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Sociology - Crime & Deviance > Crime, Deviance, Social Order & Social Control > Flashcards

Crime, Deviance, Social Order & Social Control Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

Crime & Deviance

A
  • Crime: Behaviour which breaks the law and is punished by the legal system.
  • Deviance: Behaviour which goes against the norms, values and expectations of a social group or society.
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2
Q

Socially Constructed

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• Created by social processes, rather than occurring naturally. Crime and deviance are socially constructed.

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3
Q

Historical & Cultural Crimes

A
  • Historical: Homosexuality was a crime until 1967.

* Cultural: Polygamy is illegal in UK but not elsewhere.

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4
Q

Situation Dependent

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• Crime and deviance are situation dependent e.g. stabbing someone is illegal but stabbing someone during war isn’t.

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5
Q

Plummer (1979)

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• Made a distinction between situational and societal deviance.

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6
Q

Societal Deviance

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• Acts that are seen by most members of society as deviant in most situations e.g. kicking a dog.

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7
Q

Situational Deviance

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• Acts that are only defined deviant in certain situations e.g. being naked at home vs in the middle of the street.

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8
Q

Social Control

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• Various methods used to persuade or force individuals to conform to the dominant social norms and values of a society or group.

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9
Q

Socialisation (Durkheim)

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• Instilling the shared culture into members - internalise same norms and values and feel as though they should act in the way society requires.

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10
Q

Social Control (Durkheim)

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• Rewards for conformity and punishments for deviance.

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11
Q

The Inevitability of Crime (Durkheim)

A

• Functionalists - deviance = inevitable and beneficial. Two reasons for it:

  • Not everyone is socialised adequately.
  • There’s a diversity of lifestyles and values.
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12
Q

Anomie (Durkheim)

A
  • Anomie = lack of social/ethical standards in an individual or group.
  • DURKHEIM - it occurs in modern societies. Rules governing behaviour are weaker, weakening collective conscience and causing deviance.
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13
Q

Positive Function of Crime: Boundary Maintenance (Durkheim)

A
  • Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting members in condemnation. This reinforces their commitment to shared values.
  • DURKHEIM believes the purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity.
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14
Q

Positive Function of Crime: Adaptation and Change (Durkheim)

A
  • Deviance allows for social change to occur. There’s scope for people to challenge and change existing norms and values.
  • DURKHEIM and other functionalists argue society must change to remain healthy and stable.
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15
Q

Dysfunctional Crime (Durkheim)

A
  • Too much crime = no social order

* Too little crime = no social change

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16
Q

Positive Function of Crime: Safety Value

A
  • Deviance can release stresses in society.
  • DAVIS argues prostitution is a safety value for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.
  • POLSKY argues porn channels a variety of sexual desires away from adultery.
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17
Q

Positive Function of Crime: Warning Device

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• A.COHEN argued deviant behaviour such as protests and truancy is used as a warning device by society to identify emerging social problems.

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18
Q

Strengths of Durkheim’s Positive Functions of Crime

A
  • Offers a realistic explanation of crime
  • Adds to our knowledge
  • Tries to be optimistic
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19
Q

Criticisms of Durkheim’s Positive Functions of Crime

A
  • DURKHEIM says society needs certain amount of deviance to function successfully - doesn’t offer a way of knowing how much is the right amount.
  • Society didn’t create crime for these functions.
  • Ignores how crime affects people - Punishment functional for society but not for the victim or their family.
  • Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity e.g. women may not leave their homes for fear of an attack.
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20
Q

Strain Theory

A

• People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.

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21
Q

Merton’s Strain Theory

A

• MERTON adapted DURKHEIM’S theory. It combines:
- Structural factors - society’s unequal opportunity structure.
- Cultural factors - strong emphasis on success.
• Deviance is thought to be the result of strain between the two factors.

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22
Q

The American Dream

A
  • American culture values ‘money success’.
  • Americans expected to pursue goal by legitimate means - society is meritocratic.
  • Disadvantaged groups denied opportunities to achieve legitimately.
  • Creates strain which produces frustration which then creates pressure to deviate.
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23
Q

Deviant Adaptations to Strain

A
  • MERTON - individual’s position in the social structure affects the way they respond to the strain of anomie.
  • Types of adaptation to strain are dependent on whether an individual accepts, rejects or replaces approved cultural goals.
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24
Q

Five Adaptations

A
  • Conformity - People achieve cultural goals legitimately.
  • Innovation - People who fail at standard route deviate.
  • Ritualism - People who can’t achieve goals and don’t try.
  • Retreatism - People reject the main cultural goals and retreat from society e.g. drop out of school.
  • Rebellion - People reject the goals and rebel to change them.
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25
Q

