Explaining Class Differences in Crime
- Created by: ShannonD99
- Created on: 24-03-17 09:38
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- Explaining Class Differences in Crime
- OS from a range of countries over the world consistently show social class differences in rates of offending - the w/c more likely to commit offences than the m/c
- Functionalism
- sees the law as a reflection of society's shared values, and crime as the product of inadequate/inappropriate socialisation into these values
- Not everyone is equally well socialised into society's shared culture - in modern societies with their complex division of labour, different groups and classes may develop their own separate subcultures
- Walter B. Miller - argues the lower class has developed an independent subculture with its own distinctive norms and values that clash with those of the mainstream culture - this explains why the w/c have a higher crime rate.
- sees the law as a reflection of society's shared values, and crime as the product of inadequate/inappropriate socialisation into these values
- Strain Theory
- argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when their opportunities to achieve in legitimate ways are blocked
- as the w/c are more likely to be denied legitimate opportunities to achieve success, they are more likely to seek illegitimate means of achieving it. In Merton's view, this explains why the w/c has a higher rate of utilitarian crime than m/c
- Subcultural Theories
- ST's start from Merton's idea that the w/c suffer from blocked opportunities to achieve success by legitimate means
- the delinquent subculture that they form/join is a solution to the problem of status frustration.
- by inverting mainstream values i.e. respect for property, w/c youths gain status from peers by being delinquent e.g. vandalising property. Thus, Cohen's theory explains to explain why the w/c are more likely to commit non-utilitarian crime
- C&O build on Merton and Cohen - use the concept of illegitimate opportunity structures to explain why a range of different crimes are more prevalent within the w/c.
- by inverting mainstream values i.e. respect for property, w/c youths gain status from peers by being delinquent e.g. vandalising property. Thus, Cohen's theory explains to explain why the w/c are more likely to commit non-utilitarian crime
- the delinquent subculture that they form/join is a solution to the problem of status frustration.
- ST's start from Merton's idea that the w/c suffer from blocked opportunities to achieve success by legitimate means
- Labelling Theory
- they reject the view that OS are a useful resource for sociologists that give a valid picture of which class commits most crime
- instead of seeking the supposed causes of w/c criminality, they focus on how and why w/c people come to be labelled as criminal - they emphasise the stereotypes held by law enforcement agencies that see the w/c as 'typical criminals', and the power of these agencies to successfully label powerless groups i.e. the w/c
- for this reason, labelling theorists have been described as 'problem makers' - they do not see OS as valid social facts or a useful resource. They believe OS are a topic whose construction we must investigate by studying the power of control agents to label w/c people as criminal
- instead of seeking the supposed causes of w/c criminality, they focus on how and why w/c people come to be labelled as criminal - they emphasise the stereotypes held by law enforcement agencies that see the w/c as 'typical criminals', and the power of these agencies to successfully label powerless groups i.e. the w/c
- they reject the view that OS are a useful resource for sociologists that give a valid picture of which class commits most crime
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