Why Would Somone Do A Crime

Question 1

Durkheim (Functionalist View On Crime)

Answer 1

Crime is Inevitable

Boundary Maintenance

Adaptation and Change.

Evaluation :

What’s the right amount of crime

Crime can alienate individuals

Question 2

Davis (Functionalist View On Crime)

Answer 2

Crime As a safety valve, prostitution to release frustration.

Question 3

Merton (Functionalist View On Crime)

Answer 3

Strain Theory , caused through by failure to achieve mainstream goals through legitimate means.

E.G The American Dream.

Evaluation

Only explains utilitarian Crime and assumes a value consensus.

Question 4

Responses to Strain (Functionalist View On Crime)

Answer 4

Conformist - Accept Goals and means

Innovation - accept goals not legitimate means

Ritualism - Reject goals, conform to means.

Retreatsim - Reject means and goals

Rebellion - Reject the goals and means with their own.

Question 5

Cohen (Functionalist View On Crime)

Answer 5

Status Frustration in WC boys in schools, Turn to delinquent subcultures.

Explains non-utilitarian crime.

Question 6

Coward + Ohlin

Answer 6

Criminal subcultures

Conflict subcultures

Retreatist subculture

Question 7

Matza

Answer 7

Drift theory - Delinquents drift in and out of deviance

Question 8

Becker

Answer 8

Argues crime is a social construct

Actions labelled as deviant are determined by society

Those who are labelled are labelled based upon gender,age,ethnicity

Question 9

Pilivan+Briar

Answer 9

Found police make decisions based upon physical attributes.

Question 10

Cicourel

Answer 10

Police typofications = Focus on certain Groups

Negotiation of Justice

Question 11

Lemert

Answer 11

Primary deviance = Acts that have not been labelled as deviant

Secondary deviance = Deviant acts that have been labelled = Indivual with master status of criminal = struggle to gain employment = join shadow economies

Question 12

Young

Answer 12

Deviance amplification spiral, trying to control deviance = More deviance

Drug takers in Notting Hill

Question 13

Cohen

Answer 13

Folk Devils, moral enterpreneurs, Moral panics, shows how media labelling = increased police behaviour

Question 14

Braithwaite

Answer 14

Labelling Good !
Reintegrate and disintegrating shaming

Question 15

Durkheim (Positivist)

Answer 15

Stats are social facts, found that suicide increase during rapid social change, rates varied with social group.

Variables affecting suicide

Religious affiliation
Level of education
Urbanisation

Level of integration !

Question 16

Douglas (Interpretivist)

Answer 16

Relationships between social actors = Reluctancy to record suicide

Low rates of suicide can be argued to be a cause of covering up

Argued cause of death should be via the meaning of the deceased family members using qualitative.

Question 17

Atkinson (Ethnomethodlogy)

Answer 17

Suicide verdicts are a social construct, Studied danish and English coroners, Danes decided more suicide due to lower stigma

Question 18

Lemert

Answer 18

Some individuals don’t fit into decant groups and are labelled “odd” = mental illness and labelled as a mental patient thus paranoia being a SFP

Question 19

Goffman

Answer 19

Institutionalised individuals = loss of identity due to master status of “Inmate”

Study of asylums

Question 20

Marxists on Crime

Answer 20

Capitalism is criminogenic = W/C commit utilitarian crimes to get consumer goods.

Alienation causes non utilitarian crimes due to frustration.

Law making benefits R/C

Question 21

Chambliss

Answer 21

Law protects private property = cornerstone of capitalist economy

Question 22

Snider

Answer 22

Capitalist states are reluctant to pass laws that regulate activities of business or threaten their profits.

Question 23

Gordon

Answer 23

Dog eat dog society due to completion in capitalist society = corporate crimes.

Question 24

Selective enforcement

Answer 24

Certain groups are targeted in the CJS, police tend to ignore crimes of the powerful.

Question 25

Pearce Idealogical Functions of Law

Answer 25

Laws give capitalism a caring face, create false class consciousness. Health and safety laws but lack of enforcement. Due to selective law enforcement, crimes seem to be a W/C phenomenon. Increasing divide as other W/C blame criminals for inequality/Labelling.

Question 26

Taylor Et Al

Answer 26

Seems Marxism as economically deterministic, sees crime as a meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actors. Criminals are not passive puppets and their behaviour is shaped by capitalism.

Question 27

Taylor Et Al (Fully social theory of deviance)

Answer 27

To understand crime you must. Take into account wider origins of the deviant act The act itself Effects of labelling. Left Realist = Romantises W/C criminals as “Robin hood” figures. Burke - Too general and Idealistic.

Question 28

Marxist Subcultures

Answer 28

Cohen - Skinheads react to decline in Manual Labour via clothes of workers CCCS - Youth subcultures develop as a form of resistance against capitalist inequality. Hebdige - Punks, resist via shocking establishment with fashion. However it is usually commercialised.

Question 29

Reiman and Leighton

Answer 29

Higher persecution for “street crimes” rather than White collar crimes. Crimes committed by higher social classes = more forgiving view from CJS.

Question 30

Sutherland

Answer 30

Occupational crime Corporate crime

Question 31

Pearce and Tombs

Answer 31

Defention of corporate crime An illegal act or omission, that is the result of Deliverate decisions intended to benefit a business.

Question 32

Tombs

Answer 32

Types of corporate crimes Financial Against the consumer Against the employee Crimes against the environment State corporate crimes

Question 33

Carrabine

Answer 33

Abuse of Trust

Question 34

Why are corporate crimes less seen

Answer 34

The media = Limited coverage Lack of political will Crimes are complex Under reported Internal dealing

Question 35

Box (Strain) (Corporate crimes)

Answer 35

If a business cannot reach the goal of maximising profits by legal means they will use illegal

Question 36

Sutherland

Answer 36

Differential association, deviance is behaviour learned by others.

Question 37

Sutherland

Answer 37

Differential association, deviance is behaviour learned by others.

Question 38

Nelken

Answer 38

Professionals have the power to avoid labelling/can afford lawyers.

Question 39

Matza

Answer 39

Techniques of neutralisation. Easier to justify a corporate crime if it’s an order by a boss.

Question 40

Katz

Answer 40

Edge work, individuals commit crimes for pleasure and like the risk of getting caught.

Question 41

Relative deprivation Strain Theory

Answer 41

M/c people can experience relative deprivation to other People = Utilitarian crime.

Question 42

Hernstein and Wilson (Right Realism)

Answer 42

Biological differences = traits such as aggression and low impulse control. Low intelligence also causes crime. Eval = Why do Asians commit crime ?

Question 43

Murray (Right Realism)

Answer 43

Poor Socilaisation due to lone parent families/stray from nuclear family has created underclass of idle young men. Due to lack of a control and disicpline they turn to shadow economies.

Question 44

Clarke (Right Realism)

Answer 44

Rational choice theory, criminals outweigh benefits and costs in order to justify committing a crime. However, overstates intelligence of criminals.

Question 45

Right Realist methods of tackling crime

Answer 45

Target Hardening Zero tolerance Policing Wilson and Kelling = Broken window thesis.

Question 46

Lea and Young (Left realism)

Answer 46

Crime occurs due to Relative deprivation Subcultures Marginalisation

Question 47

Lea + Young Tackling crime

Answer 47

Polcicing and Control = Better relationships with local communities Tackling structural Inequality = reducing poverty.