Sociologists and theories - Crime and Deviance Flashcards
Paul Willis (1977)- Learning to Labour
He researched 12 working class schoolboys and found that they had developed an anti-school subculture; they had rejected the values of school and had developed their own norms and values. These were of non-conforming to school rules which they felt were based in middle class values which did not apply to them. Willis believed the boys’ behaviour was shaped by; the realities of the workforce which for them would be working class factory jobs (with no need for an education), the attitudes of the teachers who had labelled them as non academic and the peer pressure they felt to conform to the fellow classmates.
Marxist
Society is divided between those who have and those who do not have. Crime is a part of the conflict between these two groups.
The media reinforce the Capitalist system of materialism, consumerism and competition, which encourages greed and selfishness. The ruling class creates the laws and place a larger importance on theft of property than violent crimes. Crimes committed by the working class are punished more severely than white-collar criminals.
The police keep the ruling class in charge . They protect the ruling class from workers who may try to steal their wealth and they help to prevent any working class protest
They believe the courts favour the rich and the powerful the law is mainly about protecting property, this favours the rich. Marxists would argue courts treat working class people more harshly ( e.g. tough sentences for rioters/blue collar crimes compared to white collar crimes, harsher penalty for a bank robber than Nick Leeson (5 years) for bankrupting Barings Bank)
Functionalists
The police do a good job. They socialise the public through teaching them about issues such as speeding, drink driving. The police keep society healthy.
The judiciary play an important role by taking bad individuals out of society and trying to make sure they are resocialised and punished so they can become useful members of society. The judiciary reminds everyone of the boundaries especially when reported in the media
New Right
Crime is caused because of a breakdown in the norms and values of society and a breakdown in social order. They believe criminal behaviour should be punished. The new right see most criminal behaviour is due to antisocial behaviour often of young males.
Stanley Cohen
Juvenile delinquency down to membership of delinquent groups or ‘gangs’ – boys join these because of failure in education system where they experience ‘status frustration’ in trying and failing to meet middle class expectations.
ALSO: The media by drawing all attention to events creates a moral panic - the worry is exaggerated as though the whole of society will break down
The Mods and Rockers became known as folk devils and seen as a modern terror of society. The media predicted trouble at future Bank Holiday events and made the situation worse as it actually advertised these events to youths -Cohen called this deviancy amplification
Paul Willis
Labelling theory sees individuals as influenced by the labels others give them. ‘Learning to Labour; Working class boys reject the values of their school and form an anti-school culture. Paul Willis examined male youth behaviour in schools and found that those labelled ‘bad’ by staff effectively lived out that label and even revelled in it.
Frank Pearce Marxist Sociologist
In his book The Crimes of the Powerful he links the crimes of big business with organised crime. Organised crime run by gangsters ran alongside corporate crime and little attention was given to this by the law.
Geoffrey Pearson
In his book Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears 1983 (There were huge Riots across the UK in 1981) Pearson challenges the New Right View that the past was a ‘golden age’ where Britain’s streets were safe. He looked back to Victorian times where street crime was a problem and robbers prowled the streets. He wrote that this golden age was a myth.
Cesare Lombroso
Worked with criminals in the 19th century and believed criminal could be identified by their physical features (large ears/jaws, flat nostrils, dark skin, high pain threshold) This links to other theories that chemical imbalances in humans can be linked to criminal behaviour.
Hans Eysenck
Believed that extroverts who are risk taking and outgoing are more likely to become criminals that introverts. Therefore personality type was linked to criminal behaviour.
Robert K Merton
thought that crime got out of control where there was no balance between peoples goals and the changes of achieving them. He said that people are socialised to be rich and there are 5 possible responses: crime, drugs, giving up, rebelling, continuing to try for success. The desire to be successful puts strain on people and pressurises them to commit crime to achieve that success.
Albert Cohen
In the USA there is a strong value placed on success. Working classes may fail to be successful. They are frustrated so they invent their own subculture - with opposite norms and values; gaining success and respect within the subculture. This may cause them to do badly at school and take part in a criminal lifestyle.
Cloward & Ohlin
Took Merton’s ideas further and explained why criminal subcultures take different forms. People turn to criminal subculture but it depends on the areas you live in.
They define 3 kinds of subculture
Criminal subculture: highly organised gangs
Conflict subculture: no organised crime so join gangs to fight each other.
Retreatist subculture: do neither and turns to drugs or alcohol.
Paul Gilroy
argued that the Police were racist and that ethic minority groups are not more criminal than other groups. Black and Asian people were victims of racism and so were in conflict with the police.
He states that ethnic minorities are also more likely to be a victim of crime, and racially motivated attacks.
Ethnic minorities are victims and unfairly blamed for crime.
Stuart Hall ( Marxist ideas)
Moved to England from Jamaica in 1951. In his book Policing the Crisis - 1976 he wrote that the government was losing control of the country (power cuts, strikes, high inflation). He argues that the government used a moral panic about crime to justify a very tough approach to policing and controlling the streets. The crime of mugging was part of this and associated with black people.