Strengths of Merton’s Strain Theory

A
  • Merton explains how normal and deviant behaviour arises from mainstream goals.
  • It has had an influence on later theories.
  • MESSNER + ROSENFELD (2001) - In societies based on free-market capitalism and lacking adequate welfare provision, high crime rates are inevitable.
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26
Q

Criticisms of Merton’s Strain Theory

A
  • It takes crime statistics at face value.
  • Marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class.
  • It assumes there’s a value consensus for ‘money success’.
  • It only accounts for utilitarian crime.
  • It ignores the role of group deviance.
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27
Q

Subcultural Strain Theories

A
  • They see deviance as the product of delinquent subcultures with different values from mainstream society.
  • These subcultures provide an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied access to achieve.
  • They are a solution to a problem and are functional for its members.
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28
Q

Status Frustration (A.K. Cohen)

A

• Agrees with MERTON that deviance is a lower-class phenomenon - they can’t achieve goals legitimately.
• He criticises MERTON for:
- Seeing deviance as an individual response.
- Focusing on utilitarian crime.
• He argues anomie in the MC school system causes WC boys to suffer status frustration. They resolve this by rejecting values and turning to other boys in the same situation.

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29
Q

Alternative Status Hierarchy

A
  • The delinquent subculture inverts the value of mainstream society - what society condemns, the subculture praises.
  • The subculture offers an alternative status hierarchy - create illegitimate opportunity structure to win status from peers through their actions.
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30
Q

Strengths of Cohen’s Status Frustration

A
  • It offers an explanation for utilitarian crime.

* It helps understand WC delinquency as a group response rather than individual.

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31
Q

Criticisms of Cohen’s Status Frustration

A
  • He assumes all WC boys start off sharing MC values.
  • MILLER (1962) argues young people can’t generate a subculture seeking revenge and rejecting mainstream goals, as they never had them.
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32
Q

Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)

A
  • They agree WC youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve and their deviance stems from this.
  • They explain that different subcultural responses occur due to unequal access to opportunity structures - in some areas gangs provide a deviant route but in some places they don’t.
  • Different neighbourhoods provide different opportunities.
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33
Q

The Three Subcultures

A
  • Criminal subculture - Some areas have an established criminal culture where young people can be taught.
  • Conflict subculture - There is no established criminal culture so young people organise themselves into gangs.
  • Retreatist subculture - People have failed legitimately and illegitimately so they retreat from society.
34
Q

Strengths of Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)

A

• They provide an explanation for WC crime.

35
Q

Criticisms of Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)

A
  • They ignore the crimes of the wealthy.

* They ignore the wider power structure.

36
Q

Criticisms of Strain Theory

A
  • They assume everyone starts off with the same goals.
  • The idea of delinquent subcultures suggests the lower classes are socialised to be delinquent.
  • They only focus on WC people.
37
Q

Strengths of Strain Theory

A

• They have had an impact on government policy.

38
Q

The Social Construction of Crime

A
  • Labelling theory argues no act is inherently criminal or deviant. It only becomes deviant when others label it deviant.
  • BECKER argues a deviant is someone to whom the label has been successfully applied.
39
Q

Moral Entrepreneurs

A

• These are people who lead a crusade to change the law - includes agencies such as the police and media.
• BECKER argues the change in law:
- Creates a new group of outsiders.
- Creates or expands social control agencies to enforce rules and impose labels.

40
Q

Who Gets Labelled?

A
  • Not everyone is punished for their crime.
  • Labelling theorists look at how laws are applied and enforced - agencies are more likely to label certain people.
  • Police decisions to arrest are usually based on physical appearance.
41
Q

The Negotiation of Justice (Cicourel)

A
  • Officers decisions to arrest are influenced by stereotypes - shows a class bias.
  • CICOUREL views justice as negotiable rather than fixed - MC youth arrested he is less likely to be charged because their background didn’t fit the police’s description of ‘typical delinquent’.
  • He argues that as a result OS aren’t valid.
42
Q

Social Construction of Crime Statistics

A
  • Interactionists see OS as socially constructed.
  • Agents of social control make decisions about whether to proceed with a case - outcome depends on the labels attached to individuals.
  • The statistics therefore show more about the activities of police and prosecutors
43
Q

Primary Deviance (Lemert)

A
  • Primary deviance - act that has not been labelled.
  • It is unlikely to have a cause so it is pointless to look for one - also usually one offs.
  • Some deviance is labelled - causes criminal to feel shamed, humiliated and excluded. The label becomes their ‘master identity’ (BECKER).
  • This causes a crisis over the self-concept and sense of identity - either accept or reject the label.
44
Q

Secondary Deviance (Lemert)

A
  • This is any further deviance that follows after someone has been labelled deviant.
  • BECKER says the labelling process can lead to a deviant career.
  • YOUNG (1971) Notting Hill study - Hippies labelled by police for doing drugs causing them to commit more crime.
45
Q

Deviance Amplification Spiral

A
  • Attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.
  • S. COHEN’S Folk Devils and Moral Panics study - press exaggerated and distorted reporting of the ‘mods and rockers’ causing a moral panic. The police reacted by arresting more people.
46
Q

Dark Figure of Crime

A

The figure of unlabelled and ignored crime.

