MT1 - Theories on crime (30 marker) Flashcards
Functionalism - Durkheim
Says crime is:
1 - Inevitable
2 - Functional - a certain amount of crime strengthens social bonds. Crime reaffirms boundaries of acceptable behaviour through degrading ceremonies.
CRITICISMS OF DURKHEIM
Doesn’t explain why certain people are more likely to commit crimes than others.
Functionalism - Merton
1 - crime exists because everyone shares the same goals in life (the American dream) but not everyone can achieve these goals legitimately so they turn to illegitimate means.
2 - people react to pressure to achieve AD through: Conformity (legitimate means) Innovation (Break law for money) Ritualism (Give up on AD) Retreatism (Give up and turn to drugs) Rebellion (Replace AD with new values)
CRITICISMS OF MERTON
Assumes that everyone shares the same values.
Functionalism - A-Cohen
1 - Subcultural theory - bad behaved w/c boys develop delinquent behaviour and realise they cant be successful through ed. They suffer status frustration (anger because their aspirations are blocked)
2 - They then form subcultures, as an illegitimate opportunity to achieve status.
CRITICISMS OF A-COHEN
Assumes value consensus – that everyone shares the same norms and values.
Right Realism - Herrnstein and Murray
main cause of crime is low intelligence which they see as biologically determined.
Right Realism - Murray
Dependency culture has led to a decline in marriage and increase in single mothers on benefits. Because these single mothers cant socialise their children properly, mostly boys, lack discipline and this causes delinquent behaviour.
Right Realism - Clarke
The decision to commit crime is based on rational choice of consequences.
CRITICISMS OF RIGHT REALISM
Ignore wider structural causes of crime such as poverty.
Marxism - What causes crime
Capitalism causes crime because its criminogenic, causes crime by its own nature.
Marxism - Who breaks the law/Why
Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class (workers are exploited and feel alienated leading causing them to be angry and commit crime)
Ruling class commit white collar and corporate crimes
Marxism - The purpose of laws
Maintains false class consciousness
CRITICISMS OF MARXISM - Taylor et al
theory is deterministic
Neo-Marxism - New criminology - why people commit crime
Crime is a conscious choice by the working class to redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor.
Neo-Marxism - New criminology - is crime positive or negative - Taylor et al
Crime as positive as it is pro-revolutionary.
CRITICISMS OF NEW CRIMINOLOGY - feminists
Theory is gender blind - ignores female crime
Neo-Marxism - Left Realisms - why people commit crime - Lea and Young
Relative deprivation causes crime (feeling of lacking something compared to what others have)
Neo-Marxism - Left Realisms - is crime positive or negative
negative - impact on victims should be considered
CRITICISMS OF LEFT REALISM
not all people who feel relatively deprived commit crime
Interactionalist - Becker
crime is a social construct its not the nature of the act that makes it criminal, but the nature of society’s reaction to it.
CRITICISMS OF INTERACTIONIST THEORY
deterministic - it suggests that people are passive and do not react against their labels.
Interactionalist - Cicourel
He carried out a participant and non-participant observation study of policing and found that police officers’ decisions to arrest are based on typifications - the stereotypes they held about offenders.
When middle class youths are arrested, they are less likely to be charged. This is because their background does not fit the stereotype of a typical criminal and because their parents have the cultural capital to negotiate with the police. Cicourel concludes that justice is not fixed, it is negotiable.
Therefore, OCS can’t be trusted.
