crime and deviance

• crime is behaviour which breaks the formal, written laws of society, where the punishment is likely to be more serious than the punishment of deviance.
• deviance is moving or straying away from set standards in society, or from the norms of a group. it refers to behaviour that is different but not controlled legally.
• social construction is a key idea in society that shows how the same thing can be interpreted in different ways. the interpretation placed on an event or action depends on our norms and values. an action or event is not deviant until it is defined as deviant. what is deviant will vary between different times and places - it is relative and subjunctive.
• victim surveys question people about their experience of crime, and whether they have experienced crimes in the past 12 months. the crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is the biggest example of this in Britain. it is carried out every year with a sample of 350,000 households. it uses structured interviews. it covers crimes against the person and property but does not cover all crime.
• official statistics are crimes recorded by the police and published by the home office each year. they are helpful sources of secondary data. they help to identify trends in crime over time, rates of particular crimes over time and compare crime rates in different parts of the UK.
• advantages of official statistics

  • very big and national - every police force has to do the same thing
  • annually - easy to spot trends and patterns over time
  • longitudinal
  • can compare regions
  • reliable
  • can inform policy change (applicable)
• disadvantages of official statistics

  • government can play down statistics by tweaking definition, eg fraud
  • not all victims report the crime - lack of recording and reporting can lead to dark figure of crime
  • some crimes may not be discovered or witnessed
  • not enough evidence
• official crime statistics main findings - 2017

  • 13% increase in police recorded crime shows improvement to crime recording and genuine increases in some crime categories
  • recorded 5.2 million offences in latest year - this provides a better indication of emerging trends, and reflects changes in recording practices and police activity
  • 6% rise in deaths or serious injuries caused by illegal driving
• the dark figure of crime

  • includes crimes that are not included in official statistics because they are not reported or recorded
  • the British crime survey reveals that the actual crime rate for some crimes is up to 4 times higher than indicated by police figures
• advantages of self report surveys

  • can uncover crimes which were not caught by the police
  • can uncover crimes that the victim did not report
• disadvantages of self report surveys

  • people may not trust the anonymity and still not admit to their crimes
  • morally questionable to find criminals and not punish them
• advantages of victim surveys

  • includes unreported crimes
  • allows trends to be identified
  • results allow policy makers to introduce measures to tackle crimes
• victim surveys

  • respondents may lie
  • low response rate
  • does not cover a full range of crimes, eg murder, or victimless crimes such as drug dealing
• usefulness of official crime statistics

  • validity - positivists - valid as statistics are national, interpretivists - not valid as no background information, ignores certain crimes
  • reliability - positivists - reliable as all police forces follow same rules, interpretivists - not reliable as government can play down statistics by ignoring certain crimes
  • representativeness - positivists, representative as shows demographics of population as it's national, interpretivists - ignore certain crimes, criminals that are recorded are not representative
• usefulness of self report surveys

  • validity - some may lie or downplay scale of crime, or some don't know they have committed a crime
  • reliability - some criminals may lie or not admit so not reliable
  • representativeness - only people who commit less serious crime respond, small response rate so small sample
  • generalisability - low response rate so not enough data to be generalisable of the population
• usefulness of victim surveys

  • validity - uncovers unreported crimes however some victims may not report crimes
  • reliability - some crimes are victimless so cannot be reported, therefore not relied on
  • representativeness - doesn't cover all types of crimes so doesn't show all crimes in an area
  • generalisability - don't show a very good measure of crime
• Durkheim explanations of crime

  • crime is vital and a necessary part of healthy societies
  • reactions to crime reinforces the values and beliefs of society and encourages social cohesion and collective conscience
  • also deters people from committing criminal acts as when someone is arrested it reminds society of what happens when boundaries are crossed
• Durkheim - safety valve theory

  • deviance allows people to express themselves in a way that's not criminal
  • it is a pressure release that prevents people from committing criminal acts
• Durkheim - changing values theory

  • the public response to crimes can change values and help society to evolve
  • for example homosexuality or when a citizen attacks a burglar
  • this can lead to a change in law to reflect the changing values
• Durkheim - affirming boundaries

