Crime Flashcards
Durkheim
Functions of Crime
Functionalist
- Crime is inevitable
- Crime has beneficial functions such as strengthening collective values, enabling societal change, acting as a ‘safety valve’ and acting as a warning device.
Evaluation: Ignores the victims of crime.
Merton
Causes of Crime
Functionalist
- Strain theory
- Mismatch between cultural values (American dream) and structural reality •Deviant adaption to strain (innovators)
Evaluation: focuses only on individual deviance + doesn’t explain non-utilitarian crime
Cohen
Causes of crime
Functionalist
- Status frustration
- Alternative status hierarchy found in subcultures
Evaluation: he assumes that WC boys start with MC values + only sees one type of subculture + only focuses on boys (feminist)
Cloward and Ohlin
Causes of Crime
Functionalists
- Lack of access to illegitimate opportunity structure
- 3 types of subculture (Criminal, conflict and retreatists)
Evaluation: draws the boundaries too sharply between the subcultures + Matza: delinquency drift
Miller
Causes of crime
Interactionist
This is an evaluation of subculture theory
•Lower class has its own independent subculture with its own values > subculture doesn’t value success in the first place > members are not ’frustrated’ by failure
Hirschi
Causes of crime
Functionalists
- Why people do not commit crime > social control
- Identifies 4 bonds of attachment > attachment, commitment, involvement and belief
Evaluation: doesn’t explain why some people have different levels of bonds > This may be a case of blaming the victim – We need to look at structural factors that lead to family breakdown (poverty, long working hours, unemployment.)
Gordon
Causes of crime
Marxist
- Capitalist society being criminogenic
- Crime is a natural outgrowth in a capitalist society
Eval: Too deterministic + Not capitalist societies have high crime rate
Chambliss
Causes of Crime
Marxist
• the CJS disproportionally focuses on the actions of the proletariat in order to control their actions > bourgeoisie acts are ignored > selective law enforcement
Snider
Causes of crime
Marxist
- Laws are only passed to appease the working class (Health and safety)
- Laws act as a ‘smoke screen’
Becker
Causes of crime
Interactionist
- Labelling theory
- Crime is socially constructed > moral entrepreneurs dictate what is seen as criminal or not
- ‘Outsiders’ by labelling process
Evaluation: implies that without labelling, crime would not exists + it recognises the role of power, but fails to recognise the source of it (Marxists do)
Cicourel
Causes of Crime
Interactionist
- Typification (stereotypes) by Social Agencies
- Class Bias
- Justice is not fixed, but negotiable
Eval: gives the offender a victim status
Lemert
Causes of crime
Interactionist
- Primary (Deviance that hasn’t been labelled)
- Secondary (Deviance that is labled as criminal)
- Secondary = master status and deviant career
Eval: Fails to explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place + too deterministic
Stanley Cohen
Causes of Crime
Interactionist/Marxist
Positive: the only theory which recognises the role of power in creating deviance
- Folk Devils and Moral Panic
- Deviance amplification spiral (Media reaction to deviance can cause further deviance)
Lea and Young
Causes of crime
Left Realism (causes)
- Crime is caused by relative deprivation
- Paradox where society gets richer but there’s more crime = higher expectation for material possession
- Increase subculture and marginalisation
Eval: relative deprivation cannot explain crime, not all those who experience It commit crime
Young (1999, 2003)
Causes of crime
Left Realism (causes)
- Changes in late modernity > greater relative deprivation
- Growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion
Eval: Marxist > corporate crime is more harmful in late modernity
Wilson & Hernstein
Causes of crime
Right realism (causes)
- Biological predisposition and social factors > crime
- low Intelligence levels > crime
Eval: Lilly et al > IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending
Murray
Causes of Crime
Right realism (causes)
- Socialisation among the ‘underclass’
- Blames dependency culture = growth of lone parents & men not taking responsibility
Eval: Victim Blaming + ignores structural causes > poverty
Cornish and Clarke
Causes of crime
Right realism (causes)
- Rational Choice theory
- Criminals make cost/benefit analysis of crime
- Low deterrence = crime
Eval: Overstates rationality > doesn’t explain impulsive and violent crime
Wilson and Kelling
RR Solutions
Right realism (causes)
- Broken window theory
- A bad neighbourhood, less social care > more crime
Eval: overemphasises control of disorder rather than tackling the causes of neighbourhood decline > lack of investment
Pollak
Gender
- Chivalry thesis
- CJS is more lenient towards women
Criticism: evidence suggests that women are not sentenced less
Heidensohn
Gender
Feminist - the study of criminology is ‘malestream’
•’Patriarchal control’ leads to women committing less crime > this is done at home, work and public
Criticism: too deterministic + underplays free will and choice
Carlen
Gender
Feminist
- Class and gender deals > WC women are generally led to conform in order to receive rewards
- Class deal = decent standards of living
- Gender deal = emotional and material rewards through family life
- If not available^^ crime more likely
Eval: the sample size was small + outdated > now women work
Parsons
Gender
Functionalist
- Sex role theory
- Different socialisation leads to different crime
- ^^^ caused by biology
Eval: Walklate > criticise the biological function
Sharpe
Gender
Feminist
- Bias towards women in the CJS due to double standards
- Women judged more on sexual activity where men are not
Eval: it is criticism of Chivalry thesis
Adler
Gender
Feminist
- Liberation thesis > as women become more liberated from patriarchy > they commit more crime
- Supports Heidensohn patriarchal theory
Eval: Female crime rate began to rise long before liberation
Messerschmidt
Gender
Feminist/Postmodernist
•Masculinity is a cause of crime > it’s used to achieve masculinity for men
Eval: if true, all men would commit crime > overemphasises the role of masculinity
