Crime, Deviance, Social Order & Social Control Flashcards
(82 cards)
1
Q
Crime & Deviance
A
- Crime: Behaviour which breaks the law and is punished by the legal system.
- Deviance: Behaviour which goes against the norms, values and expectations of a social group or society.
2
Q
Socially Constructed
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• Created by social processes, rather than occurring naturally. Crime and deviance are socially constructed.
3
Q
Historical & Cultural Crimes
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- Historical: Homosexuality was a crime until 1967.
* Cultural: Polygamy is illegal in UK but not elsewhere.
4
Q
Situation Dependent
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• Crime and deviance are situation dependent e.g. stabbing someone is illegal but stabbing someone during war isn’t.
5
Q
Plummer (1979)
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• Made a distinction between situational and societal deviance.
6
Q
Societal Deviance
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• Acts that are seen by most members of society as deviant in most situations e.g. kicking a dog.
7
Q
Situational Deviance
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• Acts that are only defined deviant in certain situations e.g. being naked at home vs in the middle of the street.
8
Q
Social Control
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• Various methods used to persuade or force individuals to conform to the dominant social norms and values of a society or group.
9
Q
Socialisation (Durkheim)
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• Instilling the shared culture into members - internalise same norms and values and feel as though they should act in the way society requires.
10
Q
Social Control (Durkheim)
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• Rewards for conformity and punishments for deviance.
11
Q
The Inevitability of Crime (Durkheim)
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• Functionalists - deviance = inevitable and beneficial. Two reasons for it:
- Not everyone is socialised adequately.
- There’s a diversity of lifestyles and values.
12
Q
Anomie (Durkheim)
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- Anomie = lack of social/ethical standards in an individual or group.
- DURKHEIM - it occurs in modern societies. Rules governing behaviour are weaker, weakening collective conscience and causing deviance.
13
Q
Positive Function of Crime: Boundary Maintenance (Durkheim)
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- Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting members in condemnation. This reinforces their commitment to shared values.
- DURKHEIM believes the purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity.
14
Q
Positive Function of Crime: Adaptation and Change (Durkheim)
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- Deviance allows for social change to occur. There’s scope for people to challenge and change existing norms and values.
- DURKHEIM and other functionalists argue society must change to remain healthy and stable.
15
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Dysfunctional Crime (Durkheim)
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- Too much crime = no social order
* Too little crime = no social change
16
Q
Positive Function of Crime: Safety Value
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- Deviance can release stresses in society.
- DAVIS argues prostitution is a safety value for the release of men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the monogamous nuclear family.
- POLSKY argues porn channels a variety of sexual desires away from adultery.
17
Q
Positive Function of Crime: Warning Device
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• A.COHEN argued deviant behaviour such as protests and truancy is used as a warning device by society to identify emerging social problems.
18
Q
Strengths of Durkheim’s Positive Functions of Crime
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- Offers a realistic explanation of crime
- Adds to our knowledge
- Tries to be optimistic
19
Q
Criticisms of Durkheim’s Positive Functions of Crime
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- DURKHEIM says society needs certain amount of deviance to function successfully - doesn’t offer a way of knowing how much is the right amount.
- Society didn’t create crime for these functions.
- Ignores how crime affects people - Punishment functional for society but not for the victim or their family.
- Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity e.g. women may not leave their homes for fear of an attack.
20
Q
Strain Theory
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• People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
21
Q
Merton’s Strain Theory
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• MERTON adapted DURKHEIM’S theory. It combines:
- Structural factors - society’s unequal opportunity structure.
- Cultural factors - strong emphasis on success.
• Deviance is thought to be the result of strain between the two factors.
22
Q
The American Dream
A
- American culture values ‘money success’.
- Americans expected to pursue goal by legitimate means - society is meritocratic.
- Disadvantaged groups denied opportunities to achieve legitimately.
- Creates strain which produces frustration which then creates pressure to deviate.
23
Q
Deviant Adaptations to Strain
A
- MERTON - individual’s position in the social structure affects the way they respond to the strain of anomie.
- Types of adaptation to strain are dependent on whether an individual accepts, rejects or replaces approved cultural goals.
24
Q
Five Adaptations
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- Conformity - People achieve cultural goals legitimately.
- Innovation - People who fail at standard route deviate.
- Ritualism - People who can’t achieve goals and don’t try.
- Retreatism - People reject the main cultural goals and retreat from society e.g. drop out of school.
- Rebellion - People reject the goals and rebel to change them.
