AC 2.3 & 3.2 Sociological - Social Structure Flashcards
What are the social structure theories?
Marxism
Functionalism(Merton strain)
Durkheim
What is Marxism?
Key idea: crime is caused by social inequality in class struggle
What is capitalism?
The rich control society and create laws that favour them
What is white collar crime?
Crimes committed by the wealthy, often ignored by the justice system
Who is the theorist for Marxism?
Karl Marx
Who are the bourgeoisie?
Capitalist class – own means of production (factories)
Who are the proletariat?
Working class – the labour exploited for profit
How is capitalism and exploitation involved in Marxism?
Roll in class want to keep all the money/power.
The rich getting richer = the poor to stay poor
Everything in society is designed by the rule in class, this keeps the working class oppressed
Oppressed - to be exploited
How is false class consciousness and revolution involved in Marxism?
Subject class are too busy fighting each other to realise they are being oppressed. They spend their whole life looking for higher wages.
What are the main elements to the Marxist of view of crime?
– Capitalism causes crime
– Making an enforcing the law
– Ideological functions of crime and the law
How does capitalism cause crime?
– Exploitation drives people into poverty, meaning they turned to crime to survive
– Capitalism pushes consumers and resulting in utilitarian crimes (E.G theft to obtain goods)
– Inequality causes feelings of lienation and frustration, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes (E.G violence and vandalism)
– Capitalism causes crime among the capitalism themselves as it is a dog – eat – dog system and the profit motive promotes greed ( E.G tax evasion, breaking health and safety laws)
How does making an enforce in the law lead to crime?
– Marxists believe that law making an enforcement serving the interests of the capitalist society
– For example, laws against homeless squatting in empty houses but no laws against the rich owning several houses
How does the ideological functions of crime and the law lead to crime?
– The law is enforced selectively
– White collar/corporate crimes are less likely to be prosecuted than white collar Street crime
– Corporate crime is punished last severely, often with fines rather than jail
– Companies rarely prosecuted for breaching health and safety laws, even if deaths of employees are involved – Carson found out of 200 companies only three were prosecuted each of safety laws
Marxism - EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
– poverty and inequality can cause working class crime
– Capitalism promotes greed and upper-class crime
– Shows how low making an enforcement are biased against the working class
WEAKNESSES
– Focuses on class and largely ignores relationship between crime and other inequalities E.G gender and race
– Over-predicts working class crime stats
– Ignores low crime rate in some capitalist countries E.G Japan v USA (low welfare state = five times higher murder rate)
What is the Merton strain theory?
Key idea – people turn to crime when they can’t achieve societal goals legally
What is conformity?
Following societies rules
What is innovation?
Using crime to achieve success E.G drug dealing
Innovators except the goals, but find the legal means of achieving them (crimes that bring financial success). Usually from lower social classes.
What is a ritualism?
Ritualists give up striving for successful. They ploughed along in a dead end job, but obey the rules/laws
What is a retreatist?
Retreatists are dropouts who reject both goals and means of achieving them. This would include vagrant, drunkards and drug addicts.
What are rebels?
Rebels reject the existing goals and means in society, replacing them with new ones with the aim of changing society. Includes racial’s, terrorists and alternative cultures such as hippies.
Merton strains theory - EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
- Shows both normal and deviant behaviour comes from the same goal, money and wealth
– Conformists and innovators both pursue money success but by different means
– Confirmed statistics – property crime rate the highest and linked to wealth and desire of money
WEAKNESSES
– ignored the crimes by the wealthy, they have easier access to the goal
– Over predicted the amount of working class crime
– Sees deviance as a solely individual response ignoring group deviance
– Focused on utilitarian crime (property crime) and not crime with no economic gain (vandalism)
What is Durkheim’s functionalism theory?
That crime is inevitable and there is no society whether there is no crime
The crime source society is a stable structure based on shared norms, values and beliefs of right and wrong
Society influences a sense of solidarity and integration – people feel they belong
People then conform to societies norms and do not deviate
What is social cohesion?
Crime brings people together against wrongdoers
What is anomie?
A breakdown of social norms leading to crime
According to Durkheim crime performs important functions, what are they?
Boundary maintenance
Social change
Safety valve
Warning light
What is boundary maintenance?
Crime produces a reaction that unite society’s members against the wrong doers, reminding them of the boundary between right and wrong, and reaffirming their shared rules
What is social change?
Force society to progress, individuals with new ideas must challenge existing norms and values, and at first this will be seen as deviance. For example, Nelson Mandela was jailed in South Africa for opposing a apartheid
What is a safety valve?
Releases pressure within society
What is a warning light?
Deviance indicators that an institution functioning properly
Durkheim - EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
– Ducom was the 1st to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society
WEAKNESSES
– However, one weakness of functionalist theories of criminal behaviour is that decline claims that society needs a certain amount of deviance to function but offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount
– It is not functional for the victims
– Crime doesn’t promote solidarity for all, some victims become anxious and made isolating in
fear
– Does not explain why people commit crimes an individual
