Crime and deviance

Crime

Illegal act punishable by law - if detected can result in formal consequences

Deviance

Seen as abnormal to the majority - behaviour which does not conform to society’s mainstream norms and values. Likely to receive informal actions/ consequences.

Social construction of crime

• Acts of crime and deviance are not fixed, universal or permanent

• Crime, deviance and age of criminal responsibility varies from time, culture and situation

Crime being socially constructed by time

• Suicide used to be illegal in the UK until the 1960’s, punishable by death.

• At one time homosexuality was seen as a mental illness, illegal and contagious

Crime being socially constructed by culture

Adultery can lead to the death penalty in some countries

Crime being socially constructed by situation

Killing someone is not always a crime, eg being a soldier

Social control

• The methods which persuade or force individuals to conform to the the main social norms and values which are learned through early socialisation - prevents deviance

• Can be formal and informal

• Sanctions are a way of enforcing social control and can be positive or negative, ranging all the way from positive sanctions being pocket money or a knighthood to negative sanctions being sitting in the corner or life imprisonment

Formal social control

• These are agencies specifically set up to ensure that people conform, for example police, courts

• You have to obey because of bad sanctions like prison time or fines

Informal social control

These are groups which sanction but are not primarily involved in enforcing social control, for example parents, education system and workplace

Official crime statistics are reliable

• Ku: collected by police forces and published annually by the Home Office. Positivists favour OCS because they are quantitative, standardised and collected using consistent procedures. This makes them highly reliable and allows sociologists to identify patterns and trends in offending over time.

• App: The Home Office collects millions of crime records each year, enabling comparisons between regions, social groups and historical periods. For example, OCS can identify changes in knife crime, robbery, burglary and violent crime, allowing governments to allocate police resources and develop crime prevention policies.

• An: This makes OCS highly useful because they provide a large-scale and representative picture of recorded crime. Their standardised nature means researchers can track long-term trends and make comparisons across different groups within society.

• Eval: However, reliability does not necessarily mean validity. While OCS may be collected consistently, they only measure crimes that are reported to and recorded by the police

Official statistics reveal patterns of crime

• Ku: One of the greatest strengths of OCS is their ability to reveal social patterns in crime. Sociologists use official data to examine relationships between crime and factors such as age, sender, ethnicity and social class.

• App: Official statistics consistently show that young males are responsible for a disproportionate amount of recorded offending. Similarly, OCS indicate that working-class individuals and some ethnic minority groups are overrepresented within the criminal justice system. Such patterns have informed theories from Functionalism, Marxism, Left Realism and Interactionism.

• An: This makes OCS extremely useful because they provide evidence that allows sociologists to develop and test explanations of crime. Without official data, it would be difficult to identify large-scale patterns or understand which groups are most likely to be recorded as offenders.

• Eval: However, the patterns identified may not necessarily reflect actual offending. Interactionists argue that they may instead reflect policing practices, criminal justice decisions and differential enforcement. Therefore, OCS may tell us as much about criminalisation as they do about crime itself.

Official statistics are socially constructed

• Ku: interactionists argue that crime statistics are socially constructed through the actions of police officers, courts and criminal justice agencies. Cicourel suggests that officials use typifications when deciding who is likely to be criminal, influencing who becomes recorded in official statistics.

• App: piliavin and Briar found that police officers were more likely to classify working-class youths as delinquent based on factors such as dress, attitude and demeanour rather than actual offending behaviour.

• An: This suggests OCS may measure criminalisation rather than actual crime. Groups subjected to greater surveillance are more likely to be arrested, charged and prosecuted, making them appear more criminal in official statistics.

• Eval: However, Interactionists may overstate the role of labelling and police bias. Left Realists argue that some differences in offending are genuine and linked to deprivation, marginalisation and relative deprivation. Consequently, OCS may reflect both criminalisation and real differences in offending.

Crime Survey for England and wales (CSEW)

• Ku: a victim survey that asks a representative sample of individuals about their experiences of crime, including offences that may never have been reported to the police

• App: The CSEW consistently records higher levels of victimisation than OCS alone. It has revealed the extent of hidden crimes such as domestic abuse, sexual violence and minor theft. It also provides information on fear of crime and victim experiences that are unavailable through police records.

• An: The existence of the CSEW demonstrates that OCS has limited validity. By uncovering part of the dark figure, victim surveys provide a more complete picture of crime and reduce the impact of police recording practices. This suggests OCS alone cannot be relied upon to accurately measure crime.

• Eval: However it relies on memory and honesty, meaning respondents may forget incidents, exaggerate experiences or fail to recognise that they have been victims of crime. It also excludes crimes against businesses, homicide and many victimless crimes, limiting its usefulness as a complete alternative to OCS.

Self report studies

• Ku: Self-report studies ask individuals to disclose offences they have committed, regardless of whether those offences were detected by the police. Interactionists favour self-report studies because they reveal offending hidden from official records.

• App: Nye and Short found that delinquent behaviour was widespread amongst both middle-class and working-class youths, challenging the view presented by official statistics that crime is primarily a working-class phenomenon.

