Sociology paper 3: Crime and deviance

What is Crime?

Term used to describe behaviour which is against criminal law, law breaking behaviour

What is deviance?

Refers to rule breaking behaviour of some kind which fails to conform to the norms and expectations of a particular society.

Anthony Giddens

Social changes have made distance and national borders for less important as barriers between social groups.

What happens in one society has a ripple effect and can quickly influence other societies anywhere in the world.

Post modernists argue globalisation is a significant feature of contemporary society. This process has a significant impact on crime. Crime itself is becoming increasingly global. Effects of globalisation can have knock-on effects on criminality.

Castells

There is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion.

Human trafficing, organ trafficing, cyber crimes, green crimes, international terrorism, drugs trade.

Transnational crimes

Criminals are operating in different countries and fleeing which makes it harder for the police to moniter.

Global risk consciousness (Beck)

Much of our knowledge about risk comes from the media, which often gives an exadurated view of the dangers we face. For example, negitive coverage of immigrants portrayed as terrorists or scroungers has led to hate crimes against minorities in several european countries.

Globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to a particular location. For example the increased movement of people, as economic migrants seeking work or asylum seekers fleeing persecution, has given rise to anxieties among western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their borders.

Misha Glenny

Glenny uses the term McMafia to describe the way that organised global crime networks operate in the same way as legtitimate buisness. ie there are ‘zones of production’ ie heroin in afganistan. These criminal gangs also have zones of distribution ie herion enters the uk via an established route. These criminal gangs know who their consumer market is - zones of consumption. ie services such as prosititution are consumed in western countries

Global crime affecting local crime

Global crime networks often serve and feed off established criminal networks in western countries. Crime is increasingly ‘glocal’ in charachter (Hobbs and Dunningham) This means that crime is still locally based but is now more likely to have global connections.

Illegal drugs trade - local prices and profit for drug dealers in the uk are determined by the availablity and price of drugs around the world. It also depends how efficient drug gangs can move drugs around the world.

Prostitution - Girls on street corners or being abused in the uk have been trafficked by an eastern european gang

Smuggling - Ie cigarettes and alchahol to avoid paying tax. Glenny estimated that the uk lose about £6 billion a year in lost taxes from cigarette smuggling

The impact of globalisation on crime

It has created new oppotunities for carrying out crime ie cyber crime, darkweb and trafficking.

Globalisation has reinforced consumerism- the concsumption of products. The inability to achieve the status and goals marketed by capitalism leads to rising crime in western socieities- think mertons strain theory and marxists who claim capitalism is crimonogenic

What is cybe crime?

Illegal activities carried out via computers and networks (eg the internet)

It is mostly infomational: aimed at acsessing or stealing data

It uses digital tech eg mobiles, pcs or consoles

non-local perpatrators and victims often in different countries

Examples of cyber crime

Identity and data theft: Data breaches, dark web sale, phishing follow-ups

Internet fraud/scams: covid-19, romance. ‘microsoft tech support’

Hacking: Kevin Poulson (APRNET, pentagon)

3D printed illegal products: guns drugs ect

Cyberwarfare: State level attacks, alleged operations by russia

What is state crime?

‘Illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of state agencies.

They are commited by or on behalf of states and governments in order to further their policies or best intrests

Chambliss

Marxist- crimes of the powerful

Sociologist should investigate ‘state organised crime’ as well as crimes of capitalism

Examples of state crimes

Genocide, torture, imprisoned without trial, war crimes (an act carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war)

McLaughlin

4 categories of state crime

1. political crimes - corruption/censorship

2. Crimes by security/police forces - genocide, torture, disappearance of dissidents

3. Economic crimes - official violations of health and safety rules

4. Social and cultural crimes - institutional racism

Herman and Schwendinger

We should define crime in terms of the violation of basic human rights not law breaking. States that deny individuals human rights are criminal

British case studies of state crime

Hillsborough disaster

Grenfell tower

Post office scandal

Why is state crime so serious

1. the sheer scale of it, huge numbers of victims are powerless to the state and state crimes are often large scale

2. states can escape punishment - they are powerful and corrupt. They can create their own laws. They can hide and escape punishment. Lack of justice

3. Its very difficult for other countries or external authorities to intervene because of boundries and global political ramifications