25
Strengths of Merton's Strain Theory
* Merton explains how normal and deviant behaviour arises from mainstream goals.
* It has had an influence on later theories.
* MESSNER + ROSENFELD (2001) - In societies based on free-market capitalism and lacking adequate welfare provision, high crime rates are inevitable.
26
Criticisms of Merton's Strain Theory
* It takes crime statistics at face value.
* Marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class.
* It assumes there's a value consensus for 'money success'.
* It only accounts for utilitarian crime.
* It ignores the role of group deviance.
27
Subcultural Strain Theories
* They see deviance as the product of delinquent subcultures with different values from mainstream society.
* These subcultures provide an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied access to achieve.
* They are a solution to a problem and are functional for its members.
28
Status Frustration (A.K. Cohen)
• Agrees with MERTON that deviance is a lower-class phenomenon - they can't achieve goals legitimately.
• He criticises MERTON for:
- Seeing deviance as an individual response.
- Focusing on utilitarian crime.
• He argues anomie in the MC school system causes WC boys to suffer status frustration. They resolve this by rejecting values and turning to other boys in the same situation.
29
Alternative Status Hierarchy
* The delinquent subculture inverts the value of mainstream society - what society condemns, the subculture praises.
* The subculture offers an alternative status hierarchy - create illegitimate opportunity structure to win status from peers through their actions.
30
Strengths of Cohen's Status Frustration
* It offers an explanation for utilitarian crime.
| * It helps understand WC delinquency as a group response rather than individual.
31
Criticisms of Cohen's Status Frustration
* He assumes all WC boys start off sharing MC values.
* MILLER (1962) argues young people can't generate a subculture seeking revenge and rejecting mainstream goals, as they never had them.
32
Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)
* They agree WC youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve and their deviance stems from this.
* They explain that different subcultural responses occur due to unequal access to opportunity structures - in some areas gangs provide a deviant route but in some places they don't.
* Different neighbourhoods provide different opportunities.
33
The Three Subcultures
* Criminal subculture - Some areas have an established criminal culture where young people can be taught.
* Conflict subculture - There is no established criminal culture so young people organise themselves into gangs.
* Retreatist subculture - People have failed legitimately and illegitimately so they retreat from society.
34
Strengths of Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)
• They provide an explanation for WC crime.
35
Criticisms of Three Subcultures (Cloward & Ohlin)
* They ignore the crimes of the wealthy.
| * They ignore the wider power structure.
36
Criticisms of Strain Theory
* They assume everyone starts off with the same goals.
* The idea of delinquent subcultures suggests the lower classes are socialised to be delinquent.
* They only focus on WC people.
37
Strengths of Strain Theory
• They have had an impact on government policy.
38
The Social Construction of Crime
* Labelling theory argues no act is inherently criminal or deviant. It only becomes deviant when others label it deviant.
* BECKER argues a deviant is someone to whom the label has been successfully applied.
39
Moral Entrepreneurs
• These are people who lead a crusade to change the law - includes agencies such as the police and media.
• BECKER argues the change in law:
- Creates a new group of outsiders.
- Creates or expands social control agencies to enforce rules and impose labels.
40
Who Gets Labelled?
* Not everyone is punished for their crime.
* Labelling theorists look at how laws are applied and enforced - agencies are more likely to label certain people.
* Police decisions to arrest are usually based on physical appearance.
41
The Negotiation of Justice (Cicourel)
* Officers decisions to arrest are influenced by stereotypes - shows a class bias.
* CICOUREL views justice as negotiable rather than fixed - MC youth arrested he is less likely to be charged because their background didn't fit the police's description of 'typical delinquent'.
* He argues that as a result OS aren't valid.
42
Social Construction of Crime Statistics
* Interactionists see OS as socially constructed.
* Agents of social control make decisions about whether to proceed with a case - outcome depends on the labels attached to individuals.
* The statistics therefore show more about the activities of police and prosecutors
43
Primary Deviance (Lemert)
* Primary deviance - act that has not been labelled.
* It is unlikely to have a cause so it is pointless to look for one - also usually one offs.
* Some deviance is labelled - causes criminal to feel shamed, humiliated and excluded. The label becomes their 'master identity' (BECKER).
* This causes a crisis over the self-concept and sense of identity - either accept or reject the label.
44
Secondary Deviance (Lemert)
* This is any further deviance that follows after someone has been labelled deviant.
* BECKER says the labelling process can lead to a deviant career.
