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According to Durkheim, what are the two ways in which we achieve social solidarity?
Socialisation
Social control
What is social control?
The positive sanctions for conformity and negative sanctions for deviance ensure that people behave according to society’s standards.
According to Durkheim why is crime inevitable?
Not everyone is socialised adequately and into the same norms and values.
The diversity in complex societies → subcultures with alternative norms and values.
What are the two positive functions of crime according to Durkheim (1893)?
Boundary maintenance.
Adaptation and change.
Explain the concept of boundary maintenance? [3]
Crime produces a reaction from society → members come together to condemn others wrong doings.
This explains the purpose of punishment - to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity.
E.g. the drama of the courtroom helps publicly shame criminals and reaffirms the idea that there is a law-abiding majority.
Explain how crime leads to adaptation and change?
Durkheim believes that all change starts with an act of deviance.
Challenging the status quo will always initially appear to be deviant.
However, these actions of beliefs may lead to a necessary change in culture of beliefs.
Who said that the positive functions of crime are boundary maintenance and adaptation and change?
Durkheim (1893)
Why does Durkheim (1893) argue that a moderate amount of crime is desirable?
Too much crime leads to the break down of society.
Too little means that society is repressive and controlling.
What did Davis (1937; 1961) say was a positive function of prostitution?
It acted as a safety valve for the nuclear family.
Who said that prostitution was a safety valve for the nuclear family?
Davis (1937; 1961)
Who said that pornography protected the nuclear family?
Polsky (1967)
Who said that deviance acts as a warning sign?
Cohen (1972)
What did Cohen (1972) say about deviance?
Deviance can act as a warning sign that institutions are not functioning properly.
Who said that if deviance has positive functions, then society is organised to promote it?
Erikson (1966)
What did Erikson (1966) say about the positive functions of crime?
They argue that if deviance has positive functions, then society is organised to promote deviance and the actual function of agents of control is to maintain a certain level of crime.
What are some criticisms of the functionalist theory on crime? [4]
Durkheim’s theory is vague and doesn’t describe what is meant by too much or too little crime.
Functionalism is teleological as it only explains crime in its alleged function rather than the actual cause of crime.
Functionalism ignores the negative effects of crime and deviance.
Crime doesn’t always create social solidarity and can lead people feeing alienated from society.
What is strain theory?
The theory that people commit crimes when they can’t achieve society’s goal through legitimate means.
What is Merton’s (1938) strain theory?
Merton argues that people commit crimes when there is a strain between the goals they want to achieve and our access to legitimate means to achieve them.
What does Merton (1938) say about the American Dream? [4]
American culture values money success and people are expected to pursue this goal through legitimate means.
The ideology of the American Dream tells us that society is meritocratic and has enough opportunities for all.
But in reality, disadvantaged groups are denied the opportunities to legitimately achieve their goals.
The pressure to deviate is heightened by the fact that American culture places more emphasis on achieving success rather than how you do it.
Who created strain theory?
Merton (1938)
What are Merton’s 5 deviant adaptations to strain?
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
According to Merton, what is conformity?
Individuals accept society’s golas and aim to achieve them legitimately. This adaptation is common amongst the middle class who have the opportunities to succeed.
According to Merton, what is innovation?
Individuals accept society’s goals but turn to crime to achieve them. The lower classes are more likely to feel pressure to innovate.
According to Merton, what is retreatism?
Individuals who reject both society’s goals and the legitimate means so become the dropouts of society. Merton gives drug addicts, chronic drunkards and psychotics as examples.
According to Merton, what is rebellion?
Individuals reject current society’s goals and means so aim to create their own. This includes terrorists, radicals and counter-cultures.
What are the criticisms of Merton? [6]
He takes official crime statistics at face value.
It he sees crime as a working-class issue which is too deterministic.
It ignores the power of the ruling class who enforce laws that only criminalise the poor.
It assumes that there is a value consensus and that everyone strives for money success.
