Crime A Level

Durkheim

Crime is inevitable due to anomie and performs two functions for society: BOUNDARY MAINTAINANCE and ADAPTATION AND CHANGE. FUNCTIONALISM

A Cohen

Deviance acts as a warning that an institution isn’t working properly so policy needs to change. FUNCTIONALISM

Erikson

Agencies seek to maintain a certain level of crime and not completely rid society of it. FUNCTIONALISM

Davis

Prostitution acts as a safety valve for men’s sexual frustration without threatening the nuclear family. FUNCTIONALISM

Merton

Increased anomie and a combination of structural and cultural factors leads to strain and crime. Reactions to strain include innovation and conformity. STRAIN THEORY

A Cohen (subcultural)

Anomie + MC school system = cultural deprivation = bottom of official status hierarchy = STATUS FRUSTRATION = delinquent subculture = alternative status hierarchy through illegitimate opportunity structure.

Cloward and Ohlin (subcultural)

unequal acess to both the legitimate and ilegitimate opportunity structures. 3 types of subculture: CONFLICT(vandalism, violence), CRIMINAL (highly organised Utilitarian crime) and RETREATIST (withdrawn, drug use)

Walter Miller

WC Boys socialised into working class subculture leads to delinquency. It doesn’t value success and has 5 ‘Focal concerns’: excitement, toughness, smartness, trouble, autonomy and fate

Becker (Labelling)

Social groups create deviance by creating rules and labelling people as outsiders. a deviant is someone to whom the label has been successfully applied. Moral Entrepreneurs change the law creating a new group of outsiders and expanding a social control agency

Cicourel (labelling)

Justice is not fixed, its NEGOTIABLE. Officers TYPIFICATIONS - ‘common-sense theories’ leads to officers concentrating on certain areas showing class bias. Officers blamed juvenile delinquency on broken homes, poverty and lax parenting.

Lemert (labelling)

Primary deviance- not labelled, little impact on individuals self-concept. SECONDARY DEVIENCE= labelled/stigmatised/excluded = MASTER STATUS (controlling identity) = SFP = Deviant career (seek support from other outsiders)

Young (labelling)

Exemplifies primary and secondary deviance with Hippies in Notting Hill. Drug use was peripheral to their life style ,but once labelled as outsiders = more drug use = SFP = deviance amplification

S Cohen

Press exageration of mods and rockers = MORAL PANIC = police crackdown = FOLK DEVILS = more marginalisation = SFP = more devience

Triplett (labelling)

increasing tendency to label young offenders as deviant and less tolerant of minor deviance Eg truancy

Braithwaite (labelling)

DISINTIGRATICE SHAMING= -ve offender excluded. REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING = +ve just labels the act so offender can be re-admitted into society

Lemert (study of mental illness)

study of mental illness, individuals don’t fit into groups = primary deviance “odd behaviour” = labelled = secondary deviance = SFP = MASTER STATUs “mental patient”

Gordon (Marxism)

Crime is criminogenic, need desire and want in capitalism causes crime in all social classes. DOG EAT DOG system of ruthless competition

Snider (Marxism)

Law making and enforcement only serves the interests of the ruling class. The state is relucent to pass laws that regulate business activities and threaten profit

Pearce (Marxism)

The Law performs an ideologic function appearing to benefit the WC. ‘caring face’ actually creates FFC and selective enforcement = WC blame each other for problems

Taylor et al (Neo- Marxism)

traditional Marxism is too deterministic not everyone commits crime due to economic necessity. other factors such as subcultures and anomie. crime is a conscious choice with a political motive

Hall (Neo marxism)

muggings created a moral panic. this can be explained by the problems Britain faced at the time rather than an actual increase in muggings

Sutherland

Coined the term white collar crime. Doesn’t distinguish between occupational and corporate crime

Pearce and Tombs

any illegal act or omission or culpable negligence by a legitimate business organisation that is intended to benefit the business . 5 types: financial, crimes against consumers, crimes against employees, crimes against environment and state-corporate crime

Wilson and Herrnstein (right realism)

Crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors. Biological differences make some people predisposed to commit crime like aggressiveness, risk taking or low intelligence

Clarke (right realism)

deciding to commit crime is a choice based on the rational calculation of risk

Wilson and Kelling (right realism)

Must keep neighbourhoods orderly to prevent crime, deterioration = seen as not dealt with. ZTP

Lea and Young (left realism)

3 causes of crime: Relative deprivation, subcultures and marginalisation

Young (left realism)

Late modern society - ^ WC crime due to harsher welfare policies and destabilisation of family and community life. Other changes in late modernity : crime throughout society, resentment towards unemployed, less consensus on acceptable behaviour and public less dominant and require more formal controls by the state.

Kinsley, Lea and Young

Democratic policing = police rely on public for info bur are loosing their support so are resorting to military policing. Instead they should involve communities in decision making and take a multi agency approach.

