Crime and Deviance Sociologists

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Plummer
There is a difference between situational deviance and societal deviance; situational=acts that can be defined as deviant or normal depending on the situation. Societal-acts which are seen as deviant by most of society is most situations eg.stabbing.
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Durkheim (functionalist)
Deviance is needed for social change to occur; all societies need some change to remain healthy. But crime becomes dysfunctional when the levels are too high-threatens social order, too low-no social change.
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Cohen (functionalist)
Some forms of deviance provide a safety valve for releasing tension without breaking social stability eg. prostitution+warning device to identify emerging problems so they can be dealt with. WC boys turn to subcultures due to status frustration.
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Merton (functionalist)
Many people want the 'american dream' but people have unequal opportunities to achieve it-causing either conformity, innovation (crime), ritualism (stopped trying), retreatism (deviancy) or rebelling.
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Southerland (differential association)
Deviance is learned from other criminals-attitudes, values and techniques are passed on through association with other people.
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Cloward and Ohlin (subcultures)
There is a legitimate (getting a job) and illegitimate (crime) opportunity structure and different access to these, there are also 3 different type of subcultures; criminal, conflict and retreatist-depending on area you live.
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Taylor, Walton and Young
Identified that not all subcultures have mainstream goals of wealth like for example hippies who want 'peace and love'.
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Becker (interactionist)
The same act gets different reactions depending situation it is done in therefore there it nothing intrinsically deviant its the reaction of those around you that make you realise-once someone is labelled as deviant they are more likely to repeat it.
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Jock Young (interactionist)
Studied drug users in Notting Hill who developed a deviant self concept which became their master status-drug taking became more significant to them when they were labelled as deviant and it therefore increased.
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Braithwaite (interactionist)
The effects of negative labelling depends on the way the label is applied; disintegrative=labels the person and the act as deviant, reintergrative=only labels act as deviant so gives person a chance to rejoin society.
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Lemert
Most people commit acts of primary deviance in their lives which are of little significance but the societal reaction can label the person as deviant and it is when people feel the weight of these labels that they commit more crime-secondary deviance
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Deviance amplification
Social control can cause more deviance which provokes more social control which results in even more deviance and the cycle continues. Eg. the media play a large role in deviancy amplification as it influences peoples reactions.
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Gramsci (neo marxist)
Hegemony is used to maintain social control -institutuions such as the legal system socialise everyone into accepting ruling class ideas.
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Snider (marxist)
Governments are reluctant to bring laws which put investment of ruling class at risk. Eg.health and safety often passed at low level and weakly enforced. Tobacco companies put pressure on governments to not make them responsible for death of smokers
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Pearce (marxist)
Even laws which are supposed to protect the working class are in the interest of the ruling class eg.health and safety as the system needs healthy, safe workers.
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Chambliss (marxist)
Did a study in Seattle where he found those in power used their power to conduct criminal activity and avoid prison eg. bribery.
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Gordon (marxist)
Selective law enforcement and selective reporting in the media portrays that criminals are largely working class causing them to become a target of anger.
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What does it mean that the capitalist system is crimogenic?
It leads to crime.
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What is the left realist approach to crime?
They believe WC are often the victims of other WC crime, the main causes are; marginalisation, relative deprivation and subcultures and the solutions should focus on; community and improving relationships between society and police.
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What is the right realist approach to crime?
It mainly holds the individual responsible, they say crime is a rational choice and look at the underclass and the broken window theory. Situational and environmental crime prevention.
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Kinsey, Lea and Young (left realists)
Policing needs to be focused on building relationships with the community as the police need the public to report crimes and give evidence when needed. They believe in 'full and proper' investigations-consensus policing.
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Lea and Young (left realists)
A sense of relative deprivation is a massive factor in why someone may commit a crime as people feel deprived compared to others in similar social groups so they turn to crime to 'solve' this, this is made worse by consumer culture in UK.
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Young (left realist)
Police need to be tough on crime but that doesn't mean they have to be tough on criminals, they need to be tough on the factors causing people to commit crimes as this will reduce crime rates in the long run.
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Young and Matthews (left realists)
Improving leisure facilities, reducing income inequality, improving housing estates, raising living standards and reducing unemployment are all things which will help reduce crime rates.
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Wilson (right realist)
People commit crime because the benefits outweigh the costs.
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Wilson and Kelling (right realists)
Broken window theory-when a a crime in society goes unpunished people notice this and it sends the message to the local area that you can get away with crime. This is why we need zero tolerance policing.
