Crime Flashcards
Durkheim view of crime
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.
Boundary maintenance
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
Functionalism - adaptation and change
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
Safety valve
Davis
Prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family
Polsky
Pornographer safely channels a variety of sexual desires away from alternatives such as adultery which would pose a much greater threat to the family.
Albert Cohen function of deviance
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
Evaluation of functionalism
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
Strain theory
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
Conformist adaptation to strain
Accept goals and strive to achieve them through legitimate means
Innovator adaptation to strain
Accept goals but do not follow means
Ritualist adaptation to strain
Follow the means but lack ambition to reach goals
Retreatist adaptation to strain
Reject goals and the means
Rebel adaptation to strain
Reject goals and means but turn against society eg revolutionary and fundamentalist groups
Evaluation of strain theory
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
How do subcultures create crime
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
Immediate context and wider context
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
Magical resistance
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
Status frustration
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
Illegitimate opportunity structure
Cloward and ohlin - functionalist subculture
Structures like criminal networks, people organise crime eg drug deals, prostitution, theft etc
Criminal, conflict and retreatist subcultures
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
Focal concerns of the working class
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
Evaluation of subculture theory
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
Chicago school of thought
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
Master status deviant
Howard Becker - interactionist
Someone whose deviant label overrides everything else about their identity
Social construction of crime
Interactionist
Deviant behaviour is not natural but the result of rules created by society
Amplification spiral
Jock young - interactionist
The increasing of deviant behaviour as a result of over reaction by the police and authorities
Moral panic
Stan Cohen - interactionist
An over reaction to the societal problem created by the mass media
Labelling
Becker - interactionist
The process where by an individual or group is given a deviant or criminal name
Primary deviance
Lemert - interactionist
Deviant or criminal behaviour before it has been labelled as such
Amplification of deviance
Stan Cohen - interactionist
The exaggeration of criminal or deviant behaviour by the mass media
Self fulfilling prophecy
The process by which an individual or group become exactly what they had been labelled
Reintegrative shaming
Braithwaite - interactionist
Public policy of trying to shake only the crime and not the individual
Moral entrepreneurs
Becker - interactionist
Those in society with enough status and influence to define certain actions as deviant
