crime Flashcards
crime
an act or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law
deviance
the state of diverging from usual or accept standards
durkheim - anomie
anomie is the breakdown of social bonds and a disconnection from mainstream society which causes crime
durkheim - FIN
crime is functional, inevitable and normal
crime is functional
- boundaries of acceptable of behaviour are made by deviance
- strengthens social bond when crime occurs
- public opinion causes a change in law
Megans Law (GB)
requires law enforcement authorities to make information about sex offenders available to the public
crime is inevitable
it’s not possible for everyone to be equally committed to the norms and values of society
crime is normal
- higher levels of crime occurs in times of social upheaval
- individualism is a source of crime
- people look after their own interests during social change
Baby P
- was a 17 month old boy who was killed by his mums boyfriend
- he suffered more than 50 injuries in 8 months
- he was seen 60 times by social workers, doctors and police
durkheim - Le Suicide
- studied how suicide rates differ over religions
- catholics had a lower rate than protestants
- he argued this was due to a more collectivist society - it’s not just psychological, it’s due to social factors
- the more socially integrated someone is, the less likely they are to commit suicide
durkheim - 4 types of suicide
- anomic
- altruistic - huge pressure and regulation from social forces to benefit society
- egoistic - loss of social bonds
- fatalistic - death instead of suffering
Merton Strain theory
- people turn to crime to cope with the strain between their dreams and their reality
- linked this to the American Dream of achieving happiness through wealth and status
- the Internet is extremely powerful and fuels this by easily seeing other peoples lives
how do people adapt to the strain?
- conformity - making the most of what they’ve got
- innovation - reject normal means to reach goals
- ritualism - lose sight of materialism and wealth
- retreatism - drop out of society
- rebellion - seek radical alternatives like violence
Hirschi’s control theory
4 bonds to society:
- attachment - the people in our life and their approval
- commitment - being invested in your path of life
- involvement - being engaged in activities that fulfil your time
- belief - our values go against crime
Marxists causes on crime
- capitalism is criminogenic
- the law and the state
- selective enforcement
- media representation
capitalism is criminogenic: because of poverty
- poverty is caused from low wages so stealing may be the only option
- commodity fetishism encourages
- they feel angry because of being exploited so will turn to crime
Bonger (1916)
activities like robbery and property theft are an inevitable response to the extremes of wealth and poverty
capitalism is criminogenic: it alienates the wc
- theres a huge divide in society
- the wc have a lack of control over their lives as they’re stuck in poorly-paid jobs
- this frustration and aggression leads to crimes like vandalism (non-utilitarian crimes)
capitalism is criminogenic: it encourages the rich to get richer
- it encourages them to commit white collar and corporate crimes
- they are most likely to get away with it as they have the control in society
Frank Pearce
laws are passed by the bourgeoise parliament masked in a fake democratic process
marxist solution to crime law
- overthrow the bourgeoisie
- allow the proletariat to make laws
- establish a state authority
Steven Box on law (1983)
laws are made to benefit the rich and are narrowly defined by the powerful e.g. murder is too particular and precisely defined
‘official view’ of crime
Box argued most people accept this as muggers, hooligans, terrorists etc as their acts are well publicised
mystique
- people in powerful positions are able to mystify the public
- government crimes are hidden
- the police are allowed to go beyond the limits of the law
Althusser
- the law is an ideological state apparatus that protects capitalism
- law enforcement is selective and favours the rich
Lea and Young (1984)
- other crimes not just corporate ones are an issue
- crime is rising and impacts peoples lives massively
- being a victim shapes someones life
Left Realists on policing
- the public should have a greater role in it (consensus)
- elected police authorities should be used
relative deprivation
when an individual doesn’t have the same standard of living to their similar social group, which is a cause of crime
the square of crime
- Left Realists
- state (macro)
- victim (micro and macro)
- public
- offender (micro)
Labours crime policy
“tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”
Right Realists causes of crime
- biology
- lack of socialisation
- rational choice
Wilson and Hernstein (1985)
there’s a biological predisposition to crime in individuals but socialisation can get rid of this
broken window effect
- Wilson and Kelling (1982)
- leaving a broken window sets the idea that you can get away with a crime
- damage to a neighbourhood has to be put right straight away
Wilson (1975)
argues in order to reduce crime there needs to be harsher punishments to stop the rewards outweighing the risks
Left Realist approach to stopping crime
- poor education
- poor housing
- unemployment
- law on pay
- racism
- poverty
green crime
criminal activity which affects the environment in a harmful way
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- an oil leak accident caused 11 people to die and oiled 1000 miles of coastline
