CPM Flashcards
What does it mean by ‘crime and deviance is a social construct’? - explanation & example
We perceive behavior’s to change from acceptable to inacceptable - e.g Rape within marriage once was accepted, but inacceptable now to reflect society’s developed beliefs
What is Mass Society Theory - 3 examples
Behavior is learnt - it is a response to external stimuli which can be predicted (psychological level) or conditioned (learned) - hypodermic syringe model, moral panics & folk devil - e.g satanic panic
What is the Hypodermic syringe model & what theory does it belong too?
Mass Society Theory
- media injects society with values, morals and information that affects behavior’s and thought.
- portrayals of crime and violence inject fear and anxiety and motivates deviant criminal behavior’s
What is - Anomie theory
Society cannot regulate the appetites of individual consciousness leading to mass non-conformity and crime - Emile Durkeim
Anomie - we are humans led by an uncontrollable appeite, where society breaks down there’s nothing stopping us from descending into madess
Anomic state = breakdown of values = lostness = nonconformity, and criminal behaviour
Strain theory - explanation
We are not born with selfish genes but rather these are socially created.
“appetites” are created by cultural influences
Individuals are pushed to desire culturally defined goals (money power beauty) THIS CAUSES STRAIN -> LEADING TO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR
Stain Theory - Example
Linked to hyper dermic syringe model -> those who don’t fit the model will choose different means of achieving success (fraud, fabribrication) = Anna Delvy
How are strain and anomie created?
By mass media
Dominate Ideological Approach (DIA) - Explanation
Karl-Marx - society is controlled by elite, which exploit the lower class
Antonio Gramsci - Control is kept by the upper class by producing hegemonic cultures: the propagation of the values and norms that uphold the power of the elites are accepted as ‘common sense’
Media -> may challenge or support dominant definitions of a situation and can direct discourse (media is owed by big companies)
Types of Dominant Ideological Approaches
- Hierarchy of credibility: higher ranking social groups define ad decipher events
- Propaganda Model:
- Labelling theory
- Stereotyping: bad guys in movies
Radical Critical criminology - Explanation
Crime and criminals are labels attached to people or behavior’s by powerful classes - top down
Radical Critical Criminology - Example
Dominant powerful classes put the label of criminal on less powerful people who don’t have a say as to shifting the status quo
What can be used as a counter argument for Dominant Ideological approach - and explaination
Pluralism - concept that it with emergence of social media it is a free market that gives more chances for various streams of news/media to form all views.
Prosumer: we consume and produce at the same time - active participation
Syringe no longer exist - we can choose what we want to consume.
Emergence of ‘sound bite journalism’
Consequences: information overload, sensationalism, fast/dumbing down info
Post-modernism argument of a consequence of pluralism
Information and entertainment merge to attract attention -> post modernism argues the divide between the image and what is real can no longer be observed
Labelling theory - Explanation - 3 stages of creating deviance
Making rules that are easy to break for particular groups of people (say refugees) - then labelling them as outsiders (deviant) when they break them.
Shortcomings of labelling theory
- Deterministic -> does everyone accept the label?
- Not acknowledging the agency in the acts of rule breakers
- Offenders are sometimes victims
- Too focused on interactions - ignores structural inequalities
Examples of Labelling Theory
1) Statistical analogy - rule broken when what happens is far away from what usually happens
2) Structuralism/Medical analogy: everybody has a function, the theory of anomie, the sociological framework of structural functionalism -> everything needs to work, that’s how you trace a problem
3) Functional & dysfunctional - identifies functional and dysfunctional parts of society and that society discriminates against the dysfunctional
4) Relativistic (closest to Beckers own view) (depends on whether the group considers it to be bad - once the group decides the rules)
Flaw of labelling theory
Puts too much focus on the part that’s not working instead of the whole
Response to deviance - Explanation
Whose rules are we following (who created the rule)
Who are the moral entrepreneurs = rule creators v rule enforcers
Consequence: the master status - self-fulfilling prophecy - setting in motion mechanisms (stigma, exclusion) that shape the person in the image others have for them
Example of deviants label’s consequences:
“one will be identified as deviant first, before other identifications are made” - at which point did you get labelled a criminal before you committed any crime
Example of Moral panic:
- Grassroots Model
- Interest Groups Model
- The Elite-Engineers Model
Explain: Grassroots models and examples
public panic concern about widespread threats that’s genuinely felt e.g politicial elites are upper-class perverts - american elites are supplying the black community with drugs to commit genocide against them
Interest group model: explanation
Police, media, religious groups, educational organizations have a stake in bringing to forefront, elites dont care or dictate the panic
The Elite-Engineers Models: explanation & example
Powerful groups divert attention away from real problems in society whose solution would undermine the interest of elite e.g capitalism is not the problem, the problem is drug users
To divert attention away from the real problem in the society whose solution would undermine the interest of the elite - this is not a conspiracy: the elite orchestrate hegemony - by finding an enemy “suitable scapegoat” to ensure that capitalism itself is not revealed as the enemy
Mass media as a passive actor
Moral Panics: what is it?
Rule creators and moral entrepreneurs launch moral crusades which sometimes turn into panics- to ascertain that certain rules take hold and are enforces
Stages of Moral Panic
- warning
- impact
- inventory
- reaction
- mass media
- general public
- agents of social control
- moral entrepreneurs
Attributional model
Attributional Model:
- concern (some reported conduct or event sparks anxiety)
- hostility (the perpetrators are portrayed[labeled] as folk devils)
- consensus (the negative social reaction is broad and unified)
- disproportionality (the extent of the conduct, or the threat it poses, are exaggerated)
- volatility (the media’s reporting and the associated panic emerge - and also dissipates - rather suddenly)
Sustained panics
‘successful moral panics own their appeal to their ability to find points of resonance with wider anxieties’ Cohen 2004
Limitation to debates
Moral judgements: hysterical overreaction or well-grounded consideration v well grounded consideration
Good moral panics? mee too, fentanyl
Incels - explanation
employing biology (unchangeable values) to justify their labels and ideology.
internalizing -> perpetuating and enhancing
labelling
finally: master status
