Sociology - Crime & Deviance Flashcards
Durkhiem
Crime is inevitable - Poor socialisation results in not everyone being taught the same norms and values.
The inevitability of crime stems from the inequality that exists in society
Crime is positive - ‘Boundary maintenance’ is the concept that crime is functional in society when there is the right amount. When people are punished for committing crimes, it teaches the rest of society not to go against norms and values, in turn strengthening boundaries and preventing further crime.
Davis agrees with Durkheim in that crime can be positive, but in a different way. He believes prostitution provides positive functions because it allows men to express sexual frustration without threatening the nuclear family.
Adaptation and change - Some crime can be functional for society because it allows social adaptation and change; this means that for society to have norms and values that change as a form of rationalism, a criminal act must take place.
Merton
Merton’s ‘strain theory’ states that crime is caused by the failure to achieve the goals of the American dream through legitimate means. In his theory there are five different responses to the American Dream:
Conformism - accepting the goals and legitimate means to achieve them
Innovation - subscribe to the goals of the American dream but use illegitimate means to achieve them
Ritualism - reject the goals but conform to the means
Retreatism - reject both the goals of the American dream and subscribe to illegitimate means
Rebellion - replace the goals and means with their own
Cohen
Cohen’s ‘status frustration’ theory focuses on working-class boys in schools who fail to succeed in middle-class environments, and in turn, form delinquent subcultures that go against middle-class norms and values. Subsequently, working-class boys try to succeed within subcultures by trying to rise in the hierarchy, which they have more chance of succeeding in. This explains why people commit non-utilitarian crimes.
Cloward & Ohlin
Cloward and Ohlin develop Cohen’s status frustration theory by suggesting there are 3 types of subcultures:
>Criminal subcultures provide ‘apprenticeships’ for utilitarian crime. They exist in areas with stable criminal cultures, with hierarchies of professional criminals (e.g. drug dealers).
>Conflict subcultures exist in areas of high population turnover. There is social disorganisation and only loosely organised gangs (e.g. postcode/turf wars).
>Retreatist subcultures are formed of people who fail in both legitimate AND illegitimate means and may turn to illegal drug use (e.g. ‘junkies’).
Becker
The social construction of crime - a deviant is someone who the label has been successfully applied, and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label. Those who are labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity.
Cicourel
Officers typifications (stereotypes) of the typical criminal lead to them concentrate on types of people that are more likely to offend - for instance, by patrolling working class areas.
Lemert - Types of deviance
Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled as criminal.
Secondary deviance - deviant acts and individuals that are labelled. Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to his master status (whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act), which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment.
Braithwaite - Types of shaming
Reintegrative shaming - punishes them in a way that strengthens their bonds with society.
Disintegrative shaming - punishment which isolates the individual and causes secondary deviance.
Douglas
Rejects the use of official statistics when examining suicide. Whether a death is labelled as a suicide depends on the interactions and negotiations between social actors (doctors, the coroner, family). Statistics therefore tell us nothing about the meaning behind an individual’s decision to commit suicide.
CRIMINOGENIC CAPITALISM
Marxists believe that capitalism is criminogenic - by its very nature, it causes crime. Poverty (caused be capitalism) may mean that crime is the only way the working class can survive. Crime also may be the only way the working class can obtain consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising, resulting in utilitarian crimes such as theft. Alienation and lack of control may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism.
THE STATE AND LAW MAKING
Chambliss state that laws to protect private property are a cornerstone of the capitalist economy.
Snider argues that capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability.
SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT
Marxists believe that although all classes commit crime, when it comes to application of the law by the criminal justice system, there is selective enforcement. While powerless groups such as the working class and ethnic minorities are criminalised, the police and court tend to ignore the crimes of the powerful.
IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
Pearce theorises that laws give capitalism a ‘caring’ face, and create a false consciousness among workers. This is because the state enforces the law selectively, crime appears to be largely a working-class phenomenon. This divides working class due to how it encourages workers to blame criminals in their midst for their problems, rather than capitalism.
NEO-MARXISM
Taylor et al criticise Marxists for economic determinism and instead see crime as meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor. In particular, they argue that crime often has a political motive (for instance, to redistribute wealth from the rich to poor). Criminals are not passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism: they are deliberately striving to change society.
NEO-MARXISM - A FULLY SOCIAL THEORY OF DEVIANCE
Taylor et al produced ‘a fully social theory of deviance’ to understand crime in society. It takes into account:
>The wider origins of the deviant act - the unequal distribution of wealth and power in capitalist society
>Immediate origins of the deviant act - the context in which the individual decides to commit the act
>The act itself - its meaning for the actor
>Immediate origins of social reaction - the reactions of those around the deviant act
>The wider origins of societal reaction - who has the power to define actions as deviant and to label others, and why some acts are treated more harshly than others
>The effects of labelling - what effects does the deviant at have on the future actions
WHITE COLLAR & CORPORATE CRIME
Reiman and Leighton argue that the more likely a crime is to be committed by high-class people, the less likely it is to be treated as an offence. Also, there is a much higher rate of prosecutions for the typical ‘street crimes’ that poor people commit (such as burglary and assault). Crimes committed by the higher classes (such as tax evasion) are more likely to get a more forgiving view from the justice system
Tombs notes that corporate crime has enormous costs: physical (deaths, injuries, illnesses), environmental (pollution) and economic (to consumers, workers, taxpayers and governments).
Invisibility of CORPORATE CRIME
> The media - give very limited coverage to corporate, thus reinforcing the stereotype that crime is a working-class phenomenon
Lack of political will to tackle corporate crime - politicians rhetoric of being ‘tough on crime’ only applies to street crime.
Crimes are complex - law enforcers are often understaffed, under-resourced and lack technical expertise.
Delabelling - at the level of laws and legal regulations, corporate crime is consistently filtered out from the process of criminalisation.
Under-reported - individuals may be unaware they have been victimised.
Explanations of CORPORATE CRIME
Box argues that if a company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones instead.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
Sutherland Sees crime as behaviour learned from others in a social context. The less we associate with people who hold attitudes favourable to the law and the more we associate with people with criminal attitudes, the more likely we are to become deviant ourselves.
LABELLING THEORY
Cicourel argues that typically, the working class are more likely to have their actions labelled as criminal. The middle class are more able to negotiate non-criminal labels for their misbehaviour.
Right realism - explanations for crime - BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Hernstein and Wilson argue that biological differences between individuals make some individuals more predisposed to crime. For instance, personality traits such as aggression and low impulse control signify people who are at greater risk of offending. In addition, low intelligence is also a contributing factor.
Right realism - explanations for crime - POOR SOCIALISATION
Murray argues crime is increasing due to the mounting underclass defined by their deviant behaviour.
Right realism - explanations for crime - RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
Clarke believes the decision to commit a crime is based on a rational calculation of consequences. If perceived rewards outweigh costs, people are more likely to offend.
Left realism - explanations for crime - RELATIVE DEPRIVATION
Lea and Young argue that relative deprivation leads to crime because people who are deprived resent others having more material goods than them, thus resorting to illegitimate means to achieve the same level of materials.
Left realism - explanations for crime - SUBCULTURES
Subcultures form as a collective solution to relative deprivation, and some may turn to crime in order to close the ‘deprivation gap’.
Left realism - explanations for crime - MARGINALISATION
Marginalised groups lack clear goals and organisations to represent them, which leads to frustration and resentment. In turn, they express this frustration through criminal acts such as violence and rioting.