- it showed BP didn’t have a functioning safety culture
- they were fined 18.7 billion dollars
green crime is radical and transgressive…
- it doesn’t focus on law breaking behaviour, it focuses on causes and consequence of harm even when it’s legal
- it’s focused on harm to plants and animals, not humans
3 main ideas in green crime
- just focus on the individual breaking laws
- focus on any act even if it’s legal
- Beck’s concept of risk society
green crime idea 1
there should be a focus on the people breaking the environmental laws already laid down by governments , however this ignores harm done by the powerful
green crime idea 2
green criminologists focus on transnational corporations which harm the environment
zemiology
the study of harms
Risk Society idea
- Ulrich Beck
- threats to the eco system are now manmade
- post WW2 technology has created new risks like nuclear waste
- the emphasis on increasing productivity has created manufactured risks
definition of risk society
the manner in which modern society organises in response to risk
Nigel South and Carrabine et al (2004)
we should distinguish between 2 types of green crime:
primary and secondary
primary green crime
acts which may be legal but involves direct harm on the environment and people
secondary green crime
actions committed as a response to the commissioning of primary crimes
4 types of primary crime
- air pollution - fossil fuels adds around 3 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere
- deforestation - main criminals are governments, logging companies and McDonalds
- animal rights - 50 species a day become extinct
- water pollution - 25 million die a year from contaminated water
2 types of secondary crime
- organised crime dealing in hazardous waste
2. state violence against oppositional groups
1st type of secondary crime
- safe and legal disposal of toxic waste is very expensive
- criminal entrepreneurs will do it cheaper (eco-mafia in Italy)
- they push the waste onto developing countries that normally have no safety standards
Scarpitti
argues hazardous waste industry is controlled by organised criminals
glocal
global actions with local harm
e.g dumping waste onto developing countries like Somalia and Nigeria
2nd type of secondary crime
- state condemn terrorism by doing it themselves
- 1985 French Secret Service sank the Green peace ship which was trying to prevent the testing of nuclear weapons
Potter (2010)
- uses the example of food riots whereby agriculture practices have been taken over to produce bio-fuels
- nearly always the poor who suffer from environmental harms
- rich corporations usually avoid any kind of repercussions
global organised crime
- the scale of it is hard to estimate as lots goes undetected
- it crosses international boundaries so border issues and lack of common definitions make enforcement difficult
Green and Ward (2004)
developing nations in extreme debt that it allows trans-national corporations that offer prospects of capital growth to break environmental regulation
non-governmental organisations
- combat torture, imprisonment without trial and other human rights abuses
- for example, Amnesty International and Green Peace
world government
it’s a controversial solution to green crime and involves a political body more powerful than nation states that can tackle major problems
postmodernism definiton
crime is a social construction based on a narrow legal definition and should be redefined as people using power to cause harm
Carole Smart (1995)
she attacks traditional approaches as she believes it’s possible to develop a meta narrative (master theory) to explain crime
culture of resentment
- consumer culture encourages individualistic values
- resentment is caused from the big gap between expectations and achievements
Katz and Lyng (1980’s)
- crime isn’t always rational and is done for emotional reasons
- it’s about edge work and flirting with the boundaries of the acceptable
- it’s seductive as it’s thrilling and risky
Simon Winlow
- researched young working class men
- they had low status jobs that offered no sense of identity
- binge drinking was a way to escape the boredom
- fighting meant they gained status and it was exciting
postmodernist causes of crime
- there isn’t one single cause, it’s all due to the individuals choice
- individualistic values influenced by consumer culture
- a culture of resentment due to lack of achievement
- the thrill of cried
Foucalt (1991)
- surveillance culture monitors all of our private lives, not just criminals
- gated communities are an example of this
- people regulate their behaviour out of fear as they know they are being watched
postmodernists on crime prevention
society has fragmented and so has crime prevention, as there’s a rise of private prevention instead of reliance on the police
postmodernists on policing
they have become more localised and community based and now reflect the individuals
e.g. Sharia courts are used in British Muslim communities to settle family and marital issues
Foucalt on punishment
it used to be violent and carried out in public, now it’s psychological and is based on expecting people to change their behaviour, done behind closed doors of prisons
sovereign power
- controlling people through the threat of force
- people were severely punished
- this made people obey out of fear
disciplinary power
- controlling people through surveillance
- they change their behaviour as they know they’re being watched
