Crime and Deviance

Question 1

Durkheim functionalist theory

Answer 1

While functionality’s see too much crime as destabilising society, they also see crime as inevitable and universal.

1. Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values, individuals will be prone to deviance.
2. There is a diversity of lifestyle and values. Different groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values.

Question 2

Anomie/ normlessness

Answer 2

The rules governing behaviour becomes weaker and less clear cut. This is because modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another.

Question 3

Durkheims two positive functions of crime

Answer 3

1. Boundary maintenance: crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in condemnation of the wrongdoer. Punishment reinforces social solidarity. Publicly shaming them.
2. Adaptation and change: all change start with an act of deviance.

Davis: prostitution act as a safety valve for the release of men’s sexual frustration without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.
Polsky: pornography safely channels a variety of sexual desires away from alternative.

Question 4

Mertons strain theory

Answer 4

Strain theory argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. They may become frustrated and resort to criminal means of getting what they want.

Question 5

What 2 things for Merton is the result of strain between:

Answer 5

1. The goal that a culture encourages individuals to achieve.
2. What the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately.

Question 6

The American Dream

Answer 6

Americans are expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means: self discipline, study, educational qualifications and hard work in a career. However the reality is different: many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately.
Block opportunities for many ethnic minorities and the lower class.

Question 7

Criticisms of Durkheim functionalist theory

Answer 7

For Durkheim society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully, but he offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount.

Functionalists look at what functions crime serves for society as a whole and ignores how it might affect different groups or individuals within society.

Question 8

5 different types of adaptations to strain

Answer 8

1. Conformity ++
2. Innovation +-
3. Ritualism -+
4. Retreatism - -
5. Rebellion-+ -+

Question 9

Evaluation of Merton

Answer 9

Merton shows how normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goals.
However, it over represent wc crime, Merton sees crime as a mainly wc phenomenon. Too deterministic
Marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class

Question 10

Subcultural strain theories

Answer 10

Subculture strain theories see deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society. Provides alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied the chance to achieve by legitimate means. Critics and builds on Mertons theory.

Question 11

Cohen: status frustration

Answer 11

Cohen focuses on deviance among Wc boys. They face anomie in the mc dominated school system. The boys reject mainstream mc values and turn instead to other boys in the same situation forming a delinquent subculture. Win status from their peer through their delinquent actions.

Question 12

Evaluation of Cohen’s theory

Answer 12

A strength is that it offers an explanation of non utilitarian deviance.
Like Merton, Cohen assumes that wc boys starts off by sharing mc success goal, he ignores the possibility that they didn’t share these goals in the first place.

Question 13

Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures

Answer 13

Cloward and Ohlin attempts to explain why different subculture responses occur. In their view the key reason is unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure. Different neighbourhoods provides different illegitimate opportunities for young people.

1. Criminal subculture
2. Conflict subcultures
3. Retreatist subcul

Question 14

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin

Answer 14

They agree with Merton and Cohen that most crime is wc, thus ignoring crimes of the wealthy.
Their theory over predicts the amount of wc crime

Question 15

Labelling theorists

Answer 15

They ask how and why some people and actions are labelled as criminal or deviance, and what effects this has on those who are so labelled. They are interested in interactions between law agents and suspects derived from interactionist perspective, which focuses on how thought micro-level, face to face interactions as negotiations.

Question 16

Durkheim functionalist theory of crime

Answer 16

He sees crime as a normal part of all health societies as some individuals are inadequately socialise and prone to deviant. In modern society the diversity of subculture means the rules of behaviour become less clear.

Crime fulfils 2 things:

1. Boundary maintenance: crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members its members against the wrongdoers
2. Adaptation and change: all changes starts as deviance

Question 17

Cicourel: Typifications

Answer 17

Argue that police use typification (stereotypes) of the “typical delinquent” individual fitting the typification are more Lilly to be stopped,arrested and charged:
Wc and ethnic minority juveniles are more Lilly to be arrested
Mc juveniles are less likely to fit the typification

Question 18

Lemert: Secondary deviance

Answer 18

Argues that, by labelling certain people as deviant, society actually encourages them to become more so: societal reaction causes “secondary deviance.

Question 19

Primary deviant

Answer 19

Is deviant act that have not been publicly labelled, are often trivial and often go uncaught. Although, secondary deviance results from societal reaction, ie. labelling. Labelling someone as an offender can involve stigmatising and excluding them from the normal society. Others may see the offender solely in terms of the label, which becomes the individuals master statues.

Question 20

Young’s study of hippy marijuana users

Answer 20

Illustrates how labelling can provoke crisis for the individuals self concept and lead to them joining a deviant subculture which reinforces a deviant career. Drug use was initially peripheral to the hippies lifestyle, but police persecution of them as junkies led them to retreat into closed groups, developing a deviant sub culture where drug uses became a central activity .

Question 21

The 3 different crime prevention and control

Answer 21

There are several approaches to crime prevention. These raise the issue of social control to capacity of society to regulate behaviour.

1. Situational crime prevention: are pre-emptive approach that relies on reducing opportunities for crime.
2. Environmental crime prevention: Wilson and Kelling argue that “broken windows” that are not dealt with send out a signal that no one cares,prompting a spiral of decline.
3. Social and community crime prevention: these strategies emphasis dealing with the social condition that predispose some individuals to future crime eg. Poverty.

Question 22

Foucault: The panopticon

Answer 22

The panopticon is a prison design where prisoners cells are visible to the guards, but the guards are not visible to the prisoners. The prisoners have to constantly behave.

Question 23

Marxism: capitalism and punishment

Answer 23

Punishment is part of the “repressive state apparatus” that defends ruling class property against the lower class.

Question 24

Define Victim

Answer 24

Is those who have suffered harm eg. Physical or emotional suffering, economic loss through acts that violates the laws of the state. However, Christie argues that “victims” is a socially constructed category.

Question 25

Positivist victimology

Answer 25

Focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence. It seems patterns in victimisation and aims to identify the characteristics of victims that contribute to their victimisation.

Question 26

Critical victimology

Answer 26

Structural factors eg. Patriarchy and poverty, places powerless groups such as women and the poor at greater risk of victimisation.