Social Class And Crime Flashcards
Why might WC crime be more prominent in OCS stats?
Marxists argue that many crimes committed by the wealthy don’t make their way into crime statistics due to several factors.
Factors include the rich being less likely to be investigated, affording good lawyers, and engaging in legal harmful behaviors.
What does WC crime refer to?
WC crime refers to crimes committed by the ‘middle class’, such as fraud and tax evasion.
Why are there often fewer convictions for white collar crimes?
Because they are harder to detect and victims are often diffused.
Crime often committed at a distance, perhaps by computer, rather than face to face
What is corporate crime?
Refers specifically to crimes committed by companies rather than individuals.
Normally fraud or tax evasion
These crimes havent been routinely prosecuted
- even when companies are held accountable, its often through arrangements outside the CJS
Who takes an interactionist appproach on white collar crime?
Cicourel
What did Cicourel argue about police perception?
Cicourel argued that the meanings held by police officers explain why most delinquents come from working class backgrounds.
Process is complex and consists of 2 stages
What are the two stages of the process described by Cicourel?
- Decision by police to stop and interrogate an individual based on meanings held by police of what is ‘strange, unusual and wrong’
- Young person is handed over to a juvenile delinquents officer
Officer will have a picture of a ‘typical delinquent’
- include a dishevelled appearance, having poor posture and speaking in slang
What did Merton’s strain theory propose?
Merton argued that crime increases when there is a strain between society’s success goals and available legitimate opportunities.
Why did Merton believe crime was higher among the working classes?
Because they had fewer opportunities to achieve material success through legitimate means.
More likely to adopt innovative cultural responses to achieve material success through criminal means
- saw crime as a response to the inability of people to achieve material wealth emphasising the role of economic factors
What concept did Cohen emphasize in relation to working class boys?
Cohen emphasized cultural factors and status frustration.
working class boys strove to emulate middle class values and aspiratons but lacked the means to achieve success
What is status frustration according to Cohen?
A sense of personal failure and inadequacy
How did working class boys resolve status frustration?
According to Cohen, through rejecting socially acceptable values and patterns of acceptable behaviour
Because there were multiple boys experiencing the same thing, end up grouping together and forming delinquent subcultures
What is a delinquent subculture?
A group that reverses the norms and values of mainstream culture, offering positive rewards for deviance.
What are the three key points of the Marxist view on crime?
- Capitalism encourages self-interest
- Capitalism promotes materialism, making us aspire to an unrealistic and often unattainable lifestyle
- Capitalism generates inequality and poverty correlated with high crime rates
What does Gordon argue about capitalist societies?
Describes them as ‘dog eat dog societies’ where individuals prioritize their own interests before the interests of others or the community.
What do Marxists argue about reasons behind crime?
Visible evidence of massive inequalities give people at the bottom a sense of injustice, anger and frustration
as a result, capitalism leads to a flourish of economic crime as well as violent street crime
Who talks about economic crime from a marxist perspective?
Chambliss
Says economic crime ‘represents’ rational responses to the competitiveness and inequality of life in capitalism socities
What is the Right Realism perspective on crime?
Attribute a disproportionate amount of crime to the underclass.
What did Murray argue was responsible for the increase in crime rates in the 1970s and 80s?
Changes to family structure and the growth of the underclass.
Growing underclass who are defined by their deviant behaviour and fail to socialise their children properly
- children of the underclass fail to learn self control and fail to learn the difference between right and wrong
What are the consequences of welfare dependency?
according to Murray.
* Decline of marriage
* Growth of lone parent families
* Ineffective socialization of children
What do the consequences of welfare dependency mean?
Men no longer take responsibility for supporting children = no need to work
- women can live off benefits instead of marriage
- absent fathers = lack of parental discipline and appropriate role models for boys
Arnott - ultra tough ghetto superstar
- Young males turn to other, delinquent role models on the street to gain status through crime
- Increasing crime = children grow surrounded by deviant criminal adults
What do Left Realists argue about crime?
They explain crime using the concepts of relative deprivation, marginalization, and subculture.
What is relative deprivation?
According to Runciman, It refers to how someone feels in relation to others or compared with their own expectations.
Lea and Young note that crime has roots in deprivation but deprivation itself isnt directly responsible for crime
- Deprivation due to media and advertising raising peoples expectations for material possessions
What does marginalization refer to?
When people lack the power or resources to fully participate in society.
Marginalised groups lack both clear goalds and organisations to represent their interests
