Crime And Deviance Flashcards
define crime
crimes are an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government more so a gross violation of law.
define deviance
deviance is any behaviour that violates social norms, and is usually of sufficient severity to warrant disapproval from the majority of society. deviance can be criminal or non-criminal.
why is crime and deviance a social construct?
neither of them are universal concepts, meaning the although the definitions are agreed around the world, example are not. they are cultural, locality, historical and age relative.
how is crime and deviance affected by cultural differences?
there are certain laws which no matter where you go I the world you know are illegal to commit, e.g. murder.
adultery is not illegal in most countries around the world, however it is illegal in Taiwan. in Michigan you can receive life imprisonment for adultery.
how is crime and deviant affected by contextually?
when thinking of deviance context is necessary, not only in terms of geographical location but in terms of place and time.
e.g. it is not deviant to wear a Bikini at the beach, but to wear it at a job interview it is deviant.
examples of age affects deviance not crime.
- it is legal for a child aged 5-16 to drink alcohol at home.
- at the age of 14 you can get a part time job for a max of 2 hours on a school day.
- in UK nations the age of consent is 16.
- you can apply to a dart a child at 21.
how is crime and deviance historically relative?
what may. have been considered deviant in the past is no longer so and acts that were once legal have become illegal.
e.g slavery was once considered a sign of wealth and privilege, today it is illegal across the world.
e.g homosexuality was in ancient times very common practice, it was then considered deviant and in todays society it is common practice.
examples of when acts became illegal.
1991 - rate within marriage was made illegal.
1994 - informally organised raves were made illegal.
2007 - the smoking ban.
2016 - the psychoactive substance act.
what is the ideological state apparatus (ISA)?
maintain the role of bourgeoisie by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs.
what is the repressive state apparatus (RSA)?
maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force such as police, army and courts.
who created the the ISA and RSA?
Althusser
give an example of the RSA.
the Black Lives Matter movement - the media was key to promote ideological control around the riots and ideologies of conformity however, when this broke down the police and polices effectively went to criminalise protests.
what are Durkheim’s three key ideas about crime and deviance?
1 crime is inevitable and necessary.
2 crime has multiple positive functions for society.
3 too much crime is bad for society.
how does Durkheim say that crime is inevitable?
crime is present in all societies that exsist and it always will.
he does however say that crime is mow industrialised societies is higher.
why Is crime inevitable?
this is because people aren’t as equally connected to the collective sentiments because of the variations in individuals lives, meaning that it becomes impossible of one true collective as nobody has the same lived experiences.
what is a society of saints?
a society assists is exactly what it sounds like. a society filled with perfect behaviour.
what would a society of saints cause?
a society of saints would cause the general expectations in society to be so high that the slightest slip would be deemed as a serious offence, resulting in awful prosecutions.
how is crime and deviance necessary?
Durkheim argues that all social change begins with some form of deviance. in order for changes to occur, yesterday’s deviance becomes today’s norms.
crime and deviance sociologists and statistics.
there are a lot of crimes that arnt deviant and vice versa … give a government department of transport.
according to the government department of transport, over 52% of drivers exceed the speed limit on 30mph roads.
what is Althusser’s repressive state apparatus?
Althusser argued that the state consists of two apparatuses which keep the bourgeoise in power, one of which is repressive state apparatus.
- repressive state apparatuses maintain the rule of the bourgeoise but force, such as the police, army and the courts.
give an example of the repressive state apparatus.
when considering the Black Lives Matter movement, the media was key to promote ideological control around the riots and ideologies of conformity. however, when this broke down, the police and policies effectively went to criminals the protests.
what are Durkheim’s 3 key ideas about crime and deviance?
- crime is inevitable and necessary.
- crime has multiple positive functions for society.
- too much crime is bad for society.
what are the positive functions of crime - the publicity function (Erikson)?
Erikson pointed out that the dramatic setting of the courtroom where the lawyers and judges dress in special clothes, and where there is a ceremony, condemns a persons actions in a public arena. in contemporary society, newspapers also help to perform the publicity function, with their often lurid accounts of crime acts.
what are positive functions of crime - acts as a warning device - Cohen?
Cohen suggest that certain deviant acts are useful warning devices to indicate that an aspect of society is malfunctioning. this may draw attention to the problem and lead to measures to solve it.
what does Durkheim say about too much crime?
Durkheim believed that the result of too much crime would lead to the development of a state he called ‘anomie’. this means that people regard the social expectations to respect the rights and the need of other as unimportant and prefer to look after their own interests, even at their neighbours expense.
- they return to their natural state of greed and self-interest, and this results in the long-term collapse of social order and harmony.
- anomie is dangerous and harmful to all.
what do Merton and Nightingale say?
they have pointed out that for some the desire to achieve the success gaol of society outweighs the pressure to obey the law, advertising only adds to this strain between the legitimate means and the gaols of material success.
what does Rothkopf say about the ‘superclass’?
the ‘superclass’ who are mainly the people who run global corporations, and at they very bottom we have the lower class (in the developed world) and the slum dwellers, the street children and the refugees in the developing world.
what does Bauman say about capitalism, inequality and Crime?