47
Q

Labelling and Criminal Justice Policy

A
  • TRIPLETT notes a tendency to view young offenders as evil.
  • Labelling has policy implications - add weight to the argument that negative labelling pushes offenders towards a deviant career.
  • We should avoid naming and shaming - creates a perception of them as evil and excludes them.
48
Q

Re-integrative Shaming

A
  • The crime but not the actor is labelled.
  • This avoids stigmatising the offender as evil but makes them aware of the effect of their actions.
  • BRAITHWAITE argues crime rates tend to be lower in these societies.
49
Q

The Meaning of Suicide (Douglas)

A
  • Critical of OS on suicide. They are socially constructed and tell us more about the coroners.
  • Whether a death is a labelled a suicide or not comes down to negotiations between the coroner and family and friends.
  • The statistics therefore tell us nothing about the meaning behind an individual’s decision to kill themselves. We must use qualitative data e.g. notes.
50
Q

Coroners’ Common-sense Knowledge (Atkinson)

A
  • OS are just a record of the labels coroners attach to deaths. It is impossible to know what meaning the dead give to their deaths.
  • He focuses on taken for granted assumptions about a ‘typical suicide’.
51
Q

Paranoia as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Lemert)

A
  • Some individuals don’t fit into a group and as a result of primary deviance, they are labelled odd. The individual feels people are conspiring against them and reacts negatively leading to psychiatric intervention. The individual is labelled and perhaps sectioned.
  • ‘Mental Patient’ becomes their master status.
52
Q

Fake Patient Experiment (Rosenhan)

A
  • Researchers had themselves admitted into a mental hospital saying they could hear voices.
  • They acted normal in the hospital but were treated by staff as being mentally ill.
53
Q

Institutionalism

A
  • GOFFMAN’s Asylum study shows some of the effects of being admitted to a hospital.
  • Their old identity is killed off and replaced by ‘patient’.
  • Inmates become institutionalised, internalising their new identity and become unable to re-adjust to the outside world.
  • BRAGINSKI ET AL (1969) - Long-term patients manipulated their symptoms to appear not well enough to leave but too well to not be confined.
54
Q

Strengths of Labelling Theory

A
  • Law isn’t fixed set of rules
  • Importance of of reaction of others in defining and creating deviance.
  • OS are product of bias in law-enforcement.
  • Law is often enforced in discriminatory ways.
  • Labelling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
55
Q

Criticisms of Labelling Theory

A
  • It is deterministic - assumes all labelling victims will commit crime again.
  • Gives the offender victim status.
  • Focuses on less serious crime.
  • It doesn’t explain primary deviance.
56
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Criminogenic Capitalism

A

Crime is inevitable in capitalism because capitalism is criminogenic. By its nature it causes crime.

57
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: How does capitalism give rise to crime?

A
  • Poverty - WC need to survive.
  • Consumer goods - WC want to obtain consumer goods through theft.
  • Social Exclusion and lack of control - frustration and aggression resulting in crime e.g. vandalism.
58
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanation: Gordon (1971)

A
  • Suggests WC do not commit more crime than others.

* The need to win encourages people to commit white collar crime and corporate crime.

59
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Gordon (1976)

A

• Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and so it’s found in all social classes.

60
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Law Making

A
  • Law making/enforcement serves interest of ruling class.
  • Vast majority of law in UK is property law - CHAMBLISS (1975) - laws protecting private property serve to keep WC people away from land e.g. English law in East Africa.
61
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Ruling Classes

A
  • RC have power to prevent the intro of laws that would threaten their interests.
  • SNIDER (1993): capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses - threatens their interest.
  • E.g. Tobacco companies put pressure on government not to pass laws against tobacco.
62
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Laws and Criminals

A
  • Crime and criminals perform ideological function.
  • Laws are passed that appear to help WC however PEARCE (1976) argues these benefit RC by keeping workers fit.
  • It gives capitalism a ‘caring’ face.
  • Laws passed sometimes aren’t used - JENABI (2014) found law on corporate homicide was used once in 7 years.
63
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Selective Law Enforcement

A
  • When it comes to the application of law by CJS, there’s selective enforcement.
  • WC and ethnic minorities are criminalised, while crimes of the powerful are ignored.
  • OS showing crime to be a WC problem is a result of selective enforcement.
  • CHAMBLISS (1978): crime in Seattle - powerful people could conduct criminal activity and avoid prison.
64
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanations: Strengths

A

•Offers explanation of the relationship between crime and capitalist society.

