Deviance and Conformity (INC)

Question 1

conflict theory

Answer 1

Crime is the outcome of class struggle. The laws are biased in favour of the wealthy and powerful. 
Some crimes, such as white collar crimes committed by the upper middle class, are punished more leniently than street crimes committed by the lower class.
Criminal law, as a social institution, is merely a ‘tool’ that is used to protect the interests of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups.
Karl Marx argued that superstructure of society (i. e. its institutions) is determined by its economic base.  So laws are formulated and the justice system operates to protect and promote the interests of the dominant economic class.
When the behaviour of subordinate groups brings them into conflict with the law, they are less able to fight against apprehension, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration

Question 2

differential association; Edwin Sutherland; symbolic interactionism

Answer 2

Edwin Sutherland argued that criminal and deviant behaviour are learned. It is based on shared experiences and perceptions, and through social interaction with others people learn the values, norms, motives, rationalization, and techniques of criminal behaviour

Question 3

labelling theory; Howard Becker, symbolic interactionism

Answer 3

deviance is socially produced by making rules whose violation represents deviance and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as ‘outsiders’. No particular act is inherently deviant until a group with a socially powerful status or position labels it as such. And if an individual is labelled, he or she will accept that label and continue to behave in a deviant manner