Main Theorists Flashcards
Durkheim (F)
- Boundary maintenance - united members condemn crime, reaffirming shared values , e.g. punishment.
- Adaptation + change - deviance is necessary to allow society to move forward and progress.
- Feminists: crime doesn’t always promote solidarity, e.g. women stay in orders for fear of attack.
Davis (F)
Safety valve - minor crimes prevent more serious ones, e.g. prostitution for men’s sexual frustrations, pornography (Polsky).
Cohen (Subcultural)
- Status Frustration - w/c boys due to suffering from cultural deprivation + lack skills to achieve in m/c schools, so resolve frustration by joining delinquent subcultures.
- Deviance Amplification Spiral - press exaggeration leads to moral panic, e.g. mods + rockers as ‘folk devils’.
- Lack of male role models means boys are likely to turn to all-male street crimes for a source of masculine identity.
- Increase in international human rights organisations means state has to make greater effort to conceal crimes.
Merton (Strain)
- People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate goals.
- American Dream - expectation to pursue money success through legitimate means: education + hard work.
- Strain to Anomie - pressure to conform to norms can cause deviant behaviour when opportunities are blocked.
- Conformity; innovation; ritualism; retreatism; rebellion.
Cloward + Ohlin (Subcultural)
- Criminal subcultures - opportunity for employment on criminal career ladder.
- Conflict subcultures - violent gangs + claiming territory.
- Retreatists subcultures - fail both il/legitimate opportunities, based on illegal drug use.
Becker (Labelling)
Moral Entrepreneurs - people who decide what is morally acceptable within society, e.g. police, courts, etc.
Piliavin + Briar (Labelling)
- Police decisions to arrest youths is based on physical cues (dress), as well as gender, class + ethnicity, time + place.
- e.g. anti-social behaviour order was used against EMs.
Cicourel (Labelling)
- Typification - stereotypes on what a delinquent is like, e.g. law enforcement shows class bias by patrolling w/c areas.
- O.S recorded by police don’t provide a valid picture - sheds light on activities + processes on control agencies.
- m/c able to negotiate non-criminal labels for their misbehaviour.
Interactionalists
- Statistics provided by the criminal justice system (CJS) show actions of police + prosecutors.
- Dark figure of crime - difference between O.S and ‘real’ rates of crime.
- Alternative stats - e.g. victim surveys, self-report studies.
Lemert (Labelling)
- Primary Deviance - deviant acts that haven’t been publicly labelled.
- Secondary Deviance - deviant act is witnessed + label is attached to the person committing the act + becomes master status, leading to a SFP with a deviant career.
Braithwaite (Labelling)
- Reintegrative shaming - labels the act as bad, making actor aware of negative impact + encourages others to forgive them - lower crime rates.
- Disintegrative shaming - labels criminal + excluded from society.
Gordon (Interactionalism)
Crime is a rational reaction to capitalism, e.g. greed, profit, competition + materialism, hence found in all classes.
Chambliss (M)
- Law is shaped to protect property + profits of the rich + powerful - serves the interests of the capitalist class.
- Domestic law - defined by law as criminal + committed by state officials in pursuit of jobs as representatives of state.
Snider (M)
Governments reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten profitability as it effects donations.
Reiman (M)
Selective law enforcement - police + law ignore crimes of the powerful + criminalise w/c + E.M.
Pearce (M)
Laws are occasionally passed which on the surface look like they are to benefit the w/c, giving capitalism a ‘caring face’.
Jenabi (M)
Law against corporate homicide (2007), but there was only one successful prosecution despite large numbers of deaths.
Box (M)
Review of self-report studies found that women who commit serious offences are not treated more leniently.
Criminogenic capitalism (M)
- Nature leads to crime as it causes exploitation of the working class.
- Poor turn to crime in order to afford the necessities.
- Frustration of exploitation can lead to violence.
Taylor (N.M)
- State makes + enforces laws that benefit the r/c + criminalise the w/c.
- Capitalism should be replaced by a classless society, which would reduce the extent of crime.
- Free will - criminals make conscious choice to commit crime, not passive puppets shaped by capitalism.
- More unemployment in the west as TNCs switch manufacturing to low-wage countries.
- Deregulation means governments have little control over their economies.
Sutherland
- White Collar Crime - committed by a person of respectability + high social status.
- Occupational crime - committed by employees for personal gain.
