Crime theories Flashcards
How can crime statistics be collected
Police recorded statistics
Victim studies
Self report studies
Durkheims two main points
Crime is universal and inevitable
Crime is positive
Crime is universal and inevitable
Crime occurs due to anomie (confusion about norms and values leading to social change)
Anomie is created by three factors:
- poor socialisation
- immigration
- social change / events
Evaluation-
Many criminals are completely aware of the norms and values of society and are not in a state of anomie. This shows there are other motives behind crime e.g financial gain
Functions of crime why is it positive?
Boundary maintenance
- when someone commits a crime the rest of society are reminded about the boundaries of society and therefore the idea that crime is wrong is reinforced
Evaluation-
Crime does not always unite the public against the criminal on some occasions crime can divide public opinion and weaken the value consensus
Functions of crime : social change
When someone commits a crime or deviance it can lead to positive social change e.g martin luther king and racial equality
Evaluation-
Some argue that the impact of crime in creating change is over stated. For example despite the work of mlk there is still racial inequality today
Durkheim quote
The right amount of crime is beneficial for society
Evaluations-
What is the right Amount of crime
Crime is not beneficial for the victim
Davis
Crime has positive effects
Crime can be useful as a safety valve
Allows minor criminality or deviance to avoid bigger problems
E.g the institution of marriage can be stabilised by some married men buying services off prostitues
Evaluation-
Feminists argue that prostitution is not positive but instead a prime example of patriarchy as most prostitutes are forced into it
Cohen ( functionalism)
1) Crime can boost employment and the economy by creating jobs for police officers and others who work in criminal justice.
2) He also believes that crime can act as a type of early warning mechanism showing that society or institutions withhin it are going wrong. These can be corrected before too much damage is done and in the process crime brought back under control
Evaluations-
1) crime is more damaging to the economy than beneficial as keeping offenders in prison costs billions every year
2) although crime can act as a warning light very little is done to change these institutions e.g youth crime has been increasing for years yet education hasnt changed in order to deal with this
Merton
Strain theory
Merton states that deviance occurs when individuals find that they cannot achieve the success goals of society in the normal way. There is a strain between the goals and peoples abilities to achieve them
Evaluation-
Taylor a marxist agrees with merton that people face strain in society. However, taylor argues that merton fails to realise that it is the bourgeoisie who cause this strain by paying the proletariat low wages
Conformity
Have the cultural goal
Have legitimate means
E.g teacher
Innovation
Have the cultural goal
Dont have legitimate means
E.g drug dealer
Ritualism
Dont have cultural goal
Have legitimate means
E.g dead end job
Retreatism
Dont have cultural goal
Dont have legitimate means
E.g underclass
Rebellion
They replace cultural goal
Legitimate means maybe
E.g terrorism
Subcultural theory
Commit crimes in groups
Cohen (subcultural theory)
Focusses on working class boys in school
They can’t achieve in the middle class dominated school system. There is status heirachy. They suffer from status frustration. They resolve this by rejecting mainstream goals and form groups with other boys and create a delinquent subculture with an alternative status hierarchy
The boys gain status through non utitlitarian crimes ( ones you dont make money from)
Evaluation-
Miller criticises cohen by arguing that crime is not a reaction to failure in education. Instead Miller believes that the wc commit crime because they are socialised into focal concerns such as toughness and aggression which can then spill over into criminal behaviour
Cloward and ohlin
They claim there is an illegitimate opportunity structure. This means that not everyone has an equal chance of being in a successful criminal subculture which depends on the area you live in.
Evaluation-
South argues that subcultures aren’t as distinctive as what cloward and ohlin suggests. Most subcultures are actually a mixture of all three drug dealing, drug violence and drug taking
Low population turnover
Criminal subculture (makes money)
They are likely to stay together for a long time. This means that over the years the subculture becomes good at committing crimes like drug dealing. They set up networks in their own territory. They also know the area well. This means that they are likely to be successful in their crime and make money from it.
Medium population turnover
Conflict subculture ( involved in violence with other subcultures )
Spend some time together but not enough to become as organised and efficient as the criminal subculture. The fact that people in this area regularly change means that it is difficult for the members of the subculture to stay together and also difficult to build up a regular client base. This leads to conflict subculture to become more involved in gang wars rather than making money through crime
High population turnover
Retreatist - drug users
Most disorganised areas- criminals come together to do drugs- subculture doesn’t last longer than a few weeks as members are usually arrested or rehoused in a different area by the council
Matza
Criminals drift into deviant activities, lot of spontaneous and impulsive deviant actions, particularly when young males are in a group with their friends. These groups quickly disband
Evaluation:
- this theory doesn’t explain why some groups chose to devote their life to crime and become career criminals e.g the mafia
Murray (subcultural)
Views the underclass as a subculture. They are workshy and live in broken communities with high rates of social disorder and crime. They ensure that criminality increases by raising children in single parent families with a lack of discipline and a failure to teach children proper moral standards
Evaluation:
Murrays claim that the underclass are a subculture that are constantly growing and are of increased danger to society is seen by many as an exaggeration. Programmes like benefit street make the issue seem worse than it really is and create a moral panic in society.
