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
Gouldner
Criticises labelling theory
- fail to provide any real changes to the status quo
- just criticise psychiatrist, police officers and doctors for their role in labelling
Hall and Chambliss
The criminal justice system only reflects the ruling class
Heidensohn
Women have more to lose if they deviate from the norms
Women are controlled in their lives which prevents them from committing crimes
The criminal justice system is male dominated
Canteen culture
Henry and Millcanovic
Accepts the definition of street crime being committed by the poor rather than the damage that is done to the poor by powerful groups
Ignores corporate crime
Herrnstein and Murray
Right realists
The main cause if crime is low intelligence which they see as biologically determined
Hirschi
Crime occurs when peoples attachment to society is broken
4 bonds that connect people to society
- attachment - care about others wishes and opinions
- commitment - what we have to lose
- involvement - less time to commit crimes - jobs, family
- belief - believe rules should not be broken
Hirschi and Gottfredson
Social bonds were not enough to suggest why some people commit crimes - opportunity also matters
Hobbs
Night time economy - entertainment industry at night - pubs, fights, clubs, nights in cells
Katz
Postmodernist
It is not a process of rejection that leads to crime, it is because it is thrilling
Kinsey, Lea and Young
Left realists
Police clear up rates are too low to act as a deterrent to crime
Police spend too little time investigating crime
Lea and Young
Left realists
3 causes of crime - relative deprivation, subcultures, marginalisation
Lemert
Primary and secondary deviance
Kelman and Hamilton
Features that produce crimes of obedience
- Authorisation - ordered by someone in a higher authority
- Routinisation - crime becomes routine - can be done in a detached manor
- Dehumanisation - enemy of the state portrayed as sub human
Lombrosso
Criminals had biological characteristics which were the outward signs of an inborn criminal nature
Lyng
Young males engage in edgework - going to the edge of acceptable behaviour
Maffesoli
Subcultural theories place too much emphasis on groups sharing values
Subcultures are fluid flexible States of mind or lifestyle
Deviant values are less important than values like consumption and individual identity
Maguire
Only around 3% of all crimes in England and Wales ends with a conviction
As such we don’t have reliable evidence about who is committing offences and therefore our image of offenders is heavily biased
Mannheim
The law protects private property and therefore protects the wealth and profit of the rich/ruling class Criminal law is an alliance between corporate business and the state
Matza
Techniques of neutralisation
- subterranean values
McLaughlin
4 categories of state crime
- Political crimes - corruption/censorship
- Crimes by security/police forces - genocide, torture
- Economic crimes -
- Social and cultural crimes - racism
McRobbie and Thornton
Moral panics are outdated
Merton
Strain theory - there was a strain or conflict between the cultural goals of American society and the opportunities or means to achieve these goals in the social structure
American Dream fake
5 responses to this - conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion
Messerschmidt
Rejects biological theory - men are biologically/genetically more violent
Rejects sex role theory - men/woman taught gender roles as children
Masculinity is shaped by social class, age, ethnicity and sexual orientation
Hegemonic masculinity - the ideal way of being a man
Subordinate masculinity- any other way of being a man
Criminal behaviour is a way of asserting masculinity when other ways are unavailable
Miller
Folkal concerns - lower class have their own values which encourage them to break the law
Moore
The police play a very significant part in the social construction of crime and deviance because it is they who record reported crime
Moore, Aiken and Chapman
See the police as filters, only recording some of the crimes reported to them
Morris
Found no evidence of people living in certain areas holding a different set of values
Murray
There is an underclass who:
Have no desire for employment
Have a string of short term partners
Bear children outside of serious relationships
This creates generations who don’t care about the values of society
Murray - realism
Right realist
Crime is rising due to the growth of an underclass
Park and Burgess
Explain crime by suggesting that it is linked to the environment, making a comparison to ‘plant communities’ they highlighted how some gardens get invaded by weeds - this was linked to the idea that certain types of areas in society are likely to experience high levels of crime
Plummer
Societal deviance is what the dominant ideology of society considers wrong
Situational deviance depends on the time and place - an act may be deviant in one setting and not in another
Reiner
Canteen culture
Rosenthal and Jacobson
Self fulfilling prophecy
Putnam
Social Capitol
Runciman
Relative deprivation - someone feels deprived in relation to others or compared their own expectations
Shaw and McKay
Concentric zones
Zone of transition
Social disorganisation
Cultural transmission theory
Shearing and Stening
Public areas are controlled by companies who use the police to exclude the undesirables (cctv)
Slapper and Tombs
6 main types of corporate crime Paperwork and non-compliance Labour law violations Unfair trade practices Financial offences Manufacturing offences Environmental 'green' crime
Sutherland
Differential association - if you are friends with law breakers you are more likely to be one
Snider
The capitalist stare is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
Sutherland and cressey
Differential association concept- more likely to commit crimes if you are around people that support lawbreaking
Taylor
Fruit machine analogy
Looked at cases of suicide at a tube station
Factors that make dioxide more likely: a history of mental illness, social failure, no reason to be there etc
Valier
Criticised Merton’s strain theory
We all have a variety of goals that we strive for at any one time
Taylor Walton and Young
The only way to get rid of crime is to get rid of capitalism
Wilkins
When acts are defined as deviant, the deviants are stigmatised and isolated from mainstream society
- they become aware they are deviants so develop their own subculture
- leads to further isolation and therefore deviance
Wilson and Kelling
Right realist
Broken window theory
Wilson and Herrnstein
Right realists
Biosocial theory of crime
Biological differences make some people more predisposed to crime - aggression, risk taking
Young
Left realist
Not more crime but more people reporting crime - not true
Relative deprivation and individualism are a lethal combination that lead to crime
Laws have been created, often quickly and without forethought, in response to moral panics or political events, eg laws against terrorism
