crime and deviance sociology

what did Merton say about crime and deviance

he was a functionalist and he believed people were socialised into believing in materialistic goals(American Dream) a consensus existed about what peoples social goals should be. However equal access didn’t exist so there was strain between the socially encouraged goals of society and the socially acceptable means to achieve them this created anomie a state of “normlessness” caused by structural imbalance between goals and means to achieve them.

he believed that while some people conform and work hard to try achieve material success others adapt: for example the Innovator (one type of people that merton identified to respond to the American Dream) they still want material success but don’t want to work at school so their next logical option becomes crime.

Becker

deviance is not a specific act a person commits but the consequence of others applying rules and sanctions to them

“deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label”-becker

no act is inherently criminal or deviant. it is socially constructed by moral entrepreneurs (powerful indvs or groups who enforce or create rules to define what is normal and what is weird or outsider behaviour.

Beckers labeling theory describes how a label is applied to an individual based on their interactions with agents of social control like the police courts or media. this application often depends on factors like appearance class ethnicity.

once a person is labelled as a criminal or troublemaker this might become their ‘master status’ which is the label that overrides all other identities like being a friend or worker or daughter. This might lead the individual to internalise the label seeing themself as society sees them which can lead to further deviancy. their master status also could lead to isolation and having less to lose which makes crime a logical option.

This results in a ‘deviant career’ because the label limits access to legitimate jobs and social groups. they might seek out other “outsiders” who validate their behaviour and might even encourage more.

what did Pat Carlen say about crime and deviance

she analysed female crime through the class and gender deal suggesting crime happens when the deals break down and the women don’t receive what they were promised.

She interviewed 39 women offenders.

for carlen both deals were exploitative and as a feminist she believed women were exploited in the family and in work. However these deals created a sense of fairness that kept women under control.

what did Albert Cohen say about crime

he was a functuiubalist who drew on Merton’s ideas.

he believed that not all criminal acts were motivated by money but sometimes as a form of thrill seeking or for status. Status frustration is feelings of anger or annoyance experienced when denied the opportunity to get social status.

he looked at young men in working class families and he discovered that they were extremely frustrated as they had no jobs or money and they consequently lacked status. these WC people as students had failed to attain good GCSE results and left school early without qualifications. they were frustrated that those around them gained status via occupation. This caused them to feel like failures.

He used the example of the skinhead subculture in which the members of his study used violence against people of ethnic minority backgrounds as many of them were earning wages in jobs the skinheads deemed should be theirs. They used violence against these groups to gain status and respect through fear.

he argued WC boys in school experienced status frustration when they tried and failed to meet middle class expectations at school

What does Hirschi say about crime and deviance

people commit crimes when their social bonds to society are weak. he believed that four main social bonds: attachment(sensitivity to the opinions of others family friends and teachers made people not offend),
commitment(investment in conventional activities such as education or a career),
involvement(engagement in conventional activities such as hobbies and school being busy leaves little time for illegal activities), and
belief (acceptance of rules and moral validity of law) prevented crime.

what did Heidensohn say about crime and deviance

she researched why women were less likely to commit crime than men.

Heidensohn argues it is because girls and women are controlled by men in all stages of live leaving them with fewer opportunities to commit crime. this is the control theory and according to her girls are controlled by fathers and male siblings. this can be seen as girls have earlier curfews and less time unsupervised while boys can play outside. this causes girls to have a “bedroom culture” where they spend more time in their own rooms.
She also identified that there was informal control on girls to be ‘respectable’ leading girls tp have less freedom than boys.

this continues to adulthood when women are controlled by husbands while men socialise with coworkers or friends at pubs or sport, working women would return home to carry out domestic tasks like cleaning, cooking and childcare.

all of this causes women to have less access and less time to go to areas of criminal activity eg a narrow road at night.

