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64 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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KEY TERM Deviance |
Rule-breaking behaviour of some kind, which fails to conform to the norms and expectations of a particular society or social group. |
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THEORY Cloward and Ohlin |
Argued Cohen's theory did not allow for the diversity of responses found in working class youth. Devised 3 types of delinquent subcultures: Criminal subculture: Utilitarian crimes - in more stable WC areas with an established network of adult crime - offers promotion, an alternative to the legitimate job market. Conflict subculture: High rate of population turnover prevents formation of criminal subculture - legitimate and illegitimate means of achievement are both blocked and frustration at this is expressed via gang violence and street crimes. Retreatist subculture: Involves WC youth who are 'double failures' - have failed to succeed in the legitimate job market or the alternative market provided by criminal subculture. These youths retreat to alcoholism or substance abuse - which may be funded by petty crimes such as minor theft. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin |
Good: Gives a useful insight into why WC crime may take different forms in different social circumstances. Bad: Overemphasis on the differences between the 3 subcultures - there is much overlap between subcultures - ie. goods stolen in the retreating subculture may be sold to criminal subcultures where there is higher demand. |
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THEORY Lombroso 'Born Criminal' |
Said criminality could be biologically determined by the size of facial features. Said criminals were a different, 'primitive' species, unsuited for modern life. After measuring the facial features of criminals, he concluded that a 'born criminal' was likely to have a protruding chin, prominent eyebrow ridges and a sloping brow, and large ears.
Theory is contradicted by criminals who do not fit this image (ie. Rose West) and is rejected as crime is widely seen as due to society and social factors. |
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KEY TERM Crime |
Behaviour which is against the criminal law - is seen as socially constructed as it differs between time and place - ie polygamy allowed in Africa, not in UK; and homosexuality illegal until 1968, not now. |
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KEY TERM Merton's Strain Theory Conformist |
The non-deviant citizens who accept the goals of society and achieve them using legitimate means. |
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KEY TERM Merton's Strain Theory Innovator |
People who accept the goals of society but lack the legitimate means to achieve them to poor social or economic status, and so turn to illegitimate means (ie. crime) to achieve them. |
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KEY TERM Merton's Strain Theory Ritualist |
Individuals who give up on ever achieving the goals of society but still conform to the legitimate means of achieving those goals. |
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KEY TERM Merton's Strain Theory Retreatist |
Individuals who give up on both the goals of society and the means of achieving theses goals - and 'drop out' of society, usually turning to drug abuse or alcoholism. |
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KEY TERM Merton's Strain Theory Rebel |
Individuals who reject the existing goals and means of society but try to establish new ones with the aim of bringing about social change. |
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THEORY Functionalist Merton's Strain Theory |
Society is based on a consensus around social goals and the accepted - legitimate - means of achieving these goals. In unequal society not everyone has access to the legitimate means of achieving these goals leading to a 'strain' between the need to achieve these goals - the 'American Dream' - and the unrealistic prospects of that ever happening. Merton proposed there was 5 different reactions to this so-called 'strain': Conformist Innovator Ritualist Retreatist Rebel |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Merton's Strain Theory |
Good: Clearly explains how both conformist and deviant behaviour can arise from the same goals - and how this arises from society itself. Good: Can explain trends in the official statistics - WC crime is higher (because they lack legitimate means). Bad: Assumes society is based around a value consensus - does not accept the act that different social groups may have different goals. Bad: Can only be effectively applied to explain utilitarian crimes. Bad: Is seen as deterministic - as it concludes that 'strain' in WC class people will result in deviance - when only a minority of WC people turn to deviance although most of them will experience 'strain'. |
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THEORY Cohen Status Frustration |
Criticises Merton's Strain Theory - says it focuses too much in the response of the individual and does not focus on groups - so Cohen proposed a theory of group response. WC youth believe in the goals of society but are at the bottom of the 'status hierarchy' in schools that are predominantly middle-class. These children then experience 'status frustration' and so attempt to establish an alternative hierarchy of status by forming anti-school subcultures where status can be gained by committing deviant or criminal acts - such as violence or vandalism. Some deviant acts, such as vandalism, can be seen as revenge - getting back at the society that failed them. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Cohen's Status Frustration |
