CLASS AND CRIME

Question 1

What is the functionalist perspective of the relationship between class and crime

Answer 1

They see the law today as a reflection of shared values and crime is a product of poor socialisation into these shared values. According to miller, the poor have created their own class with their own values which clashes with those of mainstream values, and society characterises these values as criminal.

Question 2

Outline the strain theory and Cohen’s concept of status frustration

Answer 2

Morton’s strain theory implies that working class people are denied legitamate opportunity’s to achieve success. Therefore they experience a strain whereby they engage in illegitimate behaviour in order to achieve this success. This relates to Cohen’s concept of status frustration which claims the working class experience status frustration so they join criminal subcultures in order to gain a different type of status.

Question 3

What are the right and left realists views on crime and class

Answer 3

Right realists see the cause of crime as calculated on the concept of risks and rewards. If the reward of crime is greater than the risk then the likelyhood of it being committed is very much increased 
Left realists such as Lea and young believe the problem of crime lies in the relative deprivation that the working class experience. As relative deprivation leads to social exclusion which leads to the formation of criminal subcultures and status frustration

Question 4

Outline the Marxist perspective on class and crime.

Answer 4

They claim that the problem of crime lies in the capitalist idealology as laws are made for the ruling class and concepts such as selective law enforcement explain the class differences in crime. Crime occurs in all social classes but white collar crime is largely ignored which explains the differences in statistics etc. Middle class people can often buy their way out of trouble l