crime Flashcards
Durkheim (functionalist explanations)
crime as a normal part of all healthy societies- some individuals are inadequately socialised and prone to deviate. Crime fulfils two important positive functions: boundary maintenance and adaptation and change.
Merton (functionalist explanations)
an individual’s position in the social structure affects how they adapt to the strain to anomie: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism, Rebellion
Cohen (functionalist explanations)
Status frustration- lack of status in school leads them to join subcultures for alternative status
Cloward and Ohlin (functionalist explanations)
Different neighbourhoods provide opportunities to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers: Criminal, Conflict, Retreatist
Chambliss (marxist explanations)
laws to protect private property are the basis of the capitalist economy (selective law creation)
Snider (marxist explanations)
Capitalist states are reluctant to pass laws which regulate large capitalist concerns and which might threaten profitability
Gordon (marxist explanations)
Capitalist societies are ‘dog eat dog societies’ -Criminogenic capitalism.
Pearce (marxist explanations)
Health and safety laws give capitalism ‘caring’ face, they create false consciousness.
Hall et al (marxist explanations)
saw a moral panic over black ‘muggers’ that served the interests of capitalism in dealing with a crisis
Becker (interactionist explanations)
labelling theory- social groups create deviance by creating rules and applying them to particular people whom they label as outsiders
Lemert (interactionist explanations)
labelling certain people as deviant, society actually encourages them to become more so: Primary and secondary
Cicourel (interactionist explanations)
argues that police use typifications of the ‘typical delinquent’.
Cohen (interactionist explanations)
study of the mods and rockers uses the concept of deviance amplification spiral: Media exaggeration - deviance amplification spiral
Wilson (right realist explanations)
crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors- biological differences make some people predisposed to commit crime
Wilson and Kelling (right realist explanations)
argue that we must keep neighbourhoods orderly to prevent crime taking hold- ‘zero tolerance’ policing
Murray (right realist explanations)
the nuclear family is being undermined by the welfare state, creating welfare dependency and the growth of an underclass who fail to socialise their children properly
Lea and Young (left realist explanations)
identify three related causes of crime: Relative deprivation, Subculture, Marginalisation
Young (left realist explanations)
the problem of working class crime is worse, due to: Harsher welfare policies, increased unemployment, job insecurity and poverty
Merton (crime and class)
crime is higher among the wc because there are less opportunities to achieve through legitimate means
Snider (crime and class)
the cost of White Collar Crime and Corporate Crime to the economy far outweighs the cost of street crime by ‘typical’ criminals.
Lea and Young (crime and class)
argue that crime has its roots in deprivation, but deprivation itself is not directly responsible for crime
Sutherland (crime and class)
crime was not exclusively a lower-class phenomenon; happens in middle and upper classes as well