Studied by 1 personDurkehims 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
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