Labelling theory
How and why some people and actions come to be labelled as a criminal or deviant and what effects this has on those who are labelled
Becker
Claims that no act is criminal or deviant in itself, instead it only becomes criminal or deviant when someone labels it as so. This is the social construction of crime.
‘ moral entrepreneurs create deviance by creating the rules of what constitutes deviance’
Crime and deviance changes over time depending on what moral entrepreneurs decide is criminal and deviant and what is not.
For example gay rights in the uk. Moral entrepreneurs classified sexual activity between people of the same sex illegal before 1967. The act of homosexuality never changed the only thing that changed was the way it was labelled
Evaluation:
- marxist agree with labelling theorist that moral entrepreneurs have the power to decide what is criminal and what is not however marxists argue that labelling theorists fail to realise that it is the bourgeoisie who control the moral entrepreneurs and tell them what to make criminal or not.
Cicourel
Found that police officers have typifications- stereotypes of what the typical criminal is like. This leads to police officers going out looking for those that match their typification of a criminal. Which is typically a working class ethinic minority male. They then neglect middle class areas and therefore crime is never found in these areas.
Evaluation:
Left realists argue that ethnic minorities w.c mates are arrested the most because the genuinely commit more crime than other groups
Lemert
Deviance amplification- deviance/ criminal acts are made bigger by the public reaction
Primary deviance- acts that have not been publically labelled and usually have little significance for the individuals status
Secondary deviance- societal reaction which leads to the individual taking on a deviant master status, in a self- fulfilling prophecy and a deviant career.
Being caught and publicly labelled as a criminal can involve being stigmatised shamed, humiliated, shunned or excluded from normal society. Once labelled others come to see them only in the terms of the label this becomes their master status which overrides all the other aspects of their existence. This creates a crisis for the individual self concept.
Cohen
Study of mods and rockers
The labelling of the mods and rockers by the media lead the problem between the two groups to become much bigger than what it originally was. This highlights deviance amplification.
Lemert and cohen evaluation
The theory doesn’t explain why people commit the act of primary deviance in the first place
To deterministic not all people live up to the label they have been given for example they can have a self rejecting prophecy
Braithwaite
Offers a solution to crime from a label in perspective. He claims that labelling can be positive if done in the right way
The right way to do it is by:
Reintegrative shaming- label the act but not the actor e.g he has done a bad thing rather he is a bad person
Reintergrative shaming- avoid stigmatise in the offender but simply that they have committed. This encourages others to forgive them and allow them to come back on the inside of mainstream society and not be pushed to the outside where they commit further secondary deviance.
Evaluation:
Realists argue this is not a practical or realistic way to stop crime
Traditional marxist view of crime and deviance
Capitalism encourages crime
Gordon
Capitalism is criminogenic which means crime is inevitable. For example poverty may mean crime is the only way the proletariat can survive
Capitalism constantly encourages material goods and the only way The proletariat can achieve these goods is through utilitarian crimes such as theft, even the bourgeoisie who are already rich want to maximise profits further so commit corporate crimes
Evaluation:
Not all capitalist countries have higher crime rates e.g. Switzerland and Japan are both capitalist and yet they have very low crime rights
Chambliss / snider
States that law is shaped by the border I say who use it to protect their own interests. The vast majority of law in the UK as property law this serves to keep the working-class away from the property of the bourgeoisie the ruling class use the law to protect private property because capitalist exploitation is built upon it
Snider: legalisation regulating large companies is restricted in capitalist societies because it could threaten ruling cross interests. For example tobacco companies have put huge pressure on governments not to pass laws making them legally responsible for the death of smokers.
Evaluation:
Sniders Proposal that we criminalise the tobacco trade is on realistic it would lead to the creation of the black market
Reiman
Book - the rich get richer and the poor get prison
Corporate crime- offences committed by large companies or individuals on behalf of large companies which directly profit the company rather than individuals
White collar crimes- offences committed by middle-class individuals who abuse their work position within organisations for personal gain
Evaluation:
The rich don’t always get away with crime e.g. oliver schmidt owner of Volkswagen was put in prison for the famous emissions scandal
Althusser
Laws and the media are both part of the ideological State apparatus. The working-class are most likely to be criminalised and this is regularly portrayed in the media so that everyone knows about it this leads the working-class to live in a state of paranoia whereby they believe they can’t trust anyone else from a working class background as a result there is no social solidarity between working-class and I can never work together to gain class consciousness and rebel against the bourgeoisie
Evaluation:
Functionalists argue the media are not trying to create a state of paranoia the media are just trying to alert the public of dangerous criminals in order to reinforce Boundry maintenance
Neo marxism ( critical criminology )
Believe that some members of the party Cheruiyot have class consciousness and therefore when they commit crime they are doing it to get back at the bourgeoisie.
