Crime and deviance

Wilson- developed many of the ideas, advisor to president reagan

Believed that increasing affluence and porsperity increases crime. Ie; 1960's

Wilson and Hernstein; Said crime was disproportiantley committed by young men who live in large sities. Many of their evidence relates to this

Believe that this has biological and social origins

argue that the way young men are socialised affects their tendency to commit crime or not. They argue that more discipline leads to lesser tendencies to commit crime.

Say society is based on immediate gratification and low impulse control.

Hirschi claims that people are more likely to commit crime when their attatchments to social institutions are weakened

ie; gives us more to lose

Murray blames the undercalss. Not just people who are long term unemployed, but people whoo have deplorable behaviour (unwilling to work)

Blames lone parent families (lack of male role models and not enough emphasis on the importance of work)

Blames the welfare state

How to prevent crime:

Wilson: Target hardening and surveillance Make it harder and increase cctv. New York significantly decreased murder rate when implementing zero tolerance policy, alhtough many cities had crime reductions at this time.

Police need to crack down even on the most minor crimes to start preventing it

Jock Young

Started to take into account the concerns of the victime. Believe that understanding crime should be comprised of four main areas

The victims

the offenders (why they do it)

The agents of social controlre

The reaction of the public

Believe that relative deprivation combined with individualism is the most important cause of crime