• An: This challenges the usefulness of OCS because self-report studies suggest offending is much more widespread than official statistics indicate. They also reveal that middle-class individuals may commit offences without appearing in official records, highlighting the limitations of police-based measures of crime.

• Eval: However, self-report studies are not always reliable. Respondents may lie, exaggerate or conceal offending, particularly when discussing serious crimes. Furthermore, most self-report studies focus on relatively minor offences such as vandalism, shoplifting and underage drinking, making them less useful for measuring serious crime.

Dark figures of crime

• Ku: A major limitation of Official Crime Statistics is the existence of the dark figure of crime. This refers to offences that occur but are never reported to, or recorded by, the police. As a result, a significant proportion of crime remains hidden from official records.

• App: Many victims fail to report offences due to fear, embarrassment, lack of confidence in the police or because they believe the offence is too trivial. Domestic abuse, sexual offences, cybercrime and minor theft are particularly likely to be underreported. The Crime Survey for England and Wales consistently estimates that millions of crimes each year remain outside official records.

• An: This reduces the validity of OCS because they underestimate the true extent of offending. Certain crimes appear less common than they actually are, meaning official statistics may provide a distorted picture of crime within society. Consequently, policies based solely on OCS may fail to address hidden forms of offending.

• Eval: However, the dark figure does not affect all crimes equally. Serious offences such as homicide are almost always reported and recorded. Therefore, OCS remain highly useful for measuring some forms of crime even if they underestimate others.

Functionalists view on official crime statistics

• Accept statistics as accurate and representative

• Useful for establishing patterns of crime

Marxism view on official crime statistics

• Biased view of crime - underrepresent the crimes of the powerful

• Gives the impression that the main criminals are the working class

Feminism view on official crime statistics

Under present the extent of female crime and crimes by some men against women such as domestic abuse

Labelling theory view on official crime statistics

• Official statistics are ‘social constructs’

• Useful to reveal the stereotypes, labelling of the public and of the criminal justice system

• Official statistics further fuel stereotypes which generates a self fulfilling prophecy

Functionalist society - socialisation and social control

• Socialisation - values and a shared culture is internalised into its members and they feel they know what is right and wrong to do that in that society

• Social control - rewards and punishment for doing the right and wrong thing, more opportunities with a clean criminal record, and prison if you are deviant

Durkheims beliefs on crime

• Crime is inevitable because some people are just not socialised adequately because we are all individuals and have different experiences, influences and circumstances

• Also modern societies promote a diverse and specialised labour force, and a diversity of subcultures, which can divide individuals and groups making the value consensus blurred creating crime and deviance which can then result in anomie

Functionalism view on crime: boundary maintenance

• Ku: the process by which society's values and norms are upheld by clearly distinguishing acceptable from unacceptable behaviour. This process is achieved by reacting to deviance and crime, both of which serve as tools for reinforcing the limits of acceptable behaviour. Deviance, therefore, is not simply seen as a threat to social order but as a way of reaffirming the collective conscience (shared values and norms).

• App: Manchester attack - Terror attack which killed predominantly young people at the Arianna Grande concert. Led to Manchester and the rest of the country in uproar but fundraising and charity concerts to raise funds for victims

• An: Impact is that it brought a large community together and consensus of what behaviour is unacceptable reinforcing social solidarity and norms and values.

• Eval: Downes and Rock argues that it is not functional for the victim or the victim's family

Functionalism view on crime: safety valve

• Ku: deviance (including some minor forms of crime) can act as a safety valve by allowing people to express discontent or relieve stress without causing major societal disruption.

• App: Kingsley Davis argued that certain forms of deviance, like prostitution, might serve as a safety valve for societal tensions around sexual relationships without destabilising the institution of marriage.

• An: By allowing individuals to "let off steam" in a controlled or less harmful way, the safety valve mechanism reduces the likelihood of more severe deviant or criminal acts

• Eval: Feminists claims functionalists tends to overemphasise the positive roles of deviance while neglecting its harmful impacts. For example, prostitution might provide an outlet for sexual frustration but also perpetuates exploitation, trafficking, and gende inequality.

Functionalist view on crime: adaptation and change

• Ku: Durkheim refer to the ways in which deviant behaviours and crimes can influence and shape societal norms, values, and institutions over time.

• App: LGBT MOVEMENT, SUFFRAGETTES, CIVIAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT "The gay movements advocate for LGBT people in society. Social movements, such as protests, focus on aspects such as equal rights i.e. the 2000s movement for marriage equality, or they may focus on liberation, as in the gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s".

• An: Deviance challenges outdated norms and values, forcing society to adapt. This leads to social progress and innovation. Movements advocating for women's suffrage or LGBTQ+ rights began as deviance from the norms of their time but eventually led to greater equality.

• Eval: Functionalist theories treat society as a harmonious whole but fail to account for power imbalances and conflicts between groups. Crime might not always lead to adaptation or positive change. Instead, it could reinforce the power of elites by justifying harsh laws or increasing surveillance over marginalised groups

Functionalist view on crime: warning device

• Ku: Durkheim suggests that crime and deviance act as signals that something in society is not functioning properly and may need attention or reform.

