CRIME AND DEVIANCE - EXPLANATIONS Flashcards
What is the general functionalist view on crime?
The effects on the individual are not thought to be as important as the effect on society, so even behaviour which seems deviant and harmful to individuals may still be functional for society as a whole, if it serves a collective purpose and is inevitable in a healthy society
What does Durkheim argue about crime and deviance?
Argues that crime is higher in industrial cities because there is less social cohesion and solidarity as the community may not share the same norms and values and therefore there is more conflict
Crime is beneficial for society in these ways:
Provides boundary maintenance and social change as people learn the boundaries of what is acceptable behaviour through punishment from the agencies of social control
Promotes social solidarity by bringing together upright consciousness, as members of society need to feel a strong sense of belonging to society by reinforcing value consensus
Horrific crimes create shared outrage, horror, anger, fear or grief (eg July 2005 London Underground Bombings)
Prevents anomie, as long as the crime is punished - however, if society allows too much without punishment this can lead to a breakdown of social order (eg sudden change in government, disaster which leads of destruction of order, or major economic upheaval)
Deviance acts as a safety valve as it allows an individual or group to ‘let off steam’ to prevent worse deviance
How does Davis’ study support Durkheim?
Study on prostitution suggests that the goals of sexual behaviour in men are not inherently social, but societies need to restrict the morally acceptable expression of sexuality to the family context to promote the raising of children (eg prostitution is providing a safe outlet for sexual tensions in a way which is less threatening)
What are criticisms of Durkheim’s explanation?
Fails to explain why particular social groups commit crime and his explanation for rising crime is rather vague
Neglects the fact that some crimes (eg rape, child abuse, terrorism) are always dysfunctional for the victims
Marxists argue that he exaggerates the degree of consensus in societies and underestimates the level of conflict and inequality
Nevertheless, his theory has been influential and inspired other theories of crime
What is Merton’s strain theory?
The cultural goal is embedded in the ‘American Dream’ but the social structure fails to provide the means by which most people can achieve the cultural goal of material/monetary success
Therefore argues that individuals adapt to the strain in various ways:
Conformity - accepting the goals set out and agreed by society as well as the means to achieve them
Innovation - accepting the goals set out and agreed by society but choosing alternative means to achieve them
Ritualism - following the means to achieve the goals of society by never believe that you’ll actually achieve it
Retreatism - rejecting the goals and the means but do not replace them with their own goals or means
Rebellion - rejecting the goals of society and creating your own as well as the means of achieving them
What are criticisms of Merton’s strain theory?
Doesn’t explain why some people commit crime while others conform, retreat or rebel
Doesn’t explain why people commit crimes that don’t have an economic benefit such as violent and sexual crime
It is rare that people strive for only one cultural goal as people tend to set themselves a variety of goals that are personal to to them
White collar crime and corporate crimes arise from access to opportunities rather than the blocking of them, and Merton underestimates the amount of crime committed by the middle and upper class
What does Jock Young argue?
uses Merton’s ideas when he argues that much crime in modern societies is the result of the ‘bulimic society’ where pope living in the working class and ethnic minority communities are ‘starved’ of opportunities
What are the functionalist key names?
Durkheim, Davis’ study, Merton, Jock Young
What is the general subcultural view on crime and deviance?
Tend to accept the view of the ‘typical criminal’ from the official statistics of young, male and working class and they focus on the influence of the peer group on young people and the norms and values which may form within subcultures
What is Cohen’s view using status frustration?
Juvenile delinquency tends to be a non-utilitarian nature (has no economic benefit) and agrees with Merton that delinquency is caused by a strain between cultural goals and the means of achieving them
The main goal for young people is status or respect
Argues that working class boys are denied status at school because their parents have failed to equip them for educational success, consequently they get allocated to the bottom sets
Unable to acquire the knowledge and status of higher sets, meaning they leave school with few/no qualifications and then work in low paid jobs
These experiences result in low self-esteem, leaving them alienated and angry at their low status meaning they experience a form of anomie
Cohen calls this ‘status frustration’ which they respond to by developing gangs or subcultures where delinquent norms and values dominate
What is evaluation of Cohen’s view?
