Crime and Deviance - theorists Flashcards

Question

Henry and Milovanovic (1996) | Crime, deviance, social order, and social control

Answer 1

* Post modernists * Concept of crime should be replaced with the concept of social harm * Crime reflects a narrow range of legally defined behaviours and this cannot deal with the vast array of deviant behavours causing social harm within a culturally diverse, fast-changing world Forms of harm fall into 2 main categories: 1. Harms of reduction - where someone uses their power in a way that results in an immediate loss of a possession or causes some form of harm to the person. This would include conventional current forms of criminal offence e.g. burgalry, murder 2. Harms of repression - where people's future growth and development are threatened. This includes kinds of behaviour which are harder to police and prevent within the current legal system such as activvely disrespecting people of a particular culture, treating groups and individuals with less dignity, hate crimes and sexual harrasmnet

Answer 2

* Post structuralist * Surveillance is likely to become an effective means of regulating behaviour and reducing crime in a contemporary society * People who know they're being watched are less likely to commit a crime as their chances of being caught are much greater ## Footnote AO3 * Foucault accurate in his prediction, UK has become the country with the most CCTV cameras in Europe * However this has not resulted in crime completely dissapearing

Answer 3

* Post modernists * Concept of liquid surveillance * Argue that it can help to understand ow people interact with various forms of surveillance * There are many forms of surveillance including mobile phones, passports, identitiy chips which people willingly buy and use which enable them to be watched by the state and other organisations * It makkes our lives increasingly transparent to the point surveillance becomes invisible (we aren't conscious of being under surveillance) * This erodes our sense of civil liberties (including right to privacy) * Surveillance is changing the dominant belief from one of a right to privacy into the idea that nobody should have anything to hide therefore nothing to fear * Suggests how powerful and pervasive surveillance is as a mechanism of social control

Answer 4

* Acknowledge racial discrimination occurs throughout the criminal justice system and it is cumulative * Some ethnic minorities experience both greater victimisation and criminalisation and this reflects in their overrepresentation in crime statistics * This is a result of wider inequalities in society * For example, Higher levels or robberies carred out by black people reflects their lower exonomic position and marginalisation and offers them a powerful sense of identity * Use these statistics to argue that the use of the powers against black people reveal discrimination * If these cannot be regulated to be used more fairly then they should be seriously questioned

Answer 5

* Police investigation of the murder of the teenager Stephen Lawrence * Found that institutional racism in the police force was widespread * It may not simply be outright discrimination but rather the collective failure of the police and criminal justice system in a subconscious way * Argues that the culture of the police who are mainly white tend to label particular groups and take some ethnic minority groups less seriously * Led to some ethnic minorities being more likely to become victims of crime and also more likely to become criminalised

Answer 6

* Neo-Marxist * Argues against the view that black criminals are inadequately socialised leading to them becoming criminals * Ethnic minorities become criminal as a result of needing to defend themselves against a society that discriminates against them * British Asians and African Caribbean originate from former colonies of Britain and carry out weight of historical violence in other parts of the world for example through slavery * Once they arrive in Britain some ethnic minorities use similar techniques to resist exploitation for example marches/riots

Answer 7

* Marxist * A combination of discrimination and victimisation leads to the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in crime statistics

Answer 8

* Left realists * Supports Reiner's idea * Both crime and victimisation rates are higher for some for ethnic groups than others because they are likely to be marginalised and marginalisation is made worse by discrimination * Some ethnic minorities feel a sense of relative deprivation and a strong sene of being unable to access conventional routes to gaining material success due to discrimination * Factors create subculturs particularly among young black males who may be tempted to turn to street crime as a result of status frustration

Answer 9

* Marxist * explores how supposedly deviant groups are periodically singled out and placed at the centre of a series of moral panics which allow the state to demonstrate that it has the people's consent to maintain the status quo through an increasing reliance on an authoritarian state model of society * Black British represent some of the most exploited proletariat * UK was experiencing an economic crisis and employment levels were high, high level of social and political unrest * To avoid threat to the dominant ruling-class ideology a moral panic about black muggers who became a folk devil, a scapegoat for societies' problems which helped to justify more aggressive forms of policing in city centres

