sociological theories Flashcards
describe durkheims theory
Durkheim sees society as a stable structure based on shared norms, values, and beliefs about right and wrong. This produces social solidarity or integration, where all members of society feel they belong to the same harmonious unit. Most people conform to society’s shared norms and do not deviate.
Nevertheless, some crime is inevitable, because in every society some individuals are inadequately socialised and likely to deviate. Society also contains many subcultures, each with different values, so shared rules of behaviour become less clear.
Durkheim calls this ‘anomie’ (normlessness) where shared norms become weakened.
evaluate durkheims theory
Durkheim was first to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society for example, reinforcing boundaries between right and wrong by uniting people against the wrongdoer.
Durkheim claims society requires a certain amount of deviance to function but offers no way of knowing how much the right amount
is.
While crime might be functional for some, it is not functional for victims.
describe mertons strain theory
According to Merton (1939) the root cause of a crime lies in the unequal structure of society. He focuses on the USA, but his ideas can also be applied to the UK. American society values ‘money success’ or wealth as the goal people should pursue and tell them they should achieve this through legitimate means such as hard work at school and in a career.
Block opportunities: However, not everyone has an equal chance of achieving success legitimately because American society is very unequal. Opportunities for working-class people are often blocked by poverty and inadequate schools.
This creates a ‘strain’ between the goal society says they should achieve and the lack of legitimate means to do so. This causes crime and deviance.
what 5 groups does merton say are in society
Conformists They achieve society’s goal legitimately.
Innovation Innovators accept the goals but find illegal ways of achieving it by committing utilitarian crimes.
RItualism Ritualists give up striving for success.
Retreatism Dropouts who reject both goals and means.
Rebellion Rebels who reject the existing goals & means, replacing them with new ones with the aims of changing society.
evaluate mertons strain theory
strengths-
Merton (1938) shows how both normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same goals.Conformists and innovators both pursue ‘money success’ but by different means.
weaknesses-
Merton ignores crimes of wealthy and over-predicts the amount of working-class crime.
Merton focuses on utilitarian crimes, for example, theft – ignoring crimes with no economic motive, for example, vandalism.
describe subcultural theories of crime
Delinquent subcultures are groups whose norms and values are deviant. Subcultural theories apply Merton’s idea of strain between goals and means. Their key idea is that subcultures enable their members to gain status by illegitimate means.
Albert Cohen - Status Frustration:
Cohen (1955) agrees with Merton that deviance results from the lower classes’ failure to achieve by legitimate means. However, Cohen sees subcultural deviance as a group response to failure, not just an individual one. He focuses on non- utilitarian crimes, such as vandalism
Cloward & Ohlin: three subcultures
Cloward and Ohlin (1960) note that different neighbourhoods give rise to different types of deviant subcultures:
These arise in areas where there is a long standing professional criminal network.
These arise where the only criminal opportunities are within street gangs. These are made up of dropouts who have failed in both the legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure.
Evaluate cohens subcultural theory
Pros
These theories show how subcultures perform a function of their members by offering solutions to the problem of failing to achieve mainstream goals legitimately.
Cloward and Ohlin (1960) show how different types of neighbourhoods give rise to different illegitimate opportunities and different subcultures (criminal, conflict and retreatist)
Cons
Like Merton, they ignore crimesof the wealthy and over-predict the amount of working – class crime
They assume everyone starts with mainstream goals and turns to a subculture when they fail to achieve them. But some people do not share those goals in the first place; they may be attracted to crime for other reasons.
Evaluate the interactionist labelling theory
Key idea: An act only becomes criminal when labelled as such. To understand crime, we must focus on how certain acts and people get labelled as criminals.
Pros
It shifts the focus onto how the police create crime by applying labels based on their stereotypes of the typical criminal. This selective law enforcement may explain why the working class and minority groups are over-represented in the crime statistics.
It shows how attempts to control deviance can trigger a deviance amplification spiral and create more deviance.
Cons
It wrongly implies that once someone is labelled, a deviant career is inevitable. (This is called
determinism – as though the outcome is predetermined).
Its emphasis on the negative effects of labelling gives offenders a ‘victim’ status, ignoring the real victims.
Describe interactionism
Interactionism is different to the theories we have looked at so far, as it is a micro action theory that focuses on the actions and interactions between individuals and groups.