Good: Helps to explain working class delinquency as a group response rather than an individual response, such as that proposed by Merton. Good: can explain non-utilitarian crimes, such as vandalism, which Merton's theory failed to do. Bad: Cohen still assumes that all young working class individual accept the mainstream goals set out by a middle-class society, which may be unlikely. |
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THEORY Functionalist Perspective Durkheim |
Crime is inevitable, even in a 'society of saints' because everyone is exposed to different influence and so cannot be equally committed to shared norms and values. However, he suggested crime can be functional: Strengthens collective sentiments: Strengthens the collective conscience of a village or society as every member comes together to condemn or show abhorrence at the crime committed by an offender. Boundary Maintenance: Media coverage of horrific crimes and the following court proceedings remind individuals in society of the laws in place and the punishments for breaking those laws. Acts as a safety valve: Works to relieve stress in society ie. prostitution may lessen the occurrence of rape. |
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KEY TERM Collective Conscience |
Durkheim. A set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes that act as a force to promote unity in society. |
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KEY TERM Boundary Maintenance |
Durkheim. Crime acts as boundary maintenance by reminding individuals of the laws in place in society and the punishments that come with the breaking of those laws, via media coverage of court proceedings etc.. |
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KEY TERM Anomie |
Durkheim. Arises in periods of rapid social change, where people become unsure of the norms and values of society and so look after their own selfish needs. This produces a state of 'normlessness' and leads to increased crime rates. |
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KEY TERM Anomie |
Durkheim. Arises in periods of rapid social change, where people become unsure of the norms and values of society and so look after their own selfish needs. This produces a state of 'normlessness' and leads to increased crime rates. |
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KEY TERM Retributive Justice |
Savage punishments delivered by the state to show abhorrence at the breaking of social norms ie. the death penalty. |
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KEY TERM Anomie |
Durkheim. Arises in periods of rapid social change, where people become unsure of the norms and values of society and so look after their own selfish needs. This produces a state of 'normlessness' and leads to increased crime rates. |
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KEY TERM Retributive Justice |
Savage punishments delivered by the state to show abhorrence at the breaking of social norms ie. the death penalty. |
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KEY TERM Restitutive Justice |
Durkheim. Offenders are forced to make amends for their wrongdoing - restoring the 'balance' of society. |
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KEY TERM Anomie |
Durkheim. Arises in periods of rapid social change, where people become unsure of the norms and values of society and so look after their own selfish needs. This produces a state of 'normlessness' and leads to increased crime rates. |
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KEY TERM Retributive Justice |
Durkheim. Savage punishments delivered by the state to show abhorrence at the breaking of social norms ie. the death penalty. |
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KEY TERM Restitutive Justice |
Durkheim. Offenders are forced to make amends for their wrongdoing - restoring the 'balance' of society. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Durkheim's theories |
Bad: Does not specify how much crime is functional - at what point does it start to descend into anomie? Bad: Does not explain why crime occurs - just how it can be functional. Bad: Is criticised by Marxists and feminists for taking a 'rose-tinted' view and ignoring conflicts in society. Bad: It is difficult to see how some crimes, such as genocide or torture, may be functional to society. |
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KEY TERM Anomie |
Durkheim. Arises in periods of rapid social change, where people become unsure of the norms and values of society and so look after their own selfish needs. This produces a state of 'normlessness' and leads to increased crime rates. |
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KEY TERM Retributive Justice |
Durkheim. Savage punishments delivered by the state to show abhorrence at the breaking of social norms ie. the death penalty. |
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KEY TERM Restitutive Justice |
Durkheim. Offenders are forced to make amends for their wrongdoing - restoring the 'balance' of society. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Durkheim's theories |
Bad: Does not specify how much crime is functional - at what point does it start to descend into anomie? Bad: Does not explain why crime occurs - just how it can be functional. Bad: Is criticised by Marxists and feminists for taking a 'rose-tinted' view and ignoring conflicts in society. Bad: It is difficult to see how some crimes, such as genocide or torture, may be functional to society. |
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THEORY Miller Focal Concerns |
Says that WC delinquents are just acting out some of the values of WC culture. Argues WC culture has focal concerns - such as a desire for excitement, anti-authority attitudes, and a heightened sense of masculinity that sees violence as an adequate problem-solving device - that lead to the 'potentially deviant nature' of WC culture.