Bauman points out that the super wealthy effectively segregate themselves from the wealthy, through living in exclusive gated communities and travelling in private jets and armoured vehicles with security entourages. if people can afford it, they move to a better area, and send their children to private schools.
however, this doesn’t prevent the poor and the rich from living side by side.
what does Chambliss say about crime being justified?
Chambliss even goes so far as to say that economic crime ‘represents rational responses to the competitiveness and inequality of life in capitalist societies’.
this is because the visible evidence of massive inequality gives the people at the bottom a sense of injustice, anger and frustration that the lack of wealth distribution is being flaunted in their faces.
what does Manheim say about how the law benefits the elite and works in their internet?
he writes that ‘the history of criminal legislation on England and in many countries shows that an excessive prominence was given by law to the protection of property’.
- Chambliss has argued that ‘at the heard of capitalist system lies the protection of private property’.
what does Snider say about health and safety laws?
Snider argues that capitalist states are reluctant to pass laws which regulate large capitalist concerns and which might threat profitability.
what is Stuart Hall’s black mugger study?
moral panic was created over black criminality, to create diversion ways form the wider economic crisis - marxists called this a ‘crisis of capitalism’.
unemployment hit everyone hard, especially black people, who turned to the informal economy.
the ruling class sought to divide working class to prevent anti-capiatlsit activism.
headlines consist of ‘black youths out of control’.
he found that a moral panic arose around black people.
what does Sinder say about crimes being costly?
Sinder points out that the cost of white colour crime and corporate crime to the economy far outweighs the cost of street crime by ‘typical’ criminals.
what do the general accounting agency say about the cost of fraud?
the general accounting agency of the USA has estimated that hundreds of savings and loan companies have failed in recent years due to insider dealing, failure to disclose accurate information and racketeering.
the cost to the taxpayer in the USA of corporate bailouts is estimated to be around $500 billion, or $5000 per household in the USA.
what does Gordon say about ideological functions?
gordon argues that the police mainly focus on policing working class (and underclass) areas and the justice system mainly focuses on prosecuting working and underclass criminals.
- the system ignores the crimes of the elite and the middle classes, although both of these classes are just as likely to commit crimes as the working class.
- Gordon argues that the disproportionate prosecution of working class criminals ultimately severs to maintain ruling-class ideology (thus performing ‘ideological functions’ for the ruling class’).
what are Gordons 3 benefits of law enforcement for capitalism?
- define individuals as ‘social failures’.
- imprisonment of the lower classes neutralises opposition to the system.
- imprisonment of the underclass also sweeps out of sight the ‘worst jetsam of capitalist society’.
in additional fourth benefit is that the focus on working class crime means that society attention is diverted away from the immorality and greed of the elites.
who commits white-collar crime? give statistics
university of Cincinnati school of criminal justice - three-quarters of white-collar offenders are white males.
- 2020 global study on occupational Frau and abuse-about half of occupational fraud perpetrators have a university degree.
- 2020 global study on occupational fraud and abuse, 39% of fraud perpetrators at non-profit organisations are owners or executives.
what is labelling (Becker)?
his key statement about labelling is ‘deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by other rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’. deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label’.
what do Townsley and Marshall say about police and labelling?
studies f police officers by sociologists such as Townsley and Marshalls study show that they operate using stereotypical assumptions or tales about what is ‘suspicious’ or ‘criminal’ in terms of social types and behaviour.
- for example the decision to stop or arrest sometime may be based on whether they correspond to a stereotype.
what does Holdaway say?
Holdaway notes that there is strong evidence that suggest racial stereotyping by some police officers may be a crucial element governing their decision to stop black people and their interaction with black people, especially African-Caribbeans, i.e. some officers see all black people as potentially criminal.
what are the home office statists on police stop and search?
home offie statists on police stop and search released in march 2010 can be used to support the idea that racial stereotyping underpins policing because they reveal that the police stop and search black people and asians six times and two times respectively more than white people.
what is primary deviance (Lemert)?
Lemert argues that primary deviance is widespread and often trivial in nature. such acts have little significance for a persons status or identity. those who commit primary deviance often do not see themselves as deviant.
what is deviancy amplification (Triplett)?
Triplett notes an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil and to be less tolerant of minor deviance such as truancy.
what is secondary deviance (Becker and Lemert)?
this societal reaction and the subsequent labelling of the person as a criminal, deviant, etc is know as ‘secondary deviance’. both Becker and Lemert argue the secondary deviance can have negative consequences in that being caught and publicly labelled as a criminal can involve being stigmatised, shunned and excluded from normal society.
what is social policy and shaming (Braithwaite)?
Braithwaite suggest there are tow types of shaming available to the criminal justice system:
- disintegrative shaming
- reintegrative shaming.
Braithwaite argues that the concept of reintegrative shaming avoids stigmatising or negative labelling the offender as ‘evil’ or ‘bad’ while at the same time making them aware of the negative impact of their actions upon others.
give some criticisms of labelling theory.
Ackers argues that labelling theory puts too much emphasis on societal reaction - he argues that the act is always more important than the reaction to it, e.g. rape, murder and child abuse are always deviant.