Answer 10

* Feminists * Argue patterns in relation to crime and gender can be understood by looking at the oppurtunity to commit crime * Women have fewer oppurtunities to commit crime as they're often caring for children or husbands which explains their lower crime rates * Men have greater oppurtunities to commit crime * Heidensohn argues that this is because of gendered patterns of social control, formal and informal which reinforce the control that men have over women * Women are not expected to go out alone at night whereas this is seen as acceptable for men

Answer 11

* Explores women's involvement in violent and property crime * Violent crime rates continue to show large differences in the rates of participation betweenmen and women * Property crime rates are becoming increasingly similar between men and women * Placed in similar social settings men are more likely than women to develop criminal behaviours * Men and women commit a similar number of crimes * Types of crimes women commit such as shoplifting are underrepresented in crime statistics * Women commit crimes that are easily concealed and under-reported or unlikely to be reported as they might cause embarrassment for male victims

Answer 12

* Feminist * Women's crimes reflect their powerfulessness - they lack the oppurtunity to changed their repressed position * Women are likely to experience abuse at the ahnds of men in their families and beyond who use violence to assert their control over women * Women are also powerless in their jobs , there is legitimate oppurtunity to improve their situation * Therefore women commit crimes in a rational way to overcome their position

Answer 13

* Feminist * In rape trials male judges judge men and women very differently, seeing men's need for sex as acceptable and women's behaviour as capricious, calculated * Women who are the victims of sexual violence often feel as if they are going on trial themselves * In situations where it is unclear if a woman wanted to have sex or not it's often suggested that a woman was somehow asking for sex * Women deviate from their expected gender roles they are often considered to be doubly deviant and punished much more harshly. Punished for deviating from being a female and for commiting a crime * Women are treated in a paternalistic way by the police and the courts which may result in them being treated more leniently

Answer 14

* Use unstructured interviews * 39 female working-class convicted offenders aged 15-49 * Found her respondents had committed crimes as a response to feeling frustrated and powerless * Women are encouraged o be conformist and controlled by men for which they receive 2 reward 1. Class deal - They receive material rewards, a reasonable standard of living and some leisure time 2. Gender deal - Women receive emotional rewards from their role in the family as the primary caregiver * Women who do not feel the class or gender deal has been met and who have little reward in their lives and very limited oppurtunity to improve their situation in a legitimate way end up committing crimes * Crimes were committed as a rational choice

Answer 15

* Subcultural theorists * Working-class men in particular feel a sense of status frustration * Cohen says that young men seek out others who share this frustration to engage in criminal behaviour with

Answer 16

When young working-class are unable to achieve the goals of society in areas where there are high levels of social deprivation it is likely that members of this group will turn to crime

Answer 17

Identifies some working-class subcultures as having 'focal concerns' which are shared values such as excitement and toughness that lead to crime

Answer 18

Argues that the group of people who do not work and share similar values, known as the underclass of society are likely to turn to crime ## Footnote New Right

Answer 19

Laws are created by ruling class to protect their private property ## Footnote Marxist

Answer 20

* Marxist * Crime occurs among all social classes but that corporate crimes committed by the middle-class are largely ignore even though they claim that they cause the most damage to society * Corporate crime costs more than street crime

Answer 21

* Marxist * Police practise selective law enforcement in the USA leading to the attenton being turned from the ruling-class to the working-class * Prevents system being challenged for being unfair and ensures that the status quo is maintained

Answer 22

* Left realists * Relative deprivation experienced by the poor or marginalised results in them being much more likely to commit crime * Poorer groups in society feel that they have less than other groups in society and lacking any legitimate means to gain status or wealth, commit crime * As living standards increase and the mediaa reinforce relative deprivation, crime too increases, although they argue that relative deprivation can be experienced by anyone not just the poor * Poorer groups from their own subcutlutes as a group solution to their frustration

Answer 23

* Among the first sociologists to identify that crime occured among those with power, status, and wealth * Calls this kind of crime white-collar crime * Examples: money laundering, embezzlement