Pollak

CHIVALRY THESIS - CJS more lenient to women because its agents are men. men have a protective attitude towards women therefore their crimes are less likely to be in official statistics

Parsons (Gender)

Sex role theory women have expressive role in the home so girls have a female role model, boys reject this. they take part in COMPENSATORY COMPULSORY MASCULINITY. risk- taking, aggression and antisocial behaviour.

Heidenson (Gender)

controll theory- patriarchal control in the home, public and work leads to less opportunity to commit crime

Heienson and Walklale (Gender)

1) Double Standards in courts punishing girls but not boys for promiscuous sexual activity

2) in Rape cases the women who has to prove her respectability in order to have evidence accepted

Carlen (Gender)

CLASS AND GENDER DEAL.

Class deal- women who work get decent standard of living

Gender deal- conforming to gender role will guarantee material and emotional rewards.

Women who gain nothing from either commit crime as they have nothing to loose

Beckle and Farrrington (Gender)

Witnessed twice as many men shoplifting than women but stats say equal = women more likely to be prosecuted

Hoods (gender)

women 1/3 less likely to be jailed in similar cases

Adlers (Gender)

LIBERATION THESIS - as women become libedrated from patriarchy female crime rate increases.

• women adopt traditional male roles in legitimate and illegitimate sphere

• decrease in traditional female crimes (shoplifting and prostitution)

• Women in work = WCC

Steffensmeire and Schwartz (Gender)

Net widening- prosecuting females for less serious crimes than previously. Due to a media inspired moral panic about about ypung women being out of control. CJS influenced by media stereotype of “laddetes”. This leads to amplification spiral

Messerschmidt (gender)

• Hegemonic masculinity - subordination of women in home and work (MC) could be WCC

• Subordinated Masculinities - lack resources for hegemonic so turn to crime

Graham and bowling (ethnicity)

Blacks and whites has identical rates pf offending on self report studies while Asians had lower rates

Phillips and Bowling (ethnicity)

Oppressive policing in ethnic minority groups

• stop and search, parliamentary tactics, excessive surveillance, armed raids, police violence, deaths in custody and failure to respond to racist violence

• minorities overpoliced and under protected

Asian

What group are most likely to be stopped over the terrorism act 2000?

Hood (ethnicity)

Even when the seriousness of an offence is taken into account black men were 5x more likely to be jailed

Lea and Young (ethnicity)

Left realism- trust stats

• Racism = economic exclusion of ethnic minorities + media emphasis on materialistic goals = relative deprivation + turn to illegitimate means as the legitimate opportunities are blocked by discrimination.

• Police = some unjustified criminalisation of these groups but note enough to explain stats. Eg blacks have more convictions that Asians

Gilroy (Ethnicity)

Neo-Marxism, myth of black criminality dure to racist stereotypes of black Africans and Asians.

• CJS act on these stereotypes criminalising these minorities

• crime as a political resistance to racist society routing from colonialism and imperialism leads to riots and

Hall et al (ethnicity)

Moral panic about a rise in black muggings was a scapegoat to hide capitalist problems such as inflation, unemployment and strikes. Presenting black youth as a threat divides WC preventing revolution and wins consent of authoritarian forms of rule

Williams and Dickinson (media)

British newspapers devote up to 30% of their news space to crime.

• over represent violent and sexual crimes

• the media portray criminals as older and more middle class than those in the CJS

• exaggerate police success

• exaggerate risk of victimisation

• the media overplay extraordinary crimes

Cohen and Young (media)

MANUFACTURED NEWS- news is the outcome of social processes where potential stories are selected while others are rejected.

• News Values : immediacy, dramatisation, personalisation, higher status persons, simplification, novelty or unexpectedness, risk and violence

Surette (media)

fictional representation of crime follows a “law of opposites”

• property crime under represented

• fictional sex crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers not acquaintances

• fictional cops always catch the criminal

Schelesinger and Tumber (media)

tabloid readers and heavy users of tv express greater fear of going out at night and becoming a victim

Lea and Young (media)

the media increases relative deprivation among marginalised groups

• poorest have access to media and see images of materialistic “good life”

• ^ sense of relative deprivation in those groups leads to increased crime

Haywood and young (media)

Cultural criminologists- late modern society is saturated by media and emphasis on consumption and excitement. the media turns crime into a commodity to be consumed and corporations use crime to sell products to young people

S Cohen (media)

Mods and rockers was initially just a few scuffles and minor property damage

• exaggeration and distortion- exaggerated numbers and seriousness through headlines

• prediction- predicted further conflict

• Symbolisation- mods and rockers negatively labelled

  Deviance amplification - ^ control response from police and courts = stigmatisation = ^ youths adopting these identities = SFP = ^ violence.

