Crime and deviance - Theories of crime (mock only)

Question 1

Outline the basics of functionalist theory.

Answer 1

Society is based on shared values and norms known as the collective consciousness or the value consensus - this produces social solidarity and encourages members to cooperate. Society achieves social solidarity via socialisation (instilling shared values into members to help them internalise the value consensus) and social control (rewarding conformity and punishing deviance)

Question 2

Why might functionalists take issue with crime?

Answer 2

It is a threat to the social order if everyone did what they want and ignored the rules of the value consensus - inhibiting social solidarity.

Question 3

What do functionalists view crime as? Give a sociologist.

Answer 3

Too much is a problem but crime itself is an inevitable part of society; Durkheim (1893): “Crime is normal… an integral part of every society.”

Question 4

What are the two functionalist reasons why crime is inevitable?

Answer 4

• Not everyone in a society is equally socialised into the value consensus so some are prone to deviation
• In modern society, there is a complex diversity of lifestyles that lead to the development of subcultures and alternative views of what is normal

Question 5

Why did Durkheim see crime as especially prominent in modern society?

Answer 5

As the division of labour becomes more specialised, individuals become increasingly different from one another which leads to a weakened collective consciousness.

Question 6

What are the two main positive functions of crime for Durkheim?

Answer 6

• Boundary maintenance
• Adaptation and change

Question 7

According to Durkheim (1893), how does crime maintain boundaries? What is, therefore, the function of punishment?

Answer 7

Crime unites society in its condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforces the value consensus; as such, punishment serves as social control in its reinforcement of social solidarity.

Question 8

Cohen (1972) and ‘folk devils’:

Answer 8

The media ‘dramatizes evil’ and creates ‘folk devils’ to reaffirm the values of the law-abiding majority.

Question 9

How does crime serve the function of adaptation and change? Give an example.

Answer 9

Durkheim (1893) argued that for society to progress, there must be some level of deviation from the norm - if all new ideas are suppressed, society will necessarily stagnate. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967 but people doing it anyway is what led to its ultimate acceptance.

Question 10

What is the perfect amount of crime?

Answer 10

Goldilocks shit:
- Too much: threatens to inhibit social solidarity
- Too little: society is unable to progress

Question 11

Davis (1961) and the ‘safety valve’:

Answer 11

Prostitution serves as a release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.

Question 12

Polsky (1967) and pornography:

Answer 12

Pornography channels sexual desires away from more harmful alternatives like adultery and sexual violence.

Question 13

Cohen (1972) and a warning:

Answer 13

Deviance can show that an institution is not working properly; a school that as high truancy is failing to keep students interested and must change.

Question 14

Erikson (1966) and the function of the police:

Answer 14

If we take crime as performing positive functions, then the function of social control agencies isn’t to inhibit crime, it is too produce an adequate amount of crime for societies purposes.

Question 15

How is the functionalist perspective of crime useful?

Answer 15

It shows how crime can be both positive and beneficial for a society, showing how deviance can have latent functions.

Question 16

What are the 4 criticisms of the functionalist perspective of crime?

Answer 16

• Durkheim offers no way of knowing how much crime is ‘right’.
• Just because crime performs functions, it doesn’t actually why crime exists in the first place
• It analyses how crime is functional for society on the whole and and ignores its effect on individuals
• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity; hate crimes only harm inter-group relations.

Question 17

What is the main principle of labelling theory?

Answer 17

No act is inherently criminal, only when it is labelled as such; it is not the act, rather the reaction.

Question 18

Becker (1963) and the construction of deviance:

Answer 18

“Social groups create deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance.”

Question 19

Becker (1963) and ‘moral entrepreneurs’:

Answer 19

People who lead ‘moral crusades’ to have the law changed. This always leads to the creation of a new group of outsiders and the expansion of social control agencies.

Question 20

Platt (1969) and an example of moral entrepreneurs:

Answer 20

The idea of ‘juvenile delinquency’ was created by upper-class Victorian moral entrepreneurs to protect the young but only created a new class of outsiders (‘juveniles’) and the creation of status offences (crimes based on someone’s age like truancy).

Question 21

Piliavin and Briar (1964) and why someone gets labelled:

Answer 21

A officer’s decision to arrest someone depends on physical cues, like mannerisms, and personal characteristics, like race and class.

Question 22

Cicourel (1968) and the negotiation of justice:

Answer 22

Justice is not fixed but negotiable and who is prosecuted will be based on their ability to negotiate and the officer’s typifcations about what someone who commits that crime and deserves prosecution looks like; this is why the W/C are more likely to be prosecuted, not because they commit more crime.

Question 23

What is the labelling theorist perspective on how sociologists should use crime statistics?

Answer 23

Sociologists should not use crime statistics as a resource to prove their ideas, as the notion of crime is subjectively enforced based on typifications so gives no understanding
of group’s actual criminal behaviours; they should be used as topic for sociologists to investigate as it tells us about the typifications of social control agencies and how they label.

Question 24

What is the ‘dark figure of crime’?

Answer 24

Police crime statistics underestimate the amount of crime as much of it goes uncaught or unprosecuted due to the typifications of members of social control agencies. The ‘dark figure’ is the actual number.

Question 25

How do labelling theorists research the amount of crime? What’s the issue?

Answer 25

Self-report surveys and victim surveys give a more accurate idea as they ask the people involved in crime directly rather than looking at the filtered perceptions of control agencies. However, people may misrepresent their experiences with crime, minimising their own crimes or hyperbolising crimes committed to them.