- however, Pulmmer in defence of labelling theory, pint out that labelling theory’s emphasis on societal reaction is valuable because many activities are defined as deviant or non-deviant depending on the audience and/or the social contact in which it occurs, e.f. soft drugs use is acceptable to many younger people but is deemed deviant but the establishment.
Becker - there are no such thing as deviant acts …
Becker argues that there is no such thing as a deviant act - no acts is intrinsically criminal or deviant in itself, in all situation and act all times. instead, it only defined as such when others label it as ‘wrong’.
- in other words, it is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant, but society’s reaction to it. as Webb notes, deviance is in the eye of the beholder.
what does Becker say about power?
argues that the social construction of deviance requires two actives:
one group - which normally lack power, acts in a particular way.
another group - more power, resounds negatively to it and defines it as criminal.
- for Beck, therefore, a deviant is simply someone to whom a negative label has been successfully applied and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour shay people with more power label, e.g. parents, teacher, police officers.
what does Becker say about rules?
Becker is interested in why and how rule gets made because it is the breaking of those rules that create the potential for deviance.
- in this sense, interactionism is interested in how social controls such as laws can create the potential for deviance.
- Becker rejects the functionalists idea that rules and laws are the products of value consensus or universal agreement.
- instead he notes the powerful groups create rules or laws ad label those who fail to inform to these social controls as criminals or outlaws/ousiders.
what does Becker say about moral entrepreneurs?
Becker notes that in wester societies, those with the power to label others as deviant are often ‘moral entrepreneurs’ - religious leaders, politicians, editors ad journalists - who lead campaigns to change the law and label particular types of behaviour as criminal or deviant.
what does Becker say about agents of social control?
Becker notes that agents of social control, particularly the police and the judiciary work in behalf of powerful groups to label and therefore define the behaviour of less powerful groups as problematical.
they do this by saying these groups disproportionate negative attention in terms of stop and search, arrest, prosecution and giving them custodial sentences etc.
what does Murray say about the ‘underclass’?
right realists, Murray suggest that both in the USA and UK, there exists a lower-class subculture or underclass below the ‘respectable’ working-class, which subscribes to deviant and criminal values rather than mainstream values.
- he claims that parents in this underclass transmit this deficient culture to their children via socialisation.
- he suggested that they criminal underclass is going as a result of welfare dependency.
what does Walters say in support for a criminal underclass?
Walters argue the young criminal underclass exists as a result of ‘growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in a practically perfect criminogenic environment that is one that seems almost consciously designed to produce vicious, predatory unrepentant street criminals’.
what is Clarke’s rational choice theory?
individuals have free will and the power to reason and thus choose their own actions.
- Clarke argued that an individuals decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences of their actions.
- if the perceived rewards of crime outweigh the perceived costs of crime, or if the rewards of crime appear to be greater then those of non-criminal action, then people are more likely to choose to offend.
what doe Felson say in support for rational choice theory?
in a similar analysis, Felson notes that if community controls (e.g. from family, neighbours, the community, etc.) are strong, this increases both the risk of being caught and punished, and deters crime.
- however, all too often, especially in inner city areas, community controls are weak, and the risk of being caught and punched is low.
what is Wilson’s zero tolerance policing?
Wilson stressed the certainty of capture which he lives will result in the risks of being caught outweighing the benefits of crime.
- he particularly recommended ‘zero tolerance’ policing, i.. the police should jeep the streets lear of all deviant elements especially those crimes which threaten to undermine or threaten the sense of community in neighbourhoods such as prostitution, begging dug-dealing and drunkenness
- he believes that the streets should be flooded with police in order to bother deter crimes and so that law-abiding citizens can feel safe. this police proved to be very successful in New York in the 1990s.
what is Wilsons broken windows theory?
argues that if signs of disorder and lack of concern of others are allowed to develop then Crome rates rapidly increase. he suggest it is essential to maintain the orderly character of neighbourhoods to prevent crime taking hold.
- any sign of deterioration such as graffiti or broken windows must be dealt with immediately because failure to deal with these problems send out a clear signal to criminals and deviants that no one cares which encourages the escalation of crime.
what is Rex and Tomlinson’s working class values?
Rex and Tomlinson point out that survey evidence suggest that the poor subscribe to the same sorts of values as everybody else and that their poverty is often caused by factors beyond their control, e.g. economic recession, globalisation, government policies, etc.
how does Cohen say that new right thinking leads to class inequalities and victimisation?
the rich live in ‘gated communities’ guarded by technology and private security forces. this has the effect of displacing crime to poorer less protected areas such as council estates and inner cities.
what does Lyng say about edge work?
with no other outlets for they anger and frustration at being excluded from the lifestyles they aspire to, they are more likely to involve themselves in various forms of what Lyng calls ‘edge work’.
- this involves all manner of thrill-seeking and risk-taking behaviour, not necessarily criminal or deviant, but the pursuit of peril may include exploring the boundaries between legal and criminal behaviour, potentially leading to Crome and violence, anti-social behaviour, rioting, and self-destructive confrontations with the law.