Fails to explain why most working class boys actually conform at school despite their educational failure
Neglects working class girls and assume they’re not involved in delinquency
Neglects the role of agencies of social control in the social construction of delinquency
Overgeneralized the nature of working class culture when in reality their lifestyles are diverse and varied
Fails to explain white collar crime
What does Miller argue?
claims that working class youth behave in a delinquent or criminal way because they are exaggerating behaviour which is valued by working class culture
Which is learnt from adult role models
Refers to working class values as ‘focal concerns’ and claims the ‘acting out’ of concerns brings working class youth into confrontation with authority figures such as teachers and police officers
What do Cloward and Ohlin argue about crime and deviance?
They see that the deviant are unable to achieve valued goals (such as success and money) through legitimate means and therefore innovate using illegitimate or deviant means
They identifies three types of illegitimate opportunity structures which produced three types of subculture:
Career criminals where gang members can access a hierarchy of criminal opportunities making money through criminal enterprises
They develop in more stable working class areas and are utilitarian crimes
Conflict subcultures are in more unstable, disorganised areas where youths turn to violence (violent crimes, gang warfares, mugging etc)
There tends to be a high rate of population turnover and lack of social cohesion
Retreatist subcultures involve youths who are unable to access success through mainstream values or through joining criminal/conflict subcultures so withdraw from society’s values altogether - ‘double failures’
Involves addiction and petty crimes
What does Hershie argue?
argues crime happens as a result of people not having a bond to their area
Can be used to support Cloward and Ohlin, and the conflict subculture
What are the key subcultural names?
Cohen, Miller, Cloward and Ohlin
What is cultural criminology and what are the key names?
Cultural criminology brings a postmodern view to an understanding of delinquent subcultures, seeing them as an expression of identity and resistance and power struggle
Ferrell, Katz, Lying, Presdee, Young
What does Ferrell argue?
cultural criminologist
explains that cultural criminology stresses the energy of everyday life crime is a result of anger, humiliation and exuberance excitement and fear rather than a rational decision process
What does Katz argue?
cultural criminologist
argues that young males commit crime for the pleasure of thrill that is derived from the risk of being caught or having power over others (refers to these thrills as transgressions)
What does Lying argue?
cultural criminologist
argues much of crime is ‘edgework’ as it is located on the edge, between the thrill of getting away with it and the potential danger of being punished
What does Presdee argue?
cultural criminologist
argues that postmodern societies have some sort of ‘carnival’ (a period in which young people can ‘let off steam’ and celebrate their deviance
The creeping criminalisation of everyday life provokes more deviance which is seen as attractive by the young because it’s risky and thrilling, and those in power regularly attempt to control this deviance
What does Young argue?
cultural criminologist
believes that working class deviance is about transgression, rebellion, risk-taking, anger and frustration as we are living in a ‘bulimic society’ where people are encouraged to worship success, money and status but systematically discluded from the realisation
What is evaluation of cultural criminology?
Matza suggested that subcultural theories have the following problems:
Only a minority of working class youth actually get into trouble with the police or join gangs
Generally, young people tend to drift in and out of delinquency but eventually grow out of it which subcultural theories ignore
When justifying/explaining their delinquency, Matza observes that young people rarely make reference to status frustration or the strain involved in attempting achieve material success
What does Gordon argue?
marxist
Argues that capitalism is characterised by class inequalities in the distribution of wealth and income, consequently, poverty, unemployment, low quality housing or homelessness, debt and food banks are ‘normal’ facts of life for those at the bottom
Also argues that the ideology of capitalism encourages criminal behaviour in all social classes, as it encourages a ‘dog eat dog’ system of ruthless competition
What does Althusser argue?
marxist
Argues that the law is an ideological state apparatus, which functions in the interests of capitalism to maintain the legitimate class inequalities in the following ways:
Ideological state apparatus: control the thoughts and ideas of the masses to make them compliant to ruling class ideology which is achieved through the media, family, education and religion
This makes the working class think society is fair and equal when actually they’re being exploited (reinforces false class consciousness)
Repressive state apparatus: control through force if the ISA fails to control the masses (eg the police, armed forces and the legal system)
The ISAs are used to show us those who are ‘deviant’ as a warning, and also to divide us, keep us scared and therefore justify the use of RSAs
What does Box argue?