* YOUNG (1971) Notting Hill study - Hippies labelled by police for doing drugs causing them to commit more crime.
45
Deviance Amplification Spiral
* Attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance.
* S. COHEN'S Folk Devils and Moral Panics study - press exaggerated and distorted reporting of the 'mods and rockers' causing a moral panic. The police reacted by arresting more people.
46
Dark Figure of Crime
The figure of unlabelled and ignored crime.
47
Labelling and Criminal Justice Policy
* TRIPLETT notes a tendency to view young offenders as evil.
* Labelling has policy implications - add weight to the argument that negative labelling pushes offenders towards a deviant career.
* We should avoid naming and shaming - creates a perception of them as evil and excludes them.
48
Re-integrative Shaming
* The crime but not the actor is labelled.
* This avoids stigmatising the offender as evil but makes them aware of the effect of their actions.
* BRAITHWAITE argues crime rates tend to be lower in these societies.
49
The Meaning of Suicide (Douglas)
* Critical of OS on suicide. They are socially constructed and tell us more about the coroners.
* Whether a death is a labelled a suicide or not comes down to negotiations between the coroner and family and friends.
* The statistics therefore tell us nothing about the meaning behind an individual's decision to kill themselves. We must use qualitative data e.g. notes.
50
Coroners' Common-sense Knowledge (Atkinson)
* OS are just a record of the labels coroners attach to deaths. It is impossible to know what meaning the dead give to their deaths.
* He focuses on taken for granted assumptions about a 'typical suicide'.
51
Paranoia as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Lemert)
* Some individuals don't fit into a group and as a result of primary deviance, they are labelled odd. The individual feels people are conspiring against them and reacts negatively leading to psychiatric intervention. The individual is labelled and perhaps sectioned.
* 'Mental Patient' becomes their master status.
52
Fake Patient Experiment (Rosenhan)
* Researchers had themselves admitted into a mental hospital saying they could hear voices.
* They acted normal in the hospital but were treated by staff as being mentally ill.
53
Institutionalism
* GOFFMAN's Asylum study shows some of the effects of being admitted to a hospital.
* Their old identity is killed off and replaced by 'patient'.
* Inmates become institutionalised, internalising their new identity and become unable to re-adjust to the outside world.
* BRAGINSKI ET AL (1969) - Long-term patients manipulated their symptoms to appear not well enough to leave but too well to not be confined.
54
Strengths of Labelling Theory
* Law isn't fixed set of rules
* Importance of of reaction of others in defining and creating deviance.
* OS are product of bias in law-enforcement.
* Law is often enforced in discriminatory ways.
* Labelling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
55
Criticisms of Labelling Theory
* It is deterministic - assumes all labelling victims will commit crime again.
* Gives the offender victim status.
* Focuses on less serious crime.
* It doesn't explain primary deviance.
56
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Criminogenic Capitalism
Crime is inevitable in capitalism because capitalism is criminogenic. By its nature it causes crime.
57
Traditional Marxist Explanations: How does capitalism give rise to crime?
* Poverty - WC need to survive.
* Consumer goods - WC want to obtain consumer goods through theft.
* Social Exclusion and lack of control - frustration and aggression resulting in crime e.g. vandalism.
58
Traditional Marxist Explanation: Gordon (1971)
* Suggests WC do not commit more crime than others.
| * The need to win encourages people to commit white collar crime and corporate crime.
59
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Gordon (1976)
• Crime is a rational response to the capitalist system and so it's found in all social classes.
60
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Law Making
* Law making/enforcement serves interest of ruling class.
* Vast majority of law in UK is property law - CHAMBLISS (1975) - laws protecting private property serve to keep WC people away from land e.g. English law in East Africa.
61
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Ruling Classes
* RC have power to prevent the intro of laws that would threaten their interests.
* SNIDER (1993): capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses - threatens their interest.
* E.g. Tobacco companies put pressure on government not to pass laws against tobacco.
62
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Laws and Criminals
* Crime and criminals perform ideological function.
* Laws are passed that appear to help WC however PEARCE (1976) argues these benefit RC by keeping workers fit.
* It gives capitalism a 'caring' face.
* Laws passed sometimes aren't used - JENABI (2014) found law on corporate homicide was used once in 7 years.
63
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Selective Law Enforcement
* When it comes to the application of law by CJS, there's selective enforcement.
* WC and ethnic minorities are criminalised, while crimes of the powerful are ignored.
* OS showing crime to be a WC problem is a result of selective enforcement.
