Crime

• Deviance refers to any act that does not follow the norms and expectations of the social group.
• Crime involves acts that break a law set by the government or rulers.
• Marxist views place too much emphasis on social class.
• Non-capitalist societies also have crimes, while some capitalist societies - such as Switzerland - have low crime rates.
• Feminists would say Marxists do not take account of patriarchy.
• Deviance is a wider category of behaviour than crime because it includes acts that do not involve breaking a law.
• Deviance includes acts that are positive and may be rewarded (positively sanctioned).
• An act of heroism may be rewarded with a medal.
• Some deviance is not sanctioned; for example, eccentric behaviour may be tolerated.
• Most sociologists use the term deviance for behaviour that is negatively sanctioned.
• Marshall Clinard said deviance should be used to refer to 'those situations in which behavior is in a disapproved direction and of a sufficient degree to exceed the tolerance of the community'.
• The most obvious form of deviance is therefore crime.
• Sociologists of deviance have often studied deviance that is not necessarily criminal, such as suicide and mental illness.
• Deviance and crime are relative, that is, what is considered to be deviant or criminal varies from time to time and place to place.
• Actions can be deviant only in terms of the standards of a particular society or in a particular time in its history.
• No acts are deviant by their nature.
• Even killing someone is not always considered a crime, for example it is not a crime for soldiers to kill enemy soldiers in wartime.
• There have been arguments as to whether incest and cannibalism are always deviant, so that all societies have punished them.
• In sociology, most early research and theory was about crime but from the 1960s onwards there was a greater interest in deviance, especially in some deviant sub-cultures.
• Functionalism recognises the importance of socialisation and how this can reduce crime and deviance.
• Functionalism assumes the existence of a shared set of values across society, which is unlikely to be the case today.
• Strain theory assumes that almost everyone in a society shares the same values, which is disputed by other theorists such as Marxists and feminists.
• Marxists argue that functionalism ignores the issue of power in society, arguing that the law functions the interests of the powerful groups (the bourgeoisie).
• Strain theory cannot explain crimes committed by people who have already achieved their goals, such as white-collar crime.
• Durkheim's analysis did not attempt to explain different types of crime, although other views influenced by Durkheim have tried to do this.
• Merton was influenced by Durkheim's ideas about values, but adapted them to explain reasons for crime and different types of crime.
• Merton claimed that a lot of working-class crime could be explained by strain theory: people struggled to achieve the goal of material success through legitimate means, so they turned to crime instead.
• Merton suggested there were five possible responses to the situation where there is a mismatch between goals and means: conformists, innovators, ritualists, retreatists, and rebels.
• Subculturalists tend to focus on male criminality and are criticised by feminists for ignoring girls and the possible reasons why they do not become involved in deviant sub-cultures.
• Neutralisation techniques include denying responsibility, denying harm, and condemning the condemners.
• Strain theory is useful for explaining crimes committed for material gain (such as theft and fraud); it can also explain crimes such as drug-taking that result from giving up on the goals entirely.
• Bribery and threats were used to keep quiet people who knew or might suspect what was going on.
• Robert K Merton developed the ideas of Durkheim and early functionalists in strain theory.
• Marxists point out that some crimes involving property are punished more severely than crimes involving violence or even death; this shows that property is valued more highly than life.
• In the USA in the 1930s, there was great emphasis on the 'American Dream', which meant achieving materials success and becoming wealthy through hard work.
• Subcultural theories offer insights into offending by young people, particularly the search for status.
• Strain theory suggests that the goals of the American Dream cause deviant behaviour.
• According to Marxism, crime happens because of capitalism.
• The ruling class makes the laws and decides who should be punished for what crimes.
• The idea that crime is functional for society is questionable, as it is hard to see how a crime can be good from a victim's point of view.