crime and deviance ocr a level

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Functionalist view

  • Crime is beneficial for society.
  • Crime is positive because it creates clear boundaries in society.
  • Crime occurs when there is a lack of norms and values in society- can be referred to as 'anomie' where people aren't intergrated into society properly and in result experience normalessness -Durkheim
  • Durkheim's concept of 'collective conscience' where people share ideas about what is considered right and wrong and being aware of this.
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Marxist view

  • Laws are there to benefit the ruling class.
  • Crime is a product of capitalism.
  • Laws result in the working class being punished more than the ruling class.

Marxist concepts

  • Flase consciousness: Not knowing your place in society and not knowing if you are being repressed. (working class)
  • Class consciousness: Being aware of what class your in and whether you're aware of being repressed. This can result in a revolution.
  • Class conflict: Different classes wanting different things eg: working class wanting more money but the upper class not allowing it.
  • Repressive state apparatus: People inforcing laws to make society behave the way the upper class want them to. (inforced through policing) -Althusser
  • Ideological state apparatus: A way the ruling class control what the working class think during every day life.
  • Surplus value: Profit for the upper class made up of the working classes hard work.
  • Dominant ideology: ideas that the ruling class influence the actions of society.
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Neo-Marxist view

  • They focus on the way in which the working class are labelled by the ruling class, thus often take an interactionist perspective as well as their own.
  • Heavily influenced by marxist ideas, but argue that there is a complex relationship between the structure of capitalist society and deviance.

Hall 1978 - Policing crisis

  • looked at original moral panic of 'mugging' and how it wasnt a term before moral panic.
  • it was a time of change  with economy which leads to protests.
  • this is how mugging came about and was focused more on black people- black mugging was used as a scapegoat to draw attention away from economic issues.

Chambliss 1973 - The saints and the roughnecks (marxist sociologist)

  • saints: 8 upper class boys, roughnecks: 6 lower class boys
  • even thoough both groups acted in deviant ways, saints wouldn't get in trouble where as the roughnecks would especially with the police.
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New Right view

  • Crime is a product of a broken society.
  • Individuals commit crime because they make rational choice to do so.
  • The underclass are more likely to commit crime and it's their faults.
  • Single mothers with young boys are more likely to have child criminals.
  • People with low IQ are more likely to turn to crime.
  • The government could be to blame as they hand out too much money which leads to people being lazy and deviant.
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Feminist view

  • Women are treated as 'doubly deviant' when they commit crimes as the commit a crime and deviate from their role as women too.
  • Laws are written by men and reflect patriarchal ideology.
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Interactionist view

  • The effects of being labelled as deviant affect the future actions of that person.
  • Deviant behaviour is only deviant when it is labelled as such.
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Subcultural theory

Phil Cohen: 

  • Range of deviant working class subcultures are an expression of contradictions withing the parent culture.
  • Working class have to be deviant to gain what they can't afford.
  • Contradictions between traditional working class values and consumer culture and the contradiction between upward social mobility and marginalisation of the underclass.

Albert Cohen:

  • Focuses on delinquent subcultures or gangs.
  • Conformity to the peer group makes youth feel important.
  • He challenges the view that criminal activity is similar across the age range, arguing that juvenile deliquency is uniquely non utilitarian.
  • People want imediate gratification so they commit crimes to get what they want- instead of waiting and earning money.
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Subcultural theory continued...

Cloward & Ohlin:

  • Conflict subcultures: couldn't succeed through legitimate success, which leads to comitting crime to gain their success.
  • Criminal subcultures: comitting crime to gain money and learning it from the adults doing it around them.
  • Retreatist subcultures: couldn't succeed in life, couldnt join criminal or conflict subcultures so end up turning to drugs.

Walter Miller:

  • Focal concerns: freedom & excitment, being in trouble, being tough and 'streetwise'.
  • Working class boys have their own focal concerns (values) which can lead them to deviant behaviour.
  • Conformity to this value system is more important to working class boys than middle class code of conduct.
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Left Realism

Look into street crime particularly focus on the fear surrounding it. Fear can't all be down to moral panic, perception of crime is important. Eg: Islington crime survey looked at the fear of crime. Women are more likely to be scared 80.5% of people has a fear of crime.

Study: Mathews and Young- the square of crime

  • offender
  • victim
  • criminal justice system
  • public

all these people are affected by a certain crime that has been comitted.

Study: Lea and Young- 3 concepts of crime

  • Relative deprivation- they want what others have & media doesn't help.
  • Marginalisation- outskirts of society who aren't intergrated and have no goals
  • Subculture- follow norms & values  of the subculture which could lead people to turn to crime.
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Right Realism

Look into street crime- critise Marxists for only looking at white collar crime.

Study: Wilson- trends in crime come down to 3 factors

  • Young males are more likely to commit crime because their more aggressive and have short term horizons.
  • Benefits and the economy: where they are constantly changing it leads to access issures which turn people to crime.
  • Society and cultural changes: through family& religion, when norms and values change it can encourage people to talk risks going against norms and values.

The government don't do a lot to stop crime but agencies of social conrol could aid in this.

Study: Wilson and Kelling- 2 theories for crime.

  • Broken windows phenomenon- if one broken window doesn't get fixed it leads to more- metaphor for society.
  • Urban decay- when crime happens in an area peoples behaviour changes by ignoring it or joining it. Which can cause society to break down because crime becomes the norm.
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Right-wing views

  • They blame the individual - anything someone does is their fault, they put it down to poor socialisation with wrong norms and values.
  • They believe all you need is stricter rules through social controls and need harsher penalties.
  • Everyone deserves what they get, if they dont work hard and commit cime instead thats their choice.
  • New Right support the right-wing view.
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Left-wing views

  • Crime is socities fault in the circumstances they are given.
  • Crime and deviance is due to someone in need of something and that's why they commit crime.
  • People in the law don't follow through on punishment.
  • Down to inequality and labeliing in society.
  • Marxists and Interactionist supports left-wing views.
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Control theory

Alternative to everything else they do not look at why people commit crime, they look at why people don't commit crime.

Hirschi: 4 social bonds to why people are likely not to commit crime.

  • Attatchment: everyonehas some form of this and they are the reasons people won't commit crime.
  • Commitment: everyone has some kind of responsibility so are more,likely to obey rules to avoid losing possessions.
  • Involvement: people who are part of a community are to busy to think about commiting a crime.
  • Beliefs: everyone is part of some sort of culture, they have a sense of belonging to something which gives them morals.
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Further Marxist explanation

Criminogenic Capitalism

  • capitalism creates crime- poverty means crime is the only way working class people survive and the only way they obtaim consumer goods.
  • alienation- crime comitted through frustration, capitalism is a dog eat dog system where everyone is greedy.
  • upper class commit white collor and corporate crime.

The State of Law Making

  • big corporate crimes are hidden and laws are used to control the working class and to keep society functioning how the ruling class wants it to be.

Box- criminality is socially constructed and manipulated to criminalise the powerless.

Althusser- Ideological state apparatus & Repressive state apparatus.

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