Question 26

Lemert (1951) and the two types of deviance:

Answer 26

• Primary deviance: deviant acts that are not publicly labelled, not part of a deviant way of life so are easily rationalised and have little effect on the deviators identity.
• Secondary deviance: deviant acts that are the result of societal reaction to previous deviant acts and the internalisation of a ‘master status’ and leading to a deviant career.

Question 27

What is the process of secondary deviance for Lemert (1951)?

Answer 27

• Person commits a deviant act and is labelled as a deviant
• Person experiences stigmatisation due to label, many seeing them only based on it (master status)
• Person experiences a ‘crisis of self’ and may internalise the label as part of a ‘self fulfilling prophecy’
• Person goes onto commit ‘secondary deviance’ as a result of that internalisation and may join a deviant career or deviant subculture.

Question 28

Young (1971) and evidence of secondary deviance:

Answer 28

Young points to hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill who originally didn’t participate in drug use as a core lifestyle but after being labelled and stigmatised by the control culture (the police), retreated into their groups and developed a deviant subculture where drug use was more core.

Question 29

Downes and Rock (2003) and the inevitability of a deviant career:

Answer 29

It is ultimately up to the individual whether they will choose to deviate further so a deviant career is not inevitable.

Question 30

What is the deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 30

Labelling theorists describe a process whereby the attempt to control deviance only creates more of it, which in turn inspires more attempted control in an escalating spiral.

Question 31

Cohen’s (1972) ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’:

Answer 31

Cohen created the theory of the deviance amplification spiral based on the public response to the conflict between the mods and rockers gangs; the media blowing them way out of proportion till till moral entrepreneurs called for a ‘crackdown’ and labelled the mods and rockers as ‘folk devils’ which only inspired more deviance and around and around we go.

Question 32

Triplett (2000) and the failures of social control:

Answer 32

Evidence shows that increased attempts to control deviant behaviour, as labelling theorists argue, only leads to more; in America, increased stigmatisation of young offenders and their crimes has only led to higher offending rates.

Question 33

What is the wider implication of labelling theory on criminal justice policy?

Answer 33

We should enforce fewer softer rules so people are labelled less and don’t fall down the deviancy amplification spiral; decriminalising soft drugs would reduce the number of people who internalise labels like ‘junkie’ and fall into harder drugs - the gateway isn’t the drugs themselves, but the societal reaction.

Question 34

Braithwaite (1989) and shaming:

Answer 34

There are two types of negative labelling:
- Disintegrative shaming: labelling the act and the person; leads to secondary deviancy and deviance amplification spiral; negative
- Reintegrative shaming: labelling only the act; avoids stigmatising the offender (leading to secondary deviance) but still makes them aware of the negative impact f their actions; preferable, shown to decrease crime and reoffence

Question 35

How do Marxists agree and disagree with functionalists and labelling theorists?

Answer 35

• Functionalists: crime serves a function to a group; does it serve society or the bourgeoise?
• Labelling theorists: law is disproportionately enforced against the W/C and crime statistics cannot be trusted; labelling theory fails to examine the wider system that leads to that labelling

Question 36

What are the three main Marxist elements of crime?

Answer 36

• Criminogenic capitalism
• The state and law making
• Ideological functions of crime and law

Question 37

What does criminogenic capitalism mean? Give a sociologist.

Answer 37

Capitalism, by its very nature, causes and elicits crime.
Gordon (1976): crime is a natural response to the capitalists system and so is found in all social classes.

Question 38

How does capitalism cause working-class crime?

Answer 38

• Poverty may make crime the only feasible means of survival
• Capitalist-encouraged consumerism may cause people to commit crimes like theft to achieve those goals
• Alienation and disagency lead to frustration and aggression, leading to non-utilitarian crimes like assault

Question 39

How does capitalism cause capitalist crime? Give an example.

Answer 39

Capitalism is a dog-eat-dog system of ruthless competition that encourages a profit-only mindset - causing capitalists to commit tax evasion and breach of safety laws, costing the UK £190 billion a year. An example being the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh due to cracks that appeared the day before but were ignored.

Question 40

Chambliss (1975) and the state and law making:

Answer 40

Laws to protect property are the cornerstone of a capitalist society; an example of laws existing to assist the wealthy would be introduction of English law into East African colonies to force them to work on plantations or face prosecution.

Question 41

Snider (1993) and the state and law making:

Answer 41

The ruling class have the ability to prevent laws that would negatively affect their interests, specifically laws that threaten profitability.

Question 42

Pearce (1976) and the ideological function of law:

Answer 42

Sometimes laws are passed that appear to help the W/C but this only ‘gives a human face’ to an innately unredeemable system (capitalism), benefitting the ruling class by ensuring the people never rise up to overthrow the system entirely.

Question 43

How does crime divide the W/C?

Answer 43

Law is applied disproportionately to the W/C so causes the W/C will blame one another for societal issues and ignore the wider cause of both: capitalism.

Question 44

How is Marxist theory of crime helpful?

Answer 44

It shows how, even if not direct, crime can serve the interests of the ruling class and how selective enforcement can divide the W/C.

Question 45

What are the five criticisms of Marxist theory of crime?

Answer 45

• It largely ignores the role of non-class factors like race and gender
• It is deterministic and ignores W/C people that don’t commit crime despite the pressures of capitalism.
• Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates; Japan and Switzerland have 1/5 that of the US - though Marxists argue this is due to the lack of American welfare.
• The criminal justice system can serve the W/C - though Marxists argue this only legitimises the capitalist system
• Left-realists: Marxists ignore intra-class crime