she also argued that women were judged more harshly by the criminal justice system because the CJS would apply double standards to women. Women violated social and gender norms when committing crime making it more shocking. this can lead to harsher punishments.

what is corporate crime

crimes committed by employees on behalf of the company or organisation they work for. Example Grenfell tower fire they used cheaper cladding for the 2% then there was a fire and their crime was discovered

what are indictable and non indictable offences

an indictable offence is a serious criminal offence such as murder and robbery tried in the crown court before a judge

a non indictable offence is a less serious crime such as damage to property that is tried in a magistrates court instead of crown court

what is legislation and legislature

legislation is a law that the government makes

the legislature is the body in a country or state that has the authority to make or change the laws eg the parliament in the UK

what did Stanley Cohen say about crime and deviance

he was an interactionalist and claimed that the media exaggeration of something created a public panic and amplifies the issues they report.

a moral panic was an exaggerated irrational social reaction to a perceived threat to societal values.

this often created folk devils the group of individuals scapegoated by the media and blamed for societal problems and portrayed as a threat to social order.

this process created a ‘deviancy amplification spiral’ where the intense media coverage makes a minor incident appear more frequent or violent and this leads to increased public concern, increased police surveillance, more arrests and more media attention creating a cycle that creates more deviance.

example is black young men as folk devils who are framed as the primary threat of knife crime in the uk this leads to more stop and search added to the institutional racism in the criminal justice system leading to more young black men being arrested and the media reporting this.

what did Otto pollak say about crime and deviance

proposed the chivalry thesis which combats heidensohns idea of women being victims of double deviance. he argues women are more likely to be let off for crime because the criminal justice system is mostly men and women are treated leniently because of chivalrous attitudes

what did Durkheim say about crime

he argued crime is normal and inevitable and even a functional part of every healthy society

he said it had three main functions:

1. Social Cohesion: sense of public outrage brings people together and shared response fosters social solidarity and a sense of belonging among the community who unite against the wrongdoer

2. Adaptation and social change: Durkheim argued all social change begins with an act of deviance and if no-one ever broke the rules society would never evolve. An example of this is acts of deviance by groups such as the suffragettes who led to new laws.

3. Boundary Maintenance: when a crime is committed the CJS provide the adequate punishment to the offender it reinforces the deterrence from crime.

what do marxists think about crime

crime is inevitable in a capitalist society, society is criminogenic.

the inequality created by capitalism forces the poor to commit utilitarian crimes to survive

capitalist advertising promotes a culture of materialism and competition and people who can’t afford these products may turn to crime to obtain them. the rich commit white collar crime like fraud out of greed and want of profit.

alienation leads to wc indivs from feeling a lack of control over their own lives leading to frustration and non utilitarian crimes.

they argue there is selective law making where laws are designed to protect private property and there are less laws regulating businesses for health and safety of their workers

selective law enforcement

marxists would also argue that all classes commit crime but the criminal justice system is more focused on working class crimes. they disproportionately target street crimes committed by the poor more than the white collar or corporate crimes

by focusing on wc criminals the law creates the impression that the dangerous people are all at the bottom of society which hides the crimes of powerful.

what Does Hazel Croall say about crime and deviance

she is a left realist who explains that white collar and corporate crimes often go unrecorded and unpunished for several reasons:

1. she argues that unlike burglary or street violence corporate crimes like tax evasion or fraud take place in private offices or via computers making them harder to see

2. the crimes have no “direct” victim as corporate or white collar crimes tend to not target a specific person

3. middle class offenders often don’t fit the typical “criminal type” and are therefore less likely to be suspected or stopped by police,

what did Aaron Cicourel say about crime and deviance

he talks about why official national stats are unreliable typifications lead to crime and deviance stats are socially constructed.

typifications are stereotypes that a member of the CJS might have like what a “typical criminal” looks like. Cicourel found this affected indivs who were young, male, working class, and from ethnic minority backgrounds.

this means the police target patrols in areas where people fit these typifications.