It only takes utilitarian crime into account.
It only looks at the crimes of individuals, ignoring group deviance.
What is a subculture?
A group within a larger society, that have alternative beliefs or interests to mainstream society.
What theory do subculture theorists both build on and criticise?
Merton’s strain thoery
Who says that working-class boys form deviant subctulres because they experience status frustration?
Cohen (1955)
What does Cohen (1955) say is the cause of crime?
Working-class boys suffer from cultural deprivation so end up at the bottom of the school’s hierarchy.
They can’t change this so they experience status frustration.
They begin to reject middle-class values and create their own delinqnuent subculture.
The subculture inverts the values of the mainstream, creating an alternative status hierarchy.
This gives the boys an illegitimate opportunity structure where they can now gain status through deviance.
How can Cohen (1955) be criticised?
Cohen assumes that working-class boys start off with the same values as the middle class.
Who says that different subcultures arise because of unequal acess to illegitimate opportunity structures?
Clowarad and Ohlin (1960)
What did Cloward and Ohlin (1960) say about subcultures? [4]
Although they agree with Merton, they argue that not everyone had the same opportunity to turn to innovation.
Different subcultures respond differently to a lack of legitimate means.
These different subcultures arise because of unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures.
Different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to develop their criminal careers.
Who identifies three different types of deviant subcultures?
Cloward and Ohlin (1960)
What are the three different subcultures Cloward and Ohlin (1960) identified?
Criminal
Conflict
Retreatist
Describe criminal subcultures?
They provide young people with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime.
They arise only in areas with a longstanding, stable criminal culture that has a hierarchy.
Describe conflict subcultures?
A less stable network of criminals that tend to partake in violent crimes.
They are found in places where people tende to come and go, preventing a stable criminal network from forming.
The violent crimes they commit are an outlet for young men’s frustration.
Describe retreatist subcultures?
They are a subulture of double failures that are based on illegal drug use.
They comprise of people who don’t achieve success through neither the legitimate nor ilegitimate means.
How can Cloward and Ohlin (1960) be criticised? [3]
They exaggerate working-class crimes and ignore the crimes of the wealthy.
They ignore wider power structures that criminalise the working-class.
They assume that everyone starts of sharing the same goals of succecss.
Who said that Cloward and Ohlin’s (1960) subcultures are too distinct?
South (2020)
How did South (2020) criticse Cloward and Ohlin (1960)?
Argued that their subcultures were too distinct.
E.g. They found that drug usage can also be found in conflict and criminal subcultures.
What type of theories are subcultural because they assume that working-class crime is a response to failure?
Reactive theories
Who said that the working-class have their own independent subculture that doesn’t value scess to being with?
Miller (1962)
How does Miller (1962) criticise subcultural theorists?
They argue that the working-class have their own distinct subculture that never valued success to begin witth.
Working-class deviance is actually a result of them trying to achieve their own goals, not the mainstream’s.
How do Messner and Rosenfled (2001) explain utilitarian crime? [2]
Economic goals are valued above all and this undermines other institutions.
This pressure to achieve the American Dream creates a winner-takes-all mentality that creates an anomic cultural environment where people are willing to do anything in the pursuit of wealth.
Who said that pressure to achieve the American Dream creates an anomic cultural environment that leads to crime?
Messner and Rosenfeld (2001)
What did Downes and Hansen (2006) find about the relationship between crime rates and welfare spending?
The countries that spent more on welfare had lower prison rates.
Who found that the countries that spent more on welfare had lower prison rates?
Downes and Hansen (2006)
Who applied strain theory to post-communist Eastern Europe?
Savelsberg (1995)
How did Savelsberg (1995) apply strain theory?
In post-communist Eastern Europe he noted the rapid rise in crime after the fall of communism due to money success being the new goal in society.
What do labelling theorists believe about criminal and deviant acts?
No act is inherently criminal or deviant in all situations at all time, instead it is society’s reaction to something that makes it deviant.
