Crime and Deviance

Crime - a form of deviance that breaks the law.

Deviance - actions that deviate from the norms and values of society, subjective.

Societal deviance - behaviour seen as deviant from most of society.

Situational deviance - behaviour that may be deviant in one situation but not in another.

Characteristics of deviance:

Culturally defined - what is considered to be deviant in one culture may not be in another.
Changes over time - attitudes change over time towards a behaviour e.g. homosexuality.
Relative to context - an action may be deviant in one setting but not in another.

Social control mechanisms:

Formal - laws, police, courts, prisons.
Informal - social noms, peer pressure, family expectations.

Functionalism and crime:

Crime plays a role in maintaining social order - collective disgust when crimes involve innocent individuals, emphasises social solidarity.
Durkheim - crime increases during rapid social change, characterised by anomie (no norms), to understand crime by linking it to social order, crime is inevitable and universal, without crime society would not be desirable, boundary maintenance (reinforcing value consensus and achieving social order, collectively respond to crime and enforces formal sanctions (punishment), collectively respond ideas about social morality), adaption and change (creating positive social change, little crime there will be little challenging of social order, bad as it prevents questions being debated about society, less likely for social change), crime and punishment are both necessary for a healthy society.
Davis - safety valve, men use sex workers to release sexual frustrations, protects function of the family, higher earners may use drugs, alcohol, clubbing, smoking.
A.cohen - deviance is a warning sign, shows something in society is not working properly, high truancy means issues with the education system, identity areas that need improving, societal change to maintain a functional society.
Merton - social order is based on a consensus around social goals, needs to pay more attention to inequalities, strain theory (can not achieve socially prove goals by legitimate ways, not all social groups can achieve common culture goals and the means of achieve int them, ‘American dream’ emphasises money success which is expected to pursue by legitimate means, assumes meritocracy, ignores poverty and discrimination block opportunities, produces frustration and pressure to turn to illegitimate means), social groups will adapt or respond to cultural goals in different ways (conformists - accept, ritualists - lose belief in goals but stick to rules, retreatists - withdraw from society and given up on goals and means, innovators - accept goals but reject means, rebels - reject means and goals and create alternative.
Subcultural theories - crime increases where shared culture and controls are weakened, not simply one set of values, develop their own sub-cultures with different values to gain status, offers lower class a solution to their low status, A.cohen (merton assumes all crime is done for material gain which is utilitarian crime, ignores non-utilitarian like vandalism, analysis shows how individuals get involved not social groups, deviance is a collective phenomenon, working class boys face anomie, rejects mainstream middle class values replace dominant culture goals by dong delinquent activity, alternative status hierarchy, value spite and malice, fighting does not make criminals rich but bring status), Cloward and Ohlin (agrees Merton that working class youths are denied legitimate opportunities but do not agree they then turn to utilitarian crime, some turn to violence or drug use, not just unequal access to legitimate opportunities but also unequal access to illegitimate opportunities, different neighbourhoods have different illegitimate opportunities, criminal - stable working class, hierarchy of professional adult crime, utilitarian crime, adult criminals select and train youth, conflict - socially disorganised areas, high population turnover that prevents stable professional criminal network, violence and fighting for turf, retreatist - double failure of legitimate and illegitimate opportunities, drug use).
Criticisms - Durkheim (unsure on how much crime is needed, just because crime does these does not mean why it exists, ignores negative impact of crime on victims), ignores white collar crime, over predicts amount of working class crime, cloward and ohlin (draws boundaries between different subculture types, overlapping), assumes everyone shares the same social status when they are born, structural (individual action as determined by external forces), neglect differences like race and gender.

Marxism:

Emphasises the role of economic inequality and inequalities of power, must examine the political structures responsible for maintaining law.
Marx - laws are where the ruling class keeps the working class in check, ruling class gains more from the law than the working class, reflects the ruling class’ interest, enables bourgeoisie to control, poor are driven to commit crime.
Capitalism is crimogenic - deviance is the product of unequal power relations, crime is inevitable, capitalism causes crime due to exploitation of workers, poverty means crime allows for people to survive, only way to have consumer goods (utilitarian crime), alienation and lack of control results in non-utilitarian crime.
Ruling class commit crime - ‘dog eat dog’ system always in competition, profit motive, white collar crime and corporate crime, laws reflect the wishes of the ruling class, lower class has unequal access to the law, money to hire a good layer which decides guilty or not guilty, punishments depends on the social class, crimes of the powerful are under represented.
Gordon - crime is a rational response to he capitalist system, statistics show it as a working class problem, crime is associated with the working class as it helps the ruling class control them and justifies it, focusing on working class distracts everyone from white collar crime.
Chambliss - investigated organised crime in Seattle in 1960’s, organised crime was controlled by a small elite group of senior members of the business and political communities, most police time spent with minor public crimes.
Pearce - studied organised crime in us, crime was conducted on a bigger scale when involving working class, performs ideological function, laws appear to benefit everyone but only for the ruling class, e.g. workplace health and safety means ruling class get fit workers, ‘caring’ face shows a false class consciousness.
Box - law and order is applied selectively, selective law enforcement, criminals identified tend to be young black and male, process of mystification where small powerless groups are criminalised, crimes of the wealthy are neglected, social control, working class activities are defined as criminal along with cultural values, e.g. weed smoking in inner city is heavily policed whilst weed smoking in middle class areas is not.
Sutherland - white collar crime is crime committed by a person of high social status in the courts of his occupation, associated with middle class crime, opposes ‘street crime’, occupational crime = committed by employees for personal gain, corporate crime = committed by employees for their organisation.
Tombs - corporate crime = any illegal act that is the result of deliberate decisions by a legitimate business which intends to benefit business, breaches of civil and administrative law, physical costs = death, economic = taxpayer, environmental costs = pollution, widespread.
Criticisms - ignores relationship of crime, gender and ethnicity, deterministic = not all poor people commit crime, not all capitalist societies have high crime rates e.g. japan lower than us, prosecutions of corporate crime does happen, left realists = ignores intra class crime where both criminal and victim are working class.

Subculture - mods and rockers (1960’s), punks (1970’s), form of ideological resistance to dominant adult value system shaped by capitalist middle class views, P.Cohen = skinhead style symbolic reaction to the decline of working class communities exaggerating a working class dress and masculinity, Hebdige = punks wanted to shock the establishment by wearing safety pins and bin liners, criticisms = short lived as capitalism commercialises aspects of youth culture by putting them on sale and removing the original ideological significance, neglecting gender and ethnicity, ignores the impact of globalisation from American cultural influences.

Neo-Marxism:

Influenced by many ideas of Marxism but combine with other approaches like labelling theory, new criminology.
Different from Marxism - believe individuals have free will and chose to commit crime, rejected theories that assume behaviour is driven by an external force, crimes are done for an attempt to construct how they see themselves, rebels = fight back, crimes is deliberate and political like women’s liberation, fight back the injustices of capitalism.
Similar to Marxism - capitalism is based on exploitation and characterised by extreme inequalities, state enforces laws in the interest of capitalism, accept crime is utilitarian, supports a radical transformation of society to overthrow capitalism.
Voluntaristic view, free will, working class criminals as criminally motivated by negative experience, meaningful political response, criminals are like Robin Hood, wants a class less society.
Taylor, Walton and young - support a fully social theory of deviance, things need to be considered, the wider origins of the deviant act (uneven distribution of wealth), immediate origins of the act (context), act itself, immediate origins of social reaction, wider origins of social reaction in the structure of capitalist society, effects of labelling.
Taylor et al - aspects interrelate to be understood.
Gilroy - young black criminals are politically motivated to commit crime due to the discovery of slavery and colonialism and experience to racism.
Hall - moral panics about potentially disruptive groups like young ethnic minorities are created by the mass media, social control, mugging in 1970’s shown as a black criminals stealing from a white victim, divides black and white working class, together = overthrow ruling class with revolutionary potential, diverts attentions from mismanagement of capitalism, 1970’s = decline in profit and unemployment.
Criticisms - left realist = over romanticises working class criminals as Robin Hood, most victims of working class and black crime are themselves, idea of a political motive underpins domestic violence, rape and child abuse, feminists = gender blind as only focuses on male criminals.

Left realism:

Developed as a critique of new criminology, seeks to find a realistic practical solution to crime, accept official statistics like British crime survey, agrees working class black males commit more crime, evidence from Merseyside and London prove working classes are victims, see society as unequal and capitalist, reformists rather than revolutionary, seek gradual change, criminals should be seen as victims oof capitalism, a series of local victimisation surveys showed real victims were poor and powerless.
Young - role of criminology was to provide credible solutions to policy makers to limit the harm that crime was doing.
Relative deprivation - awareness of differences between the poor and the rich, lea and young = not poverty that causes crime but the resentfulness at what they could have, idea oof comparing to others.
Marginalisations - where groups are more likely than others to suffer economic, social or political (no way for them to influence decisions makers, no representation in government) deprivation.
Subcultures - develop amongst groups who suffer relative deprivation and marginalisation, specific values, forms of dress and modes of behaviour, reflect problems, still located in the values of the wider society, members subscribe to the dominant values of society but are blocked off, results in street crime like burglaries.
Modernity - in a stage of late modern society, 1970’s instability, deindustrialisation and the loss of unskilled manual jobs, increased unemployment, destabilised family, increased marginalisation, relative deprivation has spread throughout society due to resentment for bankers bonuses and football wages, higher levels exclusion are changing the types of crime, increase in hate.
Square of crime - understanding of the reality of crime needs an examinations of four elements and how they interact, victims, offenders, reaction of formal agencies of the state, response of the public.
Solutions - want to devise solution to improve policing and control, deal with deeper structural causes of crime, lea and young = says policing needs to be more accountable to local communities, improving police relationships, community policing, community service, community centres, CCTV, ethnic minorities minority police officers, young = deal with inequality of opportunity and tackle discrimination.
Policy - more influence on government policy, similar with new labour, focus on being tough on crime.
Explored the position of victims, recognises relative deprivation, highlights the issue of street crime.
Criticisms - fails to explain causes of street crime (young focuses on victims not why offenders offend), white collar crime can not be understood, radicalises crime by turning it in a ‘black’ issues.

Right realist:

Conservative, new right political outlook, supports zero tolerance, 1970’s and 80’s, reaction against left wing discourse on deprivation and inequality being the cause of high crime, critical of theories like labelling as being too sympathetic to the criminal, practical solutions to fix crime, tougher crime controls and punishment.
Personal responsibility, family, individual choice, realism.
Biological differences - Wilson and Herrnstein = individuals are predisposed due to personality traits like aggression, also low intelligence.
Inadequate socialisation and the underclass - nuclear family is being undermined by welfare state, Murray = creating welfare dependency and lone mother family who do not socialise their children effectively, Dennis = correlation between crime and family characteristics and these changes undermine stability and traditional socialisation, community has been lost, external pattern of social control have been weakened, internalised forms of social control have been undermined with the rise of single families, blame changing role of women, increase in fathers leaving, rise cohabitation.
Rational choice theory - Clarke = individuals are rational beings with free will, people commit crime based on a rational calculation of the consequences, rewards outweigh the cost = offend.
Solution - difficult to change biology but enforce greater control and punishment, Wilson and kelling = neighbourhoods more orderly as one sign of deterioration can lead to crime, ‘broken windows’ shows how crime predominates within disorganised areas, appearance of area like graffiti adds to issue, cleaned up and improved lighting, situational crime prevention, zero tolerance policy = arrest of one individual for even minor crimes, deters from more serious crime being committed, committing crime becomes more difficult and less desirable, statistics show it does work as new our crime rates reduced by 50%, advocate for prevention policies which reduce the rewards of crime and increase its costs, via target hardening through prison.
Criticisms- not keen to address structural causes of crime like poverty, sole focus on street crime ignores corporate crime, over emphasises control of disorderly neighbourhoods ignoring underlying causes, too simplistic ignoring complex meanings and motives, accept potentially not valid statistics, new right under the tories took this approach and it did not work, ignores white collar and corporate crime, women are ignored from this analysis.

Subcultural theories:

Functionalist - Cloward and Ohlin, Cohen.
Those who deviant hold different values to mainstream society, crime is a reaction by a group who reject the majority view, Merton could not explain non-utilitarian crime, delinquent subcultures are groups who norms oppose those of the mainstream.
Miller - delinquent subcultures rose from the lower classes way of life, lower class = concerned with ensuring their children stay out of trouble like making sure their son is staying out of fights, boys = tough and street smart giving them incentive to join a gang, lives are boring so need excitement of crime as a welcome relief, sense of autonomy = denies social control, middle class = family, work and education, lower class = same sex peer group or gang is more important, sense belonging and a way to achieve status that is not easy to do in mainstream, working class are socialised into deviant Subcultural values called focal concerns (trouble = identify and how to handle, toughness = handling, smartness = look good by lying, excitement = having fun as lower class males are denied dense of self-expression, fate = fatalistic as it is due to chance, autonomy = desire for personal respect from others and not to be pushed around), living up to their own cultural expectations not middle class values.
Matza - interaction isn’t critique of Subcultural theory, everyone is deviant but young people are less skilled in suppressing subterranean values (enjoying yourself, acting on the spur of the moment, self-expression, being aggressive, seeking excitement) which are expressions of deviant behaviours, exist with formal values like hard work and planning for the future, difference between them being expressed by criminal citizens is how often and in what situation, can be expressed legitimately in sport and drinking, techniques of neutralisation is used to justify actions (denial of responsibility, denial of victim, denial of injury, condemnation of condemners (offender feels picked on), appeal to higher loyalties (other issues are important and law was ignored).
Criticism - miller = ignores female experiences, middle class adopt focal concerns and working class don’t adopt them.