Crime and Deviance

Durkehims 2 main functions of crime

boundary maintenance and adaptation and change

boundary maintenance

crime produces a reaction from society uniting its members against the criminal

reinforces commitment to value consensus

adaptation and change

for change to occur, individuals must challenge existing norms- at first they appear deviant. If this is suppressed, society will make necessary adaptive changes

criticisms of Durkheim

offers no way of knowing how much deviance is the right amount

explains crime in terms of its function but doesn’t express why they exist in the first place

Merton’s strain theory

people engage in deviant behaviour when they cannot achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means

strain- structural factors

society’s unequal opportunity structure

strain- cultural factors

strong emphasis on success goals and weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them

5 deviant adaptations to strain

conformity

innovation

ritualism

retreatism

rebellion

strengths of Merton

shows how both normal and deviant can arise from same mainstream goals

explains OS

criticisms of Merton

takes OS at face value

too deterministic

Cohen- status frustration

those who experience cultural deprivation lack the skills to achieve, left at bottom of status hierarchy. This is resolved by rejecting MC values and turn to others in similar circumstances, forming a subculture

Cloward and Ohlin

criminal subcultures

conflict subcultures

retreatist subcultures

criminal subcultures (CO)

provide youth with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime, arise in neighbourhoods where there is longstanding, stable and criminal culture and hierarchy of professional adult crime

conflict subcultures

arise in areas of high population turnover that prevent a stable professional criminal network developing. Only illegitimate opps are within loosely organised gangs

retreatist subcultures

‘double failures’ who fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures and often turn to dropout subculture e.g. drug use

Cloward and Ohlin eval

ignores wealthy and wider power structure, overpredicting WC crime

tries to explain different types of WC deviance in terms of different subcultuees

draws boundaries too sharply

labelling

deviance is a social construct, social groups create deviance by creating rules and applying them to particular people, labelled as ‘outsiders’

differential enforcement (labelling)

social control agencies tend to label certain as criminal. Police decisions to arrest based on stereotypical ideas

Typifications (Cicourel)

stereotypes of the ‘typical delinquent’, more likely to be stopped, arrested and charged

effects of labelling

secondary and primary deviance

self fulfilling prophecy

deviance amplification spiral

primary deviance

deviant acts which have not been publicly labelled. They have many causes and many go uncaught

secondary deviance

results from societal reaction from labelling. Labelling someone can involve stigmatising and excluding them from normal society, ‘offender’ becomes master status

self fulfilling prophecy

living up to the label resulting in secondary deviance

deviancy amplification spiral

attempt to control deviance leads to it increasing rather than decreasing- resulting in more attempts to control it, which turns to more deviance

Cohen- mods and rockers

moral panic, deviancy amplification

class differences in crime- strain

class structure denies WC opportunity to achieve by legitimate means so are more likely to innovate

class differences in crime- subcultural theories

WC youths are culturally deprived and unable to achieve in education and this failure gives rise to status frustration from which delinquent subcultures rise from

class differences in crime- labelling

rejects view that OS are a valid picture of which class commits most crime

class differences in crime- marxism

see capitalist society as divided into ruling class, who own means of production and WC whose labour capitalists exploit for profit

crimogenic capitalism

nature of capitalism causes crime

WC crime may be the result of poverty- crime only means to survive

UC crime may be corporate crime

state and law making (marxism)

law making and enforcement serve the interests of capitalist class

Chambliss- laws to protect private property are the basis of a capitalist economy

selective enforcement (marxism)

Reiman- crimes of powerful are less likely to be treated as criminal offences and prosecuted

higher rate of prosecution for crimes of poor

ideological functions of crime and law (marxism)

health and safety laws seem to benefit workers also benefit capitalism, false class consciousness

neo marxist- critical criminology

agrees w/ marxism

criticises them for being too deterministic

voluntarism (neo marxist)

crime is a conscious choice often with political motive

who criticises marxists and neo marxists theories?

feminists- gender blind

white collar crime

crime committed by a person of respectability and high status in course of their occupation

2 types of white collar crime

occupational crime- committed by employees for personal gain

corporate crime- committed for company’s benefit

4 types of corporate crime

financial crimes

crimes against consumers

crimes against employees

crimes against environment

invisibility of corporate crime- 4 reasons

limited media coverage

lack of political will to tackle it

it is complex- under resourced law enforcement

under reporting- victims unaware

right realism

share a conservative, NR political outlook and support a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on crime

left realism

reformist socialists and favour policies that promote equality

causes of crime: right realism

biological differences

underclass

rational choice

biological differences

Wilson and Herrnestein- crim is caused by a combo of biological and social factors

they make some innately predisposed to commit crime due to traits e.g. aggressiveness

underclass

effective socialisation decreases risk of offending by teaching self control and correct values, nuclear fam are best agency

rational choice theory

committing crime is a choice based on rational calculation of consequences , if reward outweighs the punishment crime is likely

criticisms of right realism

criminals cannot freely choose crime as well as being biologically determined by their genes

ignores structural causes of crime

overemphasises control of disorderly neighbourhoods

Young- crime rate was already falling in New York before ZTP

solutions to crime (right realism)

focus on control and punishment

any sign of deterioration must be removed immediately e.g. graffiti

zero tolerance policing

target hardening

causes of crime (left realism)

relative deprivation

subculture

marginalisation

relative depriavtion

how deprived someone feels in relation to others

sometimes use crime to obtain what they feel they are entitled to

subculture

group solution to relative deprivation- some do not lead to crime but criminal subcultures subscribe to society’s materialistic goals, can only achieve through committing crime

marginalisation

unemployed youth are marginalised, no organisation to represent them and no clear goals

sense of powerlessness, resentment and frustration which they express through criminal means