How did Becker (1963) say an act becomes deviant?
Society creates deviance by creating the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance.
We then apply those rules to particular people, labelling them as outsiders.
For Becker, a deviant is just someone who has been successfully labelled as such.
Who said that a deviant person is just someone who has been successfully labelled that way?
Becker (1963)
What are moral entrepreneurs?
People who go on a moral crusade with the aim of changing the law.
According to Becker (1963), what are the two effects of a change in the law brought about by moral entrepreneurs?
The creation of new outsiders.
The expansion of a social control agency to enforce the new law and label more people.
What example of a moral crusade did Platt (1969) use? [3]
The concept of juvenile delinquency was a result of middle-class Victorian moral entrepreneurs.
They were trying to protect their children from working-class young people.
This created a status offence.
Who argued that the creation of status offences is an example of a moral crusade?
Platt (1969)
What is a status offence?
Where a behaviour is only offence due to the person’s age.
What is another example of a moral crusade that Becker (1963) highlights?
The US Federal Bureau of Narcotics campaigned successfully for the Marijuana Tax Act (1937) which banned marijuana use.
They argued it was due to the negative effects of marijuana whilst Becker argues it was to increase the Bureau’s sphere of influence.
Who argued that agencies of social control may start moral crusades to increase their power?
Becker (1963)
What did Piliavin and Briar (1964) say about who gets labelled as deviant?
They found that the police’s decision to arrest young people were based on physical aspects and how that affected how they perceived their character.
Who found that the police’s decision to arrest young people were based on physical aspects?
Piliavin and Briar (1964)
What does Cicourel (1968) say about who and how someone is labelled as deviant? [4]
They foudn that officiers had typifications for what the average delinquent is.
This led to them focusing on certain types of people.
This led to working-class areas and people being policed more → more working-class people are arrested → confirms their stereotype.
Also found that probation officers had the commonsense theory that juvenile delinquency was caused by broken homes and poverty.
Who said that officers hold typifications of what the average delinquent is like?
Cicourel (1968)
What did Cicourel (1968) say about official statistics? [3]
Official statistics do not give us a valid depiction of crime.
This means that they cannot be used as a resource.
Instead they should be something that sociologists investigate.
Who said that official statistics are invalid so should be a topic, not a source, of research?
Cicourel (1968)
What is the dark figure off crime?
The difference between the official statistics and the real rate of crime.
What types of deviance did Lemert (1951) identify?
Primary deviance
Secondary deviance
Who idenitifes the two types of deviance?
Lemert (1951)
What is primary deviance? [3]
Acts of deviance that have not been publicly labelled.
They tend to by quite common or trivial, e.g. littering.
They have no impact on an individual’s status.
What is secondary deviance? [2]
An act of deviance that is the result of society’s labels.
Once others see an individual as deviant, this can become their master status.
What is a result of secondary deviance? [4]
When an indicidual is labelled as deviant, this may become their master status.
This creates a crisis of identity.
To overcome this, they accept this new identity → self-fulfilling prophecy.
The individual turns to a deviant career.
How did Young (1971) use the concept of primary and secondary deviance?
In a study of marijuana users in Notting Hill.
Initially, drug usage was normal to the hippies and a small part of their identity (primary deviance).
Labelling by the control culture meant that hippies started to see themselves as outsiders.
They retreated from society, forming a deviant subculture where drug usage was a big part of their identity (secondary deviance).
Who uses the case of drug usage among hippies to show how labelling leads to secondary deviance?
Young (1971)
What is a deviance amplification spiral?
The process in which attempts to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.
Who studied the deviance amplification spiral of the Mods and Rockers?
Cohen (1972)
What did Cohen (1972) say about deviance amplification spirals? [5]
Cohen conducted a study on societal’s reaction to the mods and rockers.
The media exaggerated and distorted the behaviour of the mods and the rockers → a moral panic.
This led to moral entrepreneurs demanding for a crackdown → the police arrested more young people and the courts gave out harsher punishments.