- Corporate crime - committed for organisation in pursuit of goals.
- White collar crime is a greater threat as it promotes distrust of social institutions + undermines fabric of society.
Pearce + Tomb
- Corporate crime - omission that is a result of negligence or deliberate action to benefit the business.
- Financial crimes; crimes against consumers; against employees; against environment; state-corporate crimes.
Tombs
- Power to define an act as criminal - powerful corporations can influence the law so their actions aren’t criminalised.
- Corporate crime has enormous costs: physical (death, injury), environmental (pollution) + economic (consumers, workers, taxpayers).
Carrabine
We entrust corporations with our finances, health, security + personal information; however, abuse of trust.
Wilson + Herrnstein
Biosocial theory - some innately predisposed to commit crime, e.g. personality traits like aggression, risk taking.
Herrnstein + Murray
Main cause of crime is low intelligence, which they see as biologically determined.
Murray
- u/c fail to properly socialise their children, lone-mothers seen as ineffective socialisation agents.
- Absent fathers means that boys lack parental discipline, so younger turn to delinquent role models on the street.
Clarke
Rational Choice theory - commit crime if perceived rewards outweigh the perceived costs → perceived costs are low.
Right Realists
- Causes of crime cannot be easily changed (e.g. socialisation + biological differences), so instead seek practical measures to make crime seem less attractive.
- e.g. main focus on control, containment + punishment of offenders.
Wilson + Kelling
- Zero Tolerance - essential to maintain orderly characteristics in neighbourhoods to prevent criminals taking control.
- e.g. any signs of deterioration, such as graffiti or vandalism, should be dealt with immediately.
- Myth of zero tolerance: introduced in NY (1994); however crime rates had been falling since 1985, 7000 new NYPD.
Left Realists
- Victims surveys shows disadvantaged groups are at greater risks of being victims.
- Tackling Crime: better relationships between the public and police - military policing alienates communities; multi-agency approach - involvement of social services, schools, public.
- Dealing with social inequalities will reduce the crime rate, e.g. Perry preschool project.
- Focus on high-crime inner-city areas gives an unrepresentative view that makes crime appear greater.
Lea + Young
- Although people are better off, media + advertising raises people’s expectations for material possessions (R.D).
- Marginalisation - unemployed youth have no organisation sense of resentment, leading to violence + rioting.
- Subculture - group’s feeling of relative deprivation, delinquent subcultures of young, unemployed black males.
- Statistics represent real differences in rates of offending.
Young
Ghettos in US that are immersed in the American dream - culture hooked on Gucci, BMW, Nikes.
Weber
Theodicy of Deprivilege - subcultures act as an explanation for their disadvantage.
Heidensohn + Silvestri
4/5 convicted offenders are men in UK; by age of 40, 9% of women have a criminal conviction + 32% of men.
Gender Differences
- Women convicted more for property offences (expect burglary).
- Men convicted more for violence + sexual assault.
- Men are more likely to be repeat offenders, have longer criminal careers + convicted for more serious crimes.
- Female crimes are less likely to be noticed (shoplifting).
- Prostitution won’t be reported; women let off more lightly.
Pollack
- Chivalry thesis - men are socialised to be ‘chivalrous’ to women, so avoid arresting them - invalid statistics.
- O.S: women likely to be released on bail rather than custody; women likely to receive a fine; women receive shorter prison sentences; 1/9 for prison sentence for shoplifting compared to 1/5 men.
Graham + Bowling
Self-report studies found that differences between gender offences was smaller.
Hood
- Women were about 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases.
- Black men 5% more likely to receive a custodial sentence that is three months longer (nine for Asians) than whites.
Under-reporting of male crimes against women
- Yearnshire: women suffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic violence.
- In 2012, only 8% of women who were victims of a serious sexual assault reported it to the police.
Heidensohn
- Courts treat women more harshly when they deviate from gender norms + double standards.
- Women who don’t conform to motherhood are punished more harshly.
- Patriarchal Control - women are more conformist due to control at home, in public + at work.
- Gender inequalities in labour market leads women to turn to theft or prostitution to gain a decent standard of living.
Adler
Liberation thesis - liberated from patriarchy, crimes are becoming more frequent + more masculine / serious, e.g. white-collar crime (women in senior positions at work).
New Right
Absence of matrifocal lone parent families so turn to street gangs.