* CHAMBLISS (1978): crime in Seattle - powerful people could conduct criminal activity and avoid prison.
64
Traditional Marxist Explanations: Strengths
•Offers explanation of the relationship between crime and capitalist society.
65
Traditional Marxist Explanation: Weaknesses
* Ignores other factors e.g. gender
* Too deterministic - not all WC commit crime.
* CJS sometimes prosecutes corporate crime - Marxists say its to appear impartial.
66
Right Realism: Overview
* Sees crime as a real and growing problem that destroys communities.
* Policy makers argued that 'nothing works' led to a focus away from the causes of crime and instead on punishment. They criticise other theories for not offering solutions.
67
Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Biological Differences
* WILSON & HERRNSTEIN put forward biosocial theory of criminal behaviour. They believe crime is caused by a combination of biological and social factors.
* Differences between individuals make some people innately predisposed to commit crime.
* HERRNSTEIN & MURRAY - low intelligence (biological) causes crime.
68
Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Socialisation of the Underclass
* Effective socialisation reduces the risk of an individual offending. For right realists, the best agency of socialisation is the nuclear family.
* MURRAY (1990): crime is increasing because of a growing underclass. The underclass is growing due to the welfare states "generous revolution."
* Nuclear families break down and lone mothers exist - can't socialise.
69
Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Rational Choice Theory
* CLARKE argues that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the consequences
* MURRAY: higher risk of going to prison, the less likely people are to commit crime.
* FELSON: Crime includes motivated offender, suitable target and absence of 'capable guardian'.
70
Right Realism: Causes of Crime - Evaluation
* Ignores wider structural causes e.g. poverty.
* Doesn't explain impulsive crime.
* LILLY ET AL: IQ differences accounts for less than 3% of differences.
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Right Realism: Tackling Crime
* No focus on the causes. They seek measures to make crime less attractive.
* Focus on control, containment and punishment.
* WILSON: issue harsh punishments for smallest crime.
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Right Realism: Zero Tolerance
* Any sign of crime should be dealt with immediately e.g. vandalism.
* 'One Broken Window' - tolerating just one broken window sends the message you can get away with crime.
* Advocate zero tolerance claiming it worked in New York.
73
Right Realism: Zero Tolerance Evaluation
* YOUNG: Success of zero tolerance in New York a myth. Crime rate in NY had already been falling, 9 years before zero tolerance was introduced. Police needed arrests to justify their existence - 'define deviance up'.
* Ignores corporate crime.
* Free reign to discriminate.
74
Left Realism: Aetiological Crisis
* Increase in crime from 1950's led to an aetiological crisis - no explanations for crime.
* LR believe increase in crime is real. Tackling crime involves looking at who is affected. Disadvantaged groups e.g. unskilled workers.
* They, therefore, have greater fear of crime - less likely to report.
75
Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Relative Deprivation
* LEA & YOUNG: crime has roots in deprivation.
* RUNCIMAN: relative deprivation is cause - how deprived someone feels in relation to others or their expectations. Crime - gain what they feel entitled to.
* YOUNG: combination of RD and individualism (concern with the self).
76
Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Subculture
* Views come from Merton, A.K. Cohen and Cloward & Ohlin.
* Different subcultures come up with different solutions to the problem - turn to gangs or religion (theodicy of disprivilege)
77
Left Realism: Causes of Crime - Marginalisation
* Individuals experience marginalisation.
* Marginalised groups lack clear goals and organisations to represent their interests. Youth, therefore, feel resentment and frustration - express frustration through criminal means.
78
Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Bulimic Society
* Late modern society has instability, insecurity and exclusion - crime worse.
* Greater inequality between poor and rich - greater sense of RD.
* Growing contrast between cultural inclusion and economic exclusion - poor have access to consumerist messages (media) but can't afford the goods.
* Cultural inclusion mixed with social and economic exclusion creates 'bulimic society' (gorge themselves on image of consumer life but vomit it out - can't afford).
79
Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Edgework
* Factors of late modernity combine and generate crime.
* Youth have no outlet for anger - involve themselves in edgework. This involves thrill-seeking, risk-taking behaviour - pursuit of danger.
80
Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Deprivation Downwards
* Resentment of those who receive undeservedly high rewards e.g. footballers.
* Relative deprivation downward - MC resent the stereotypical underclass as idle, irresponsible and living off state handouts.
81
Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Reaction to Crime
• Late modern society
82
Left Realism: Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Reaction to Crime
• Late modern society