It is a voluntaristic theory as it looks at how the proletariat committing crime is a voluntary action that is aimed at getting back at the bourgeoisie
Taylor, walton and young
Criminals know what they are doing and are doing it for a purpose. Crime is a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor
Evaluation:
Neo Marxists are criticised for romanticising criminals in reality criminals are dangerous and pose a threat to social order
left realists - lea + young
why does crime occur? - relative deprivation- working class compare themselves to rich which generates discontentment and resentment which forces them to turn to crime to reach their expectations
- marginalization - some groups find themselves economically and politically excluded from mainstream society. relative deprivation and marginalization can lead to anti social behavior such as crime and violence as an expression of their resentment and frustrations.
- subculture - working class deviant subcultures merge as group solutions to the problem of relative deprivation and marginality resulting in street gangs
lea and young evaluation (why does crime occur)
right realists argue relative deprivation and marginalization should not be used as excuses for committing crime. right realists believe society is meritocratic and if people worked hard enough they wouldn’t have to turn to crime.
crime is getting worse - left realists
today’s society is centered around consumerism and advertising. this leads to a bulimic society where the working class find themselves in a state of cultural inclusion but also in a social and economic exclusion. people gorge themselves on media images of expensive consumer lifestyles but are then forced by economic circumstances to vomit out their raised expectation.
evaluation: - in today's society the working class are not as economically excluded as what lea and young suggest. this is due to the new trend of being able to buy watches, cars and phones on finance which makes luxury items more affordable for the working class.
how to stop crime - lea and young
social and community crime prevention
based on improving the community so that there are not conditions that predispose individuals to becoming criminal in the first place. it is a long term prevention strategy.
evaluation:
- although social and community crime prevention saves money in the long run it is far too expensive for governments to implement in the first place.
right realists why crime occurs
- wilson and hernstein
crime occurs due to biological differences
some people are predisposed to commit crime
some people are born with personality traits such bas aggressiveness and risk taking which make them m ore likely to commit crime.
murray found that there is also a correlation between low intelligence and committing crime
evaluation:
it is very difficult to prove their ideas. there is no way of measuring or even identifying these biological personality traits that they speak about eg it is not possible to find an aggressive gene
right realists why crime occurs
- murray
socialisation and the under class crime rate is increasing because of an underclass who fail to socialise their children properly. this because a dependency culture now exists which undermines the traditional nuclear family. men no longer take responsibility by working and providing for their families whilst absent fathers mean that young boys are not properly disciplined and become criminals themselves
evaluation:
too deterministic, he assumes that being raised in a single parent family will automatically lead to crime. this is not the case as it neglects all the cases where single mothers have successfully raised children into becoming good members of society.
right realists why crime occurs
- clarke
rational choice theory
Clarke argues that committing crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences. In essence, people commit crime when the potential benefits outweigh the potential costs.
Crime is too easy to get away with and if you are caught then the punishments are lenient. This is leading more people to commit crime.
Crime occurs when there is a motivated offender + suitable target + absence of a capable guardian
evaluation:
clarke is wrong to suggest that all criminals are rational and weigh up the pros and cons of committing crime before they do so. katz argues that many criminals actually prefer committing crimes that are difficult to get away with as they love the thrill and the danger and risk of being caught he refers to this as edge work
right realists how to stop crime
- clarke
Clarke describes situational crime prevention as an approach that relies on reducing opportunities for crime.Situational crime prevention:
Aims to increase the effort of committing crime and reduce the rewards of being a criminal.
SCP is linked to the rational choice theory presented some years before
The rational choice theory is the idea that individuals weigh up the pros and cons before committing a criminal act. Criminals decide how much effort they will have to put in to successfully commit a crime.
For example, when considering stealing from someone, a criminal will firstly think about the potential reward (getting a product without paying for it). They will then consider
A) If they are likely to get away with it
B) The potential cost if they are caught e.g. this could be paying a fine, having to carry out community service or a short prison sentence.
The criminal will consider these factors and in the case of the example above, probably come up with the decision that stealing is worth it as it’s easy to do and the punishment isn’t that bad
evaluation:
SCP does not stop crime instead it displaces it. this means that criminals maybe put off committing crimes in some areas however, they just go and commit it
elsewhere.
right realists how to stop crime
- clarke
- felson
We make it so the choice to commit crime is not rational:
Make the crime difficult to commit e.g. securely locking doors, windows etc so that it is a big effort for criminals to break in
Increasing surveillance via CCTV will stop people being confident that they can get away with crime
Basically, we are changing everyday situations to stop opportunistic criminals
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is located in the heart of Times Square. It is not only the nation’s largest bus terminal, it’s also the world’s busiest.
Felson points out that levels of crime in and around the area were so high because it was designed poorly e.g. it was easy to get away with drug dealing as it was hard to see with so many people being in one place. It was also easy to commit theft and pickpocketing because of large amounts of dark areas that weren’t covered by cctv.
right realists how to stop crime
- wilson and kelling
Wilson and Kelling go on to explain that the police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy.
This will involve regularly patrolling the streets and searching for crime rather than just responding when they are called upon
Even acts that are not officially criminal should be stopped if they are in anyway disruptive
This will keep good people in the neighbourhood, who are good form of informal control and not leave room for criminals/delinquents to join the area
evaluation:
can actually create more crime than prevent it. this is because the public may respond badly to zero tolerance policing. the public will feel as though they are being treated unfairly and rebel against the authority of the police.