• App: High rates of theft and property crime can serve as a warning device, signalling underlying problems within a society, such as economic inequality, poverty, or lack of opportunities.

• An: Governments may introduce policy reforms aimed at reducing inequality, such as raising the minimum wage, expanding welfare programs, or increasing funding for education. The introduction of universal credit systems in some countries aimed to reduce financial strain on low-income households and prevent theft born of desperation.

• Eval: Societies often respond to theft with punitive measures (e.g., increased policing or harsher sentencing) rather than addressing its root causes. Example: Zero-tolerance policies in schools and cities have disproportionately criminalized marginalized communities without reducing inequality.

Functionalist view on crime: strain theory

• Ku: Merton adapted this idea to explain deviance by focusing on cultural values and structural inequality. Where by society sets cultural goals, and when individuals can not meet these goals through legitimate ways, they experience strain which leads to deviance.

• App: Innovators may commit utilitarian crime. A person from a low-income background resorts to theft, fraud, or drug dealing to achieve societal goals of wealth, as legitimate opportunities like education or employment are inaccessible.

• An: Strain theory emphasises how social structures and inequality contribute to crime. By pointing to blocked opportunities and unequal access to resources, the theory connects deviance to broader societal issues, such as poverty and discrimination.

• Eval: Merton's theory is criticised as it ignores white-collar crime and is seen as deterministic by social action theorists. Marxists disagree that society defines what the success goals are, but that it is Capitalists who define it as money, as people are socialised by the superstructure and it benefits them as they profit and causes people to work harder

Functionalists - negative functions crime serve

Anomie - lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group

Responses to strain

• Conformity

• Innovation

• Ritualism

• Retreatism

• Rebellion

Conformity

• Most people continue to accept the culture and norms even if they aren’t successful

• Have goals and means

• Eg work hard legally to succeed

• Doesn’t result in crime

Innovation

• People accept the goal of success but lack the ability to achieve, reject legitimate way of success and find alternative ways

• Have the goals but not uses illegitimate means

• Eg theft and fraud

• Results in crime

Ritualism

• Reject the culture of success but stick to the rules

• Don’t have the goals but have the means

• Eg stick to rules without aiming for success

• Doesn’t result in crime

Retreatism

• Reject both the goals and the rules, drop out of society

• Eg drug addiction, homelessness

• Likely to lead to crime

Rebellion

• People who reject the rules and norms and wish to replace them with the whole new/ different ones

• Eg political radicals, revolutionaries

• Can lead to crime

Strengths of Merton’s strain theory

• Links personal behaviour to wider social structure.

• Explains economic and utilitarian crimes effectively.

• Offers a useful framework for analysing modern capitalist societies.

Weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory

• Not all working-class individuals turn to crime — it doesn’t explain individual differences.

• Over-relies on official statistics, underestimating middle-class and white-collar crime.

• Doesn’t explain non-economic crimes such as violence or vandalism.

• Marxists argue it fails to challenge capitalism itself, which relies on inequality and exploitation.

Subcultural theories of deviance

• A Subculture is a group that has values that are different to the mainstream culture. Subcultural theorists argue that deviance is the result of whole groups breaking off from society who have deviant values (subcultures) and deviance is a result of these individuals conforming to the values and norms of the subculture to which they belong.

• In contrast to Social Control theorists, it is the pull of the peer group that encourages individuals to commit crime, rather than the lack of attachment to the family or other mainstream institutions. Subcultural theory also helps explain non-utilitarian crimes such as vandalism and joy riding which strain theory cannot really explain. Deviance is a collective response to marginalisation

Functionalist: subcultural theory

• Ku: focuses on how certain groups within society develop their own values, norms, and behaviours, which can differ from those of the wider society. These subcultures may form as a response to societal strain, inequality, or a lack of opportunities. Cloward and Ohlin proposed that the types of subcultures individuals form depend largely on the opportunities available for achieving success or status within their environment.

• App: Criminal Subcultures - These subcultures are typically found in areas with a well-established, hierarchical criminal structure. Young people in these environments learn and adopt criminal behaviour from older, more experienced individuals. In areas such as council estates, deviant behaviour (e.g., theft, drug dealing) becomes an accepted and legitimate means of achieving material success when conventional means (like education or employment) are unavailable or less rewarding.

• An: Subcultural theory highlights the relationship between social class, inequality, and crime. It emphasizes how individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds may turn to crime as a response to the blocked opportunities and

• Eval: the theory struggles to explain why middle-class or upper-class individuals might engage in criminal behaviour. For example, white-collar crime and corporate crime, committed by affluent professionals, do not fit neatly into the categories of criminal, conflict, or retreatist subcultures outlined by Cloward and Ohlin.

