Theories of crime Flashcards
(33 cards)
What is the Functionalist view of crime?
Crime is inevitable and universal.
Interested in the causes of crime and the explanation of deviant subcultures.
What is Functionalist Durkheim’s view on crime?
Crime and deviance is beneficial to society for two reasons:
- Boundary Maintenance - Crime unites members of society against the wrongdoers, strengthening social cohesion.
E.g. In the courtroom which publicly shame the offender. - Adaptation and Change - All changes in society starts with deviance, needing a change from the existing noms and values.
E.g. Protests regarding Same-sex marriage lead to the legalisation in 2013.
What is a criticism of Durkheim’s theory?
Doesn’t offer practical ways to solve the issue of crime, so they have a ‘rose-tinted’ view.
What is Functionalist Merton’s Strain Theory?
People engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
Five different ways to understand the ways we adapt our behaviour based on the means and goals:
1. Conformity - adherence to goals and means.
2. Innovation - Accepts goals but different means.
3. Retreatism - rejects goals and means.
4. Ritualism - given u on the goal but follow the means.
5. Rebellion - Reject goals and means, adopting new ones. E.g. Counter-culture.
What is a criticism of Merton’s strain theory?
It assumes all people in society strive for material success. E.g. American Dream, but must acknowledge that some people commit crimes for fun.
What is Functionalist Cohen’s Status Frustrations ? ( Subcultural strain theory)
Deviance is a working-class phenomenon who aren’t able to achieve mainstream success goals legitimately.
Focuses specifically on w/c boys, suggesting they suffer from cultural deprivation due to their inability to succeed and adhere to a m/c habitus. Therefore, thy are at the bottom of the status hierarchy so suffer status frustration and join subcultures.
In those subcultures creating an alternative status hierarchy, achieving this through crimes such as vandalising and truancy.
What is Functionalist Cloward’s and Ohlin’s three subculture theory?
Agree with Merton ad Cohen, but state that different groups react differently to lack of legitimacy.
E.g. in terms of different neighbourhoods.
- Criminal - apprenticeships in areas with longstanding, stable criminal culture E.g. The Mafia.
- Conflict - loosely organised gangs.
- Retreatist - can occur in any neighbourhood, people fail legitimately so turn to illegal drug use.
What is a criticism of Cohen/ Cloward and Ohlin’s theory’s?
Focusing only on the w/c committing crimes but there isn’t any evidence to back up this claim.
What is an Interactionist view of crime?
They look at why some people and actions come to labelled as criminal or deviant and the effects of the label.
What is Ineractionists Piliavin and Blair findings and how did Cicourel back this claim?
They found that police decisions to arrest youths were based on physical cues.
Cicourel had similar findings stating that officers are influenced by stereotypes of offenders - officer typifications - leading to class bias in arrests.
What is a criticism of Pilivan and Briar/ Cicourel’s findings?
They don’t acknowledge why the individual has become deviant but instead focus on blaming society.
What is Interactionist Lemert’s view of the effects of labelling?
Primary Deviance - deviance not publicly labelled. E.g. Speeding.
Secondary Deviance - deviance labelled due to society’s reaction. E.g. A thief or rapist.
When an act is labelled as secondary deviance, it leas to the master status.
What is Young’s key study of the effects of labelling?
Study of hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill.
Drugs wasn’t initially seen as important to their lifestyle, however, due to labelling and prosecution from the police they Egan to see themselves as an outside group within society.
Therefore, developing their own deviant subculture leading to further police action.
What are criticisms of Interactionist theories?
Although it shows the effects that labelling has on groups and individuals.
It doesn’t offer solutions to labelling/crime or counts for ex-offenders reforming themselves.
What is deviance amplification spiral and what is the famous example of this?
Deviance amplification spiral is the attempts to control deviance but has lead to more deviance.
The famous example of this is Cohen’s Mods and Rocker’s disturbances and the societal reaction to them.
What does Interactionist Triplett state about youth offenders and deviant careers?
They state that in USA he found youth offenders was seen as evil with people becoming more intolerant of minor crimes.
Crimes such as truancy and vandalism was given harsher sentences, leading to increase in offending.
Overall, suggesting that negative labels push offenders into deviant careers rather than the opposite.
Doing this by reducing crimes to break, such a s decriminalising marijuana.
What does Interactionist Braithwaite state about the negative affects of labelling?
Instead of giving negative labels it should be in forms of reintegrative shaming rather than disintegrative shaming.
Disintegrative shaming - crime and criminal being labelled negatively, being excluded from society.
Reintegrative shaming - labelling the act rather than person.
Why is reintegrative shaming favoured by Interactionist Braithwaite?
It avoids stigmatising the offender but makes them aware of the negative impacts of the crime they committed.
It avoids pushing offender into secondary deviance.
What do Marxists say about crime?
It is a reaction to the inequalities created within society by capitalism.
This then leads to frustration and injustice which leads to crime.
What does Marxist Gordon state?
Criminogenic capitalism:
Crime is always going to happen in a capatilist society when it is criminogenic by to nature of exploiting some with others gaining the rewards.
E.g. the w/c are always exploited, exhaling why thy are most likely to commit crime. This could be from factors such as poverty, utilitarian crimes and lack of control/ alienation.
What does Marxist Chambliss state?
State and law making:
Law making and enforcement only benefits the ruling class.
He states that laws that protect private property are in place to keep the capitalist class rich, along with selective enforcing of laws. E.g. Nestle formula milk scandal.
What are two criticisms for the Marxist view of crime?
Too deterministic, as people don’t just commit crimes because they are poor.
Ignores the factor of gender and ethnicity roles in committing crimes.
What does Neo-Marxist Taylor et al state?
See Marxism as too deterministic.
They state that not all people commit crimes based on their economic necessities, so they take a mor e voluntaristic view, stating crime is meaningful with conscious choices.
Criminals aren’t ’passive puppets’ and are trying to change society.
To understand crime, sociologists need to understand how to reduce crime. E.g. the wider and immediate origins of the act.
What are two criticisms of the Neo-Marxist view of crime?
Feminists would argue that it is gender blind.
Left Realist would argue that it makes out criminals are ‘Robin Hoods’ but most crimes are committed against the w/c themselves.