deviance is relative
- interactionalists believes theres no fixed agreements on how to define crime and normality
- right and wrong depend on social context
e. g. killing is wrong, but in war it’s expected
Becker (1963) - Outsiders
people ask the wrong questions about deviance and assumptions are made that there is something distinct about acts that break social rules and the people who do it
Becker - definitions of deviance
- anything that differs from what is most common
- pathological behaviour that suggest a person is failing to function well
- failure to obey society’s formal or informal rules
Becker quote (1963)
“deviance is a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’”
“social groups create deviance by labelling them as outsiders”
Becker - stigmatised behaviour
- individuals may escape labelling if they are discreet in their activities and others turn a blind eye
- but if the deviant makes public statements about their acts, authority feel obliged to condemn them
interactionism - societal reactions
the degree which people respond to an act depends on:
- the drive against the act at the time, relating to contemporary moral panic
- how much harm is done
- who commits the act, more emphasis on low status criminals
Becker - step 1 to becoming deviant
- primary deviation - an act of impulse done by someone not committed to mainstream society
Step 2 to deviance
- being caught and publicly identified which depends on social status of the person
Step 3 to deviance
- being labelled in general and gaining a reputation
Step 4 to deviance
- learning to enjoy the deviance and finding other similar deviants, leading to a master status
Step 5 to deviance
- secondary deviance happens as they are unable to have a legitimate careeer
Step 6 to deviance
- deviant career from being an outsider and self-fulfilling prophecy of the initial labelling happens
Beckers definition of labelling
the public application of a negative description to a relatively powerless individual
moral entrepreneurs
Becker states they create laws by identifying a situation that offends their values and form pressure groups to make a change in the law
moral panics (Cohen)
- created by moral entrepreneurs constructing deviance
- fear is aroused by publicity around shocking cases
Becker - police enforcement
- they react heavily to maintain public respect by seeming controlling
- police forces have differing priorities
crime and location
the location of crime is not random
Shaw and McKay (1942) - zones
broke the city down into zones;
- central business district
- factory zone
- transition zone
- working class homes
zone of transition
- where crime occurs
- poverty and bad housing
- social disorganisation
- people are constantly moving so there’s no bonds to the area or sense of community
Graham and Clarke (2001)
- moving through these zones increased fears of inner city delinquency
- people in bad housing were being rehoused into new towns and suburban housing estates
gentrification
- attempts are made to reclaim inner city areas and make middle class people by property there
- it made inner cities feel safer
- but it made life harder for the poor people in these areas
Operation Swamp
- conducted by police in Brixton in 1981
- made to combat street crime by stop and searching of ethnic minorities increasing
- turned into riots from the black population
what caused housing estate crime?
- no social stability or cohesion
- media attention shifted from inner city crime to housing estates
- Murray blame single parent families
Shaw and McKay - social disorganisation
- crime was a function of neighbourhood dynamics
- new immigrants joined the zot leading to ethnic divisions
- social control through institutions were weak and unable to regulate youth behaviour
Skogan (1990)
- respectable people move away from these areas
- less law abiding people are around
- the reputation of the area plummets, and so does house prices
- zero tolerance policing can help areas that begin to tip
target hardening
- discourages potential offenders from impulsive crime
- however it just displaces crime to less protected areas
women in prison stats
- they make up 5% of population in the UK
- 12 women’s prison in England
- 53% report childhood abuse
women’s sentencing
women serve prison sentences for minor offences and most women entering prison have short sentences
women in prison mental health
- 5 times more likely to have a mental health concern than general public
- 46% report attempted suicide, twice the rate of men
- 21% of all self harm incidents were women
mothers in prison
- 9% of children are looked after by their father
- average distance from home is 66 miles
women after prison
- 1/3 lose their possessions and homes while in prison
- 38% didn’t have accommodation after release
- 48% are re-convicted within a year
Campell (1993)
females are seen to have deviated from socially constructed sexual norms and are trying to be men and society is reluctant to accept women commit sex crimes against children
Casburn (1985)
found courts to be harsher with female juveniles in cases of truancy, sexual promiscuity or resistance to family authority
Charlotte Day quote
“when a women commits a crime, the courts are likely to view her as having transgressed not only a legal law, but also the idea of feminine behaviour”
‘Angel of Death’ example
- in 1993, nurse Beverly Allitt was found guilty of murdering 4 children
- a UK daily newspaper wrote “women should nurture, not harm. Even today, violence is a male speciality.”