Cohen: status frustration

• Blocked opportunities to succeed lead young working class males to form delinquent subcultures

• Unable to achieve status in education - working class boys suffer from status frustration

• Look to obtain status by forming subcultural groups with similar peers and construct an alternative status hierarchy

• This involves subverting the norms and values of society to give status to criminal and deviant activities - usually non-utilitarian

• This brings them into conflict with authorities and further harms their opportunities for status through legitimate means

Miller: the working class subculture

Miller does not see the deviant behaviour occurring due to the inability of the lower-class groups to achieve mainstream success. He believes that lower class groups possess their own culture and values. He says there are 4 'Focal Concerns in w/c subcultures:

• Toughness: this involves a concern for masculinity and finds expression in courage in the face of physical threat and a rejection of timidity and weakness-an attempt to maintain their reputation'. - eg fights, murder

• Smartness: street smart'-this involves the 'capacity to outfox, outwit and dupe others'. - eg fights, robbery

• Excitement: Involves the search for 'thrills'.- es joyride, robbery

• Fate: They believe that little can be done about their lives - what will be will be... - eg theft, drugs

Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures

They focused on how peoples' opportunities to be deviant are different (based on where they live and the opportunity structure available): not everyone gets the same chances to be successful criminals; some have better opportunities to enter into a criminal career.

• Criminal subcultures

• Conflict subcultures

• Retreatist Subculture

Criminal subcultures

• Criminal Subcultures are characterised by utilitarian crimes, such as theft.

• They develop in more stable working class areas where there is an established pattern of crime. This provided a learning opportunity and career structure for aspiring young criminals, and an alternative to the legitimate job market as a means of achieving financial rewards.

• Adult criminals exercise social control over the young to stop them carrying out non-utilitarian delinquent acts – such as vandalism – which might attract the attention of the police.

Conflict subcultures

• Emerge in socially disorganised areas where there is a high rate of population turnover and a consequent lack of social cohesion.

• Conflict subcultures are characterised by violence, gang warfare, ‘mugging’ and other street crime. Both approved and illegal means of achieving mainstream goals are blocked or limited, and young people express their frustration at this situation through violence or street crime, and at least obtain status through success in subcultural peer-group values.

• This is a possible explanation for the gang culture which is increasingly appearing in run down areas of the UK, and possibly explains the UK riots of 2011.

Retreatist subcultures

• Emerge among those lower class youth who are ‘double failures’ – they have failed to succeed in both mainstream society and in the crime and gang cultures above.

• The response is a retreat into drug addiction and alcoholism, paid for by petty theft, shoplifting and prostitution

Functionalism view on crime: matza drift theory

• Ku: Matza argues that deviance is not necessarily tied to a fixed class position or structural inequality, as Marxism suggests, but rather to an individual's transient state between conforming and deviant behaviour

• App: According to Matza, young people, in particular, "drift" in and out of deviant values due to a combination of social influences, personal choices, and situational factors suggesting that individuals are not permanently labelled as deviant, nor are their actions solely determined by their socio-economic circumstances.

• An: It critiques the Marxist assumption that crime is always a rational response to economic pressures, instead proposing that some acts of deviance may be impulsive or influenced by peer pressure rather than systemic exploitation.

• Eval: However, drift theory can complement Marxist insights by illustrating how marginalised individuals such as those in the working class may drift into deviance as a temporary response to alienation or blocked opportunities, which are themselves consequences of capitalist structures.

Evaluating functionalism

• Durkheim talks about crime in very general terms. He theorises that ‘crime’ is necessary and even functional but fails to distinguish between different types of crime. It could be that some crimes may be so harmful that they will always be dysfunctional rather than functional.

• Functionalists suggest that the criminal justice system benefits everyone in society by punishing criminals and reinforcing the acceptable boundaries of behaviour. However, Marxist and Feminist analysis of crime demonstrates that not all criminals are punished equally and thus crime and punishment benefit the powerful for than the powerless

• Interactionists would suggest that whether or not a crime is functional cannot be determined objectively; surely it depends on an individual’s relationship to the crime.

• Functionalists assume that society has universal norms and values that are reinforced by certain crimes being punished in public. Postmodernists argue society is so diverse, there is no such thing as ‘normal’. 

• The Functionalist theory of crime is teleological. It operates a reverse logic by turning effects into causes. I.e. in reality the cause of crime is the dysfunctional system. However in functionalist theory crime becomes the necessary cause which makes a system functional.

Marxist view on crime: criminogenic capitalism

• Ku: Marxists argue that capitalism is inherently criminogenic, meaning that they believe that crime is an inbuilt feature of capitalist society that emphasises economic self-interest, greed and personal gain. Crime therefore is a rational response to the competitiveness and inequality of life in the capitalist system.

• App: David Gordon - the capitalist system is built on exploitation, competition, and individualism, which foster greed and self-interest while marginalising those who lack the resources to succeed. These conditions lead to widespread feelings of alienation and frustration, particularly among the working class, driving some individuals toward criminal behaviour as a means of survival or rebellion.

• An: Criminogenic capitalism as a concept is useful as it exposes how the capitalist system creates conditions for crime through inequality and exploitation while simultaneously using the criminal justice system as a tool to maintain ruling-class power.

