age and crime

Question 1

youth crime - a.cohen

Answer 1

young boys more likely to commit crime because of blocked opportunities

w/c boys experience status frustration - anger and resentment felt as aspirations are blocked as they underachieve in edu - promotes m/c values that they don’t have.

however, they share society’s mainstream goals - achieving american dream so join s/cs which provide alternative status hierarchy and give them illegitimate opportunity structure to gain in the s/c what they lack in mainstream by inverting mainstream goals.

Question 2

youth crime - social bonds

Answer 2

young people have lower social bonds so have less to lose if they commit crime - level of integration into society determines where person turns to crime. If rewards of crime = greater than social loss, they’re likely to break law.

Question 3

youth crime - socialisation

Answer 3

young w/c males - poor socialisation -

herrnstein & murray - main cause of crime is low intelligence which is biologically determined
biological predisposition to commit crime can be reduced by effective socialisation

Question 4

socialisation criticism

Answer 4

there’s no ‘criminal gene’ so individuals cant have biological predisposition to commit crime

Question 5

a.cohen criticism

Answer 5

assumes everyone shares same values so it is possible that the boys never wanted status