4. Many countries simply ignore or dont accept some human rights

Durkheims views on crime

Durkheim recognised that crime was inevitable and exists in all cultures

It is inevitable because people are socialised differently - not everyone understands, learns or accepts social norms and so they become deviant. Life styles are now complex and diverse so subcultures emerge which have their specific norms and values that conflict with mainstream

Durkheims positive functions of crime

1. Boundary maintenace - there is a boundry between good (law abiding citizens) and bad (Rule breaking citizens). society will regularly reinforce good behaviour and when someone commits a crime and they are punished this means that this line is maintained

2. Adaot and change - A law has been broken but it leads to eventual adaption/change in law and societal norms and values. Persistant breaking of a certain norm is a warning sign that the criminal justic system or social institution is not fit for purpose

3. Sanctioned rule breaking as a safety valve - Some low-level criminal behaviour may be accepted if it means the person is ‘letting off some steam’ and may be appropriate in context

4. Social cohesion - Horrific crimes such as terrorism or murders often bring communities closer and create public outrage. A reaction to an awful event can strengthen social bonds between communities against the deviant.

Kingsley Davis

Watching pornography has a positive function as it can help a mans sexual urges so he can still maintain a monogomous and loyal relationship

Matza

Criticises cohen

• Delinquents do care about crime and they are equally as enraged about it

• They often excuse their behaviour with childhood trauma or ‘everybody does it’ rather than a specific loyalty to the gang or gaining status

• Only a small minority of working class youths get into trouble and they will eventually grow out of it- the boys may drift in and out of criminal subcultures.

• All members of society are prone to some devianr behaviours - not just teenage boys

Cloward and Ohlin

They differentiated between the LOS and the IOS

What is the LOS?

Legitimate Oppotunity Structure

What is the IOS?

Illigitmate Oppotunity Structure

Not everybody who fails legitimately sucseseeds illigitmately - even within the criminal world there is a heirarchy

• Built upon cohens theory by trying to further explain why there were different types of subculture that emerge in different regions

• There are Criminal subcultures - Organised crimes ‘buisness like models’ criminal networks, chain of command and recruitment/grooming

• Conflict subcultures - Urban areas may be dominated by street gangs and fight over territory/status

• Retreatist subcultures - The ‘double failures’ as they cannot sucseed at being criminals! They fail to gain acsess to these criminal and conflict subcultures so they often retreat and resort to drug use

What is rhe american dream

The pursuit of happiness and sucsess - material goods such as cars, homes and holidays

anyone who works hard and has some talent can achieve this (Meritocratic)

For many americans the goal can be achieved legitimately

Merton

Strain theory -

Strain theory argues that people enguage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve social approved goals bu legitimate means

He argued that strain causes crime and deviance, Unlike other functionalists Merton did acknowledge that some people in society have unequal oppotunity. this leads to strain which then leads to anomie - a feeling of confussion, uncertainty normlessness - people dont follow societies norms and values thus commiting a crime

Different reactions and adaptions to the american dream goal

• Conformity - Majority of american society, Accept social norms and values, they choose to work hard to achieve the dream and undertake legitimate means to get there

• Innovation - The legitimate means are blocked/too many barriers so people resort to deviant solutions to achieve the dream Ie fraud. They reject the socially accepted means to get the finer things in life- they will creatively find other ways to get the dream

• Ritualism - Accept they are unlikely to achieve the dream and arent intrested or have a desire to get any material goals but are content to partake in social norms and values. Habitual/routine lifestyle

• Retreatism - Reject social norms and values. They retreat or drop out of mainstream society. might abuse drugs and alchol and involve in petty crime

• Rebellion - Challenge and rebel against the american dream. They have an alternative vision of the goal and will not accept social norms and values

Albbert Cohen’s delinquent boys

Builds upon and criticses Mertons strain theory

Focuses on Juvenille delinquency - crime commited by adolescents

Cohen argued that strain doesnt just cause individuals to commit crime - groupings of people with shared norms will form or join a subculture and commit crime as a response to not achieving societal goals and aspirations

Working class youth suffer strain in the form of status frustration - a form of anomie as they are frustrated at the lack of status they have in society - their cultural goal is to attain respect and status

They cant gain status legitmately so they gain status elsewhere

The w/c boys create an alternative status hierarchy - they can earn status through deviant and delinquent behaviours

It is anti-conformative- what mainstream society praisies, the subculture punishes. They boys get their status via alternative means

It builds upon Mertons theorys as it now explains why some working class boys commit crimes and why some people commit non - utilitarian crimes (crimes without a profit)

