Crime and deviance

Merton - functionalist

-All members of society hold same values.

-Didn’t have same opportunity to realise their shared goals.

STRAIN THEORY

Crime occurs when people cannot legally achieve their goals of society.

5 reactions to strain: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism and Rebellion.

Cohen - functionalist

-W.C. boys hold same goals as rest of society, they have little or no opportunity to achieve this due to educational failure and poor employment.

- Status frustration and join delinquent subcultures showing vandalism, graffiti etc to gain status in their group.

Becker - interactionalist

-Act only seen as criminal/deviant when its labelled as such.

-Individual could accept label through self-fulfilling prophecy becoming their master status.

-Could spiral into deviant career by joining a criminal or deviant subculture and commit further acts.

Carlen - femenist

-Unstructured interviews on 39 women to understand reasons for crime.They turned to crime because couldn’t conform gender deal for class deal.

-They were less likely to have a happy relationship and more likely to ave turned to crime.

Heidensohn - femenist

- Control theory to explain how patriarchy in society leads to less women commiting crime.

-Women are controlled at home (by husbands),at work (male bosses) and in public (by threat or feae of male violence).

- Girls develop a bedroom culture-they have less opportunity for crime due to more controls being put over their behaviour.

Social class and crime

Trends- working class are more likely to be convicted offenders/ in prison.

Reasons-Material and relative deprivation, poorer education (strain theory), status frustration (Cohen)

Unaccurate statistics?- bias with thin cjs (criminal justice system)- w.c. crime (blue collar) are targetted more by police than m.c. (white collar).

• white collar e.g. fraud, tax evasion. Less likely to be detected, take place in private, may not have direct victim and not be policed.

• Coporate crimes e.g. horse meat scandal, less likely to be detected, may not have direct victim and can be covered up.

Gender and crime

Trends- 94% of priwon population are male ¾ of convicted offenders are male.

Reasons- Gender socialistion- men are socialised to be tough, risk taking etc.

• lack of male role models in society.

• More opportunity for crime/ subcultures.

Unaccurate statistics- Chivalry thesis- women may be treated more leniently in the cjs, seen as ‘sad not bad’ so dont appear in statistics.

• female crime is increasing, women are commiting more crime than before

• Ladette subcultures, women comitting typically ‘male crimes’

• Carlen- w.c. women have less to lose by comitting crime.

Ethnicity and crime

Trends- 13% of the prison population are black vs 3% in the general population, 9x more likely to be stopped and searched.

Reasons- Higher chance of poverty/ deprivation, poorer family backgrounds (more lone-parent families), more chance of joining criminal subcultures.

Unaccurate statistics- Institiutional racism/Macpherson report- police/courts are more likely to target BAME individuals.

• Stop and searches- 9x more likely for black individuals, 3x more likely to be arrested- more likely to appear in crime statistic.

• Chief or met policed voiced its still racist, some forces have no BAME officers but anti-racism training increased recruitment of BAME officers.

Age and crime

Trends- 15-24 year olds most likely to appear in crime statistics.

Reasons- Socialisation, opportunity, subcultures, media

but the police target young people, crimes may be easier to detect.

Treatment of young offenders

Sanctions available for young offenders: fines, refferal orders, community sentences, cbos and custody.

Should young offenders be sent to prison/ custody?

Yes

Protects the public, can acess rehablitation programmes, can act as a deterrent.

No

Prisons may act as universities of crime, 73% reoffended, may join prison gangs.

Prison as a punishment

Is prison the best form of punishment?

Yes

Functionalists- can rehablitate offenders, act as a detterent.

No

Universities of crime, 45% reoffended, not suitable for those with disabilities/mental health issues.

Violent crime

Is violent crime an issue in society today?

Yes

Statistics may not show true extent of violent crime.

Gun crime/ knife crime are increasing.

Influence of the media in promoting violence.

No

Some statistics suggest that violent crime has decreased from from the 1900s.

Anti-violence and anti-gang education introduced into schools.

The media and crime

Does the media show crime accuratley?

Yes

Functionalist view- the media shows a range of views, pluralism, no one group dominates.

No

Marxists- conflict view, agenda setting, media owned by ruling class, scapegoats working class, exaggerates violent/ sexual crimes.

How can the media encourage crime?

Copycat crimes e.g Daniel Bartlam, violence.

Deviancy amplification- the media creates moral panic, labelling and a self fulfilling prophecy e.g. mods and rockers.

But other factors may affect criminal behaviour.