  • unites the public in a collective conscience of disapproval
  • for example, Partygate, where Boris Johnson hosting parties during covid lockdown caused disapproval and outrage from society
• Durkheim - 'society of saints'

  • such high standards of society would make the smallest deviant act standout, so deviance is inevitable and will always be present in society
  • deviance helped society to evolve, to review the way it does thing and to learn from deviance and mistakes
  • crime and deviance can only lead to dysfunction when rates are very low (stagnation) or very high (social disorganisation and chaos)
• criticisms of Durkheim

  • purely theoretical ideas, not backed up by empirical evidence
  • his theories are lacking in practical application, and not useful in reducing crime
  • functionalism is opposed to other theories of crime as they do not consider the full issue of crime
• Merton - 'American Dream'

  • the idea that every US citizen has equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination and initiative
  • society is meritocratic and hard work leads to success
• Merton's strain theory

  • goals and aspirations are determined by cultural values
  • people in the USA are socialised to believe in and strive for the American dream
  • however some groups lack opportunities to achieve the goals of the American dream
  • those who cannot achieve the goals of the American dream experience a strain, therefore turning to crime to achieve it
  • not all individuals have the same opportunities due to barriers such as unemployment, racism, and lack of educational success
• Anomie - norms break down and people turn to any mean to achieve goals. when the goals of the American dream do no match how you achieve it, anomie develops.
• 5 types of people

  • conformity - has goals and means (eg successful banker)
  • innovation - has goals but no means (eg a drug dealer)
  • ritualism - has means but no goals (eg an indifferent job centre worker
  • retreatism - no goals or means (eg drug addict, homeless person)
  • rebellion - no goals or mean, replace the conventional goals and means with their own (eg a monk)
• criticisms of Merton

  • does not explain why some individuals faced with anomie break rules whilst some conform to rules
  • only explain crime committed for material/instrumental gain
  • marxist - don't acknowledge that society is not meritocratic, some people from middle/upper class families have an advantage as they already have means
  • police cover up white collar crimes so don't shows people who have means and goals but still commit crimes
• Cohen's status frustration theory

  • he argued that working class boys often failed at school resulting in a low status
  • this resulted in the formation of subcultures or gangs with values that were the reverse of mainstream values
  • this explains delinquency within particular groups in society and non-utilitarian crimes
• non-utilitarian crime is crime that is committed without trying to get money or achieve a particular goal, they are only committed to express frustration, or for the fun of it.
• status frustration leads to crime when working class children hold the same success goals as wider society but cannot reach their goal, often due to educational underachievement. this causes them to form delinquent subcultures with different norms and values, and results in them committing crimes such as stealing cars and vandalism to achieve status within the peer group.
• functionalists would say that deviancy means an individual is not socialised into norms and values as they are not conforming to the typical/ expected behaviours of society, and are not achieving goals by legitimate means.
• evaluation of Cohen's theory

  • white collar crimes are not acknowledged as it only explains why working class individuals without the means to achieve their goals experience frustration and form subcultures.
• relative deprivation is when people growing up in a poor environment and lacking resources that the majority of others have can turn to criminal activity. this idea links to merton's strain theory when people cannot buy things legitimately, they may turn to crime to acquire them.
• deviant career - the process of someone seeing themselves as deviant and possibly joining a deviant subculture
• interactionist view on crime

  • deviance cannot be understood by focusing on the act committed
  • it can only be understood by focusing on the interaction between the person who commits the act and those who react to it
  • behaviour only becomes deviant when people label it as such
• Becker - power of labelling to influence criminal behaviour

  • labelling a person as a criminal can have consequences for a person's identity, as if the negative label is successfully applied, it tends to stick and people only see this person as this label (master status)
  • after constant reinforcement, the individual may believe the label and take on the role
  • Cicourel's study of police and juvenile officers in California found police were more likely to arrest people who fitted the picture of low income backgrounds and minority ethnicity
• marxists believe that crime is crimogenic. this is when something creates crime. capitalism pushes people towards crime when they have goals but not the means to achieve them.
• materialism - capitalism promotes the value that material wealth means success
• consumerism leads to individuals wanting the latest consumer goods such as designer clothes and mobile phones.
• there is competition between individuals to obtain these products and gain material wealth