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Sociology > Crime and Deviance > Flashcards

Crime and Deviance Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

Define Crime

A

Actions / Behaviours that break the formal, written rules in society (laws).

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2
Q

Define Deviance

A

Behaviour that doesn’t conform to a society’s consensus norms and expectations (“unwritten rules”).

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3
Q

Newburn (2007)

A

Crime is a social construct

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4
Q

Downes and Rock (2007)

A

Ambiguity is a key feature of rule breaking.

Context also applies - something may be deviant within one group but not deviant within another.

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5
Q

Factors that affect deviance

A
  1. non-deviant crime
  2. time (historically)
  3. the society or culture
  4. the social group
  5. place or context
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6
Q

Functionalists on crime and deviance

A

the source of crime and deviance is located in the structure of society.
the agencies of social control protect the value consensus by controlling the threat of crime and deviance.

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7
Q

Durkheim

A

Crime in inevitable and is a normal part of society

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8
Q

Durkheim’s functions of crime

A

Boundary maintenance
Adaptation and change
Safety valve
Warning device

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9
Q

Erikson (1966)

A

society purposefully promotes crime in order to keep a healthy balance of crime.
agencies of control (such as the police) aim to maintain the levels.

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10
Q

Evaluations of Durkheim

A
  • does not state how much crime is the “optimum amount”
  • doesn’t explain motivation
  • doesn’t look individually at crime and its effects on individuals
  • crime does not always lead to solidarity and can sometimes have the opposite effect
  • does not explain violent crimes such as rape or murder
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11
Q

Merton (1968)

A

Crime and deviance is caused by strain and anomie

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12
Q

Define status frustration

A

Where people feel motivated to break societies rules because it feels impossible to be successful within their limits.

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13
Q

Merton: strain theory

A
  • conformity
  • innovation
  • ritualism
  • retreatism
  • rebellion
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14
Q

Subcultural theories

A
  • aimed to build off of Merton’s work
  • focused on the position of groups in the social structure rather than just individuals.
  • they tend to deal with working class, juvenile delinquency
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15
Q

Cohen (1970)

A
  • working class youth believe in the success goals of the mainstream but by not having the means they are denied status
  • this leads to the formation of new values or a “delinquent subculture”
  • receive gratification / status through these acts within their subculture
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16
Q

Cloward and Ohlin

A

argue that cohen’s theory does not allow for the diversity of responses found among the working class youth

  • criminal subcultures
  • conflict subcultures
  • retreatist subcultures
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17
Q

Criminal subcultures

A

commit utilitarian crimes to get money or status

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18
Q

Conflict subcultures

A

commit aggressive crimes targeted at those who are seen to represent their oppression

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19
Q

Retreatist subcultures

A

failed in “normal” society and have also been rejected by other subcultures - they become deviants and suffer

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20
Q

Evaluations of Merton

A
  • most people who face strain and anomie don’t commit crime
  • focuses too much on individual responses and doesn’t recognise the social pattern of crime and deviance
  • fails to recognise that there are apparently conforming and successful people who commit crime (e.g. white collar crime)
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21
Q

Evaluations of Cohen

A
  • it helps to explain working class delinquency as a group response
  • makes the assumption that young, working class delinquents accept mainstream values as superior and desirable
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22
Q

Evaluations of Cloward and Ohlin

A
  • this research is helpful as it gives insight into why working class delinquency may take different forms in different circumstances
  • criticised for exaggerating the differences between the three types of subcultures as there is often an overlap between them
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23
Q

traditional marxists on crime and deviance

A
  • structural inequality leads to resentment and ultimately causes conflict that breaks the value consensus
  • capitalist society is criminogenic
  • the law reflects class ideology and interests
  • selective law enforcement
24
Q

neo-marxists and crime

A
  • wanted to develop a more sophisticated approach to crime
  • marxists are too deterministic
  • crime is voluntary
  • working class crime is symbolic
25
Q

the new criminology

A
  • Taylor et al. 1970’s
  • blended aspects of labelling theory with marxism
  • ruling class is hegemonic
  • moral panic and demonisation
26
Q

Evaluations of Marxism

A
  • malestream: focus on male crime and assume it can be applied to women
  • too deterministic
  • there are many laws that are in everyone’s interests such as consumer protection laws
  • overemphasise class inequalities and ignore others such as gender or ethnicity
27
Q

Evaluation of neo-marxism

A
  • overemphasise class inequalities and ignore others such as gender or ethnicity
  • it is difficult to believe that crimes such as domestic violence, rape, etc. are political
  • pay little attention to the victim of the crime and romanticise working class crimes as symbolic political acts.
28
Q

Labelling and Crime

A

Labelling theorists are interested in how and why certain acts come to be labelled as criminal.

29
Q

Becker (1963)

A

Social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders.

30
Q

Primary Deviance

A

Acts seen as a “one off” or mistake
Short term label
E.g. speeding

31
Q

Secondary Deviance

A

Repeated acts seen to indicate bad character
Permanent label
Serial Killer

32
Q

How are labels assigned

A

Usually it is a person in a position of power assigning a label to someone with less power or status than them.

