Crime and Deviance Flashcards
Gordon 1976
Criminogenic Capitalism
What did David Gordon believe about crime and statistics?
Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and hence it is found in all social classes – even though the official statistics make crime appear to be a largely working-class phenomenon.
Why is crime inevitable? (Gordon)
Crime is inevitable in the capitalist system because crime is criminogenic – by its very nature it causes crime.
Why do working class people commit crime?
Out of survival (stealing food, selling drugs)
Or out of protest of their inequality ( Vandalism)
Consumerism in capitalism may leave crime as the only way to obtain consumer goods
Why do the ruling class commit crime?
Capitalism is a dog-eat-dog system of ruthless competition among capitalists, while the profit motive encourages a mentality of greed and self-interest.
Gordon Evaluation
- Deterministic theory - not all poor people commit crime, despite the pressures of poverty, so surely crime is a choice.
- Criminogenic capitalism offers an explanation for both utilitarian and non-utilitarian crimes across all social classes.
Snider 1993
Sociology and corporate crime
What did Snider believe about the state and law making?
- the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability.
- Large corporations hold a lot of power in a capitalist society as the system depends on profit in order to survive – so profitable companies can influence and put pressure on official leaders.
- Laws may appear to threaten everyone equally, but laws affecting the rich are not vigorously enforced. For example, benefit cheating has been tackled far more by government officials than tax evasion.
- They are more likely to introduce laws that sanction poorer offenders or crimes that threaten profitability.
Snider Evaluation
In September 2021, HMRC estimated than in 2019/20, we lost £7 billion in tax evasion and avoidance. This is significantly higher than the cost of benefit fraud that same year (£2.8 billion pounds). Clearly, we lose more through tax evasion, yet the government have put far more effort into tackling benefit fraud.
Chambliss 1975
Political Economy of Crime
Chambliss on the state and law-making
laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy.
Chambliss on the ruling class
the ruling class are able to define what is or is not
morally or socially acceptable. An example that could illustrate this is the huge media coverage on benefits fraud compared to the few media
reports of tax evasion – which reflects the Marxist view that the state uses the media and government in order to enforce views and create laws that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Chambliss Evaluation
Many laws are made in the interest of the working-classes – such as health and safety laws – slowing down businesses and potentially
damaging profits in order to protect worker rights.
Pearce 1976
Ideological functions of Crime and Law
Pearce on the state and law making
The law, crime and criminals also perform an ideological function for capitalism. Laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than of capitalism, such as workplace health and safety laws
Pearce on how H+S laws benefit the ruling class
- Keeps workers fit for work. If they are harmed through their work, they will need time
off which ultimately harms the company’s profits more. - Giving capitalism a caring face. If such laws are passed, then people won’t question
how corrupt the law-making process is. Such laws therefore create a false-class consciousness amongst the workers.
Pearce Evaluation
- their ideas are too radical in
assuming the legal system exists to help the ruling classes indoctrinate the lower social
classes. People are able to influence the creation of laws in fair ways, by creating and
signing petitions, choosing who they vote for, campaigning and gaining wide public support.
Taylor, Walton and Young
Neo Marxism
Fully social theory of deviance
Neo Marxism
Neo-Marxists are sociologists who have been influenced by
many of the ideas put forward by traditional Marxism, but they
combine these with ideas from other approaches such as
labelling theory.
Taylor et al agreements with traditional marxism
- Capitalist society is based on exploitation and class conflict and characterised by extreme inequalities of wealth + power. - The state makes and enforces laws in the interest of the capitalist class and criminalises members of the working class. - Capitalism should be replaced by a classless society.
Taylor et al disagreements with traditional marxism
- argue that traditional Marxism is deterministic.
They reject this , along with
theories that claim crime is caused by other external factors such as anomie, subcultures or labelling or biological and psychological factors. - Instead, Taylor et al. take a more voluntaristic (free-will) view .
What do taylor et al see crime as
They see crime as a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor. In particular, they argue that crime often has a political motive, for example to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
The fully Social theory of deviance ( TWY)
Traditional Marxist ideas about the unequal distribution of wealth and who has power to make and enforce the law. Ideas from interactionism and labelling theory about the meaning of the deviant act for the actor, societal reactions to it and the effects of the deviant label on the individual
Taylor, Walton and Young 1973 Evaluation
Left realists make two related criticisms. Firstly, they romanticise working-class criminals as modern day ‘Robin Hoods’ who are fighting capitalism by redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. However, in reality most crime is intra-class, not inter-class. Secondly, Taylor et al do not take crime seriously and they ignore its effects on working-class victims
Hall et al.
Policing the Crisis 1979
Why does Hall et al disagree with crime statistics?
They claim that as the CJS and police act on institutional racism, they reify a stereotypical view that black people and Asians are
criminal. This means that people from ethnic minorities are overrepresented in official crime statistics.
What did Hall et al.’s Policing the Crisis study entail?
studied street crime among
young black males in London in the 1970s. Newspapers were writing stories claiming that there was a new craze for young black men to
rob people and steal their possessions on the streets with threats of violence, something that was then defined as ‘mugging’. Hall suggested that the mugging was a moral panic. The government and the media were promoting racism and demonising young black men to distract attention from political problems and a
poorly performing economy.
Hall et al conclusion
young black men were using deviance as a way of protesting the violence and racism they were facing during the moral panic. In the
process, they were being labelled as criminal.
Hall et al evaluation
- contradictory. This is because half of this work suggests that
black criminality is a myth made up by the media to distract the public. They then go on to suggest that black criminality is a way of protesting racism and the economic disadvantages
black youths face. - Hall et al. have brought ethnicity and racism into
the discussion of crime and deviance, something
that was largely absent in sociological theory
before.
