Crime And Deviance Flashcards
Lombroso (Positivism)
Features: sloping forehead, long arms, large ears, asymmetrical face, likes tattoos
Durkheim (Functionalism)
Positive functions of crime
-boundary maintenance (punishment reinforces norms and values) exa: Sarah everard case
-adaptation and change (deviant acts move society forwards) eg stonewall riots
Polsky/Davis (Functionalism)
Positive crime:
Safety valve-Prostitution allows men to express sexual frustration without threatening the nuclear family… + polsky pornography
Cohen (Functionalism)
Positive crime:
Crime is a warning sign that institutions aren’t functioning properly
Evaluation Functionalism
-enforcing boundaries is beneficial for society but not for victims
-crime can promote fear and isolation
-crime enables change?- outdated
-don’t specify on what is too much and too little crime
-prostitution and pornography?- feminism
-police create and maintain crime.. unprofessional
Robert Merton (Strain theory)
American dream but unequal structural and cultural factors:
Conformity ++
Innovation +-
Ritualism -+ accepted their dead end jobs
Retreatism - - homeless
Rebellion +-+- cults
Strain Theory evaluation
-ignores laws criminalising the poor not rich
-assumes a value consensus
-only explains money gain crimes and not others
-focused on individuals, ignores group crimes
-too deterministic
Cohen (Subcultural strain theory)
Status frustration - w/c boys who fail to succeed in middle class environments are more likely to join delinquent subcultures
Cloward and Ohlin (Subcultural strain theory)
Three subcultures:
Criminal sub- utilitarian crime in criminal areas
Conflict sub- young ppl gangs territory war
Retreatist sub- double failures..drug users
Walter B Miller (Subcultural strain theory)
Focal concerns - middle class has its own autonomous subculture and norms
Evaluation Subcultural strain theory
Cohen- explains why ppl commit utilitarian crimes but assumes a M/C value consensus
Cloward and Ohlin - ignore crime of the wealthy by focusing on w/c, ignores wider social structures (law enforcers), boundary between subcultures is too established
Howard Becker (Labelling theory)
Ppl are labelled as deviant based on Gender, class and ethnicity. Laws are made by moral entrepreneurs. It creates outsiders (suddenly deviant ppl) and increased labelling
Lemert (Labelling theory)
Primary deviance: no witness no labelling
Secondary deviance: labelling, deviant career
Cicourel (Labelling theory)
Class bias:
Feds patrol w/c areas more due to stereotypes (selective law enforcement). M/c are more likely to negotiate their way out of punishment. (negotiation of justice)
Eg. Lavinia Woodward case
Jock Young (Labelling theory)
Moral panics (about drug takers)
Folk devils (drug takers)
Deviance amplification spiral (the harder Feds crack down the more organised drug crime)
Stanley Cohen (Labelling theory)
Supported Jock’s Moral panic and folks devil theory with his study “mods and rockers” involving teenagers at seaside
Braithwaite (Labelling theory)
+Reintegrative shaming: labels the act but not the actor, avoids stigmatisation, person apologises
-Disintegrative shaming: crime and criminal labelled as bad, offended excluded from society
Evaluation Labelling theory
+ explains deviant careers
+identifies the role of the powerful
-ignores victim
-ignores some may choose deviance
-Deterministic- deviant career is not inevitable
-doesn’t explain why do crime before labelling
-focuses on less serious crimes
Snider (Marxism)
Selective law enforcement:
Justice system is biased, protects businesses, w/c more criminalised than m/c
Chambliss (Marxism)
Selective law making:
Laws to protect private property are the cornerstone of capitalist economy. Burgeoisie has power to prevent laws against their interests
Pearce (Marxism)
Ideological functions:
Laws create false class consciousness, crime appears to be a working class phenomenon and divides the w/c who blames criminals for their problems rather than capitalism
Evaluation Marxism
+ gives a wider structural context
-ignores ethnicity and gender patterns of crime
-not all poor people commit crime: deterministic
-communist societies have crime
-left realists argue w/c commits and falls victims to most crime
-feds are professionals and need to comply
Taylor, Walton and Young (Neo-Marxism)
Traditional Marxism combined with labelling theory creates a fully social theory of deviance
Stuart Hall (Neo Marxism?)
Policing the crisis
Increase in muggings In London lead to more police racism, media outrage and division of w/c
Evaluation Neo-Marxism
-Hirst: it’s not proper Marxism
-Rock: romanticises criminals into Robin Hood figs
-feminists: male stream theory
-hard to apply to real world crime
-crime aint always politically motivated
Newburn (White collar and corporate crime)
Social construction of statistics makes w/c appear to be more involved in crime
Croall (White collar and corporate crime)
Invisibility of white collar and corporate crime
Sutherland (White collar and corporate crime)
White collar crime is committed by respectable people with high social status. Promotes distrust of key institutions (abuse of trust)
Sutherland fails to distinguish occupational and corporate crime
(White collar and corporate crime)
Invisibility of corporate crime due to:
Delabelling, lack of will to tackle it, the media, underreporting, complexity
Corporate crime (strain theory)
Box uses mertons strain theory to argue that company’s turn to illegitimate ways of maximising profit
Corporate crime (differential association)
Sutherland argues crime is learned behaviour from who we associate ourselves with
Corporate crime (labelling theory)
Nelken argues the m/c has the power to avoid labelling by affording lawyers and professionals
Corporate crime (Marxism)
Due to capitalisms goal being maximising profit, crime is inevitable and causes harm to employers and consumers
Hernstein & Wilson (Right Realism)
Biological differences make Indivuals more prone to commit crime. Examples: warrior gene
Murray (Right Realism)
Inadequate socialisation increases crime. Example: absentee fathers
Clarke (Right Realism)
Rational choice theory means criminals decide to commit based on rational calculation of consequences. If good outweighs bad they’ll do it
Tackling crime (Right Realism)
Zero tolerance policing (police patrols)
The broken window thesis- maintain orderly characteristics of neighbourhood(Wilson & Kelling)
Target hardening ( make it harder to commit)
Evaluation right realism
Rational choice theory: some ppl commit irrational
Biological factors: Marxists- fails to explain crimes committed out of necessity eg deprivation
Socialisation: too deterministic, assumes
Situational crime prevention:leads to crime displacement, ignores inequality n deprivation
Lea & Young (Left realism)
Relative deprivation leads to crime due to feeling resentment towards wealthy ppl
Lewis Et al, Young (Left realism)
Subcultures form and turn to crime, bulimic society means culturally included but social and economic exclusion
Marginalisation (Left Realism)
Marginalised groups lack clear goals and representation which leads to frustration and crime
Tackling crime (Left realism)
-Policing and control (90% of crime cleared due to the public, yet decrease in trusting the police)
-tackling structural causes by providing jobs for everyone, reduce inequality, incr equal opportuniy
Evaluation Left realism
-Material deprivation: many poor are law abiding and rich are committing white collar crime
-subcultures: not all are criminal
-Marginalisation: why is crime their outlet?
+turning potential criminals into tax payers
-more expensive than right realism
-Marxism: they tackle deprivation but not underlying structural inequality
