M1 Crime

• Safety valve - Davis?


  Sees prostitution as a way for men to release sexual frustration without damaging the nuclear family
• Safety valve - Polsky?


  Sees pornography as functioning as a 'safe' outlet in a similar way
• Safety valve - Cohen?

  Deviance is a warning that an institution is failing, eg high rates of truancy in schools
• Safety valve - Erikson?

  • Deviance performs positive social functions
  • Society is organised to promote deviance
  • Labelling theory proves agencies of social control produce rather than prevent crime
• 2 criticisms of the Functionalist theory of crime?

  • It ignores victims of crime
  • not 'functional' for the victim
  • Assumes everyone holds the same moral values
  • Ignores natural diversity in opinion and morals in the population and different cultures
• Anomie?

  Normlessness - tension between goals and means
• Merton strain theory - structural factors?

  Society's unequal opportunity structure
• Merton strain theory - cultural factor?

  • Strong emphasis on success, goals,
  • Weaker emphasis on legitimate means to achieve them
• What is the strain in Merton's strain theory?

  Tension between the socially-encouraged goals of society and socially-acceptable means to achieve them
• Merton's five responses to strain?

  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
  • Rebellion
• Strain - conformity?

  Acceptance of goals and means
• Strain - innovation?

  Goals are accepted but innovative ways are used to achieve them
• Strain - Ritualism?

  Goals are rejected but individual goes along with institutionalised means
• Strain - Retreatism?

  Rejection of both goals and means eg drug users
• Strain - Rebellion?

  Both goals and means are rejected and substituted eg political activist
• What do all functionalist explanations of crime neglect?

  • The nature of power in society
  • Who it is that makes the law
• Evaluations of Merton's strain theory?

  • Doesn't consider the source / in whose interest social goals are in
  • Doesn't consider why some find it harder to achieve society's goals than others
  • Doesn't explain why groups of people are deviant in the same way eg gangs
  • Presents no explanation for non-utilitarian crime
• Subcultural theory?

  Sees deviance as a product of delinquent subculture

  Criticises and builds on Merton's theory
• Who theorised status frustration?

  Cohen
• What is status frustration?

  • Resentment that arises when individuals are unable to achieve the social status they desire
  • Cohen explains this through working class boys facing anomie in middle class schools
  • They face problems adjusting to their low status
• How does status frustration critique strain theory?

  • Explains why crimes such as vandalism and assault occur without economic motive
• Alternative status hierachy?

  • Delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society
  • Offers boys an alternative structure illegitimately
  • Offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance
• Which group of people does subcultural theory focus on?

  Those who have been denied achievement through legitimate means (delinquents)
• In what way does Cohen agree with Merton?

  Both see deviance as a largely lower class phenomenon
• How does Cohen criticise Merton?

  He points out that he offers no explanation for deviance amongst the young, and he ignores violent crime (eg assault) without economic motive
• According to Cohen how are working-class boys denied status?

  They are unable to achieve in education due to cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve, leaving them at the bottom of the official status hierachy
• Cohen believes that due to this boys experience a form of anomie - called what?

  Cohen's ideas of status frustration, value inversion, and alternative status hierarchy help to explain non-economic delinquency such as vandalism and truancy
• How do working-class boys then respond to this form of anomie?

  Cohen suggests that working-class boys start off sharing middle-class success goals only to reject these when they fail. He ignores the possibility that they didn't share these goals in the first place
• How is Cohen criticised?

  He assumes middle-class goals are shared, people turn to crime when they fail

  • they may have never shared these in the first place
• What are Cloward and Ohlin's 3 'illegitimate opportunity structures'?

  • Criminal subcultures
  • Conflict subcultures
  • Retreatist subcultures
• Criminal subcultures?

  The young associate with adult criminals and get opportunities on he criminal career ladder
• Conflict subcultures?

  Loosely organised gangs that win 'turf' from rival groups
• Retreatist subcultures?

  Not everyone in criminal subcultures are successful, these rely on drug use (typically)
• Outline two evaluation points of Cloward and Ohlin's work?

  • Their theory over-predicts working class crime - ignores wider power structures
  • The boundaries between subcultures are drawn too sharply eg the drug trade could be a mix of disorganised crime and conflict subculture
• What does Walter Miller blame working-class delinquency on?

  He believes it is a way to achieve their own goals, not mainstream ones
• What are Mazta's criticisms of subcultural theory?

  He suggests delinquents aren't strongly committed to their subcultures like strain theory suggests. They drift in and out of delinquency
• What is Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory?

  • Focuses on the American Dream
  • Obsession with money / success / winner takes all mentality encourages anomic cultural environments as 'anything goes' in the pursuit of wealth
  • High crime rate is inevitable in any capitalist 'dog eat dog' society
• How do Downes and Hansen support this theory?

  • Through a survey of 18 countries, they found lower welfare spending meant lower rates of imprisonment
  • Societies that protect the poor from the worst excess of the free market have less crime
• Selective law enforcement?

  Agencies of social control use considerable discretion and selective judgement in deciding whether and how to deal with illegal/deviant behavior
• Becker - selective law enforcement?

  Suggests the police operate with pre-existing conceptions