MT1 - Theories on crime Flashcards
Durkheim
Durkeim - explains how crime is positive
Reaffirms the boundaries of acceptable behaviour
Can lead to social adaptation and change by changing values - Mandela
Maintains social cohesion - horrific crimes draws communities together and a sense of belonging is established - A vigil at Trafalgar Square following the 7/7 bombings
Can provide a safety valve - prostitution satisfies sexual urges without threatening the family or society
+C ignores negative impact on victims and doesnt explain the right amount of crime
Merton
Crime is because of stain to anomie’ (frustration)
American dream (success through accumulation of wealth, power, status) seen as available to everyone (merticoracy) but not the case In reality people are restricted by social structures/institutions which causes a ‘strain to anomie’ (frustration) so people turn to illegitimate means (crimes such as drug dealing) to achieve this consensus ambition
Reactions to American dream
Innovation: illegal means to achieve the American dream through crime
Conformity: response of the majority to accept the American dream through legitimate means
Retreatism: deviant/criminal response includes ‘dropping out’ of society’ by giving up on the American dream and turning to alcohol or drugs
Rebellion + Ritualism
+C: Fails to explain non-utilitarian crimes such as vandalism
A.Cohen
Explains who is more likely to commit crime: w/c boys do badly at school and realise they cannot not achieve success through legitimate means so suffer from status frustrations
They join subculturss offer illegitimate opportunity structure to achieve status by committing crime
+C: Cohen asumes value consensus – that everyone shares the same norms and values and the working class accept mainstream values as desirable
Right Realists
Criminals choose to break the law and those who are badly socialised are more likely to break the law as humans are naturally greedy and selfish.
Therefore, crime is inevitable, it can only be reduced, not eradicated and the role of the government is to punish the criminals, not to eradicate the mythical causes of crime such as educational underachievement, poverty,…
Right Realist proposals for crime prevention have been influential on government policies e.g. increasing the number of police officers, stricter sentences, and building more prisons
Clarke
Crime is a choice based on rational calculation of the likely consequences.
If the perceived reward is greater than the possible cost of crime, e.g. getting caught, people are more likely to break the law.
The rise of crime is because of soft policies that result in the cost of crime being low e.g chance of getting caught is low and punishments are lenient.
+C: ignore wider structural causes of poverty such as poverty
Murray
New Right - crime is bc of the growing depend cul - Murray crime rate is increasing because of the growing underclass which is increasing as a result of welfare dependency. Dependency culture has led to an increase in lone parent families with the absence of a father figure; these boys lack the appropriate male role models resulting in them participating in delinquent behaviour as they turn to other - (negative) role models
+C: Ignore wider structural causes of crime such as poverty.
Gordon
Criminogenic capitalism causes w/c and m/c to develop a mentality of greed and self-interest.
The w/c may commit utilitarian crime as it is the only way they can obtain the consumer goods advertised by capitalist advertising whilst the ‘need to win’ and self enrichment encourages the m/c to commit white collar crimes.
+C: too deterministic as not everyone commits crime due to the pressures of capitalism
Snider
capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability so lawmaking and law enforcement only serving the interests of the capitalist class
not all capitalist societies have high crime rates, for example Japan and Switzerland have about a homicide rate of one fifth compared to the United states.
Reiman
selective law enforcement - law is enforced selectively by the criminal justice system as the police target working class crimes and ignore the crimes of the powerful which makes crime appear to be a working class phenomenon - makes crime appear to be a working class phenomenon
Criticism: The criminal justice system does actually act against the interests of the capitalist class e.g through the prosecution of corporate crime
Taylor, Walton and Young - Left Idealists
Economic necessity (poverty) forces does not force w/c into criminality and they take a voluntaristic approach to see crime as a conscious, deliberate action. Crime is a pro-revolutionary action and the w/c choose to commit crime as they are deliberately trying to improve society. Crime is positive and only a problem for the r/c as it threatens their interests, rather than a problem for society as a whole.
Criticism: Taylor et al romanticise working class criminals and represent them as modern day Robin Hoods who steal from the rich to give to the poor, when in fact, most crime is intra-class (w/c commit crimes against other w/c).
Lea and Young - Left Realists
Material deprivation is not the cause of crime because in the past, poverty rates were high yet crime was low.
It is relative deprivation that causes crime because people feel like they don’t have what others do therefore they turn to crime to obtain it. This is combined with increasing individualism (the concern with one’s own interests at the expense of others) which leads to crime.
Criticism: Not all people who feel relatively deprived commit crime.
Becker
useful as he explains that crime is a social construct
No act is inherently criminal in itself, an act only becomes criminal when it is defined as such therefore, crime is a social construct
The criminal is the person who has been labelled as such and not everyone in society gets labelled.
Whether a person is labelled depends on: their appearance/background, the circumstances of the offence and their interaction with the police, courts, etc
+C: It gives the offender a ‘victim status’ – Realists argue that this perspective actually ignores the actual victims of crime.
Cicourel –
useful as explains why some social groups are more likely to be labelled and that justice is negotiable which shows that OCS are inaccurate - ….
police officers’ decisions to arrest are based on typifications (juvenile delinquency is created by broken homes and poverty)
m/c lesslikely to be charged because their background does not fit the stereotype of a typical criminal
+C: does not explain why people hold typifications + Marxists argue the reason why m/c are less likely to be charged are not bc of typifications but instead selective enforcement (a conscious decision)
S.Cohen
Examined newspaper/court reports of societal reaction to Mods and Rockers disturbances in Clacton in 1964
A minor disturbance was exaggerated when in reality, the fighting and general criminality were minor
youth became seen as folk devils (a group in society that is a threat to social order and self
The self-fulfilling prophecy followed and Mods and Rockers engaged in more fighting as they started to see each other as ‘enemies’ which created a moral panic and a deviancy amplification (process of attempting to control deviance that leads to an increase in the level of deviance) when the police responded by arresting anyone who fitted the stereotype of a Mod or Rocker
+C: moral panics do not have the same amount of influence as they are not rare occurrences so the public have become more aware and critical of believing newstories
Lemert
useful for explaining how labelling causes crime
Primary deviance (minor e.g fare dodging) = labelled (which becomes master status)
Master status leads to self fulfilling prophecy and this leads to secondary deviance (more serious)
Secondary deviance results in further stigmatisation and exclusion from society and this causes a deviant career and ultimately a criminal subculture
+C: Deterministic - suggests that people are passive and do not react against their labels.