• Eval: However, it can be criticised for ignoring individual agency and control and does not provide an explanation of crimes that are not utilitarian such as sexual offences

Marxist view on crime: ideological function

• Ku: Ideological Function of the Law - Laws divert attention away from the exploitative nature of capitalism and focuses attention instead on the 'evil' and frightening nature of certain criminal working class groups. Laws are instruments of the ruling class and they reflect the values and beliefs found in ruling class ideology.

• App: Chambliss suggested this can be explained by the plague in the UK. The plague wiped out a large amount of the workforce. This meant people could ask for more wages and move to find a good wage as there was a surplus of jobs and fewer people. Laws were introduced which required all people to accept work at a low and fixed wage. This was seen to be positive, fixed wage meant that employers couldn't pay unfair wages, but what it really did was remove workers bargaining power by fixing the wage.

• An: this is useful understanding as it demonstrates how laws can reinforce false class consciousness and further control the working class

• Eval: Functionalists argue that laws primarily exist to maintain social order and cohesion, suggesting that they reflect shared societal values rather than exclusively serving ruling-class ideology

Marxist view on crime: selective enforcement

• Ku: Marxists argue that selective law enforcement ensures that the working class is disproportionately criminalised while the crimes of the ruling class are often ignored or treated leniently.

• App: Snider demonstrates how governments are often reluctant to pass laws that regulate large corporations, as such actions could harm profits and deter investment. Instead, legal systems prioritise crimes that are more visible and typically associated with the working class, reinforcing the public perception that crime is predominantly a working-class issue.

• An: Snider's research demonstrates how economic interests and the power of corporations influence the legal system, with governments prioritising the protection of profits over justice. This supports the Marxist view that the law operates as an ideological tool, creating a false perception of fairness while protecting the ruling class.

• Eval: Marx could be criticised, has it may not be that the law is selectively enforced but rather is limited and effective at prosecuting lower-level offences but struggles to fully address crimes at the top levels of society due to their complexities and spiral of denial.

Marxist view on crime: invisibility of middle class crimes

• Ku: the invisibility of white-collar and corporate crime reflects how the capitalist system manipulates societa focus to protect the interests of the ruling class. White-collar crimes, such as tax evasion, fraud, and embezzlement, are frequently overlooked or treated with leniency, ensuring that the criminal justice system disproportionately targets the working class while shielding the middle and upper classes from scrutiny.

• App: Reiman and Leighton argue that crimes committed by high-status individuals are less likely to be reported, investigated, or prosecuted, reinforcing the idea that the law functions as an ideological tool of the ruling class. This selective enforcement diverts attention away from the systemic harm caused by corporate deviance, such as financial crises, environmental destruction, or workplace exploitation, which often have far-reaching consequences.

• An: The media's role in perpetuating this invisibility is significant. Media outlets, often owned and controlled by the capitalist elite, downplay or reframe white-collar crime as technical violations or isolated incidents, focusing instead on sensationalised portrayals of working-class street crime.

• Eval: However, critics argue that this approach oversimplifies the nature of crime by focusing too heavily on class while neglecting other factors such as individual agency, cultural context, and institutional practices.

Utilitarian crime

Crimes committed which have a physical gain such as money or an item, eg a watch

Non-utilitarian crime

Crimes which has no physical gain such as vandalism or murder

Absolute deprivation (Marxism)

Measure of property that describes the loss or absence of the means to satisfy the basic needs of survival

Relative deprivation (neo-Marxism)

People are deprived compared with others in society. Excluded from participating in the consumer society.

Reasons working class commit crime

• Poverty - need it to survive

• Feel alienated from society and nor listened to

• Capitalist advertising encouraging material society which they cannot afford

• They are experiencing absolute poverty

Reasons upper class commit crime

• Capitalism is ruthless competition and they must win at all costs

• They wish to maintain wealth/ power

• Their crime is invisible - can get away with it and are allowed to get away with it

Evaluating Marxism

• Strength - Marxism effectively explains how crime is linked to the unequal distribution of wealth and power in capitalist societies. It shows how laws are made by and for the ruling class, often criminalising the working class while ignoring white-collar and corporate crimes

• Criticism - Marxism tends to reduce all crime to class struggle and economic factors, ignoring other influences like gender, ethnicity or individual agency. It overlooks crimes committed by the working class that don’t challenge capitalism, eg dometic violence.

• Alternative - interactionist theories focus on how individuals are labelled as deviant and how this affects their identity and behaviour

• Limitation - Marxism doesn’t adequately explain crimes that occur within the working class or those unrelated to capitalism, such as hate crimes, gang violence, or interpersonal abuse

Neo-Marxism - New criminology

• Suggests that social structures shape criminal behaviour (poverty and lack of opportunity) but the individuals also showed agency assigned meaning to their crimes. They see criminals as victims of social stigma and actively resisting elements of capitalism.

• Taylor, Watson and young developed the concept of a fully social theory of deviance. They developed a more holistic approach to researching deviance, seeing deviance as being influenced by both structural forces and individual agency.

Neo Marxism view on crime: fully social theory

• Ku: Taylor, Walton, and Young argue that crime and its control must be understood as part of the broader power dynamics within capitalist society. According to this perspective, moral panics about working-class crime are deliberately manufactured by the ruling class to distract from structural inequalities and maintain social control.

