Topic 1- New Right, Marxist and Interactionist

Question 1

New right

Answer 1

Murray-underclass responsible for a large proportion of crime
More people are relying on welfare benefits, which encourages people to turn to crime

Question 2

Marxist theories

Answer 2

Ruling class create the law, these laws protect their interests
Crime is a product of structural forces

Question 3

Criminogenic definition

Answer 3

That crime is an inbuilt and natural outgrowth of capitalists society which emphasises economic self interest

Question 4

Gordon

Answer 4

Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and is therefore found in all classes

Question 5

Chanbliss

Answer 5

Non decision making- conscious decisions to avoid creating laws and regulations for the wealthy

Question 6

Box

Answer 6

Argues that what is defined as a serious crime is a social construct benefitting the wealthy

Question 7

Selective enforcement

Answer 7

See with labelling theories that although all classes commit crime, there is a selective enforcement of justice

Question 8

Snider

Answer 8

Laws still don’t curb the interest of big businesses

Question 9

Evaluation of Marxism

Answer 9

Strengths
-Offers a useful explanation of the relationship between class and capitalist society

Limits
-Not all crime is committed for personal gain
-Don’t explain why crime still exists
-They don’t explain why crime rates vary between capitalist societies

Question 10

Neo-Marxist view

Answer 10

Argue that the individual has a degree of choice in their decision to commit a crime

Question 11

Taylor, Walton and Young

Answer 11

They argue that the state enforces the law in the interest of the capitalist state

Question 12

New criminology

Answer 12

Taylor et al- Draw on both the labelling theory and Marxism

Question 13

Stuart Hall

Answer 13

He attempts to explore how crime was used to reassert the dominance of the ruling class hegemony

Question 14

Hall’s social processes

Answer 14

-The wider social origins of the deviant act
-The immediate origins of the deviant act
-The actual act
-The immediate origins of social reaction
-The outcome on the deviants further actions
-The nature of the deviant process

Question 15

Criticisms of Neo-Marxist views

Answer 15

-Marxists say that its too removed
-Feminists argue that women were still removed from criminological discussion
-Romanticise the view of criminals

Question 16

Interactionist view

Answer 16

They suggest that it is more important to explore how people come to be described as deviant and the impact that this has on their future behaviour

Question 17

Becker

Answer 17

He suggests that an act only becomes deviant when others perceive it as such

Question 18

Lemert

Answer 18

Primary and secondary deviance
-P= Deviance that hasn’t been publicly labelled as a crime
-S= When an offender is discovered and publicly exposed and a label of deviance is attached

Question 19

Deviance amplification spiral

Answer 19

It illustrates an important difference between labelling theory and functionalist theories of deviance

Question 20

Dark figure

Answer 20

Unlabelled, unrecorded crime

Question 21

Folk devils

Answer 21

Over labelled and over exposed to the public and to authorities

Question 22

Cicourel Police typification’s

Answer 22

Found that police assumptions led them to concentrate upon certain types of people e.g w/c

Question 23

What did cicourel find

Answer 23

Others working in the criminal justice system also held a bias

Question 24

Braithwaite and Drahos (2000)

Answer 24

Labelling theory can be applied to the environment as well as people

Question 25

Evaluation of the labelling theory

Answer 25

Strengths
-Provides insights into the nature of deviance
-Shows the importance of the reactions of others
-It shows the importance of stereotyping

Limits
-The deviant becomes the victim
-It assumes an act is not deviant until its labelled
-Its too deterministic