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.
