Crime And Deviance Sociologists Flashcards
Althusser
The law is an ideological state apparatus which makes sure it remains normal to have some that are obscenely wealthy and others that are obscenely poor
Atkinson
Suicide statistics are a reflection of the coroners assumptions
Coroners hold a ‘common sense’ theory for classifying deaths as a suicide - eg is there a note, mode of death etc
Baldwin and Bottoms
Tipping - an area which is usually law obeying which turns into a rough area
Becker
Deviant career Labelling Master status Moral entrepreneurs Moral crusade Delinquent boyswere less likely to be charged if they cooperated and acted like 'good' boys
Bennet, Dilulio and Walters
Right realist
Crime is the result of growing up around deviant and criminal adults
Akers
Criticised labelling theory
- saying deviants are perfectly normal until labelled
Must be a reason why labels are applied to some and not others
Bordieu
Cultural capital
Bowbly
Deviance is due to a child’s early socialisation - maternal deprivation in early years
Bowling and Philips
High levels of poverty and social exclusion could explain why there is a high level of robbery amongst black people
Box
The ruling class have the power to block laws that aren’t in their interest
Brantingham
Cognitive maps
Carlen
Women commit crimes because they have no power at work or in their families
Chambliss
Laws that protect private property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy The ruling class have the power to prevent the introduction of laws that threaten their interests
Clarke
Right realists
Rational choice theory
Opportunity consists of two elements:
How attractive the target is - how much can be gained
How accessible it is- how easy it is to commit the crime
Clinard
When crime/deviance occurs it sends a message to us that societies social order is breaking down.
This prompts governments to do something
Crime is a warning sign to show there is something wrong, eg stealing shows things are too expensive
Cloward and Ohlin
3 types of subcultures
Conflict
Criminal
Retreatist
Cohen - general
Deviance allows people to let of steam in a relatively harmless way
We have many institutions and ways of stopping crime -police are only one of the agencies that try to limit crime
More crimes are arising and more organisations are needed to control them
More invisible forms of control- curfews, CCTV ect
Status frustration
Cohen - state crime
Three ways dictators end human rights violations
- it didn’t happen
- if it did happen, it is something else
- even if if is what you say it is, it’s justified
Cohen and Felson
Routine activity
- crimes are more likely to occur where day to day activities of victims and offenders cross and there is little chance of prevention of the crime
Davis
Crime and deviance can act as a safety valve - let of steam
Ditton and Mars
Many employees thought that it was a perk of the job and legitimate to steal from their workplace
Durkheim
Society shares a set of core values (collective conscience)
Crime allows social change to happen - forces society to think differently
Crime helps to maintain order - reaffirms the value consensus
Crime brings people together in their hatred of it
Durkheim suicide
Was the first to argue it was caused by social factors not individual personalities
Suicide rates varied between countries but overall were fairly stable
Suicide rates varied between groups
Definition: All causes of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative view of themselves, which they know will produce this result
Durkheim types of suicide
Egoistic- feels isolated from society and cut off
Altruistic- over integration of the individual into the social fold
Anomic- normally takes place when a big situation happens unexpectedly
Fatalistic - over regulation in society
Farmington and West
Offenders are more likely to come from poor backgrounds
Felson
Right realist
Crime needs 3 things - a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian
Offenders act rationality - a guardian will deter them
Informal guardians (community) more effective than formal ones
Florid 1982- after hurricane Andrew patrols to stop looting
Foucault
We need to change the thinking habits of criminals
Talked about the panopticon prison
Gilroy
Black crime, particularly in the 1970s, was a form of political resistance against a repressive, racist state
Denies that there was greater criminality amongst black people than white but the media created a folk devil of black people which generated deviance amplification
Croall
Defined white collar crime as crime committed in the course of legitimate employment, an abuse of an occupational role
Often doctors will falsify prescriptions and patient records to claim more funding from the NHS. One GP made over £700000 in 5 years by doing this
Goffman
Dramatetgical analogy
Gordon
Capitalism causes class inequalities in wealth, income, poverty, unemployment and homelessness