• App: Policing the Crisis demonstrates how the media and state institutions amplified fears of "mugging" among young black men in the 1970s, framing them as a societal threat. This moral panic served to legitimise harsher policing and divert attention from the economic crises and unemployment caused by capitalism.

• An: The fully social theory of deviance remains useful in understanding the interplay between structural inequality, ideological control, and individual resistance in the causes of crime. This approach builds on traditional Marxism by incorporating cultural and ideological elements, offering a more comprehensive explanation of crime as a response to both economic structures and the manipulation of societal norms.

• Eval: However, critics argue that Neo-Marxism overly romanticises criminals, overlooking the harm their actions can cause within working-class communities themselves.

Stuart Hall’s application of critical criminology

Black muggers in the 1970's UK. His key findings:

• There was what Marxists call a 'crisis of capitalism' (an economic reason). The resulting unemployment had a disproportionate impact on black people, some of whom chose to enter the informal economy (aspects of which involved crime) rather than do "white man's shit work".

• The ruling class sought to divide the working class to prevent anti-capitalist political activism: turning white workers against black workers. Also, a moral panic about street crime by black people was fostered, leading to a crack down by the police and crime wave fantasy This all acted to prevent a revolution or radical political change.

Realists key differences

• Crime as a real problem

• Crime causes fear

• Focus on the victims

• Try to offer realist solutions

Left realism

• Generally linked to Labour Party policies

• Approach = ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’

• 3 causes of crime: marginalisation, relative deprivation, subcultures

Right realism

• Associated with Conservative Party and new right policies

• Emphasis on being tougher on the criminals than on the causes of crime

• 3 causes of crime: bio-social, inadequate socialisation and the underclass, rational choice

Right realism reasons for crime: Hernnstein and Wilson - biological differences

• Biological differences between individuals make someone more strongly predisposed to commit crime than others

• They picture young men as ‘temperamentally aggressive’ which is partly biologically based and makes them more prone to crime

Right realism reasons for crime: herrnstein and Murray - bio social approach

• Some people are biologically predisposed to commit crime, especially those with low intelligence.

• However, while biology may increase chances of committing, effective socialisation decreases it

Right realism reasons for crime: Murray - socialisation and the underclass

• Murray argues that crime rate is increasing because of a growing ‘underclass’ or what he refers to as the ‘new rabble’. He defines this group as being people who display deviant behaviour and who fail to socialise their children properly.

• According to Murray, the reason why the underclass is increasing in the UK and the USA is because of ‘welfare dependency’ – the over generous benefits system which offers no incentive to work, allowing more people to become dependent on the state (however, it is worth noting here that the coalition government made this ‘underclass’ a target of their policies and introduced benefit caps and cuts to ensure that people have an incentive to work, which the conservative government have vouched to continue, thus dating Murray’s theory).

• He suggests that this has led to a decline in the nuclear family and an increase in single mothers, as people can live off benefits. Murray suggests that single mothers are not capable of socialising their children effectively and that boys lack male role models, leading to increased criminality amongst the underclass.

Right realism reasons for crime: diluvia and Walters - socialisation

Crime is a result of growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent and criminal adults in a practically perfect criminogenic environment - that is one that seems almost consciously designed to produce vicious, predatory unrepentant street criminals

Right realism reasons for crime: Clarke - rational choice theory

Clarke argues that individuals have free will and the power of reason. He suggests that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on rational calculation of likely consequences. If an individual believes they have more chance of getting away with something than getting caught, then they will commit a criminal act – it is a rational decision.

Right realism reasons for crime: Cohen and Felton - routine activities theory

• They argued that in most circumstances social control mechanisms, lack of opportunity and/ or the risk of getting caught prevented crime from taking place

• Crime therefore needed three conditions to take place:

  • Individuals who were motivated to offend

  • Availability of opportunity and targets

  • Lack of capable guardians such as parents or police who might prevent crime occurring

• Most crime in their view was opportunistic, rather than planned in advance

• Therefore, if individuals motivated to commit crime encountered easy opportunities to commit them in the routine activities of their daily lives then crime was more likely to occur

Right realism solutions: Wilson and kelling - broken windows theory (environmental)

The local community and residents need to maintain and fix broken windows in their neighbourhoods to prevent it from being rundown and attracting crime and deviant groups to enter the area.

Right realism solutions: zero tolerance (environmental)

• Proactively tackle even the slightest sign of disorder even if not criminal to prevent more serious ones from occurring

• By working with local residents to deal with undesirable behaviour, the police can help to prevent the deterioration of neighbourhoods and reinvigorate informal social cinreiks

Evaluating zero tolerance

• In New York major crime fell by 39%

• Works well in heavily populated areas with high policing levels and large amounts of petty crime

• Lots of accusations of heavy handed, aggressive policing - racial tension and racism in areas of New York

Right realism solutions: target hardening (situational)

Reduce the rewards and increase the cost of crime. Maximise their deterrent effect by greater use of prison and ensure that punishments follow soon after the offence, eg making it more difficult to break into buildings and gated communities with security guards

Evaluating target hardening

• Cheap and simple to implement

• Ignores the role of emotion and thrill as a cause of crime

• Leads to crime displacement - move crime to another place or time

Evaluating right realism

• Criticism - assumes that crime is always a rational calculation, IQ differences account for less than 3% of differences in offending, zero tolerance policies may mean crime does not decrease but moves

• Limitation - ignores the wider structural causes such as poverty, ignores corporate crime and focuses on petty crime

Left realism - multiple aetiology

• The idea that no single factor causes crime

• Crime is the result of a mixture of formal and informal controls, structural inequalities and the agency of the offender

Left realism reasons for crime: Lea and Young - relative deprivation

• Being deprived in relation to others. Lacking what other people around you have and feeling a sense of entitlement- leads to theft.