Criminogenic capotalism

David Gordon

The very culture and values that underpin capitalism cause criminal behaviour. Capitalist values such as competition, individualism, and money as a measure of sucsess means thats people become greedy and consequently turn to crime to get richer

Marxist views on crime

Capitalism causes crime - criminogenic crime

Increase in factory work means people lose their creativity and status - leads to

Labelling theory and crime

1. Authorities with a specific intrest define an act as deviant

2. Public accept what authorities say and respond in a negative way to a specific group

3. Group is deemed to be a threat to society and is therefore publically labelled as deviant 

4. authorities are then forced to act and do something about this group eg- arrest more people

5. Society then marginalises this group

6. This means the group is excluded from many areas of society and is then left with limited options of how to continue 

7. The label that the group has been goven becomes the persons ‘master status’ 

8. This reinforces a deviant lifestyle and can result in the emergance of subcultures (Self fufilling prophecy takes place)

Howard Becker

He stated it was all a matter of interpretation- it depends on the circumstance and wether society labels it as criminal or deviant

Becker argues that no act is inherantly criminal or deviant. it becomes criminal only when it is interprited as such by others - he calls this societal reaction

Labelling an act as deviant can be a political act

Crime is socially constructed - all crime is relitive to historical, situational, cultural and age context

Edwin Lemert

To be labelled, must mean someone witnessed you do it

Primary deviance - if the deviant act was not witnessed by others than there is no label attatched to the indivdual

Secondary deviance - If the deviant action was witnessed by others then there is a label attatched to the individual and that then will have consequences

Cicourel

The middles class can negotiate out of being classed as criminal

• Middle class might be more educated on law and their rights

• Middle class can afford a good lawyer/family might have social network connections

• Middle class parents more able to convince agents of social control that they, as parents will monitor their child closely and stay out of trouble

• Middle class might argue it was completly out of character - they had no criminal intent

• Middle class may argue that it will affect their life chances

Stan cohen

Mods and rockers - In the 1960s seaside resorts of britain, there was a percieved clash between two different youth subcultures, the mods and rockers. 

Cohen observed how the media had responded to these fights - The media caused a moral panic that caused the public to worry. the teenagers that were either labelled as a mod or rocker were now the villian, self fufilling prophecy they started to internalise this label 

Society panics which leads to an increased police presense, further tension and arrests. This is deviancy amplification

Braitwaite

Reintragative shaming - Criminal is publically shamed, feels remorse and is then accepted back into society. The criminal has learnt their mistake and society is giving them a second chance because they condem the action not the person

ALSO restorative justice - making amends with thoes who were affected by the criminal behaviour

What is realism?

They recognise that crime needs to be tackled with practical solutions - not just theory and concepts,

Real crime is happening and increasing, real victims are being impacted, realistic solutions answers and policies are needed

Underclass theory

Murray and Marsland

they argue that most crime is commited by a highly deviant, immoral and work shy culture called the underclass

underclass = problem and broken families (Often headed by single mothers) living in inner city areas such as coucil estates that socialises their children into being dependant on welfare state benefits.

Children lack father figures and are influenced by negitive role models

The new right argues that the main reason that the underclass has grown in the last 30years is the welfare state

Rational choice theory

Corinish and Clarke

they argue that criminals act freely and chose to commit crime

choice to commit crime is based upon a risk - benefit model. Small risk and big benefit = commit crime. high risk and low benefit = dont commit crime

The criminal is always weighing up the potential costs of their punishment- being caught, fines, prison ect

Right realists argue that criminals percieve the costs/risks/punishment as being minimal hence they commit crime as there is more to gain

Felson

Crime is too easy to commit nowadays

Quality of policing has deteriorated and criminals know the chance of being caught is slim

Members of the public/victims dont want to cooperate with police and are too afraid. community control is weak and criminals know this and take advantage

Punishments are too leniant and not a detterance

Broken windows theory

Decline of community in inner city areas

wilson and kelling

If a community allows its physical enviroment to decline (Broken windows, graffitti ect) then criminals will assume that local, social and community controls are not in place- they will take advantage of this and use it as an excuse to commit crime

Solution 1 - maintain the orderly character and appearance of a neighbourhood to prevent crime. this will be a detterant 

Solution 2 - Wilson and kelling also held a zero tolerance policy towards crime- undesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging and drunk and disorderly behaviour

