Crime Flashcards
Crime and deviance is a social construct - meaning
These acts are not fixed, universal or permanent
Official statistics
Record of all police recorded crime
- indication of most reported crime
British crime survey
Random samples what crimes they have committed
- usually petty crime
- can compare data
- crimes aren’t caught
Self report survey
Random sample what crimes have been a victim of
- what crimes are under reported
Who said crime is a integral part of society
Durkheim
Boundary maintenance
Join together / reaffirms moral boundaries - funct
Safety valve
Crime safe outlet for violence - funct
Warning device
Alerts society of a problem - funct
Strain theory
Goals don’t match means of achieving so commit crime - funct
State the five ways of dealing with strain in society
Conformity Innovation Ritualism Retreatism Rebellion
Conformity
Accepting place. Most people continue to accept culture + norms even if unsuccessful
Innovation
Accepts goals of success but lack ability to achieve them
Ritualism
Reject culture of success but abide by rules
Retreatism
Reject goals & rules - ‘drop out’ of society
Rebellion
Rejecting all dominant ideology + creating counter hegemony
Cohen subcultures
Due to status frustration
- can’t achieve so create new deviant values
Cohens two criticisms of mertons strain theory
- Delinquency is collective not individual
2. Fails to account for non-utilitarian crime
Two criticisms of strain theory
- Unlikely someone considers mainstream societies opinion on a act before committing it
- Too focused on working class delinquency
Who says “crime is a rational response to the capitalist system”
Gordon
Criminogenic capitalism
Encourages criminal behaviour due unequal class divide
The state and law making
Law making by capitalist elite, works in their best interests
Ideological functions of crime and law
Focuses on marginalisation which preforms ideological functions for the elite classes
Difference between Marxist and neo-Marxist approach to crime
Agree in relation to societies structure = crime and agree in relation to class conflict and exploitation Suggests w/c aware exploitation so consciously commit in hope change
Selective enforcement
Bourgeoisie shape laws, applies more to w/c
Symbolic Interactionism
Not concerned with why people offend just who’s labelled and who has power to label
Who argues ‘it’s not the nature of the act that makes it deviant, but the nature of societies reaction to the act’
Becker
Moral entrepreneur
Popularise stereotyped label, feel beneficial for society want to enforce change
What do Marxists say moral entrepreneurs cause
Cohen - moral panics / ‘folk devil’
Cicourel
Negotiation of justice - because crime social construction, seen worse as based on individual/ situation
e.g. low prison time for rape for Harvard students
Typifications
Officer stereotypes of what delinquency looks like, so concentrate on certain groups resulting in class bias / leads to w/c areas patrolled more = more arrests
Cohens deviancy amplification spiral
Public definition of crime > operation selective news values > crime as news > perceived + real crime increased (deviancy amplification) > moral panic
Secondary deviance
Discrimination for deviant act leads self-fulfilling prophecy + creates secondary deviance
Master status
Criminal label becomes controlling identity / cannot be seen without label
e.g. pedophile
Disintegrative shaming
Individual and crime labelled / ostresized from society
Reintegrative shaming
Act labelled as wrong but not individual
Right realism (key points)
Biological
Rational choice
socialisation
Left realism (key points)
Marginalisation
Relative deprivation
Subcultures
Who talks about biological differences and what do they say? (RR)
Herrnstien and Murray - main cause crime low intelligence (biologically determined)
Socialisation (RR)
Faulty socialisation means kids do not learn self-control or internalise moral values leading to reckless behaviour
What (RR) theorist discusses welfare dependency and what do they say?
Murray - generous welfare creates underclass single parent spawn delinquents - live in a different world from respectable people
Bio-social approach (RR) name theorists and explain
Wilson and Herrnstein - combination of biological and social factors / some more strongly pre-disposed
From traits e.g. aggression / more risk
Rational choice (RR)
Criminals calculate risk of getting caught & severity of punishment - wishing up costs and benefits
Zero tolerance policing
Not letting anything slide regardless crime or individual - tough sentences
Marginalisation (LR)
Economic, social or political
- lack resources to participate in society feeling frustrated / resentment
Relative deprivation (LR)
Feel deprived in relation to others
Wealth and success presented as normal
Subcultures (LR)
Recognise deviance as collective response to deprivation + marginalisation (draws largely on subcultural theory)
Difference between left realism and Marxism
See crime as result inequalities in structure BUT look at realist ways to tackle (not revolution)
Perry pre-school
Black w/c children pre-school, longitudinal study, less likely arrested, did better in school, higher paid jobs
LR quest
Situational crime prevention
Focuses on point victim + criminals come contact, make harder commit crime, includes target hardening
List 4 target hardening measures
Window locks
Anti climb paint
Security
‘Designing out’
Environmental crime prevention strategies
Attempt to clamp down on anti-social behaviour
List 4 Environmental crime prevention strategies
ABSOs, curfews, street drinking bans etc
Rational choice theory & what does it link to
Utilitarian belief that man weights means, costs, benefits & makes rational choice
LINK situational and target hardening
Displacement
Tackling crime in one area which just moves it elsewhere doesn’t reduce it
Spatial (displacement)
Moving elsewhere
Temporal (displacement)
Different time
Target (displacement)
Different victim