marxist
Uses examples of theft and murder to illustrate the concept of crime as socially constructed by the powerful, and we are made to focus on working class crime so we ignore white collar crime
What does Chambliss argue?
marxist
Social class shapes the way that the police react to delinquency (more lenient to the upper class due to their status)
Capitalism is based on competition, selfishness and greed which shapes people’s attitudes toward crime
Observed that when young men from middle class backgrounds (saints) behaved in deviant ways, they were able to use their status and reputation to negotiate their way out of trouble, whereas working class delinquents (roughnecks) were constantly under surveillance and were treated more harshly
What are the marxist key names?
Gordon, Althusser, Chambliss, Box
What is evaluation of marxism?
Ignores the relationship between crime and important non-class variables, such as ethnicity, age and gender
Too deterministic and over-predicting working class crime - doesn’t explain why not all poor people commit crime despite the pressures of living in a capitalist society
The criminal justice system does sometimes act against the interests of the capitalist class, for example corperate crime is punished now and again
Eg in 2010-2011, Members of Parliament were prosecuted and imprisoned because of a parliamentary expenses scandal
Some marxists suggest that the occasional prosecution of the rich and powerful functions in an ideological way to falsely persuade people that all criminals, regardless of social background, are punished and therefore reinforced to think the system is fair
What is Neo-marxism, and what are the key names?
Sociologists who have been influenced by many of the ideas of traditional Marxism, which they combine with ideas of other approaches, for example labelling theory
Cohen (Birmingham University Centre for contemporary cultural studies), Hall, Taylor, Walton and Young
What did Cohen find from the Neo-marxist view?
Birmingham University Centre for contemporary cultural studies
Produced accounts of ‘spectacular’ youth subcultures including teddy boys, mods, skinheads and punks - focused on the issues such as identity, style and societal reactions whilst recognising the significance of the socio-economic backgrounds
Argued that the attitudes and styles of each subculture could be sees as expressions of resistance against capitalist society and class inequalities
What did Hall argue?
Neo-marxist - policing the crisis
Claims that the mass media also works on behalf of the capitalist class by stereotyping working class and black people as members of a criminal underclass and creating moral panics
This attempts to justify the government bringing in more laws and officers to control them
What did Taylor, Walton and Young argue?
Neo-marxist
Argue that a ‘fully social theory of crime’ must consider the structure of capitalist society, the way it operates for the benefit of the ruling class and the individuals involved in deviance
Suggests that an individual’s class position may lead to the desire to resist and fight back against the capitalist system
What is the right wing view of crime, and what are the key names?
Equality is not possible or desirable - you get what you work for and it’s up to the individual to put in the time and effort
The state shouldn’t intervene and people should take responsibility for their actions
Poor socialisation and bad choices lead to the wrong norms and values being followed
Murray, Clarke, Hirschi, Wilson, Wilson and Kelling
What did Murray argue?
right wing view
The growth of crime is due to the growing underclass - has grown due to welfare dependency
Lone mothers’ sons turn to other delinquent males for role models, creating a criminal subculture
Girls without fathers may be emotionally damaged and search for a father substitute, getting pregnant at an early age
What did Clarke argue?
right wing view - rational choice theory
Criminals have made a rational choice to commit crime
They’ve weighed up the benefits and risks to rationalise whether it’s worth it
Therefore, crime will increase if there are high benefits and no risks
What did Hirschi argue?
right wing view - control theory
Most people are too well integrated into society and it’s norms and values, so have too much to lose if they commit crime
Those who don’t have a strong ‘social bond’ are more likely to commit crime
There are four controls:
Attachment: relates to being attached to others in society (eg family) and caring about them and what they think
Commitment: this is about having responsibilities, such as a job and house
Involvement: refers to being part of a community, and being too busy and occupied to consider deviance
Belief: involved subscribing to a common value system within a culture, including religious beliefs, but also general morals and values
These four controls prevent many people from turning to crime, and as people get older they begin to acquire these controls
This explains why younger people commit more crime, as they haven’t got a ‘social bond’ yet
