Theories of Crime (copy)

Functionalism - Positive Functions of Crime

Durkheim:

A small amount of crime, can prevent anomie, if controlled/punished.
Egoism vs Anomie:
Egoism: Occurs when collective conscience becomes too weak to restrain selfish desires
Anomie: Uncertainty over certain behaviour causes individuals to feel less subject to social controls imposed by the collective conscience.

Positive Functions of Crime:
- Strengthening collective values (punishment can strengthen views on crime, eg. child abuse)
- Enabling social change
- Acting as a safety valve (minor crimes, alleviate stress)
- Acting as a warning device (high crime = social order falling)

Functionalism - Strain Theory

Merton:

Individuals face strain if dominant rules outweigh the needs ie. goals appearing more important than the means of attaining the goals.

1. Conformity (most common)
2. Innovation (prepared to bend rules slightly)
3. Ritualism (abandon goals)
4. Retreatism (drop out of achieving due to the judgement of society)
5. Rebellion (reject society and replace with alternative)

Subculturists - Status Frustration

Cohen:

Initially, working-class boys share the same mainstream values/goals. However, they are later denied status in mainstream society, and so experience status frustration.
They react to this by creating their own delinquent values/goals.

Gives them a chance to succeed at gaining a status - also acts as a revenge to society who denied them into mainstream society.

Subculturists - Gangs and Subcultures

Cloward and Ohlin:

If you are unable to achieve the valued goals (eg. success and money) through legitimate means, you may innovate and use illegitimate means.

- Criminal Subcultures - Useful crimes (eg. theft), develops in more stable w/c areas.
- Conflict Subcultures - Develops in socially disorganised areas with high population and little control, characterised by violence, gang warfare, and street culture.
- Retreatist Subcultures - Lower-class youths who are 'double-failures' (failed in mainstream society + gang culture). Retreat into drug and alcohol addiction, shoplifting, etc.

Subculturists - Focal Concerns

Miller:

Working-class boys have their own 'focal concerns', different to middle-class boys.
This explains the high level of deviance between w/c boys.

Focal Concerns of w/c Boys:
- Toughness and masculinity
- Being smart and 'streetwise'
- Being in trouble (accepting that life involves violence and fights)
- Valuing autonomy, freedom and excitement

Marxism - A Criminogenic Society

Gordon:

Crime is an in-built/natural part of a capitalist society, which emphasises economic self-interest, greed, and personal gain.
Relative Poverty - some struggle to survive or are excluded from consumer society, which encourage crimes like theft, vandalism, etc. because they feel socially excluded.

Gordon says we should not be surprised at the w/c crime rate, rather we should be surprised it doesn't happen more.

Marxism - Laws Reflect Ruling - Class Interests and Ideology

Chambliss - the Saints and the Roughnecks

Observed two high school criminal gangs for 2 years (Saints - u/c, and Roughnecks - w/c).
Identified differences in public and police perception of the two gangs.

The Saints:
- 8 young men
- White upper-middle class
- None were officially arrested during the 2 year study
- Utilised status and 'good reputation'
- Chose sites for weekend delinquency carefully, so not to be recognised.

The Roughnecks:
- 6 boys
- Lower-class backgrounds
- Constantly in trouble with the police and community
- They were perceived as 'typical gang members'.
- Police looked for opportunities to arrest them.

Marxism - Selective Law Enforcement

Pearce:

Biggest crimes are those committed by the ruling class.
Includes white-collar and corporate crimes (eg. fraud, tax evasion).
These crimes are rarely prosecuted, as we're told that w/c people commit more crime
Diverts w/c attention from exploitation they experience and the crimes of the ruling class
This redirects the attention back to the working class.
It is individuals, not the system, who are blamed for crime.

Interactionism - Labelling Theory and Master Status

Becker:

- Less concerned with the characteristics of deviants than the process by which they become 'outsiders'.
- A deviant label is an evolution of a person.
- It can become someone's master status which affects one's status.
- Others will respond to the person's master status and interpret any behaviours in relation to their label.
- The deviant identity becomes the controlling identity.

Supporting Studies:
Cohen - Labelling used by the media generated more of the deviance it apparently condemned.

Interactionism - Selective Law Enforcement (Police Negotiations)

Cicourel:

- Argues law-enforcers have subjective perceptions on criminal labels.
- Studied juvenile delinquency in 2 US cities.
- Argues that the process of dealing with potential deviants involves the police making judgements based on preconceived ideas about what is suspicious/unusual.

City 1:
Middle-class youth have 'good backgrounds' and family support.
Behaviour seen as 'temporary' with no charges.

City 2:
Held opposite perceptions of working-class youth.
More formal police action taken.

Feminism - Mainstream Sociology

Heidonsohn and Silvester:

- Two themes of malestream criminology:

- Amnesia (women being forgotten).
- Neglect and Distortion (people don't care).

- Gender issues and female offending were forgotten and ignored until recently.
- Studies of crime never considered working-class girls.
- Female victimisation is ignored, particular those by men in forms of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

- Most academics and researchers are men in sociology.
- Middle-class sociologists romanticise male working-class deviance, improving their street cred.
- Low levels of female criminality, and 'invisible' female crime like prostitution.

Feminism - Double Deviants

Smart:

- Women offenders are seen as 'double deviants'.
- They not only break the law, but they break traditional gender roles too.
- This results in higher stigmatisation than crimes by men, even if they are less serious.

Left Realism - Working-Class Turning to Crime

Lea and Young:

- Relative Deprivation - Not deprivation that causes crime, rather if they feel like their deprivation is relative.
- Marginalisation - Face social exclusion from society, combined with above can cause anti-social behaviour to express frustration.
- Subcultures - Response to above, legitimate crime to get what they need in gangs.

Left Realism - Bulimic Society in Late Modernity

Young:

- Everyone (including the w/c) are surrounded by adverts from the media, therefore forcing everyone into a consumer culture.
- Raises expectations of what life should be like.
- Those in the bottom classes are socially and economically excluded from the 'perfect life', creating a 'bulimic society'.
- People gorge themselves on media imagery, then due to economic circumstances, 'vomit' out their raised expectations.

Right Realism - Value Consensus and Shared Morality - Broken Window Theory

Wilson:

- If one window is broken and not replaced, it creates an unhealthy environment where it allows crime to be committed.
- Broken Window = symbol for low-level deviance.
- Low-level deviance can only increase into more major crimes.
- Response included zero-tolerance policing - '3 strikes and you're out' policies for drunkenness and prostitution.
- Ended up reducing crime by 40%, and helped maintain a value consensus and social solidarity.

Right Realism - Community Control

Murray:

- Links crime to 'workshy underclass'
- Broken communities increase chance for crime and deviance.
- Welfare dependency, dysfunctional families, lack of respect for authority, lone parenthood all to blame for lack of proper socialisation.
- Links to a lack of control of children, and a rise in deviance.
- Community fails and needs more control.