This is highly criticised as it strongly implies that WC culture is inferior to MC culture. |
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THEORY Marxist Perspective Chambliss |
Laws to protect private property are the 'cornerstone' of capitalist society. He used the example of Britain's East African colonies to illustrate this - these colonies did not need money as they did not live in an economic society and so did not need to work on the tea plantations of British companies. However, the companies needed workers for the plantations, so the British government introduced a tax, that had to be paid in cash and could be punished by imprisonment if it was not paid. This forced the Africans to work on the plantations in order to earn money to pay the tax and avoid prison - this law only served the ruling-class owners of the plantations. |
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THEORY Marxist perspective Selective Law Enforcement |
Crimes of the powerful are ignored and the crimes of the powerless are overstated. This occurs as crime is seen as a WC phenomenon was so there is a greater police presence in these areas, and so more criminals are caught - leading to über representation of WC crime in the official statistics. Also, whit collar and corporate crimes go unreported and I represented in official statistics as businesses prefer to deal with these matters internally to avoid the bad publicity associated with police investigations revealing these activities to paying customers. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Marxist theories |
Good: Does not just explain crime - also offers a solution by saying that crime will disappear if society changes to a communist structure. Good: Emphasises the importance of power in the perception of crime and casts doubt on the reliability of official statistics - which are used extensively at face value by functionalist sociologists. Bad: It is considered implausible to explain all crime in terms of the ruling class. Bad: Ignores individual motivation to commit crime - puts the occurrence of crime entirely down to society. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Marxist theories |
Good: Does not just explain crime - also offers a solution by saying that crime will disappear if society changes to a communist structure. Good: Emphasises the importance of power in the perception of crime and casts doubt on the reliability of official statistics - which are used extensively at face value by functionalist sociologists. Bad: It is considered implausible to explain all crime in terms of the ruling class. Bad: Ignores individual motivation to commit crime - puts the occurrence of crime entirely down to society. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Taylor, Walton and Young New Criminology |
Say Marxism is deterministic - people who commit crime are not passive victims but are 'voluntarists'. But agree that the economy is the most important aspect of society. See crime as 'a deliberate, meaningful and political response' by the powerless to their position in society - vandalism is a symbolic attack on people's obsession with property, and theft is a reaction to wealth inequality. They say the ruling class are aware of the 'revolutionary' nature of WC - so take steps to control it, such as having extra police targeting WC areas, and regressive laws to control the 'problem population'. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Neo-Marxist theories |
Bad: Hopkins-Burke - new criminology is too general to explain all of crime - and is too idealistic to solve it. Bad: Left realists accuse new criminologists of trying to 'romanticise' the working class criminal. Bad: Rape, domestic violence and other sexual abuse cannot be explained in terms of political motivations. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Neo-Marxist theories |
Bad: Hopkins-Burke - new criminology is too general to explain all of crime - and is too idealistic to solve it. Bad: Left realists accuse new criminologists of trying to 'romanticise' the working class criminal. Bad: Rape, domestic violence and other sexual abuse cannot be explained in terms of political motivations. |
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KEY TERM Primary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that has not yet been labelled as such. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Neo-Marxist theories |
Bad: Hopkins-Burke - new criminology is too general to explain all of crime - and is too idealistic to solve it. Bad: Left realists accuse new criminologists of trying to 'romanticise' the working class criminal. Bad: Rape, domestic violence and other sexual abuse cannot be explained in terms of political motivations. |
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KEY TERM Primary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that has not yet been labelled as such. |
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KEY TERM Secondary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that follows once someone is publicly labelled as deviant. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Neo-Marxist theories |
Bad: Hopkins-Burke - new criminology is too general to explain all of crime - and is too idealistic to solve it. Bad: Left realists accuse new criminologists of trying to 'romanticise' the working class criminal. Bad: Rape, domestic violence and other sexual abuse cannot be explained in terms of political motivations. |