Answer 24

* Might be a sense of risk-taking or edgework which exists among working-class men but also more affluent men who might for example take risks on the stock markets for pleasure * Another reason for the prevalance of white-collar and corporate crime is that they are often undetected Several types of crimes commited by companies including * Tax evasion and concealing profits or losses - HSBC bank recently got into trouble for encouraging its customers to avoid paying taxes through certain loopholes in the law for example * Breaking employment laws - Allowing workers to work in poor or dangerous conditions.It is very difficult for workers to complain as they are often poor and need the work and unlikely to be able to successfully challenge the company * Ignoring or avoiding policies and regulations - Not gaining permission or permits refusing to follow health and safety regulations. This is a problem because the only people who are likely to know that this is happening are the workers who are in a less powerful position and are unlikely to be able to challenge senior business people * Misinformation and dangerous goods and services - Companies may lie about their products, label them incorrectly or produce goods that are dangerous or fake. For example drugs companies lied about their test results on a drug call thalidomide which was then given to pregnant women for nausea resulting in birth defects in the 1970s * Breaking trade agreements and unfair trade practices - For example price fixing. Major supermarkets have had to pay large fines for rigging prices meaning that consumers have to pay more than they should for good because the supermarkets all agree to keep certain products at a fixed price

Answer 25

* Explored new ways in which the deregulation of financial markets led to the creation of new oppurtunities for new forms of crime to emerge Such as the collapse of Barings Bank (1996) after a key trader took huge risks and lost £860 million * Globalisation has allowed the wealthy to use different parts of the world with different tex rules to avoid paying taxes and to hide money and wealth * How much changing practives in work (due to globalisation) have led to more and more tasks being carried out by technology leading to higher unemployment rates and subsequently higher levels of crime as well as illegal immigrants working for less than the minimum wage

Answer 26

* Argues that the power of the nation state is fading being undermined by the globaliation of core economic activities, the media, technological communication and crime * Crime is like a shadow economy whose main market is illegal drugs * In countries which are emerging into the newly forming Western economies (e.g. Russia) criminal networks are becoming intergrated within the capitalist networks

Answer 27

* Globalisation has changed the scope and content of international law * Twentieth-ceuntru forms of international law - those governing war, crimes against humanist, environmental and human rights - have created the a newly emerging cosmopolitian law * This law defines and limits the political power of individual states * In principle states are no longer able to treat their citizens as they think fit * Although in practice many states still ignore these internationally agreed standards

Answer 28

* Carried out an ethnographic study of organised crime, UK, 1990s * Found that crime is changing in some ways in response to globalisation * For example criminals can now extend their networks and illegal activites across national boundaries * Argue crime continues to focus primarily on local issues with only some criminal activities becoming linked to global activities * They found that criminals tend to be entrepreneurial, mixing criminal and legal projects simultaneously * Thus they argue that organised crime in the UK is glocal

Answer 29

* Over the last 20 years organised crime has reflected changes in societyand also experienced the effects of globalisation and development * Describes the social structure of the global criminal underwhorls which he calls 'McMafia' * Compares the food company McDonalds (which has come to represent the essence of a globalised brand) with the criminal world * Estimates that the crime economy is worth around 20% of world economic output * Those benefitting from this include those who run the global criminal network * Those losing out include those who are exploited such as trafficked women of Moldova or Britain's cockle pickers who pay with the loss of the basic human rights, some even their lives * Changes in the ex-Soviet zone demonstrated how the collapse of countries during the transition to capitalismm created a vacuum that was rapidly filled by organised crime * Balkan (the former Yugoslavia) saw the rise in the skills of criminal networks that were transporting illicit goods and people * Global criminal networks at one step ahead of governments and polcies

Answer 30

* Journalists reporting crime have the role of creatively interpreting real life events almost as if they were writing a play * Processes of deciding what does/doesn't get considered to be worth reporting is known as news values * There are a number of reasons why something might be considered to be suitable for reporting but generally these things are what are felt will appeal to the reader or viewers and will thereforce increase or maintain the readership or viewing numbers

Answer 31

* Discusses limitless appetite for crime news that the public apparently have * He argues tat crime news is characterised by a collective ritualisrtic aspect which elictis a strong emotional response which he claims is why crime is newsworthy * Crime is not reall the issue it is more the moral dilemmas created by crime through which people like to think about their own morals and lives * Media focuses much more on criminals rather than victims or police * Public are encouraged to see risk-taking behaviour as attractive and exciting * The media also encourages viewers to imagine how they might feel in the same situation that the criminal finds themselves ## Footnote AO3 * criticised for failing to relate to the media today which does tend to focus more on the victim for example exploring the effects of the crime in people's lives