33
Q

Labelling theory self fulfilling prophecy

A

Deviancy amplification

34
Q

Evaluations of Becker

A
  • focus on the “underdogs” of society which gave sociology a greater understanding of how criminals were stigmatised.
  • did little to explain why initial acts of crime occurred.
  • often sided with criminals rather than the “real” victims of crime.
35
Q

Feminists on Crime and Deviance

A

Focus on women’s experiences of crime and the criminal justice system.
They argue that women are driven to C+D for different reasons than men, and that the CJS deals with them poorly by ignoring their differences.

36
Q

Heidensohn (2012)

A
  • “collective amnesia” on female C+D.
  • “neglect and distortion” of women’s role in crime, both as criminals and victims.
  • Society and the CJS are still too patriarchal and this prevents productive change
  • Sociology fails female criminals and victims with its “malestream” composition and focus.
37
Q

Heidensohn (1996) - Problems to overcome

A
  • Academics and researchers are mostly men
  • Male researchers tend to identify with “working class rogues” and focus most of their research on this group.
  • Female crime is more difficult to study (hidden offenders).
  • Hidden offenders account for 2/3 of female crimes, due to under reporting, stereotype influenced treatment by the police and CJS, and seriousness of offences.
38
Q

Evaluations of Feminist Approach

A
  • gender issues and female offending were forgotten or ignored until recently.
  • importance of gender identity has become a major theme in understanding crime and deviance
  • an important focus on gender and gender identity issues in explaining deviance
39
Q

Realist Theories

A
  • a perspective that cares about practicalities rather than ethics / ideology
  • either left or right
40
Q

Causes of Left Realism

A
  • Lea and Young (1984)
  • criticised marxism and neo marxism for romanticising working class criminals as “revolutionary heroes”
  • criticised them for having no practical policies to reduce crime
  • fail to take victimisation seriously and the fact that most victims were the poor and deprived.
41
Q

Lea and Young (1984) - Explaining Crime

A
  • relative deprivation
  • marginalisation
  • subcultures
42
Q

Lea and Young (2003)

A

Late modernity and a “bulimic” society:

  • individualist culture
  • loss of informal control
  • growing inequality
43
Q

Lea and Young - Tackling crime

A

Focus on:

  • role of victims
  • role of offenders
  • structural and formal control factors
  • public and informal control factors
44
Q

Right Realism

A
  • developed from new right perspective
  • criminals and deviants are responsible for their actions and freely choose to do them
  • tend to favour harsh punishment
45
Q

Right Realism Policies

A
  • “hostile environment” immigration policy (Theresa May, 2012)
  • police, crime and sentencing bill (2021) which outlaws “inconvenient” protests
46
Q

Key features of Right Realism

A
  • Value consensus and shared morality underpin society
  • All people are selfish
  • Community control
  • Rational choice and opportunity
  • Crime will always exist
47
Q

Positive evaluations of Left Realism

A
  • draws on a range of theories
  • does not glamorise crime as marxists do
  • tales the importance of tackling crime and the fear of crime seriously
  • recognises that crime can have devastating consequences for deprived communities
  • sees the importance of community solutions to crime
48
Q

Negative evaluations of Left Realism

A
  • neglects other responses to relative deprivation and marginality apart from crime
  • neglects gender as a significant issue
  • ignores white collar and corporate crime
  • doesn’t explain why most working class youth don’t turn to crime
49
Q

Positive evaluations of Right Realism

A
  • addresses the immediate causes of crime and provides policies for reducing the opportunities for crime
  • it recognises the importance of community control and responses to crime in affecting crime levels
50
Q

Negative evaluations of Right Realism

A
  • doesn’t address the wider structural causes of crime that other theories do
  • doesn’t pay attention to white collar and corporate crime
  • suggests that offenders act rationally, weighing up costs and benefits, but some crimes are impulsive or irrational.
51
Q

Postmodernism on Crime and Deviance

A
  • based on the dialectic principle
  • this is the idea that we can find the “truth” about something by gathering experts and getting them to argue their points.
  • the “winning” points combine to form truth
52
Q

Dialectic materialism

A

The idea that we can use concrete observations of events and structural phenomena to discuss and argue about society.

53
Q

Dialectic idealism

A

The idea that structures are irrelevant because they just reflect social constructions and the value consensus, so we can only meaningfully argue about ideas and individual experiences.

54
Q

Henry and Milanovic (1996)

A

Transgressive Criminology

  • core belief is that inequality and exploitation through uneven power dynamics are responsible for society’s problems.
  • the “harms” that crime both causes and is caused by
55
Q

Transgressive Criminology: Types of “Harms”

A

Harms of reduction: using your power to cause immediate harm to a victim

Harms of oppression: using your power to restrict or disrupt others’ progress (hate crimes, sexual harassment at work, etc.)

56
Q

Katz (1988) - argument against structuralism

A

Crime can’t be studied by looking at social trends because in modern global society there’s no structure and everything’s constantly changing. By the time you understand it, it has changed.

57
Q

Lyng (2005) - Edgework

A

Crime is seductive / exciting and criminals often do it for the thrill. They want to be seen as “living on the edge”
- this is known as “edgework”; making a career out of it.

Sociology (7 decks)

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