Interactionists see our interactions with others as based on meanings or labels. For example, ‘criminal’ is a label that some people (such as police officers) may attach to others (such as young males) in their interactions with others.
Crime and criminals are social constructs, meanings that we create these ideas through our social interactions.
Describe labelling theory
Labelling theory states that no act is deviant or criminal in itself. It only become so when we create rules and apply them to others. Therefore, to understand criminality, we must focus on how certain actions and people get labelled as criminal in the first place.
Differential enforcement of the law: Interactionists argue that social control agencies such as the police label certain groups as criminals. This results in differential enforcement, where the law is enforced more against one group than against another.
Similarly, Cicourel (1968) found that police use typifications (stereotypes) of the ‘typical delinquent’. Working-class and ethnic minority youth are more likely to fit the typification and be stopped, arrested, and charged.
How does labelling theory lead to self fulfilling prophecy
Lemert (1972) argues, labelling is a cause of crime and deviance. By labelling certain people as deviant, society encourages them to become more so:
• Primary deviance involves acts that have not been publicly labelled. • Secondary deviance results from labelling
As a result, the offender may be rejected by society and forced into the company of other criminals, joining a deviant subculture. Prison is an extra example of this: the offender is excluded from normal society and placed with others who confirm his criminal identity, provide him with criminal role models and teach him criminal skills.
Describe left realism
Left realists have a left wing, socialist political outlook. They see inequality in capitalist society as the root cause of crime. They argue that the main victims are disadvantaged groups: the working class, ethnic minorities and women.
Crime rates are highest in working-class areas with high levels of unemployment and deprivation. This is also evidence that the police take crimes against these groups less seriously. Left realists propose to reduce crime by making society fairer and more equal.
Lea and Young (1984) identify three related causes of crime:
1. Relative deprivation – how deprived or badly off someone feels in relation to others.
Lea and Young argues that two factors are increasing people’s sense of relative deprivation:
● On the one hand, the media continually pumps out messages urging everyone to aspire to material possessions, promoting what Young calls a ‘culture hooked on Gucci, BMW Nikes’.
● On the other hand, society is becoming more unequal due to cuts in benefits, unemployment, job insecurity and low pay.
- Subculture: Left realists believe a subculture is a group’s way of solving the problem of relative deprivation. Some subcultures turn to crime to solve the problem. Criminal subcultures share society’s materialistic goals, but because legitimate opportunities are blocked, they resort to crime.
- Marginalisation: According to Lea and Young (1984), marginalised groups are ones that lack organisations to represent their interests and lack clearly defined goals. For example, unemployed youth are a highly marginalised group.
Describe left realism
Left realists have a left wing, socialist political outlook. They see inequality in capitalist society as the root cause of crime. They argue that the main victims are disadvantaged groups: the working class, ethnic minorities and women.
Crime rates are highest in working-class areas with high levels of unemployment and deprivation. This is also evidence that the police take crimes against these groups less seriously. Left realists propose to reduce crime by making society fairer and more equal.
Lea and Young (1984) identify three related causes of crime:
1. Relative deprivation – how deprived or badly off someone feels in relation to others.
Lea and Young argues that two factors are increasing people’s sense of relative deprivation:
● On the one hand, the media continually pumps out messages urging everyone to aspire to material possessions, promoting what Young calls a ‘culture hooked on Gucci, BMW Nikes’.
● On the other hand, society is becoming more unequal due to cuts in benefits, unemployment, job insecurity and low pay.
- Subculture: Left realists believe a subculture is a group’s way of solving the problem of relative deprivation. Some subcultures turn to crime to solve the problem. Criminal subcultures share society’s materialistic goals, but because legitimate opportunities are blocked, they resort to crime.
- Marginalisation: According to Lea and Young (1984), marginalised groups are ones that lack organisations to represent their interests and lack clearly defined goals. For example, unemployed youth are a highly marginalised group.
Evaluate left realism
Key idea: Left realists see crime as a real problem. Its main victims are disadvantaged groups. Inequality is the main cause of crime; it encourages relative deprivation.
Pros
Left realism draws attention to the importance of
poverty, inequality, and relative deprivation as the underlying structural causes of crime.
It draws attention to the reality of street crime and its effects, especially on victims from deprived groups.
Cons
It over – predicts that number of working-class crimes: not everyone who experiences relative deprivation and marginalisation turns to crime.