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Murray (right realist)
The growing underclass are a massive cause of a lot of crime. Underclass is a product of the overgenerous welfare state which has led to a culture of dependency.
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Cornish and Clarke (right realists)
People make a rational choice about whether to commit crime or not based of the possible costs and benefits.
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Hirschi (right realist)
There are 3 types of control; direct-threat of punishment, indirect- threat of ruining trust/relationships and internal-a persons conscience.
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Matthews (critic of broken windows)
Did a study and didn't find any evidence that leaving a broken window leads to more crime.
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What % of the prison population in UK is black and why is this high?
13% because black people only make up 3% of the whole population.
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What are the two ways that crime statistics are collected?
Victim surveys-where people are asked when they have ever been a victim of crime. Self report surveys- where people are asked when they have ever committed a crime.
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Why may crime statistics not be accurate?
People have different ideas of what crime is, people may not want to talk about it, it may have been minor and people have forgotten, people may be worried they will get into trouble.
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Bowling and Phillips
Institutional racism in the police has led to higher suspicions of black people in general.
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Macphearson Report 1999
Concluded that the police were institutionally racist and the court system automatically favours middle class white people; there are very few black people working within the police or legal system.
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Gilroy
Black people are victims of racist stereotypes which the criminal justice system subscribes to so therefore convicts a higher proportion of black people.
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Hall et al
The black youth have been used as scapegoats to distract the public from social issues used by capitalism, especially in 1970s.
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Young (WC conviction rates)
The media allows working class people to see how many possessions other people have making them have a sense of relative deprivation.
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Miller (WC conviction rates)
Values passed through generations are likely to encourage working class men to commit crime; delinquents are just conforming to the focal concerns of their culture.
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What % of the prison population to women make up?
5%
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Marsh (gender conviction rates)
If women were to have the same amount of opportunity as men to commit crime they would be just as likely to do so.
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Pollak (chivalry thesis)
Men are socialised to be protective of women, as the majority of the police force are ale this is why women are less likely to be arrested-works as sexism against male offenders.
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Campbell (female crime stats)
Did a self report survey which unearthed much more female crime than official stats suggest but she did include trivial crimes that official stats don't.
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Heidensohn (sex-role theory-feminist)
Men are brought up to be tough while girls are brought up to be passive so boys are more likely to be aggressive and commit violent crime. Crime is made to be more acceptable in the eyes of boys than girls.
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Pat Carlen (gender in court)
Courts test women differently depending on how they conformed to gender roles eg. women deemed as good mothers are less likely to be sentenced to jail than women without children.
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Abbot and Wallace (opportunity for crime-feminism)
Girls are more likely to be closely watched by their families and given less freedom reducing their opportunity for crime.
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Freda Adler (liberation thesis)
as women become liberated patriarchy decreases and women crime rates increase-also leads to increase in women committing 'male dominated' crime eg.violence.
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Westwood (gender identity-liberal feminist)
Female identity is changing and is adopting more male behaviour patterns.
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Criticism of liberation thesis
Working class women benefit the least from liberation but most crime comes from them.
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Carlen (liberal feminist)
Interviewed working class women with criminal records, found that most women made a rational choice to turn to crime as many of them lived in poverty and felt unrewarded in society.
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Held et al (globalisation)
Crime has become globalised-globalisation has allowed transnational organised crime to grow.
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What are some transnational organised crimes?
Sex trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, cybercrime such as data theft and credit scams.
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Hobbs and Dunningham (globalisation)
The structure of transnational crime is 'global' as it is small localised groups in different countries with global links.
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Give and example of how an environmental crime has impacted
World Bank estimated in 2004 that illegal logging costs timber producing companies around 10-15 billion dollars per year.
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Beck (late modernist)
We are living in a 'global risk society' because the risks associated with green crimes are often on the global scale eg. contribute to global warming.
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South (green crimes)
Splits green crimes into primary-immediate impact on environment eg. water pollution. Secondary-when people, companies and governments break laws which protect earth eg. BP caused giant oil spill in gulf of Mexico in 2010
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Ian Taylor (economic liberalisation)
Economic deregularisation gives some more opportunity to commit international crimes than others, those in power who make the laws are more likely to get away with crimes. Increases unemployment and cuts to welfare have led to rise in crime.
