Class and Crime
- Created by: HLOldham
- Created on: 23-03-16 16:26
View mindmap
- Class and Crime
- Social Class and Crime
- Strain Theory and Anomie - Merton
- The working class are highly represented in the crime statistics compared to the middle classes
- Labelling Theory - Becker
- No act is deviant in itself: deviance is a social construct
- Deviance Amplification - Young:
- The idea that attempts to control deviance only increase it; more and more control produces more and more deviance
- Study on hippy marijuana users - smoking marijuana only small part of hippy culture until it was made illegal, they became a deviant subculture with drug use at it's center
- The idea that attempts to control deviance only increase it; more and more control produces more and more deviance
- The Media, Folk Devils and Moral Panics - S. Cohen
- Mods and Rockers
- Press exaggeration created a series of moral panics, leading to higher prosecution levels and thus higher levels of deviance
- Those at the center of the moral panics labelled 'Folk Devils'
- No act is deviant in itself: deviance is a social construct
- Those at the center of the moral panics labelled 'Folk Devils'
- Press exaggeration created a series of moral panics, leading to higher prosecution levels and thus higher levels of deviance
- Mods and Rockers
- The Underclass - Murray
- The underclass subscribes to deviant and criminal values rather than mainstream values
- Blames single mothers
- The underclass subscribes to deviant and criminal values rather than mainstream values
- Ecology Theory - Park and Burgess
- Closely related to functionalism and sub-cultural theory
- Residents of inner-city areas more likely to experience blocked opportunities and subsequent strain and anomie, illegitimate opportunity structures are also more likely to be available in inner-city areas
- Closely related to functionalism and sub-cultural theory
- Working-Class Focal Concerns - Miller
- Lower class possess own culture that's fundamentally different to higher classes
- Two factors tend to emphasize and exaggerate of the lower class subculture
- 1. A peer group that demands close conformity to group norms
- 2. Youngsters in terms of the peer status and norms achieve status
- Two factors tend to emphasize and exaggerate of the lower class subculture
- Lower class possess own culture that's fundamentally different to higher classes
- Subcultures and the Working-Classes - Cloward and Ohlin
- 3 types of subcultures
- 1. Criminal Subculture - emerge in areas with organised adult crime
- 2. Conflict Subculture - emerge in areas with little adult organised crime
- 3. Retreatist Subculture - young people who have failed in the criminal subcultures - 'double failures'
- 3 types of subcultures
- Strain Theory and Anomie - Merton
- Marginality, Social Exclusion, Relative Deprivation and Rational Choice Theory
- Marginalize - when a person/group/ concept is treated as insignificant
- Social Exclusion - social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society
- Rational Choice Theory - linked to realist theories of crime, argues that the W/C commit more crime than the M/C, this is because they are thinking rationally and weighing up costs vs rewards - they are making the decision to turn to crime
- Less Informal Social Control
- Leans towards realist approaches
- Blames exclusion and marginalization for crime
- W/C individuals are controlled less by institutions such as the family, education and peer groups
- More Detectable Offences and More Likely to be Caught
- The M/C may be guilty of white collar crime, which is not detected as much, e.g. fraud within a company
- White collar crime - M/C crime, crime committed by business and government professionals, e.g. fraud
- W/C crime is obvious and blatant in nature e.g. burglary, mugging, assault - the sorts of crime public thinks and worries about so police more likely to focus on it
- The 'Dark Figure of Crime' - unreported and undiscovered crime
- The M/C may be guilty of white collar crime, which is not detected as much, e.g. fraud within a company
- Social Class and Crime
Comments
No comments have yet been made