• Lea and Young - pointed out that it is not poverty or unemployment, which directly causes crime, it is the expectations people have and a feeling of resentment about what they could actually earn compared to their expectations that leads to crime.

• Young- blames modern society (TV etc.) for increasing this idea of relative deprivation.

Left realism reasons for crime: subcultures

• Subcultures develop amongst groups who suffer relative deprivation and marginalisation. Specific sets of values, forms of dress and modes of behaviour develop which reflect the problems that their members face.

• The outcome of subculture, marginalisation and relative deprivation is street crime and burglary, committed largely by young males.

• Lea and Young- They are still located in the values of the wider society-subcultures develop precisely because their members subscribe to the dominant values of society, but are blocked off (because of marginalisation) from success.

Left realism reasons for crime: marginalisation

• 'Being pushed out'. Marginalisation refers to the situation where certain groups in the population are more likely than others to suffer economic, social and political deprivation.

• Young people living 'in inner cities and social housing estates are likely to suffer from higher levels of deprivation than those from more affluent areas.

• Political marginalisation - refers to the fact that there is no way for them to influence decision makers and thus they feel powerless.

• Lea and Young believe that the lack of a role and a voice within society is a contributing factor to deviant behaviour. Leads to violent crime.

Left realism solutions: police reform

• Police reform to create a more consensual force that would better represent the population it policies.

• If there were genuine consensus policing and the public had more confidence in the police, they would report more crimes.

• The public would work with the police rather than feel threatened by them and ultimately this would improve policing for communities and reduce crime.

• The police are losing public support among youth, ethnic minorities & those in inner cities. The police must deal with local concerns as they over-police minor drug crime and under police racist attacks and domestic violence which is a local concern.

Left realism solutions: multi-agency approach

Local councils, schools, charities, housing dep etc working together

Left realism solutions: young - society changes

Tackle discrimination/ unfairness, decent jobs, improve housing and become a more tolerant society

Left realism solutions: ABSO

Protecting vulnerable groups from crime and low level disorder

Evaluating left realism

• Strength - drew attention to the reality of street crime and its effects

• Criticism - theory of relative deprivation has been criticised for being overly deterministic as relative deprivation doesn’t always lead individuals to crime

• Limitation - marxists say that it ignores importance of corporate and white collar crimes

Interactionist view on crime

• The labelling theory seeks to explain why only some people and some acts are defined as deviant or criminal, whilst others carrying out similar acts are not.

• Voluntaristic approach- focuses on how something affects the individual, rather than how it affects a group of people, or the entirety of society.

Beckers view on crime

• “It is not the nature of the act that makes it deviant, but the nature of society’s reaction to the act which makes it deviant”

• Becker believes that deviance is a social construction. Deviant behaviour is behaviour people label as deviant therefore a deviant is someone who has been labelled.

Interactionist view on crime: Moral entrepreneurs

• Ku: Becker argues that just because someone breaks the rules, it doesn’t mean others will see it as deviant. Someone must enforce it or publicly say ‘this is bad!’, before any labelling happens – these people are called moral entrepreneurs. These are generally higher status people in society such as priests, the police, law makers etc.

• App: criminalisation of marajuana - mainly black African American smoked → increase in stop/ search labelling → increase in crime rates of black African Americans → meets political agenda of the moral entrepreneurs → social construct

Interactionist view on crime: Cicourel - Negotiation of justice and typifications

• Ku: Cicourel's concept of negotiation of justice shows how criminal justice agents apply stereotypes (typifications) influencing who gets labelled, resulting in unequal justice.

• App: Studies show ethnic minorities and working-class youths are disproportionately targeted by police stop-and-search policies, leading to disproportionate labelling.

• An: Useful for exposing bias and discrimination in law enforcement and social control.

• Eval: may overstate the role of labelling in explaining crime rates and understate offenders’ motivations

Interactionist view on crime: Pillavin and Blair - Typifications

• Ku: Pilavin and Briar - arrests mainly based on physical cues and judgements about the young person's character. An officer's decisions to arrest were based on the suspect's gender and class as well as their ethnicity, and time and place.

• App: when a middle class youth was arrested he was less likely to be charged – partly because his manner and appearance were less likely to fit the typification of a criminal held by the police, but also because their parents were more likely to be able to negotiate successfully on his behalf.

