sociology crime theories

peer groups may have norms and values you must follow in order to gain status, such as criminal behaviour eg; vandalism, joy riding and stealing.

albert cohens study of delinquent boys, shows how boys who fail at school respond to their status fustration by getting back at society, with crime like vandalism

young sees that crime can occur in every part of society.

in his view relative deprevation means that inderviduals who feel they are deprived of things that others in society may have commit crime to have those thinga.

sociologist zygmumt bauman has argued that criminals steal high status iteams (such as iphones) in order to appear 'normal' in our highly materialistic society.

marxists simply blame povery for crime

they believe they steal to survive

Beakers labeling theory of crime and deviance looks at how the agents of social control react to it and the consequences it has on the inderviduals and groups of people labeled.

most people commit acts of deviance at some point in their lives but only some are seen as deivient and are labled, this may be because of past offences.

Parsons relates devience and crime to inadequate socialisation.

New right sociologist Murray supports this view.

however blames lone parent familes for the absence of the farther.

people fail to follow generally accepted values which provide guidelines for behaviour.

Durkheim says this happens in periods of social upheavel.

Lombroso a 19th century crimonologist beleived that you could tell how criminal someone was by how big their forehead was, a large jaw, and big ears amonst others.

in recent times biological explanations have focused on our genes and if we have genetic tendency to crime.

Goffman beleives people dont have to accept the labels applied to them, some may change their behaviour to persuade others they dont deserve to be seen as deivent or criminal. master labeling or master status used to describe particular deviant identities which are harder to get rid of; commiting murder, a peadophile, etc.

this may make it difficult to be accepted into a job.

Merton (functionalist) says crime is casued by people in the working class who are blocked from educational sucess, turn to crime to have expensive iteams like iphones and tvs etc.

they may commit acts of crime such as theft and fraud.