This confirmed the media’s initial reaction → the public became more concerned.
The demonisation of the mods and rockers who were turned into folk devils caused them to develop an identity as an outsider.
How does the existence of folk devils contribute to the dark figure of crime?
The over-pursuit of folk devils draws attention and resources away from catching the criminals who make up the dark figure.
Who said that there is an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil rather than tolerating their minor offences?
Triplett (2000)
What does Triplett (2000) say about labelling in the CJS?
Triplett notes that there is an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil rather than tolerating their minor deviance.
The CJS has re-labelled minor offences as much more serious → harsher sentences → increase in deviance.
What do the findings of labelling theorists suggest policy should do?
Policies should focus on creating fewers rules for people to break.
This means that they don’t have criminal convictions, resulting in less secondary deviance.
The CJS has re-labelled minor offences as much more serious → harsher sentences → increase in deviance.
Who distinguishes between two types of shaming?
Braithwaite (1989)
What are the two types of shaming Braithwaite (1989) identifies?
Disintegrative shaming
Reintegrative shaming
What is disintegrative shaming?
Where not only the crime, but also the criminal, is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society.
What is reintegrative shaming?
Only the act, not the person, is labelled negatively.
Which types of shaming prevents secondary deviance?
Reintegrative
Who used quantitative methods to study suicide?
Durkheim (1897)
What conclusion did Durkheim (1897) come ot in his study of suicide?
Different levels of social integration impact suicide rates in different communities.
What did Douglas (1967) say about Durkheim’s (1897) study on suicide?
Douglas criticises his use of official statistics as they are a social construct.
Official statisitcs only tell us about the coroners’ decisions, not suicide itself.
E.g. a family or people with religious beleifs may be reluctant to accept that a suicide occured, so press for a different verdict.
Douglas argued that we must use qualitative methods to truly understand suicide.
Who criticised Durkheim (1897) and said we must use qualitative methods to truly understand suicide?
Douglas (1967)
What does Atkinson (1978) say about official statistics on suicide? [3]
Official statistics are just a record of the labels that coroners attach to deaths.
This makes it impossible to truly know the meanings behind a person’s death.
Instead, they choose to focus on the assumptions that coroners take for granted when coming to their verdicts.
Who said that official statistics are just a record of the labels that coroners attach to deaths?
Atkinson (1978)
How can Atkinson (1978) be criticised?
His argument can be used against him by saying that if all we can do is interpret the social world, then his interpretation is no more valid than any other.
What does Lemert (1962) say about paranoia? [5]
Paranoia is a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Paranoia occurs when people who don’t quite fit into social groups are labelled and excluded.
Their response to this label and exclusion is the beginning of secondary deviance.
People now have a valid reason to discuss this person, confirming their suspicions that others are against them.
Upon receiving help, they receive the label of paranoid and this becomes their master status.
Who said that paranoia is the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Lemert (1962)
What other study demonstrates that mental illness is based on labels?
Rosenhan’s (1973) pseudo-patient experiment.
Who’s study demonstrated the effects of being admitted into a total institution?
Goffman (1961)
What did Goffman (1961) say about total institutions like a psychiatric hospital? [3]
When being admitted, the individual undergoes a mortification of the self.
This mortification of the self is achieved through degradation rituals suhc as confiscation of personal items.
Some inmates are institutionalised and are unable to reintegrate into mainstream society, whilst others adopt forms of resistance to cope.
What did Braginski et al (1969) observe in their study of psychiatric patients?
Inmates had manipualted thier symptoms so that they seemed “not well enough” to leave but “not sick enough” to be confined to a ward.
This meant that they werefree to roam around the hospital.
What are the contributions of labelling theory to our understanding of crime and deviance? [3]
Labelling theory shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules, but a social construction.
Labelling theory shows that the law is often enforced discriminatorily.
It also shows that society’s attempts at controlling deviance can often backfire.