65
Q

Traditional Marxist Explanation: Weaknesses

A
  • Ignores other factors e.g. gender
  • Too deterministic - not all WC commit crime.
  • CJS sometimes prosecutes corporate crime - Marxists say its to appear impartial.
66
Q

Right Realism: Overview

A
  • Sees crime as a real and growing problem that destroys communities.
  • Policy makers argued that ‘nothing works’ led to a focus away from the causes of crime and instead on punishment. They criticise other theories for not offering solutions.
67
Q

Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Biological Differences

A
  • WILSON & HERRNSTEIN put forward biosocial theory of criminal behaviour. They believe crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors.
  • Differences between individuals make some people innately predisposed to commit crime.
  • HERRNSTEIN & MURRAY - low intelligence (biological) causes crime.
68
Q

Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Socialisation of the Underclass

A
  • Effective socialisation reduces the risk of an individual offending. For right realists, the best agency of socialisation is the nuclear family.
  • MURRAY (1990): crime is increasing because of a growing underclass. The underclass is growing due to the welfare states “generous revolution.”
  • Nuclear families break down and lone mothers exist - can’t socialise.
69
Q

Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Rational Choice Theory

A
  • CLARKE argues that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the consequences
  • MURRAY: higher risk of going to prison, the less likely people are to commit crime.
  • FELSON: Crime includes motivated offender, suitable target and absence of ‘capable guardian’.
70
Q

Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Evaluation

A
  • Ignores wider structural causes e.g. poverty.
  • Doesn’t explain impulsive crime.
  • LILLY ET AL: IQ differences accounts for less than 3% of differences.
71
Q

Right Realism: Tackling Crime

A
  • No focus on the causes. They seek measures to make crime less attractive.
  • Focus on control, containment and punishment.
  • WILSON: issue harsh punishments for smallest crime.
72
Q

Right Realism: Zero Tolerance

A
  • Any sign of crime should be dealt with immediately e.g. vandalism.
  • ‘One Broken Window’ - tolerating just one broken window sends the message you can get away with crime.
  • Advocate zero tolerance claiming it worked in New York.
73
Q

Right Realism: Zero Tolerance Evaluation

A
  • YOUNG: Success of zero tolerance in New York a myth. Crime rate in NY had already been falling, 9 years before zero tolerance was introduced. Police needed arrests to justify their existence - ‘define deviance up’.
  • Ignores corporate crime.
  • Free reign to discriminate.
74
Q

Left Realism: Aetiological Crisis

A
  • Increase in crime from 1950’s led to an aetiological crisis - no explanations for crime.
  • LR believe increase in crime is real. Tackling crime involves looking at who is affected. Disadvantaged groups e.g. unskilled workers.
  • They, therefore, have greater fear of crime - less likely to report.
75
Q

Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Relative Deprivation

A
  • LEA & YOUNG: crime has roots in deprivation.
  • RUNCIMAN: relative deprivation is cause - how deprived someone feels in relation to others or their expectations. Crime - gain what they feel entitled to.
  • YOUNG: combination of RD and individualism (concern with the self).
76
Q

Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Subculture

A
  • Views come from Merton, A.K. Cohen and Cloward & Ohlin.
  • Different subcultures come up with different solutions to the problem - turn to gangs or religion (theodicy of disprivilege)
77
Q

Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Marginalisation

A
  • Individuals experience marginalisation.
  • Marginalised groups lack clear goals and organisations to represent their interests. Youth, therefore, feel resentment and frustration - express frustration through criminal means.
78
Q

Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Bulimic Society

A
  • Late modern society has instability, insecurity and exclusion - crime worse.
  • Greater inequality between poor and rich - greater sense of RD.
  • Growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion - poor have access to consumerist messages (media) but can’t afford the goods.
  • Cultural inclusion mixed with social and economic exclusion creates ‘bulimic society’ (gorge themselves on image of consumer life but vomit it out - can’t afford).
79
Q

Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Edgework

A
  • Factors of late modernity combine and generate crime.
  • Youth have no outlet for anger - involve themselves in edgework. This involves thrill-seeking, risk-taking behaviour - pursuit of danger.
80
Q

Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Deprivation Downwards

A
  • Resentment of those who receive undeservedly high rewards e.g. footballers.
  • Relative deprivation downward - MC resent the stereotypical underclass as idle, irresponsible and living off state handouts.
81
Q

Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Reaction to Crime

A

• Late modern society

82
Q

Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Reaction to Crime

A

• Late modern society

Sociology - Crime & Deviance (2 decks)

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