Theories Of Crime Flashcards
Durkheim
Crime is inevitable because not everybody is equally socialised and in modern societies there is a diversity of lifestyle and values.
4 Functions of Crime:
Boundary maintenance e.g Manchester arena attack
Adaption and change e.g gay rights movement
Safety valve e.g Polsky pornography
Warning light e.g truancy
Merton
Strain theory. There is a strain between cultural goals and structural factors. Disadvantaged people can’t achieve the American dream legitimately because they lack opportunities. Therefore, they may engage in deviant behaviour.
5 different responses:
Conformity e.g typical citizen
Innovation e.g shoplifting
Ritualism e.g dead end jobs
Retreatism e.g homelessness
Rebellion e.g hippies
Hirschi
4 Bonds of Attachment:
Attachment- caring about what others think
Commitment- what have you got to lose
Involvement- how involved are we with society
Belief- moral code
Cohen
Cultural deprivation and status frustration.
WC reject MC values and form subcultures.
Cloward and Ohlin
WC are denied legitimate opportunities.
3 different subcultures:
1. Professional criminal subcultures
2. Conflict subcultures
3. Retreatist subcultures
Miller
WC culture have a differing set of values and norms.
Focal concerns:
Toughness and trouble, excitement, smartness, fatalism, autonomy
Criminogenic Capitalism
Capitalism causes crime.
WC commit crime to get out of poverty e.g utilitarian crime.
RC commit corporate crime.
Gordon
- Crime is a rational response to capitalism and is found in all social classes.
- ISA manipulate our values into believing that working class crimes are very serious problems for society while failing to consider the true extent of white collar crime.
Chambliss
- RC manipulate what is and isn’t against the law.
- Laws to protect private property are the basis of the capitalist economy
- CJS focuses on the crime of the streets ignoring the crime of the suits
Snider
Capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses and threaten their profitability.
Examples of biased law creation
Pandora paper investigation
British East Asian colonies
Examples of selective enforcement
Bhopal
Thalidomide drug
Shell in the Niger Delta
Teddy Boys- Jefferson
Wore Edwardian style jackets, suede, shoes and bootlace ties.
Claims the adoption of this dress code showed working class contempt for the class system and poked fun at their supposed middle class ‘social superiors’
Skinheads- Cohen
Skinhead style was a reaction to the decline of working class communities.
Many took their aggression on immigrants as they believe immigrants broke up their neighbourhoods.
Neo Marxist Gilroy
Myth of black criminality.
Result of racist stereotypes and labelling.
EM crime is a form of political resistance against racist society (proto-political)
Neo Marxist Hal et Al
Black muggers.
There was a crisis of hegemony in British society and people were rejecting the governments rule.
A moral panic was created over black muggers to distract attention from the recession.
Black males were used as scapegoats.
Macpherson Report
Investigated the handling of the murder of Stephen Lawrence
Found the metropolitan police force to be institutionally racist
Reiner
Canteen culture
Mawby and Batta
Examined criminality among British Asians in Bradford
Largely living in run down, inner city areas with the challenges of the working class
Crime rates were usually very low as Asian people didn’t want to compromise their family honour
Left Realists Lea and Young
Black males are more likely to be involved in criminal activity because of:
1. Relative deprivation
2. Marginalisation
3. Subcultures
Heidensohn
Patriarchal society imposes greater control over women, reducing their opportunity to offend
Carlen
Class and gender deal
Denscombe
Rise in laddette culture
Lyng
Edgework
How criminals perceive crime to be a thrilling risk taking activity
Messerschmidt
Normative/hegemonic masculinity
Clarke
Individuals are rational beings with free will
Deciding to commit crime is a choice based on rational calculations of the consequences and rewards
The square of crime
Young, Lee and Matthew’s
State, informal social control, offender, victim
Right realist policies
Parenting order
Zero tolerance