Fails to explain white-collar crimes
Describe the idea of Marxism
Marxist theories of crime also take a structural approach to understanding criminality. They assume that behaviour is affected by being part of an unequal, capitalist society. For example, Marxists argue that society is divided into two distinctive groups:
● The ruling class (bourgeoisie), made up of the capitalists, the owners of ‘the means of production’ (e.g. factories and land).
● The working class (proletariat) whose members are exploited by the ruling class, in order for them to make a profit.
The Marxist view of crime and the law has three main elements:
1. Capitalism causes crime
2. Lawmaking&lawenforcementarebiased
3. The law performs ideological functions
Describe the surveillance theory
Surveillance involves monitoring people to control crime. Such monitoring can be carried out by CCTV, tagging and databases that produce profiles on individuals and groups.
Foucault (1975) argues that in modern society, we are increasingly controlled through self-surveillance through what he calls ‘disciplinary power’. He illustrates this by reference to a prison design known as the Panopticon (meaning ‘all seeing’).
In the Panopticon, prisoners’ cells are visible to the guards from a central viewing, but prisoners cannot see the guards. Therefore, not knowing if they are being watched, the prisoners must constantly behaviour as if they are.
Synoptic surveillance
Mathiesen (1997) argues that as well as surveillance from above, (like the Panopticon) we now have surveillance from below. He calls this the ‘synopticon’, where everybody watches everybody.
For example, motorists and cyclists can monitor the behaviour of others
by using dashboard or helmet cameras. This many warn other road users that they are under surveillance and result in them exercising self-discipline.
Evaluate Marxism
Key idea: Capitalism is criminogenic: it is the root cause of crime. All classes commit crime, but selective law enforcement means crime appears to be only a working-class problem.
Pros- It shows how poverty and inequality can cause working–class crime, and how capitalism promotes greed and encourages upper – class crime.
It shows how both law-making and law enforcement are biased against the working class and in favour of the powerful. For example, corporate crimes are rarely prosecuted
Cons-
It focuses on class and largely ignores the relationship between crime and other inequalities, such as gender and ethnicity
Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates, for example, Japan’s homicide rates is only about a 1/5 of USA’s. (Marxists do point out that capitalist societies with little welfare provision, like the USA, have higher crime rates).
Evaluate the surveillance theory
Key idea: Foucault argues that in today’s society, people engage in self-surveillance. We are also under electronic surveillance. Surveillance has become an increasingly important form of crime control.
Pros
Foucault’s work has stimulated research into surveillance and disciplinary power – especially into the idea of an ‘electronic Panopticon’ that uses modern technologies to monitor us.
Researchers have identified other forms of surveillance, including actuarial justice and profiling
Cons
Foucault exaggerates the extent of control. For example, Goffman (1961) shows how inmates of prisons and mental health hospitals resist controls.
Surveillance may not change people’s behaviour as Foucault claims. For example, studies show that CCTV may fail to prevent crime because offenders often take no notice of it.
Describe right realism
Right realists have a right wing, conservative political outlook. They see crime, especially street crime as a growing problem. Right realists are mainly concerned with practical solutions to reduce crime. In their view, the best way to do so is through control and punishment.
Right realists reject the Marxist view that factors such as poverty are the causes of crime. Instead, they argue that crime is the product of three factors:
1. Biological differences between individuals: According to Wilson and Herrnstein (1985) biological differences make some individuals more likely to commit crime.
2. Inadequate socialisation: Effective socialisation can reduce the chances of someone offending by teaching them self – control and correct values. Right realists see the nuclear family as the best agency of socialisation
3. Offending is a rational choice: An important part of right realism is rational choice theory (RCT).
will. Deciding to commit a crime is a choice based on rational calculation of the consequences:
Evaluate right realism
Key idea: Right realists base their views on Rational Choice Theory (RCT): criminals are rational actors who weigh up the risks and rewards before deciding whether to commit crimes.
Pros
Research by Flood-Page et al (2000) supports the view of the decline of the family. They found children, particularly males, from one-parent background and step-families were more likely to offend than those who lived with two natural parents.
Feldman (1977) found that people made rational decisions: if the rewards were high and risks low, they said the crime was worth committing.
Cons
Focus more on young males and street crimes. Fails to explain white-collar crimes. Ignores the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
Not all crimes are the result of rational decision. Violent crimes are often impulsive. Offenders under the influences of drugs or alcohol may also be unlikely to calculate the risks and rewards before offending.
