Socialogical Theories And Evaluations Flashcards
What is Marxism theory?
Marxism theory regard crime as a result of capitalism
What are strengths of Marxism?
Shows how poverty and inequality can cause working class crime
Shows capitalism promotes greed
Shows law making is biased against working class
What are weaknesses of Marxism?
Focuses purely on class, doesn’t see other inequality’s like gender
What is right realism?
Right realism focuses on practical solutions to crime. An explanation for right realism is Rational choice theory which assume we are rational human beings meaning committing crimes is based on rational thinking.
Balancing risks and rewards- if rewards are low and risk high crime rates will below
What’s strengths of right realism?
Supported by studies;
retigg showing students commit crime based on the amount of punishment
Feldman found people make rational decisions if rewards re high and risks are low
Weaknesses of right realism?
Retigg and Feldman studies are experiments so don’t apply to real life
Not all crime is a result of rational decisions, violent crimes are impulsive
Doesn’t take drugs and alcohol into account
What is left realism?
Agrees with Marxism and also recognise differential law enforcement.
Strengths of left realism
Sees crime as a real problem aims to find the causes
Aims to help victims and draws attention to reality of street crime
Weaknesses of left realism
Overpredicts amount of crime
Doesn’t include unrepresented crime
Can’t explain offenders motives
What is interactionism?
Labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
Strengths of interactionism
Shows how we act with different people
Focuses on individuals rather than categories
Helps understand social construction
Weaknesses of interactionism
Underestimates