Pollak - Chivalry thesis
- men committing more crime than women is a myth
- biologically, women are more deviant e.g. lying
- judges favour females as its hard to believe they can be as bad as males
Heidensohn (1986)
women who show maternal love, remorse, crying etc are more likely to be treated leniently
reasons for lower offender rates for women
- testosterone is linked with aggression
- socialisation of boys encourages violence
Mandarak - Sheppard (1986)
found that a high proportion of women had committed property crimes because they were in extreme financial difficulties and needed to support their children
Liberation theory - Alder (1975)
- increasing gender equality has encouraged women into crime
- feminist attitudes have encouraged girls to be more assertive
Brownmiller
drew attention to pornography and the media celebration of violence against women
Home Office stats 2015 - women violence
- men are most frequent victims of stranger violence
- 73% of domestic violence was against women
- 30% of homicide victims were women
- women are more likely to be stalked than men
Lyndon (1992)
described society as obsessed with women’s rights and neglected those of mens, so female criminals are treated better
UK Men and Fathers’ Rights
if a mother kills her baby it’s called infanticide and carries a lighter sentence than the same act done by a father, which is called murder
marxist feminists
- focus on the experiences of wc women
- poverty causes crime
- sexism is a function of capitalism
liberal feminists
- focus on sex role theory, socialisation of gender is key
- women are subject to greater control
radical feminists
- men dominate and control women because of their size
- sex, not gender, is the cause of crime
Black/difference feminism
- women’s liberation movement is “hopelessly white”
- black males are perceived as sexual threats
- black on black rapes are not taken as seriously as white rapes
postmodernist feminism
- individualism of society means that the structural cause of crime is undiscoverable
- traditional criminology is written from a male stand point
functionalists on statistics
- take them at face value
- believe they are social factors
- dont question policing or crime reports
right realists on statistics
- accept them at face value
- believe law is equally applied to all groups
- focus on the underclass as statistically they commit the most crime
left realists on statistics
- can be accepted but are not perfect
- they look at other types of data as well
feminists on statistics
- women’s crimes go unreported or undetected
- lower recorded crime can be explained by greater social control
marxists on statistics
- challenge official statistics
- they are used to justify police presence and control in WC areas
Official Crime statistics
police recorded crime figures that include crime in England and Wales and are supplied by 43 police forces and British transport police every 6 months and then Home office and ONS publish the figures.
interactionists on statistics
- critical of official statistics
- focus on the power of police labelling and police discretion
advantages of official crime statistics
- cheap and readily available
- published annually so they’re up to date
- cover a large part of the population
- can analyse and draw trends and patterns
- few ethical problems
disadvantages of official crime statistics
- crimes not recognised by victims aren’t reported
- depends on individuals definition of crime
- police don’t take all crimes seriously so they can be unreported
crimes are not reported because of:
- fear
- lack of faith or access to the police
- embarrassment
- when there’s no gain
- the trivial nature of many offences
police discretion
allows them to overlook small incidents where the perpetrator is apologetic, while maintaining their authority by recording similar acts by confrontational offenders
police practices
- coughing
- cuffing
- stitching
- skewing
Simon Reed quote
“the police are misled, politicians can claim crime is falling and chief officers are rewarded with performance-related bonuses”
British Crime Survey
was first introduced in 1982 and is carried out every year, where people are interviewed with a structured questionnaire about crimes and their attitude towards them
CSEW
households are selected and each person is asked if they have been a victim of a list of selected crimes
advantages of victim surveys
- collects extensive information about victims
- reveals the extent of domestic crimes
- gauge different groups’ attitudes
disadvantages of victim surveys
- victimless crimes aren’t counted
- response rate is 75% on average
- corporate crimes are omitted
- memories may be faulty
- multiple experiences of the same crime aren’t reported
Hope (2005)
identifies factors that affect crime surveys:
- knowledge of incidents
- not telling due to fear, shame or denial
- memory decay
- telescoping
- education
- multiple incidents
Young et al (1986)
the most famous of local surveys was the Islington crime surveys that showed the BCS underreported the high levels of victimisation of ethnic minorities and domestic violence
