Crime and deviance Flashcards
examples of how deviance differs over time
-Up to 300 years ago, witches were burned at the stake in many European countries
-In the Uk the death penalty was only abolished in 1969 but 58 counties still use it
-Free schooling(has only been provided in this country for the past 60 years)
Examples of how deviance differs over space
In many countries of the world , polygamy, having several wives or more rarely several husbands is common
-Fir Hopi Indians it is common sense to perform a rain dance
What do functionalists believe about deviance?
They argue that traditional societies we’re held together on a strong religiously based ‘,conscience collectif’ which impeded deviant behavior and that Industrial societies on the other hand are characterised by urbanization.
What is collectif consciousness?
he set of shared beliefs, Jess and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.-Durkheim
What do functionalists believe about crime?
-Crime is the inevitable
-Crime is functional
-believe crime is the product of inadequate socialization into society’s shared culture
-Different groups and classes may develop their own separate subcultures
Why is crime inevitable according to Durkheim?
He argued that crime is inevitable because not every member of society can be equally committed to the collective sentiments of society- imagined a ‘society of saints’ in which there might be no murder or robbery but there would still be deviance because the general standards of behaviour would be so high that the slightest slip would be regarded as a serious offence.
Why is crime functional according to functionalist view?
-A limited amount of crime is necessary and beneficial to society so much that society couldn’t exist without some form of deviance but to much is bad for society as it can bring about its collapse
According to Durkheim, why is crime beneficial to society?
-It strengthens collective values
-It enables social change:
-It acts as a safety valve
-It acts as a warning device that society is not property
How does crime strengthen collective values?
-Values can waste away unless people are reminded of the boundaries between right and wrong behaviour.The media often carry dramatic stories of crime and deviance which spark a sense of public outrage against the acts or groups concerned.
How does crime enable social change
Some deviance is necessary to allow new ideas to develop and enable society to change and progress
How does crime act as a safety valve?
-Deviance can release stress in society (e.g. mass violent protest demonstrations might be seen as an outlet for expressions of discontent avoiding wider and more serious challenges to social order
What does Kingsley davis (1961) say?
Argues that prostitution acts as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family
How does crime acts as a warning device that society is not property?
E.g. High rates of suicide, truancy from school, drug addiction, divorce and crime point to underlying social problems that need solving before serious threats to social order develop
Criticism of Durkheim
-Durkheim fails to explain just how much deviance is required for a society to function and fails to distinguish between types of crime-some acts will be more harmful to society than others
-He claims that crime has positive functions but this doesn’t explain why there is crime in the first place don’t usually commit deviant acts in order to make society better
What is strain theory?
Used concept of anomie, but thought it was to vague in its original form, so altered it to mean a society where there is a disjunction between means and goals
Merton’s theory is a strain as it assumes that there is a personal strain between goals and means to achieve them
What does Merton believe?
-Anomie occurred because people could not realise the goals of American society
-Strain between what people want, what they can realistically achieve, and how they attain their goal
-The American dream became an obsession
-materialism is taken to such an extreme within the value consensus that it caused a state anomie
Criticisms of Merton
Cohen argues that Deviance is not only committed by individuals, often it is committed by groups.
-He says Merton focuses only on material crime, ignoring crimes such as vandalism and assault, which may not have an economic motive
Explain Cohens delinquent subculture
Cohen (1955) argued that working-class boys, frustrated by failure to achieve status through legitimate means, reject mainstream values and form delinquent subcultures. These subcultures offer respect through non-financial crimes like vandalism and joyriding, as a reaction to blocked opportunities and status frustration.
What does cloward and Ohlin believe?
-They see lower working class delinquents as sharing their own deviant subcultural values
-they explain working class crime in terms of goals and means but they disagree with merton that delinquents share the same values/goals as the rest of society because of clocked opportunities they can’t get on legitimately
so they develop an illegitimate career structure
Cloward and Ohlin 1961: 2nd subcultural theory
Different neighborhoods influence the types of deviant behavior that develop. Limited or unequal access to both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities leads to three types of subcultures:
-Criminal subcultures
-Conflict subcultures
Retreatist subcultures
what are criminal subcultures?
long established subculture of crime and doing utilitarian crimes for money.
what are conflict subcultures
mainly gang warfares and are usually areas with a high population turnover.
What are retreatsist subcultures
people that are drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitution etc-double failures.
What does winlow believe?
Globalisation led to a de-industrialised society taking away traditional masculine jobs.
-In response, some young men assert masculinity in nightlife roles like bouncers, using violence and crime. Winlow says this shift marks a move from conflict to criminal subcultures.
What does Miller believe?
-Argues the working class has its own subculture with unique values passed down generations, which encourage crime- include toughness , smartness , and excitement which lead to risky, criminal behavior, as lower-class men express identity through violence, conning, and adventure.
Criticism of miller
Matza :argues that delinquent behavior is directed by suburban values that are found throughout society and are only expressed in particular situation and that delinquents are not very different from other people and they drift in and out of delinquency.
-Their delinquent acts are casual and intermittent rather than a way of life, proven by the fact that most young people have little difficulty giving up delinquent activities as they grow older
explain the view of labelling theory
Labeling theory, rejects the view that O.S. are a useful source to show which class commits most crimes and Instead of seeking to find the causes of working class crime, they try to establish how and why working class people come to be labelled as criminals.
~What does Jock young say:
- argued that lower working class live in a bulimic society, a society constantly exposed to the material goods taken for granted by most of the population, but unable to consume them.
-This is ‘a society where both inclusion and exclusion occur simultaneously: a bulimic society is where massive cultural inclusion is accompanied by systematic structural exclusion’
