Week Ten - General Flashcards
What was Criminology in the 2nd half of the 20th Century dominated by?
Criminology was dominated more by sociological concerns
What are the Sociological Theories?
Anomie
Strain Theory
Social Disorganisation Theory
Control Theory
Conflict
Labelling
Subcultural Theory
Seductions of Crime
Criminology has tended to focus on wider questions…
Criminology has tended to focus on wider questions concerning the complex relationships between crime, criminal justice, and society. Not just about the ‘causes of crime’, but also questions about how crime is itself constructed.
What is Sociology?
A scientific study of social groups and whole societies
A common culture that is collectively learnt and shared.
Examination of how and why members of society think and feel the way they do and how this shapes the social order.
Understanding socialisation; how humans learn about their culture…
Scientific measurement, treatment of trouble spots
Roots in the work of Quetelet (1820s)
Social Norms and Values…
Cultures and organisations have norms which shape our behaviour. Through the socialisation process we learn how to act and be a citizen of a particular culture.
Norms define what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour. And just as importantly they also define what is not acceptable.
Values are beliefs which ground the norms in cultures. Values are the amount of worth and emphasis we place on norms, for example ways of behaving, which are considered desirable in society
But, are we all equal?
Our status, role can be defined by… Gender Race Ethnicity Class (socio-economic status) Sexuality Age Geography Education Employment Leisure interests
Emile Durkheim…
Adaptation of societies to industrialisation
Social order based on shared values – moral basis for solidarity. Collective conscience
Mechanical solidarity (pre-Industrial)
Organic solidarity (post-Industrial) – wider range of tasks, independence and interdependence
Division of labour plays moral role – restrains self-interest, promotes cohesion.
What were Durkheim’s central arguements?
To explain growth of crime & criminal behavior in modern industrial societies:
Such societies encourage unbridled ‘egoism’ that is against the maintenance of social solidarity and conformity to the law.
At a time of rapid modernization, new forms of control do not evolve quickly enough to replace the old forms. During this time, society in a state of ‘normlessness’ or anomie.
Individual choice restricted by structural constraints.
Crime as normal – regrettable, yet inevitable. Performs a social function, “…integral to all healthy societies” (Durkheim, 1964 ([1895])