• An: these individuals are disproportionately targeted, arrested and labelled

Interactionist view on crime: deviant careers

• Ku: Labelling can force people into a deviant career - much like an occupational career. They are outside mainstream society and therefore continue to commit deviant acts. Therefore, application of a deviant label doesn’t prevent crime it actually produces more,

• App: drug dealing - career which doesn’t require background checks

• An: as a result there are blocked opportunists so they continue to be criminals

Interactionist view on crime: Cohen - deviance simplification and moral panics

• Ku: Cohen's concept of Moral Panics shows how media and authorities exaggerate the threat of certain groups (e.g, 'folk devils'), causing a deviance amplification spiral where societal reaction increases deviance.

• App: Contemporary moral panics around youth gangs or "knife crime" illustrate this process, with media often exaggerating the scale and nature of crime.

• Anal: This is useful for explaining how media and social reaction can worsen crime and shape public perceptions.

• Eval: However, this approach can overemphasise media effects and ignore actual victim experiences.

Interactionist view on crime: Lemert - master status

• Ku: Lemert - when a label has been successfully applied to a person, then all other qualities become unimportant- this becomes their 'controlling identity’, leading to secondary deviance-continued deviance as a response to societal reaction.

• App: Being caught and publicly labelled as a thief can involve being stigmatised, shamed, humiliated, shunned or excluded from normal society

• An: This can provoke a crisis in identity and one way to resolve it is to accept it and see themselves as the world sees them.

• Eval: doesn’t explain why crime was committed in first place

Interactionist view on crime: Becker - labelling theory and social construction of crime

• Ku: Becker argues that crime and deviance are socially constructed through the process of labelling by society and social control agents (police, media). Crime is not inherent in acts but depends on whether society defines them as deviant.

• App: For instance, statistics consistently show that ethnic minorities, such as Black British youth, are disproportionately stopped and searched by police in the UK. This over-policing increases their chances of being labelled as criminals, regardless of actual involvement in crime (Home Office Crime Statistics, 2023).

• An: This highlights how crime is not simply about the act but about who is socially constructed as deviant, showing how power relations shape definitions of crime and contribute to unequal justice.

• Eval: However, critics argue that Labelling Theory overlooks why individuals commit primary deviance before they are labelled and tends to ignore the real harm caused by crimes.

Interactionist view on crime: Braithwaite - reintegrative and disintegrative shaming

• Ku: Braithwaite distinguishes between reintegrative shaming, where the act is condemned but the person is welcomed back into society, and disintegrative shaming, where both the act and individual are stigmatised. The latter can reinforce deviant identities and lead to further offending

• App: The UK's criminal justice system often uses punitive approaches (e.g., ASBOs, criminal records), which can result in disintegrative shaming. In contrast, restorative justice schemes used in New Zealand (especially among Mãori youth) are examples of reintegrative shaming with lower reoffending rates

• An: Braithwaite's theory supports the idea that crime and deviance are shaped by social responses-how society chooses to shame or forgive shapes whether someone internalises a deviant label.

• Eval: However, critics argue this approach assumes all offenders care about societal approval. It may underestimate structural factors like poverty or addiction that drive criminal behaviour regardless of public reaction.

Functionalist perspective on punishment

• Punishment gives the opportunity to express disapproval, reinforce social solidarity and reinforce shared values.

• Reinforces social regulation and deters from offending.

• Builds social order and social cohesion for the benefit of all.

• Durkheim identifies two types of justice, corresponding to the two types of society - Retributive justice and restitutive justice

• Being punished brings society together

Marxist perspective on punishment

• Over representation of working class in prisons

• Hides social problems

• Punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus and reinforces ruling class power

• Law is selectively enforced

• Punishment to maintain the social order and the class divide

• Under capitalism, imprisonment is the dominant form of punishment- exploitation of wage labour

Postmodernist perspective on punishment

• The mechanism of power is through the Panopticon and that this idea keeps people in a state of constant self-surveillance

• Postmodernists believe that society has moved from sovereign power to disciplinary power

  • Sovereign power - involves obedience to the law of the king or central authority figure.

  • Disciplinary power - Foucault believes that we have moved from sovereign to disciplinary power, governing the mind and soul through surveillance. This is done through regulating the organisation of space (architecture etc.), of time (timetables) and people’s activity and behaviour (drills, posture, movement).

Interactionist perspective on punishment

• Experience disintegrative shaming when they come out of prison → marginalised

Disintegrative shaming

• The crime and the criminal is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society

• App: labelling a shoplifter as a their

• An: leads to social exclusion and pushes them to commit more crime

Reintegrative shaming

• Labels the act but not the individual. The offender is made aware of the effect his actions have had on society. They are encouraged to be welcomed back in society.

• App: if someone steals, instead of jail, they must return the item and explain to the owner why it was wrong, receiving forgiveness

• An: amends are made and they are welcomed back into society, don’t turn to crime

Evaluation of labelling theory

• Strength - label is useful as it helps to explain why criminals are labelled

• Criticism - It assumes offenders are just passive - it doesn't recognise the role of personal choice in committing crime

• Limitation - doesn’t explain the initial act