CPM

Question 1

What does it mean by ‘crime and deviance is a social construct’? - explanation & example

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is Mass Society Theory - 3 examples

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is the Hypodermic syringe model & what theory does it belong too?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is - Anomie theory

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Strain theory - explanation

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Stain Theory - Example

Answer 6

Linked to hyper dermic syringe model -> those who don’t fit the model will choose different means of achieving success (fraud, fabribrication) = Anna Delvy

Question 7

How are strain and anomie created?

Answer 7

By mass media

Question 8

Dominate Ideological Approach (DIA) - Explanation

Answer 8

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)

Question 9

Types of Dominant Ideological Approaches

Answer 9

1. Hierarchy of credibility: higher ranking social groups define ad decipher events
2. Propaganda Model:
3. Labelling theory
4. Stereotyping: bad guys in movies

Question 10

Radical Critical criminology - Explanation

Answer 10

Crime and criminals are labels attached to people or behavior’s by powerful classes - top down

Question 11

Radical Critical Criminology - Example

Answer 11

Dominant powerful classes put the label of criminal on less powerful people who don’t have a say as to shifting the status quo

Question 12

What can be used as a counter argument for Dominant Ideological approach - and explaination

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Post-modernism argument of a consequence of pluralism

Answer 13

Information and entertainment merge to attract attention -> post modernism argues the divide between the image and what is real can no longer be observed

Question 14

Labelling theory - Explanation - 3 stages of creating deviance

Answer 14

Making rules that are easy to break for particular groups of people (say refugees) - then labelling them as outsiders (deviant) when they break them.

Question 15

Shortcomings of labelling theory

Answer 15

1. Deterministic -> does everyone accept the label?
2. Not acknowledging the agency in the acts of rule breakers
3. Offenders are sometimes victims
4. Too focused on interactions - ignores structural inequalities

Question 16

Examples of Labelling Theory

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

Flaw of labelling theory

Answer 17

Puts too much focus on the part that’s not working instead of the whole

Question 18

Response to deviance - Explanation

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Example of deviants label’s consequences:

Answer 19

“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

Question 20

Example of Moral panic:

Answer 20

1. Grassroots Model
2. Interest Groups Model
3. The Elite-Engineers Model

Question 21

Explain: Grassroots models and examples

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Interest group model: explanation

Answer 22

Police, media, religious groups, educational organizations have a stake in bringing to forefront, elites dont care or dictate the panic

Question 23

The Elite-Engineers Models: explanation & example

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Moral Panics: what is it?

Answer 24

Rule creators and moral entrepreneurs launch moral crusades which sometimes turn into panics- to ascertain that certain rules take hold and are enforces

Question 25

Stages of Moral Panic

Answer 25

1. warning
2. impact
3. inventory
4. reaction
5. mass media
6. general public
7. agents of social control
8. moral entrepreneurs

Question 26

Attributional model

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Limitation to debates

Answer 27

Moral judgements: hysterical overreaction or well-grounded consideration v well grounded consideration

Good moral panics? mee too, fentanyl

Question 28

Incels - explanation

Answer 28

employing biology (unchangeable values) to justify their labels and ideology.

internalizing -> perpetuating and enhancing

labelling

finally: master status