crime and deviance sociologists/studies Flashcards
Durkheim (boundary maintenance)
crime produces a reaction from society uniting its members against the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment to the shared norms and values.
Kingsley Davis (functionalist) safety valve
argues that prostitution acts as a ‘safety valve’ for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without the monogamous nuclear family.
Robert K Merton (functionalist) strain theory
argues that people engage in deviant behavior when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
Albert K Cohen (functionalist) status frustration
Cohen focuses on deviance among working class boys. They suffer from cultural deprivation and lack of skills to achieve. As a result of being unable to achieve by legitimate means, the boys suffer from status frustration. They resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream middle class values and turn to other boys in a similar situation to create a deviant subculture.
Cloward and Ohlin (functionalist) criminal subcultures
Provides youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarianism crime. This allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right attitudes and provide opportunity.
Cloward and Ohlin (functionalist) conflict subcultures
Arises in areas with high population turnover. This results in high levels of social disorganisation and prevents a stable criminal network from developing. Its absence means that only illegitimate opportunities are available within loosely organised gangs.
Cloward and Ohlin (functionalist) retreatist subcultures
Those who are unable to succeed legitimately and illegitimately are labelled as ‘double failures’. According to Cloward and Ohlin, many turn to retreatist subculture based on illegal drug use.
Howard Becker (interactionist) labeling theory
Argues that no act is inherently criminal or deviant itself, instead it only becomes so when others label it as such. He states, a deviant is simply someone the label has been successfully applied, and deviant behavior is the behavior people so label.
Cicourel (interactionist) negotiation of justice
He argues that justice is not fixed but negotiable. For example, when a middle class youth is arrested, he was less likely to be charged.
Edwin Lemert (interactionist) primary deviance
Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled. Lemert argues that it is pointless to seek the causes of primary deviance, since it is so widespread it is unlikely to have a single cause, and in any case is often trivial (e.g fare dodging ) and mostly goes uncaught.
John Braithwaite (interactionist) reintegrative and disintergrative shaming
Disintegrative Shaming – where not only the crime, but also the criminal are labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society. Reintegrative Shaming – by contrast, labels the act as bad but not the actor. As if to say ‘he has done a bad thing’ rather than ‘he is a bad person’
Edwin Sutherland (interactionist) white collar crime
White collar crime was defined as ‘ a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation’
James wilson and Hernstein (right realists) biological differences
put forward a theory that crime is caused by biological and social factors. Biological differences make some people more strongly predisposed to commit more crime and others. E.g aggressiveness, risk taking and low impulse control
Ron clarke (right reaist) rational choice theory
Argues that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences. If the perceived rewards of the crime outweighs the perceived costs, or if the rewards of crime appear to be greater than those of non criminal behavior, people will be likely to offend.
James Wilson and Kelling (right realist) zero tolerance
Argue that its essential to prevent crime taking hold. They advocate a zero tolerance policy towards undesirable behavior such as prostitution, begging and drunkness so law abiding citizens feel safe.
Lea and Young (left realists) relative deprivation, subcultures and marginalisation
Relative Deprivation - Crime occurs when people feel deprived compared to others. Subculture - some groups develop subcultures as a response to relative deprivation. These subcultures provide alternative ways (sometimes criminal) to gain status and resources. Marginalisation - Some groups, especially young people and ethnic minorities, feel pushed to the edges of society.Without clear goals or political representation, they may turn to crime and violence as a way to express frustration.
Otto Pallak (functionalist) chivalry thesis
The chivalry thesis argues that the criminal justice system is more lenient towards women because police officers, judges, and other legal officials—who are mostly men—hold chivalrous attitudes toward women. This results in women being less likely to be arrested, charged, or given harsh punishments compared to men for the same crimes.
Heidensohn (femenist) bias against women
argues the courts treat females more harshly than males when they deviate from gender norms. E.g when women who dont conform to accepted standards of heterosexuality and motherhood are punished more harshly.
Talcott Parsons (functionalist) lack of male role models
While the father performs the role of the breadwinner he is usually absent from the home leving the socialsation of the children to the mother. The lack of male role models can lead to boys turning to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity.
Heidensohn (femenist) patriarchal control
Women commit less crime because patriarchal society imposes greater control over women, reducing opportunity to offend.
Freda Alter (femenist) liberation thesis
Argues that as women become liberated from patriarchy, their crimes will become as frequent and as serious as mens.
Chesney Lind (femenist) critcisms of liberation thesis
Found that when women branched into crimes that were typically committed by men, such as drug dealing, this was usually because of their link with prostitution - a very unliberated female offence.
Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall (neo marxist) black criminality is a myth
They believe official statistics do not reflect reality. They believe that these differences in offending are the process of social construction that stereotypes ethnic minority as inherently more criminal than the majority population.
Jock and Young (left realist) news values and crime coverage
The distorted picture of crime painted by the news media reflects that news is a social construction. It is the outcome of a social process in which some stories are selected while others are rejected. ‘News is not discovered, but manufactured’
Nigel South (marxist) primary and secondary green crime
Primary green crime- crimes that directly harm the environment e.g deforestation, pollution, and poaching. Secondary green crime- crimes that result from breaking laws or regulations meant to prevent environmental harm.E.g violence acts against environmental activists or illegal dumping of toxic waste.
Dukheim (functionalist) retributive justice
Retributive justice- found in traditional societies, where people share similar values, beliefs and lifestyles. Crime is seen as an offence to the collective conscience, leading to harsh punitive punishments. The aim is is revenge and deterrence, ensuring social cohesion by reinforcing moral boundaries.
Durkheim (functionalist) Restitutive justice
Found in modern societies, where people have specialised roles and interdependence. Crime disrupts the social order, the focus is on restoring balance rather than revenge. Punishment is more about compensation, rehabilitation and legal restitution.
Melossi and Pavarini (marxist) function of punishment
They see the function of punishment as a way to maintain the existing inequality between the bourgoisie and proleteriat. They see imprisonment as reflecting capitalist relations of production e.g the prison and the capitalist factory have a similar disciplinary style, involving subordination and loss of liberty
Edwin Lemert (interactionist) secondary deviance
Secondary deviance is the result of societal reaction - that is, labeling. Being caught and publicly labeled as a criminal can involve being shamed, humiliated and excluded from normal society. Once an individual is labelled, others may only see them only in terms of this label. This becomes their ‘master status’ overriding all others.
