Topic 3: Class, Power and Crime

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  • Created by: Lilly_B
  • Created on: 17-06-17 15:14
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  • Topic 3: Class, Power and Crime
    • Explaining class differences in crime
      • Functionalism
        • Miller: lowerclass: for subcultures which deviate from social norms = commit more crime
      • Strain theory
        • Merton: working-class more likely to seek illegitimate means of achieving goals = innovation + utillitarian crime
      • Subcultural theories
        • Cohen: deprived working-class youths with status frustration create delinquent subcultures
      • Labelling theories
        • Instead of seeking supposed causes of working-class crime, focus on why working-class people come to be labelled crimnal
    • Marxism, class and crime
      • Crimgenic capitalism
        • Crime is evevitable as it causes crime by its own nature
        • Povery = crime is the only way working-class can survive + obtain consumerist goods
        • Alienation and frustration leads to aggressive non-utilitarian crime
        • Capitalism and profit motive encourages 'dog eat dog' mentaility for middle-class
      • State and lw-making
        • Chambliss: African colonisation coffee tax
        • Snider: capitalist systems reluctent to pass laws which regulate business activity
      • Idological functions of crime/law
        • Pearce: laws passed appearing to help working-class  only give capitalism a 'caring face' + instills false class conciousness (+keeps workforce healthy)
        • State enforces law selectivley, making working-clss crime a large phenomenon which is perpetualted by the media
      • Evaluation
        • Too deterministisc and over-predicts working-class crime
        • Ignores low crime rates in capitalist societies of Japan and Switzerland
    • Neo-Marxism: critical criminology
      • Anti-determinism
        • Taylor et al: crime is a voulenteeristi political move  - not just proletariat puppers
      • A fully social theory of deviance
        • Combination of marxism and interactionalism
        • Wider origins of deviant act, immediate origins of deviant act, act itself. imediate social reaction, effects of social labelling
      • Evaluation
        • Romanticises crimes in 'robin hood' mentality + ignores inter-class crime
        • Doesn't take crime and its effects on victims seriously
    • Crimes of the powerful
      • Explanations of coperate crime
        • Strain theory: Box utillises Merton's working-class 'innovation' for bussinesses
        • Differential association: Sunderland: deviant subcultures and techniques of neutralisation (Matza)
        • Labelling theory: Nelken - 'de-lebelling' + aviodance through laywers and accountants
        • Marxism: Box- 'mystification' legitimises crime
      • The scale and types of coperate crime
        • Financial crimes, crimes against consumers, crimes against employers, crimes against environment, state-coperate crime
      • Abuse of trust
        • Carrabine: we entrust bussinesses with our finances, health and security which they can abuse
        • Ex: GP Shipman - violated patients and pharmicicsts by killing patients with morphine overdoses
      • Invisability of Coperate crime
        • The media, lack of political will, complex crime, de-labelling, underreporting
      • Evaluation
        • Nelken: compaies abvoid crime for good relations + marketing image

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