Answer 32

* One of the most enduring questions is the extent to which media can be said to cause antisocial, deviant or criminall behaviour * Some believe that media images are responsible for eroding moral standards, subverting consesnual codes of behaviour and corrupting young minds * Relationship between media and audiences is sometimes refered to as the hypodermic syrince model because it is seen as a mechanistic, simple process by which the media injects values, ideas and information directly into the passive receiver producing direct effect which have a negative influence on thoughts and actions

Answer 33

* Refers to the way that the public and politicians react to minority or marginalised groups led by the media (process he calls deviancy amplification) * Issues given attention in the media usually concern young people who appear to be some kind of threat to societal values and interests Subject of study are mods and rockers * 2 rival youth groups who emerged England 1960s and whose different styles of dress, music, modes of transport (scooters and motorbikes) marked their sense of subcultural identity and negatively towards each other * Result in 1964 Clacton there was damage to brach huts and objects thrown leadin g to minor injuries * Argued media exaggerated and disorted events to raise levels of fear about young people * Led to amplification of deviance as young people responded by reinforcing their ideas about youth subcultures and acting them out more strongly * Leading to a moral panic * Media used this to create the idea of young people as folk devils, a shared target for public concern * Such moral panics and folk devils created by the media are a way society coping with concerns about broader societal change * The rise of youth subcultures presented a real challenge to society at a time when traditional ways of life were changing and transforming ## Footnote * Study within labelling theories as it focuses on the process by which an act becomes assigned as deviant then criminal thus reinforcing the idea that crime is socially constructed

Answer 34

* Challenge Cohen's ideas about moral panics * Takes a more contemporary perspective * Moral panics are no longer rare events but continous features of the mass media coverage of crime refected by 24/7 news * Moral panics have become subtle and complex and need to be understood in terms of the reasons people might have for marginalising certain groups

Answer 35

* Marxist/Neo-Marxist perspective * Media is used as a way to exaggerate crimes to distract people from the problems with capitalism by blaming the working-class, the real cause of problems in society created by the ruling class, capitalism continues unchallenged * The moral moral panic surrounding mugging in the 1970s distracted the public from the economic crisis which was occuring ## Footnote Contemporary examples; teenage binge drinking, knife crime or antisocial young people

Answer 36

* News is not discovered but created or manufactured * Factors influencing the likelihood of an event becoming news are violence, status of those involved in the event, immediancy, drama and intimacy (how closely victim knew criminal), high risk, simplicity

Answer 37

* Attempted to understand and explain green crime in the context of broader changes in society * Suggests geen crime should be defines as any action that harms the physical environment and any animals within it regardless of whether there is a law in place for that particular issue or not * Would include taking a more global perspective of crime since green crimes are often committed in a particular place yet their effects are often left much further away (For example atmospheric pollution from industry from one country turns into acid rain which can fall in another country and destroy forests)

Answer 38

* 2 forms of green crime 1. Primary green crime - involves actions that are not illegal under international law but are considered as environmental issues. Despite not being criminal these actions cause direct harm to environment. Example = deforestation. One-fifth of the world's tropical rainforest was destroyed between 1960 and 1990. Destruction was legal with government selling land to companies for development 2. Secondary green crime - actions that are considered to be illegal under national or international law which may/may not be enforced. These actions often openly occur and go unpunished. Example = animal poaching which goes on often without being policed despite being illegal. Dumping toxic waste is illegal yet still happens regularly all over the world. Secondary green crime includes opposition to groups who are commited to saving environment

Answer 39

* Post modernist * Contemporary society is characterised by risk and compettion for scarce resources * At no other point in history has there been such risk for humans posed by humans themselves * The reason as being the result of mass production of goods and services which has led to environmental damage * People do not necessarily understand the threat to the environment posed by companies for example

Answer 40

Saw humans as connected with their physical environment and claimed that part of avoiding the feeling of alienation involves developing a connection with the natural envrionment ## Footnote Marxists argue that capitalism works against this process and removes the individual from their environment and exploits the natural environment in the pursuit of profit