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KEY TERM Primary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that has not yet been labelled as such. |
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KEY TERM Secondary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that follows once someone is publicly labelled as deviant. |
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KEY TERM Negotiation of Justice |
Cicourel. The idea that MC youth are more likely to be given cautions and have charges dropped because police see them as from a 'good background' compared to WC youth who are seen as from a 'bad background'. MC crime is seen as a 'temporary lapse' because MC parents have cultural capital to talk their way out of police pressing charges. Leads to overrepresentation of WC crime in statistics. |
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THEORY Neo-Marxist perspective Hall Moral Panics |
Media works for the ruling class - creating moral panics about certain social groups, such as the working class, to convince society they are the problem thereby distracting attention away from the crimes of the ruling class - he used the example of the moral panic of the 'black mugger' in the 1980s. |
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EVALUATION Evaluation of Neo-Marxist theories |
Bad: Hopkins-Burke - new criminology is too general to explain all of crime - and is too idealistic to solve it. Bad: Left realists accuse new criminologists of trying to 'romanticise' the working class criminal. Bad: Rape, domestic violence and other sexual abuse cannot be explained in terms of political motivations. |
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KEY TERM Primary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that has not yet been labelled as such. |
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KEY TERM Secondary Deviance |
Lemert. Deviance that follows once someone is publicly labelled as deviant. |
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KEY TERM Negotiation of Justice |
Cicourel. The idea that MC youth are more likely to be given cautions and have charges dropped because police see them as from a 'good background' compared to WC youth who are seen as from a 'bad background'. MC crime is seen as a 'temporary lapse' because MC parents have cultural capital to talk their way out of police pressing charges. Leads to overrepresentation of WC crime in statistics. |
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THEORY Labelling theory Becker |
An act only becomes deviant once it is labelled as such. Social groups create 'rules' which constitute deviance when they are broken - these groups are 'moral entrepreneurs'. Agencies of social control, such as police decide whether or not to act upon deviant or illegal behaviour using existing stereotypes or 'typifications' they hold about the 'typical criminal' or 'trouble areas' - they act more harshly to people or places that fit this description. |
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KEY TERM Relative Deprivation |
Lea and Young. An individual sees themselves as deprived compared to another individual - usually in the respect that they have less of the material goods that they feel entitled to than the other person does. These people feel cultural inclusion because they share the same materialistic goals as the rest of society but economic exclusion because they are economically unable to achieve these goals. These people therefore form subcultures with people that share similar experiences to them and these subcultures are pushed to the sidelines of society and are marginalised. This leads to an increase in crime. |
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THEORY Right Realist Hernstein and Murray |
Low levels of intelligence or low IQ leads to crime. Disputed by Lily et al who found that IQ differences account for less than 3% of crime. |
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THEORY Right Realist Rational Choice Theory |
Ron Clarke. Assumes free will. If the rewards gained by committing crime outweigh the costs invited by committing crime, crime is more likely to be committed. Individuals consider this and make a 'rational choice' about whether it is worth committing a crime. Costs include likelihood of getting caught and the length of time spent in prison if prosecuted. Thai contradicts the low intelligence theories also proposed by right realists. |
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THEORY Right Realist Routine Activity Theory |
Crime can occur in an everyday scenario in the presence of 3 conditions: 1. A suitable target; 2. No capable guardian to protect target (including cctv or person); 3. A potential offender who believes the first two conditions are met and decides to commit a crime. |
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THEORY Right Realist Social Control theory |
Hirschi. Suggests strong social bonds connecting people to society make people conform. When these bonds are weakened, crime occurs. |
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THEORY Right Realist Early Socialisation and the 'Criminal Underclass' |
Murray. Lone mothers are ineffective at socialising because the males lack the discipline of a same-sex role model, and so turn to crime and delinquency rather than supporting their family. A 'criminal underclass' develops as a result of parents who cannot socialise children properly. This 'underclass' threatens the stability of society. |
