Race And Youth Flashcards
Criminal age of responsibility in Uk
10
Dolci incapax
Deemed incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime. A child would be assessed of their level of maturity before being charged.
This was abolished with the crime and disorder act 1998
Cases for youth
Columbine high school massacre 1999 -2, 15 year old boys did it. Sparked moral panic of guns and Marilyn Manson and video games were named as the cause
Bulger killers 1993. They were only 10 and they abducted tortured and killed a 2 year old
Crimes that youth stereotypically commit
Drug offences
Vandalism
Knife crime
alcohol offences
Merton strain theory 1938
When individuals are faces with a gap between there goals due to social status/ finance. Strain occurs and people adapt in 5 different ways:
Conformity: Pursing cultural goals through socially approved means
Innovation: pursing cultural goals through unapproved means
Ritualism: Ising social approves means to achieve less elusive cultural goals.
Retreatism: reject both cultural goals and mean to obtain them. Find a way to escape.
Routine activities theory
When there is absence of a capable guardian a motives offender and a suitable victims crime is committed.
Social bond theory Hircshi 1969
There are four bonds of attachment that keep people closely linked to the value consensus and ensures social control.
Attachment: How much we care about what others think of us? Eg caring about what spouses or children might think
Commitment: What have we got to lose? eg job
Involvement: What takes up are time? How involved are we with society eg hobbies, work etc Do we have time to commit crime
Belief: How strong is our personal moral code ?
To what extent do we believe obeying the law is the right thing to do
Rational choice theory
Is the effort and gains of commuting the crime worth the risk and what you could lose
Labelling theory Becker
What makes something devicant is not what is done but how people react to what is done.
Once labelled something it follows you around in society and can lead to self filling prophecy.
Where you become what you have been labelled.
Lembert 1967
Primary deviance is the act of commuting crime
Secondary is part of self in response to the way they are treated by society. As once labelled they live up to it self filling prophecy
Delinquency and drift
Matza and Sykes 1964
All people have delinquent values that can lead to deviant behaviour but most of us are able to keep them suppressed, This is a learned skill. Due to this people tend to drift between deviant and non deviant throughout there lives. However,
We are more likely to engage in deviant behaviour when we are young and less so as we age.
Matza and Sykes
Neutralisation
Proof that we all have delinquent values is the fact that we seek to neutralise our deviant acts to justify them. Therefore, we all have the same set of values as if we didn’t they would believe their deviant behaviour is correct/appropriate.
Examples of neutralisation
Denial of responsibility eg it wasn’t my fault
Denial of injury eg it didn’t hurt them
Denial of victim eg you deserved it
Appeal to higher loyalties eg I did it for my religion
Condemnation of condemners eg you are just as bad
Sectors of youth justice
Young offender’s institutes
Secure training centres
Secure children’s homes
Cohen moral panics
A person or group are perceived and defined as a threat to societal values and interests.
This is made worse by the media
Facts about race and crime
Highest level is offending us among whites
According to home office Uk statists in 2017 Black people are 9.5 times more likely to get stoped and searched than whites.