• Folk Devils give a focus in a boundary crisis

Thomas and Loader (media)

Wall (media)

4 types of cyber crime

• Cyber tress pass

• cyber deception and theft

• cyber pornography

• cyber violence

Jewkes (media)

the internet creates opportunities to commit both conventional crimes such as fraud and crimes using new tools such as software piracy.

Castelles (globalisation)

the global criminal economy is worth over £1 trillion per year

• this takes many forms smuggling illegal immigrants, trafficking arms, cyber crime, green crime and terrorism

• Drug trade worth over $300 billion anually

Taylor (globalisation)

Globalisation = ^ inequality . Global shit = exploit workers in poorer countries + deregulation=welfare decline.

this leads to poor commiting more crime and rich have more large scale crime opportuities like tax evasion and an increase in illegal work

Rothe and Friedrichs (Globalisation)

IMF= SAPs = crime of globalisation

Hobbs and Dunningham (globalisation)

crime works on a “glocal scale”. both global and local factors interplay. For example drugs are supplied from abroad but sold through local connections

Glenny (globalisation)

soviet union breakup

• = deregulated Russian economy = rise in food and house prices

• Oligarchs brought oil and gas cheaply and sold on for more money

• The mcmafia were employed to protect them enabling crimes such as trafficking of arms

Beck (Green Crime)

Technology = manufactured risks many involve harm to the environment, create a global risk society where people are more aware of crimes.

South (Green Crime )

2 types of green crime

• primary - directly harms env

• secondary - flouting rules and not regulating environmental disaster

Green and Ward (state crime)

State crime arises for similar reasons to those of other crimes:

• motivations

• opportunities

• Failures of control

Adorno et al (state crime)

state crimes are due to an “authoritarian personality” where people obey orders of superiors without question and do things they shouldn’t in the same of the state. Eg Nazi Germany

Kelman and Hamilton (state crimes)

Violent states encourage obedience by those who carry out the state backed human rights abuses even when they personally regard then as immoral.

1. Authorisation- acts ordered by someone in charge

2. routinisation pressure from hierarchy turns act into a routine so is done in a detached manner

3. dehumanisation- enemy is made to look non human making the acts easier to commit

Bauman ( state crimes)

4 features of modernity made the holocaust possible

1. division of labour - everyone doing one small task

2. Bureaucratisation - normalised killing by making it routine

3. instrumental rationality- where rational efficient methods are used to achieve a goal regardless of what the goal is

4. science and technology: railways transporting victims to death camps and industrially produced gas used

Chambliss (state crime)

Acts defined by law as criminal and committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as state representatives

Michalowski (state crime)

Zemiology - Both illegal acts and legally possible acts whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts in the harm that they cause

S Cohen (state crimes)

The culture of denial

• dictatorships deny commuting human rights abuses

• democratic states legitimise their actions. Spiral of denial:

  1- it didn’t happen

  2- its not how it looks

  3 -it had to be this way

SCP (control)

Situational crime prevention- A preemptive approach that relies on reducing the opportunities for crime

• Target hardening measures are used

• Based on rational choice theory

• May simply displace crime

• Explains opportunistic petty street crime but not white collar corporate or state crime the assumption that criminals make rational calculations may not be true of violent and drug related crimes

Wilson and Kelling (control)

Environmental crime prevention- Argue that broken windows prompt a spiral of decline because it shows that no one cares

• Shows the absence of formal and informal social control

• An environmental improvement strategy and zero tolerance policing will hold neighbourhood decline and prevent serious crime taking route

social and community crime prevention

Dealing with the social conditions that predispose some individuals to commit future crime for example policies on unemployment and education

Foucault (survalence)

Sovereign power - premodern society where physical power is exercised over people and punishment was visible

Disciplinary power- seeks to govern the mind through surveillance

Panopticon- A prison design where cells are visible to guards but the prisoners can't see the guards leading to self surveillance

Mathiesen (Survalence)

Synopticon - everyone watches everyone including media scruitiny and members of the public monitoring eachother e.g dashcams

Haggerty and Ericson (surveillance)

Trend towards combining technology into powerful surveillant assemblages

Freely and simon (survelance)

Acturial justice. calculating risk of and individual offending and stop and searching them based on “risk factors”

4 types of punishment

1. deterance

2. rehabilitation

3. incapacitation

4. retribution

Durkheim (punishment)

Function = uphold social solidarity and reinforce shared values

2 types of justice

• retributive justice

• restitutive justice

Marxism (punishment)

Repressive state apparatus

Positivist victimology

Aims to identify the characteristics of victims that contribute to their

• Victim Proness the characteristics of victims that make them more vulnerable

• Victim precipitation Wolfgang Study of 588 homicides found that 26% involved the victim triggering events leading to murder

Critical victimology

Structural factors like patriarchy and poverty place powerless groups at greater risk of victimisation Tombs and white show that employer's violations of the law leading to deaf or injury two workers are often explained away as the fault of accident prone workers