Answer 41

* Explores Beck (1986)'s position that social problems were prieviously divided along class, ethnicity and gender lines whereas today's problems such as green crime affect everyone indiscriminately * Argues social inequalities are reinforced by environmental issues and green crimes because the green crimes are mainly commited by the rich and powerful * Suggests women and the poor suffer disproportionately as a result of green crimes

Answer 42

* Argues Weber's ideas are useful * Weber argued that the state claims a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory * I.e. within a democracy the government canuse the argument that it is the public who wish to use force in their interests

Answer 43

* Argues that the state should not impose social control in any form without the careful scrutinity of sociologists and other agenices * Suggests that the definition of crime ought to be broadened to include all human rights violations or harm * Argue that if sociologists simply explore legally defined crimes alone then their understanding of deviance is limited

Answer 44

* Marxist * Sociologists should be critical of the role of the state in terms of its potential to commit crimes for those crimes to go undetected * Through an exploration of crimes such as privacy and smuggling Chambliss reveals how the state can play an important role in organising and supporting activities which break their own state and international laws with the objective of meeting their financial aims ## Footnote Marxists point out governments are able to remain secretive about much of their deviant behaviour ensuring that where possible it is not defined as criminal behaviour

Answer 45

* Right realists * Environmental crime prevention * Broken windows' theory. Obvious signs of decay in an area left unrepaired suggest that there is little social control and that criminal or deviant behaviour is acceptable * This can lead to the policing feel less able to tackle smaller scale issues and communties feeling fearful and unable to do anything to improve the situation * Suggest a zero tolerance style of policing where visible signs of crime are resolved immediately and at the same time police tackle any form of criminal behaviour ## Footnote AO3: * Have been proved to have success in some cases such as antisocial behaviour orders in the UK * It is difficult to know if it was the zero tolerance approach or other factors (such as a greater presence of polifce on the street) which in fact led to the reduction in crime

Answer 46

* Functionalist * Punishment is a very important part of maintaining boundaries in society * Punishment should be visible to remaind members of society what happens if those boundaries are crossed * This also increases social solidarity and gives people an oppurtunity, when a crime occurs, to express their views on the crime and share these thus reinforcing social solidarity * A little crime in society therefore plays a positive role in reinforcing social solidarity and maintaining value consensus

Answer 47

Regards prisons as part of the Repressive State Apparatus which coupled with Ideologicial State Apparatus (shaping people's minds to accept capitalistic ideology) makes sure that capitalism continues unchallenged

Answer 48

* Marxists * Comparatively each particular society has a punishment system based on the way that the economy is organised * Argue that in capitalistice society punishment is carried out through incarceration or imprisonment * Working-class sell their wage labour and imprisoning the working-class is an appropiate punisment as it means that they can no longer sell their wage labour ## Footnote AO3 * Prison jobs contradict this

Answer 49

* Explores strengths of situational crime prevention * Reshaping the physical environment to design out crime can be proven to reduce crime rates * Cites example of New York City where a major bus station was redesigned in such a way that all areas were visible and clean * In doing this Felson argues that the crime rate has dropped significantly

Answer 50

* Challenge the effectiveness of situational crime prevention * Rather than reducing crime through changing the physical environment crime simply becomes displaced * For example, where an area is improved and CCTV is put into place crime simply moves to another area where it is less visible and noticeable

Answer 51

* Post-structuralist * Punishment has changed over time * Hundreds of years ago crime used to be focused on torture and murder of the body providing a visible demonstration which acted as a detterent * Punishment has become increasingly focused on the mnd focusing on surveillance as a mechanism of social control * Foucault's example, Bentham (a prison reformer) designed a prison (Panopticon) in which there are no doors just the knowledge that as a prisoner you are being watched at all time. This more sophisticated approach is far more effective and allows the state much more control over the individual

Answer 52

* In the past most people believed that the government had crime control in hand * However suggests that in late modernity there is a much greater sense of uncertainty and risk and governments are no longer believed to catch and punish all criminals

Answer 53

* Carried out a review of the result of 40 self-report studies of delinquency * Found that on the basis of these finding antisocial behaviour is not only a working-class phenomenom but that middle-class youths also commit antisocial behaviour as well * Results can be used to compare with official crime statistics and reveal interesting patterns about actual crimes and police bias and interpretation

