Sociological theories of criminality Flashcards
Merton’s strain theory?
American dream, cultural goals obtained through wealth/talent etc, if we don’t have these means then we feel the strain, goals obtained through conforming, innovating or retreating
Strengths and limitations on Merton’s theory?
S- shows how normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same goals, explains patterns shown in official stats e.g property crime
L- over-predicts working class crime and ignores wealthy people crime, sees deviance as an individual response ignoring group deviance of delinquent sub cultures
Marxism theory?
Capitalism is bad, suggests that society influences a person to become a criminal, assumes that disadvantaged social class is the primary cause of crime and that it begins as a youth.
Strengths and limitations of Marxism theory?
S- shows how poverty and inequality can cause working class crime, shows how lawmaking and law enforcement are biased against the working class e.g corporate crime is rarely prosecuted
L- focuses on class and largely ignores other inequalities, over-predicts the amount of working class crime
Durkheim’s/ Functionalism theory?
Crime is good and inevitable, crime is done and then punished so reminds everyone about how to behave, crime creates employment, when crime is committed it sends a message that something is wrong so prompts councils and governments to do something
Strengths and limitations of Durkheim’s theory?
S- first to recognise that crime has positive functions for society
L- not functional for victims, claims society needs a certain amount of deviance but unknowing of what is the right amount.
Becker’s labelling theory?
Suggests that our interactions with one another are based on meanings or labels, once an individual is labelled as a ‘criminal’ its only a matter of time until self- fufillment happens
Strengths and limitations of Becker’s labelling theory?
S- Highlights how law enforcement can be discriminatory, shows how labelling can affect policing
L- Fails to explain why deviant behaviour happens in the first place, labelling does not always lead to a self- fulfilling prophecy
Right realism/ conservative governments?
Sees crime as a real problem, argues crime is on the rise and other theories have failed to offer realistic solutions to the problem of crime, wants harsher punishments
Strengths and limitations of right realism?
S- Draws attention to policing and punishments by suggesting that they should be hardened, useful in explaining high levels of BAME crime
L- Ignores wider structural causes of crime such as poverty, zero tolerance etc doesn’t lessen crime
Left realism/ labour governments?
Argues that we need practical explanations of crime that offers solutions to reduce it, looks at crime of an individual level, committed because of marginalisation, relative deprivation and another relevant sub cultures.
Strengths and limitations to left realism?
S- Explores the role of the victim of crime, uses the idea of relative deprivation explaining the increase of crime
L- Relative deprivation, marginalisation and subcultures cannot fully explain crime, fails to explain white collar crime
