Working Class and Crime

• Merton says working class people commit crime due to a blocked access to opportunities in society and will innovate new ways of gaining success
• Subcultural strain theories believe the reason for working class crime is because of status frustration and focal concerns that create a desire for peer group status by delinquent subcultures
• Control Theory states that working class people lack most of the bonds to society which allows them to commit crime
• Crimogenic Capitalism may promote working class crime
• Labelling Theory says working class offenders are more likely to be labelled as deviant
• Left Realists believe a combination of marginalisation, relative deprivation and subcultures cause working class crime
• Right Realists believe poor and inadequate socialisation of the working class cause the increase in crime
• Postmodernists believe that working class crime is for the pleasures and excitement from a mundane life of social exclusion