

Question 49

How does under-reporting lead to the invisibility of corporate crime?

Answer 49

Often the victim is society at large, or the environment, rather than an identifiable individual. Individuals may be unaware that they have been victimised. Even when victims are aware, they may not regard it as ‘real crime’. Equally, they may feel powerless against a big organisation and so may never report the offence to the authorities

Question 50

What has recently made corporate crime more visible?

Answer 50

Campaigns against corporate tax avoidance, investigative journalists, whistle blowers inside companies and the media, since the financial crisis of 2008

Question 51

What are the explanations of corporate crime?

Answer 51

Strain theory, differential association, labelling theory and marxism

Question 52

How does strain theory explanation of corporate crime?

Answer 52

If a company can’t achieve it’s goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may resort to illegal means. When business conditions are difficult, companies may be tempted to break the law

Question 53

What did Clinard and Yeager find?

Answer 53

They did a documentary study of corporate crimes and found law violations by large companies increased as their financial performance deteriorated, suggesting willingness to ‘innovate’ to achieve profit goals

Question 54

What is differential association?

Answer 54

Sutherland says crime is a behaviour learned from others in a social context so less association with normal attitudes to law means more association with criminal attitudes and more likely to become deviant. Meaning if companies culture justifies crime to meet goals, employees are socialised into criminality

Question 55

What is an example of differential association?

Answer 55

Geis-found that individuals joining companies where illegal price-fixing was practiced became involved in it as part of their socialisation

Question 56

What two other concepts can link to differential association?

Answer 56

Deviant subcultures and techniques of neutralisation

Question 57

What are techniques of neutralisation?

Answer 57

Sykes and Matza-individuals can deviate more easily if they can produce justifications to neutralise moral objections to their misbehaviour eg carrying out orders from above, blaming victims, normalising behaviour by saying everyone else does it

Question 58

How does labelling theory explain corporate crime?

Answer 58

Unlike labelling theory explaining working class, Nelken explains ‘de-labelling’ where businesses/professionals can often avoid labelling eg can afford experts/lawyers/accountants to avoid criminal label or to reduce charges. Also reluctance/inability of law enforcement to investigate/prosecute reduce amount of offences officially record

Question 59

How does marxism explain corporate crime?

Answer 59

Crime is inevitable due to capitalism’s goal of maximising profits. Box-mystification (capitalism has spread the ideology that corporate crime is less widespread or harmful than working class crime. Capitalisms control of state means its possible to avoid making/enforcing laws conflicting with it. Pearce-occasional prosecution of corporate crime sustains the illusion that its an exception rather than a norm. Companies only comply with law if they see that it is imposed strictly

Question 60

What is the evaluation for crimes of the powerful?

Answer 60

Strain theory and marxism over-predict amount of business crime (Nelken-unrealistic to assume ass businesses would commit crime if they didn’t fear punishment), Even if capitalist pursuit of profit is a cause of corporate crime it doesn’t explain crime in non-profit making state agencies such as the police, Law abiding may be more profitable than law breaking (Braithwaite-US pharmaceutical companies that complied with FDA regulations were more profitable)