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Cohen (interactionist-media)
Media helps create the deviancy it predicts as it gives a distorted view of the level of crime creating public concern (moral panic) so related incidents are over reported, public want something done so police look for more crime.
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How can the media be a direct cause of crime?
Young people see violent people on TV as role models, may learn how to get away with it by watching CSI, being more exposed to violence desensitises people.
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Yvonne Jewkes (media)
The internet has made new crimes such as child *********** easier to access and led to new types of crime eg. 'revenge ****'.
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Cohen (mods and rockers)
Studied conflicts between 2 youth groups in the 60s-mods and rockers where he found that the media exaggerated the extent of the violence between the two groups causing a moral panic
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McRobbie and Thornton (moral panics)
The public are getting used to moral panics and they are much less likely to panic now than in the past.
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What is state crime + give some examples
Acts committed by governments that break national or international law-war crimes, genocide, terrorism, torture, assassination, imprisonment without trial.
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How many civilians were killed by the Khmer Rouge government in 1975-78?
2 million which was 20% of the population.
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McLaughlin (state crime)
4 types of state crime; 1. Political eg. rigging election. 2.Police eg. assassination of prisoners. 3. Economically motivated. 4.Social/cultural eg. vandalism of cultural sites.
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Hermen and Julia Schwendinger
Any action which breaches human rights should be classified as crimes regardless of whether they are against the law eg. countries which deny women the vote should be seen as criminal.
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Crime in England and Wales stats 2009/10 about victims
Young men 16-24 experience the most violence, 7% of women were affected by domestic violence, ethnic minorities are 2x more likely to be victims of robbery, mixed ethnic groups are most likely to be victims of violent crime.
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Why do only 14% of people who experience burglary experience it again in the same year?
Most people take steps to improve the protection of their property.
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Christie (victims)
'Victims' are a social construct as society is more willing to see certain people as victims eg. old man.
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Miers (victim)
Some people are more likely to be a victim of crime because of certain things they do eg. leaving valuables on display in car.
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Mawbe and Walkergate (victims)
People who are oppressed in society are more likely to be victims of crime eg. working class, this is called 'structural powerlessness'.
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Stanko (women victims)
The fear of crime can control women so women try to restrict their behaviour and appearance so they aren't too provocative.
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What is situational crime prevention and what sort of sociologist favours it?
Changing the physical environment of an area to make it harder for people to commit crimes eg. better street lighting. Right realists favour this.
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Ron Clarke (right realist-crime prevention)
Situational crime prevention will increase the amount of crime caught and lower the rewards of crime so people will be less likely to choose to do it.
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Felson (situational crime prevention)
Situational crime prevention was used in the NYC bus terminal, made more room for people to walk through to reduce muggings- it was successful.
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What is environmental crime prevention?
Stopping specific areas from becoming vulnerable to crime by keeping the environment clean and making it obvious people care about the area so people are less likely to do things like drop litter.
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Example of environmental crime prevention
Wilson and Kelling's broken window theory and zero tolerance policing.
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Michael Foucault (surveillance)
Prisons exert disciplinary power by using surveillance. Also causes self surveillance as if prisoners know they are being watched they behave all the time just in case.
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Graef (police racism)
The police have a 'canteen culture' where the majority of officers adopt racist and sexist attitudes to fit in.
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What are informal agents of social control?
The family, education, the media as they all transmit and reinforce what behaviour is acceptable.
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Durkheim (punishment)
Punishment keeps society going, if crimes went unpunished there would be anarchy and society would collapse. Public punishment is good because it helps create unity.
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Marx (punishment)
Punishment serves the needs of the ruling class by keeping workers under control-enforced more in working class areas.
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What proportion of prisoners commit further crime on release?
2/3
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Deviance is needed for social change to occur; all societies need some change to remain healthy. But crime becomes dysfunctional when the levels are too high-threatens social order, too low-no social change.

Back

Durkheim (functionalist)

Card 3

Front

Some forms of deviance provide a safety valve for releasing tension without breaking social stability eg. prostitution+warning device to identify emerging problems so they can be dealt with. WC boys turn to subcultures due to status frustration.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Many people want the 'american dream' but people have unequal opportunities to achieve it-causing either conformity, innovation (crime), ritualism (stopped trying), retreatism (deviancy) or rebelling.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Deviance is learned from other criminals-attitudes, values and techniques are passed on through association with other people.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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