Crime

Question 1

Durkheim view of crime

Answer 1

Some crime is both inevitable and beneficial to a society - too much will cause anomie

Crime occurs due to some people not being effectively socialised, or different groups their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values.

Question 2

Boundary maintenance

Answer 2

Durkheim

Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its meme era in condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values

Question 3

Functionalism - adaptation and change

Answer 3

All change starts with an act of deviance

Individuals with new ideas, values and ways of living must not completely be stifled by the weight of social control

If these new ideas are suppressed society will stagnate and be unable to make necessary adaptive changes

Question 4

Safety valve

Answer 4

Davis

Prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family

Question 5

Polsky

Answer 5

Pornographer safely channels a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery which would pose a much greater threat to the family.

Question 6

Albert Cohen function of deviance

Answer 6

A warning that an institution is not functioning properly

Eg high rates of truancy may tell us that there are problems with the education system and that policy makers make appropriate changes

Question 7

Evaluation of functionalism

Answer 7

Society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully but Durkheim offers no way of knowing the right amount

Crime isn’t there initially to help society function in contrary to functionalist belief

Ignores how it might affect groups or individuals within society

Doesn’t always promote solidarity, may cause more isolation eg staying inside due to fear of attack

Marxist- can’t explain class differences

Labelling - questions who created laws - law is a social construction

Question 8

Strain theory

Answer 8

Robert Merton

Ina competitive capitalist society it is the pressure of try’s no to be successful that creates deviance

For a society to function there must be societal goals eg the American dream

Too much emphasis on the goals and not enough on the institutionalised means therefore many are not getting intrinsic satisfaction

The greater the pressure to succeed the more likely to more to crime

Question 9

Conformist adaptation to strain

Answer 9

Accept goals and strive to achieve them through legitimate means

Question 10

Innovator adaptation to strain

Answer 10

Accept goals but do not follow means

Question 11

Ritualist adaptation to strain

Answer 11

Follow the means but lack ambition to reach goals

Question 12

Retreatist adaptation to strain

Answer 12

Reject goals and the means

Question 13

Rebel adaptation to strain

Answer 13

Reject goals and means but turn against society eg revolutionary and fundamentalist groups

Question 14

Evaluation of strain theory

Answer 14

Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling class to move and enforce the laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich

Postmodernist- Assumes there is a value consensus - everyone strives for money

Can only explain utilitarian crime

Ignores group deviance

Question 15

How do subcultures create crime

Answer 15

Create alternative norms and values and customs to mainstream society - do not have to be criminal but are often deviant

Eg drug dealers, prostitutes, football hooligans are criminal subcultures

Question 16

Immediate context and wider context

Answer 16

Cohen - Marxist subculture
immediate context - redevelopment, loss of jobs on docks, decline of extended families
Wider - ownership of houses and consumer goods rose while there was continuing existence of poverty and deprivation in inner cities

Youth subcultures develop to cope with the loss of community but also reflect divisions of society

Question 17

Magical resistance

Answer 17

Mike brake - Marxist subculture

Lower class youth use their clothing and slang to go against capitalism

But magical resistance means they tell themselves they are resisting capitalism but aren’t really will comply eventually

Question 18

Status frustration

Answer 18

Cohen - functionalist subculture

Deviance among wc boys - face anomie in mc dominated school system. Suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve.

Lack of ability to achieve leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy

As a result suffer from status frustration - resolve this by rejecting mainstream mc values and they turn instead to other boys in the same situation, forming a delinquent subculture

Question 19

Illegitimate opportunity structure

Answer 19

Cloward and ohlin - functionalist subculture

Structures like criminal networks, people organise crime eg drug deals, prostitution, theft etc

Question 20

Criminal, conflict and retreatist subcultures

Answer 20

Cloward and ohlin - functionalist subculture

Criminal - apprenticeship for criminals - well established criminal networks - watch adult criminals and look up

Conflict - conflicting with law and each other - street gangs - these people are trying to prove themselves so that they become part of the criminal network

Retreatist - drug users, prostitutes - economy develops as retreatist a have to commit crimes for money

Question 21

Focal concerns of the working class

Answer 21

Miller - functionalist subculture

Lower class has its own independent subculture separate from mainstream. This subculture does not value success in the first place so the members are not frustrated by failure

Agreed deviance is wide spread among the lower class but argues that this is out of the a want to achieve own goals not mainstream ones

Question 22

Evaluation of subculture theory

Answer 22

David Matza

You don’t have to go through something to be deviant it is a choice

Choose which values you follow

Most people believe mainstream values

People dip in and out of subcultures

Question 23

Chicago school of thought

Answer 23

Shaw and McKay

Inner city areas have highest crime rates - zones of transition - people move in and out often so little community cohesion and a lack of trust

Differential association - if surrounded by crime more likely to do it yourself

Cultural transmission - values transmitted through generations making it part of culture

Question 24

Master status deviant

Answer 24

Howard Becker - interactionist

Someone whose deviant label overrides everything else about their identity

Question 25

Social construction of crime

Answer 25

Interactionist

Deviant behaviour is not natural but the result of rules created by society

Question 26

Amplification spiral

Answer 26

Jock young - interactionist

The increasing of deviant behaviour as a result of over reaction by the police and authorities

Question 27

Moral panic

Answer 27

Stan Cohen - interactionist

An over reaction to the societal problem created by the mass media

Question 28

Labelling

Answer 28

Becker - interactionist

The process where by an individual or group is given a deviant or criminal name

Question 29

Primary deviance

Answer 29

Lemert - interactionist

Deviant or criminal behaviour before it has been labelled as such

Question 30

Amplification of deviance

Answer 30

Stan Cohen - interactionist

The exaggeration of criminal or deviant behaviour by the mass media

Question 31

Self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 31

The process by which an individual or group become exactly what they had been labelled

Question 32

Reintegrative shaming

Answer 32

Braithwaite - interactionist

Public policy of trying to shake only the crime and not the individual

Question 33

Moral entrepreneurs

Answer 33

Becker - interactionist

Those in society with enough status and influence to define certain actions as deviant