Issues with zero tolerance policing

Led to overpopulated prisions and relitively minor criminals being punished

crime rate in new york has already started decreasing nine years before policy was introduced

police have free reign and could discriminate- gives them much more power

doesnt tackle the cause of crime

crime just got displaced to another area

evaluation of right realism

• too agressive on minor offences such as littering, homelessness, graffitti rather than more major crimes such as murder and rape

• right realists are criticsed by marxists and left realists for ignoring the underlying issues of crime such as poverty or the criminogenic nature of capitalism

• Charles Murray is critised by labelling theorists- unfair to talk about the underclassand make assumptions- what about middle class people and white collar crime

• Right realists are criticsed by Katz who argued that crime isnt always rational, can be heat of the moment, spontaneous and irrational- more oppotunistic

• a zero tolerance policy may lead to increased police discrimination against groups such as BME and youth. Increase stop and search powers- possible hostility towards police

Left realism

Disagrees with right realist theories and argues that their view on punishements are wrong/misguided

They say they offer a solution based response to Marxist and neo-marxist theories of crime who had analysed reasons from street crime being commited by youngsters in urban areas

Lea and Young very critical of the neo-marxist perspective for ‘romanticsing’ criminals as robin hood like figures - remeber the victim in all of this

Left realists point out that working class people in inner-city areas are most likely to be victims of crime and also the criminal - want to sort this out

3 factors that contribute towards criminal behaviour

Lea and young

1. Reletive deprivation - people feel deprived when they compare themselves to other. Living in a capitalist society means we pursue and compare our material goods with eachothe. People feel resentful, angry and frustrated because their route to material goods has been blocked. Not necissarily deprivation that causes crime but when people feel themselves deprived 

2. Marginalisation - People feel powerless and feel left out. Leads to frustration and hositility to police and wider society. Policing inner-city areas stop and searches possibly due to institutional racism- no wonder BAME people feel angry and may resort to crime/rioting

3. Subcultural response - people with similar experiences/values group together to form a subculture. These may be deviant subcultures. Some subcultures may even become retreatists and turn to substance abuse to cope

Criticsms of left realism

• possibly allowing the criminal to have a victim status

• Do people deserve rehabilitation for very serious crimes?

• How much money will this cause and who will pay

• It is not 100% guaranteed that the education and prevention inititatives will actually work and reduce crimes

• Some of the deeper, structural inequalities in society may not go away for a long time and we have to accept this and focus on short term solutions

• Lea and Young explain collective or subcultural responses to crime but not necissarily individualistic crime

Reasons why men are more likely to commit crime?

• Socialisation of males

• crisis or expression of masculinity

• Patriarchal society

• Sewells triple quandry theory

• biology

Parsons sex role theory

Men are socialised to have masculine traits. They then try to conform to these via criminal behaviour. Then they try to conform to these and this might be via criminal behaviour

Murray - why men commit crime

Poor socialisation of males in lone parenthood families. The underclass are unruly boys who have been negitively affected by no father figure and stern discipline

How does triple quandry theory explain why boys commit more crime

1. Lack of a father figure - many black boys brought up by single mothers. The boys then look to male gangs for a powerful, father figure like role

2. negitive experiences of white culture - black boys are disaffected because of their lived experiences in school, policing and employer racism

3. Media, hiphop/drill influences - hyper masculinity and acqusition of financial status- money, jelwellery and trainer

Reasons why women do not commit crime

• Sex role theory - Women are socialised into a culture of femininity that stresses empathy, compassion, cooperation and communaty. Women may be more sensitive and caring so will not want to commit crime and hurt others

• Bedroom culture - McRobbie, girls are more likely to socialise with their friends in their own homes. This means they have less oppotunity to engage in delinquent activities unlike boys who are playing outside in public spaces

• Heidensohn - women are more likely to be socially controlled by their family, they feel like they need to conform to the good mother role that society expects of them. Some women may fear the reprecussions of commiting, their family reactions or their jobs. In the 80s Hedensohn also noted that women were not likely to have leadership roles which meant that they had less oppotunity to commit white collar crimes.

Pollak

Chivalry thesis - Women commit more crime than is officially recorded but are treated in a more lenient manner by the police and court

Why is the cjs more lenient towards women?

• CJS is male dominated and ‘paternalistic’ (Make decisions on behalf of people- just like a parent)

• Reluctant to seperate children from mothers

• Men have been socialised to think that women are not a threat and actually need protecting. Chivalry/chivalrous attitudes towards women. Men might think its their duty to care for women and take a more benevolent view of them.