Young- problem of WC crime due to

harsher welfare policies, increased unemployment, job insecurity and poverty

destabilisation of family and community

solutions to crime- left realism

democratic policing

reducing inequality

democratic policing

police rely on public for info but losing public support so flow of info dries up

to win public support, police must become more accountable to local communities

reducing inequality LR

call for major structural changes to tackle discrimination, inequality of opportunity and unfairness of rewards

LR criticisms

over predicts WC crime

relies too heavily on quantitative data from victim surveys

Marxists- fails to explain corporate crime

fraction of male offenders

4/5

chivalry thesis

women are less likely to be prosecuted- CJS more lenient towards women

evidence for chivalry thesis

self report studies- women are treated more leniently

OS- males are 4x more likely to offend

evidence against chivalry thesis

Farrington and Morris- women not treated more leniently for comparable offences

Box- review of self report concluded women who committed serious offences were not treated more favourably

bias against women

CJS- treats women more harshly especially when deviating from gender norms (monogamy, heterosexual, mother)

Carlen- Scottish courts more likely to jail women whose children were in care than ‘good mothers’

sex role theory- Parsons

focuses on gender socialisation and role models

women perform expressive role which gives girls a positive role model

men take instrumental role performed largely outside the house making socialisation more difficult for boys

boys- identity in male street gangs

Heidensohn control theory

patriarchy reduces women’s opportunities to offend

control at home

domestic role means women are constantly performing domestic labour, confines them to house for long periods of time, men impose this role on them through threat

control in public

fear of male sexual violence, media reporting rape to keep women indoors

control at work

women’s subordinate position at work reduces opportunity to commit corporate crime- glass ceiling

fear of losing job

fear of sexual harassment

Hisrchi: control theory

humans act rationally and are controlled by being offered 'a ‘deal’- rewards in return to conform

crime is committed when people think they won’t get rewards or if rewards are greater than risks

2 types of deal

class and gender

class deal

women who work will get a decent standard of living

gender deal

women who conform to conventional role will gain material and emotional rewards of family life

Liberation Thesis

women become liberated from patriarchy and offending becomes similar to mens

criticism of liberation thesis

female crime rate started rising before women’s liberation movement began so unlikely to be influenced by it

Messerschmidt: accomplishing masculinity

masculinity is an accomplishment- something that men to constantly work at constructing and presenting to others

hegemonic masculinity

dominant form of masculinity and form most men aim to accomplish- defined through paid work, ability to subordinate women and heterosexuality

subordinated masculinities

men lack resources to accomplish hegemonic masculinity and so turn to crime

main source of stats on ethnicity and criminalisation

official stats

victim surveys

self report

official stats (ethnicity)

show ethnic differences in likelihood of being involved in CJS

black people 7x more likely than white people to be stopped and searched

victim surveys (ethnicity)

black people significant more likely to be identified as offenders- ‘mugging’

self report studies (ethnicity)

Graham and Bowling- found black and white people had almost identical rates of offending while Asians had much lower rates

Limitations of victim surveys

rely on victims memory

white victims seem to over identify black people as offenders

excludes corporate crime

policing

mass stop and search, excessive surveillance and failure to respond effectively to racist violence

minorities likely to feel ‘overpoliced and underprotected’

stop and search

asian people 3x more likely to be stopped and searched under Terrorism Act 2009- only small proportion results in arrests

patterns of stop and search

ethnic differences in offending

police racism

demographic factors

prosecution and trial

CPS more likely to drop cases against minorities than against white people

Black and Asian defendants less likely to be found guiltu tha white people

sentencing and prison

jail sentences given to greater proportion of black offenders

EM less likely to be granted bail

Ethnic differences LR (Lea and Young)

stats represent real differences in offending- product of relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation

racist policing leads to unjustified criminalisation of some members- unlikely to account for ethnic differences in stats

ethnic differences- neo marxism (Gilroy and Hall etc)

outcome of a social construction process that stereotypes minorities as more criminal than white people

Gilroy: myth of black criminality (NM)

myth created by racist stereotypes of African Caribbean and Asians

CJS acts on racist stereotypes- minorities are criminalised and therefore appear more in OS

ethnic minority crime is a form of political resistance against a racist society- reflects struggles against imperialism

Hall et al- Policing the Crisis (NM)

1970s- moral panic over black ‘muggers’ served interests of capitalism dealing with a crisis

mugging as a black crime at the same time- they acted as scapegoat to distract attention from true cause of society’s problems

social construction of news

distorted image of crime painted by news media

news values

criteria that journalists and editors use in order to decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make into a newspaper or news bulletin

key news values

immediacy

dramatisation

personlisation

risk

violence

media as a cause of crime

negative effect on attitudes, values and behaviour

imitation

arousal- through violent imagery

desensitisation- repeated view of violence

transmitting knowledge- criminal techniques

glamourising crime

moral panic (media)

exaggerated and irrarional over reaction by society to a perceived problem, reaction enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness

example of a moral panic (media)

mods and rockers

moral panics- functionalist perspective

a way of responding to sense of anomie created by change

by dramatising threat to society- media raise collective consciousness and reassert social controls when central values are threatened

moral panics- NM

black ‘muggers’

globalisation

interconnectedness of societies

globalisation: cause

spread of IT, influence of mass media, cheap air travel and deregulation of financial and other markets