Answer 54

* 'Victim' is a socially constructed concept and so what it means to be a victim varies from time to time and place to place * Sometime it is very clear, robbery/murder * Other times people my not have been awre they were victims of a crime at the time it occurs e.g. identity theft * Attitudes towards victims and how they should be dealt with are shaped by assumtions we make about them which may not always be based on factual evidence

Answer 55

* Claims that in identifying people who have characteristics which predispose them to becoming victims, patterns can be esstablished * This is possible particularly in crimes which involve a level of violence between individuals and claims that the individual themselves are partly responsible in becoming a victim ## Footnote Positive Victimology

Answer 56

* Now considered controversial studies * Suggestes that certain people could be identified as being more likely to be a victim of crime * Observing and identifying particular types of victims who could then be categorised within various typologies * Victim could be seen as potentially partly guilty themselves for allowing or encouraging others to make them a victim of a crime ## Footnote Positivist victimology

Answer 57

* Feminists * Claim that women are often denied the possibility of becoming victims as crimes against them (e.g. domestic violence) are often unrecognised * When cases of domestic violence go to court they are often unsuccessful therefore reinforcing the patriarcy and undermining women's ability to challenge the structural inequalities that they face ## Footnote Critical victimology

Answer 58

* Sometimes the victim in the existing legal framework becomes to blame for crime that is committed against them * For example in rape cases it is the (usually female) victim of the rape whose sexual behaviour comes under scrutiny * Deters other victims from reporting similar crimes * This type of process plays an ideological function and sends a clear message to victims who are often already marginalised and powerless they they're unable to seek or gain justice for the crimes that have been committed against them

Answer 59

* Is a symbolic interactionist who explores victimology from a critical perspective, asking who has the power to apply the label of victim? * Interested in looking at the range of factors which influence the decision to apply the label of victim at any given time * Emphasises the socially constructed nature of the status of 'victim'

Answer 60

* Argue that poor people suffer disproportionately from victimisation as well as other effects of victimisation * There is a known link between inequalities increasing in income and an increase in crime

Answer 61

* Marxist * Police are more likley to judge a working-class individual as a criminal * Middle-class people are much more likely to be let off for minor crimes

Answer 62

* Post-structuralist * State controls the individual and has the power to define who becomes a criminal * CJS has expanded throughout the devlopment of modernity and has become a way of the state controlling individuals and regulating their behaviour * Punishment now focuses on mind (rather than body) * Private control systems and surveillance * Knowledge that a person is being watched acts as a powerful detterent to commiting crime

Answer 63

* CJS reflects racist views that are embedded in the practices of its various branches * Since the 1970s police have targeted African and African-Caribbean populations taking an inappropiate heavy-handed approach * Black men in particular are more likely to be given longer prison sentences * Although it is difficult to know how much the overrepresentation of ethnic groups is linked to racism, it is clear than institutional racism plays a significant role in the CJS ## Footnote * Murder of Stephen Lawrence * Despite serious complaints and concerns being raised about the instituionally racist practices of the police black minority groups are still 7x more likely to be stopped and searched than white people

Answer 64

* Rape trials for examply put female victims themselves on trial by judging them for any behaviour which strays from being conformist and virtous while men's sexual expolits are typically celebrated and seen as acceptable

Answer 65

* Double standards exist within the CJS with any girl or woman who deviates from societal norms of female sexuality being punished more harshly * Courts are less likely to put mothers with children into prison than fathers * CJS can be seen as operating on a highly gendered set of assumptions

Answer 66

* State should play a key role in social control by reforming welfare benefits which encourage individuals to take more responsibility for their own welfare * Control is likely to take place through the welfare systm where social control is economic and ideological

Answer 67

* Explores the role of welfare policies in social control * Although there have been changes in laws in late modernity the most significant shift has been in the attitudes people have towards control * Social control has changed from being limited to traditional penal sentencing to regulating people through welfare reform

Answer 68

* Examines way public and private social control mechanisms are merging alongside traditional forms of punishment for crime * This is due in part to the emerging forms of criminal behaviour * There needs to be a range of ways of punishing crime which are growing more complex and sophisticated

Answer 69

* Right realists * Community-based programmes reduce crime * Include long-term strategies such as strengthening social control through disciplinarian parenting and increasing employment levels to provide strong working role models for children as important long-term ways of reacting to crime

Crime and Deviance - theorists Flashcards

(94 cards)