How does chivalry affect female crime rates?

1. Women are less likely to be stop and searched because they dont fit the police sterotype of a suspicious person. Some officers wouldnt think a woman is capable of commiting a crime

2. Women are not seen as a threat to society so dont need to be punished or prosecuted. Women are given softer punishments than men- often released with a warning

Criticisms of chivalry thesis

• Do we still live in a chivalrous society in 2025?

• Feminists such as Heidensohn argue that women are sometimes treated more harshly

• Double deviance - carol smart, females are seen as even more deviant because they are criminal and a woman. The woman has not acted in a way that conforms to the norms of being a woman/mother

• Doesnt take into account other facts such as social class, ethnicity and age

Female criminality

Official stats would report that women do commit less crime and less serious crime than men however the number of female offenders has risen in the last 30 years. Whilst the number of male crimes is starting to decline female crime is remaining steady or perhaps increasing

What crimes are woman more likely to commit?

Tv licence evasion

Fraud

Theft/shoplifting

Minor offences such as public order

Pat Carlen

Class deal and gender deal

W/c women made a class and a gender deal that generally kept them under societal control and kept them fairly happy.

The class deal was that they would work hard in exchange for pay which they couold then use to pay for consumer goods.

The gender deal was that they should do domestic labour and give love and companionship to their husbands, in exchange for love and financial support.

Both deals keep working class women respectable, It was, Carlen suggesed when these deals broke down that working class women were more likely to commit crimes as a rational choice.

Why is society shocked when women commit crime?

Causes moral panic - some might see it as a sign of a broken society if women start commiting crime.

The woman has challenged the dominant model of womanhood and femininity

The media will often highlight the fact that she is also a wife, mother, carer. A womans expressive role of carer/maternal can then shock us when we discover she has harmed vulnerable people (Ie lucy letby)

Media might be quick to place her in a mad/bad/sad category and used that as a narrative to explain her criminal behavious

Media labels are not always focused on the criminal act (Ie white widow)

Adler liberation thesis

the emancipation of women and their increased participation in the workforce have led to a rise in female crime rates, as women gain access to both legitimate and illegitimate opportunities.

Tony Sewell - why BAME people commit more crime

Triple quandry -

1. Lack of a father figure - many black boys brought up by single mothers. they look to gangs for a powerful male fatherlike role

2. Negative experience of white culture - black boys are dissaffected because of their lived experiences in school, policing and employer racism

3. Media/hiphop influence - hypermasculine identity and acquisition of financial status - money, jewellery and trainers

Paul Gilroy

Neo-marxist, he argues theres a myth of black criminality created by racist sterotypes

He argues young black men feel hostile to white people (especially if they have been educated on topics such as slavery and colonialism)

Young black men feel alinenated by their everyday experiences of casual racism and what they percieve as racist through the police force,

Crime is a form of political protese/resistance against a racist, capitalist society.

Criticsm of Gilroy

Fails to recognise that black people are more likely to be victims of crime. most crime is also intra-ethnic which means both criminal and offender were of the same ethnic origin

Asian crime rates are similar-ish to white people- if police were racist then surely all non-white ethnic groups would be targeted.

Street crime/london riots a ‘political proteset’ or just opportunistic crimes? are we romaticising street crime.

What makes a new story more likely to be reported on?

Immediacy

Dramatisation

Personalisation

High status/celebrity

Simplification

Risk

Novelty

Violence/sex

Who may the media exaggerate the criminality of?

Young people - seen as anti-social

Black men - Gang, violence, knife crime

Immigrants

Felson

Missing white woman syndrome - High intrest and media attemtiom to the disappearance of white, middle class women

The media wrongly depicts females and middle class as being more prone to being a victim whereas in reality it is working class women.

Newsome

Hypodermic syringe -

Audiences are impressionable and can be easily manipulated by the media. The media is a powerful form of secondary socialisation- it is like a drug in the way it affects individuals and we passively accept what they tell us.

The media de-sensitises us to violence and the disress caused to victims, it glamorises certain crimes, encourages us that crime could be the answer to our problems and actually teaches us criminal behaviour

Gerbner

Cultivation theory - the medias exaggerated reporting of crime has led to a fearful audiece. People who consume the media in greater quantites have a greater chance of reacting in a scared, anxious manner. They start to see the world how the media portrays it,

Frightened people are easier to control