self report studies
came about in the 80’s and include questions about other aspects of life, like family background and social status and they are surveys that ask what offences people have committed
advantages of self report studies
- most useful way to find out about victimless crimes
- can be quantitative and qualitative
- can be longitudinal by following the same group over time
disadvantages of self report studies
- problems of validity as people may lie
- it’s not representative
- there are no surveys on professional criminals or drug traffickers etc
2002/3 BCS on ethnicity and crime
black and ethnic minority backgrounds were at greater risk of being victims than white people
Garland (2001)
- governments now take it upon themselves to control crime and punish criminals
- they use risk management by gathering statistics so they can assess risk better
victims of violence
- young men have the highest chance
- 88% of the cases the victim and offender knew each other
crime stats on age
- under 25 were the most fearful
- peak age for male offenders is 18
- peak age for female offenders is 14
hypodermic syringe
mass media is a direct and powerful tool, assumes the audience is passive
drip-drip effect
it’s a long, steady build up and explains how hegemony is achieved
hegemony
the control of ideas
Marsh (1991)
violent crime was 36 times more likely to be reported than property crime
Ditton and Duffy (1983)
46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes, yet this was only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police
Cohen and Young (1973)
“news is not discovered but manufactured”
Walby (1991)
found that newspaper reports of rape cases focused on ‘sex fiends’ or ‘beasts’ but in most cases the offender is known to the victim§
Surette (1998)
“the law of opposites”
- fictional crime is represented as the opposite of official statistics
1980’s blame of crime
video games were blamed for youth violence as they glamourised it
1990’s blame of crime
rap lyrics and games like grand theft auto were blamed
UK government - extremism
“one of the greatest threats we face”
especially for Far-Right and Islamic extremism
how the media causes crime
- copycat crimes/imitation
- glamourising offending
- sharing criminal strategies
- desensitisation
McRobbie and Thorton
moral panics are much less likely to start as it is far less clear today what is bad as society is too fragmented and culturally pluralistic
moral panic stages:
- media report a group/event in a negative stereotypical way
- follow up articles encourage the demonisation and create folk devils
- media encourages symbolisation of the folk devils
media narrative
stories/frameworks that exist in mainstream media containing stereotyped understandings of the world
hate crime statistics
- doubled in the past 5 years due to Brexit and terrorist attacks
- Religious hate crimes increased by 40% in 2 years
Islamaphobia statistics
in 2015, hate crimes against Muslims rose by 50% in London
consensus policing
- prison is a last resort
- local officers who know the area should be used
- use a multi agency approach to understanding the offender
conflict policing
- reasons or causes aren’t important
- remove offenders from the public
- tazer, pepper spray, kettling, riot gear etc.
Smart (1976)
girls commit less crimes due to stricter socialisation and control from families
Left Realist causes of crime
- relative deprivation
- marginalisation
- subcultures
- individualism
David Lammy review
- CJS was biased against BAME people
- Black people were 4 times more likely to be in prison than expected given their proportion of the population
- lone parenthood, school exclusion and poverty disproportionately effected this group
ethnicity and crime statistics
- Black people were stopped and searched 7 times more than white people
- Black people are 5 times more likely to be murdered than white people
Pitts (2008)
since the 90’s, theres been a rise in violent ethnic minority youth gangs due to being immobilised at the bottom of the economic ladder
The New Criminology
- Taylor, Walton and Young (1973)
- they did none of their own research
Cloward and Ohlin (1961)
- deviance is a reaction to not achieving the values of mainstream culture
- uses illegitimate means to gain these values
Miller (1958)
wc boys have their own ‘focal concerns’ which they are socialised into like freedom, being tough and ‘streetwise’ meaning they’re more likely to have criminal subcultures
Cohen - status frustration
- status frustration for wc causes subcultures
- they want to be like the higher classes but can’t achieve that status
- reject mainstream norms and values
Scraton (1997)
sees the police as an occupying force imposed on working class and ethnic minority communites
Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons (2007)
concluded a range of factors contributed to high levels of crime amongst black youth:
- poverty
- education underachievement
- school exclusions
- single parent family
