sociology crime and deviance

• Strain theory focuses on how negative relationships and unsuccessful life experiences lead people to commit crimes.
• Rational choice theory proposes that criminals engage in a rational decision making process when determining whether or not to commit a crime.
• positivist theories suggest that criminal behaviour is caused by biological or psychological factors beyond an individual's control.
• Subcultural strain theories propose that the cause of crime is delinquent subcultures, which offer people an alternative to the legitimate opportunity structure
• Albert Cohen's subcultural theory suggests that the working class, who are materially and culturally deprived, underachieve in school and experience status frustration, leading to criminal subcultures
• Cloward and Ohlin's subcultural theory identifies three types of subcultures that arise due to unequal access to the illegitimate opportunity structure: Criminal subcultures, Conflict subcultures, and Retreatist subcultures
• Criminal subcultures form in neighborhoods with a longstanding criminal network, leading to successful criminal careers
• Conflict subcultures form in neighborhoods with high population turnover, making it difficult to build a stable criminal network
• Retreatist subcultures form when individuals are 'double failures' and turn to drug and alcohol addictions
• Interactionist view of crime states that crime is a social construct, where no act is inherently deviant, but becomes deviant when labeled as such by society
• Howard Becker argues that no act is inherently deviant, and deviance is a label applied by society
• Lemert distinguishes between primary deviance (acts not publicly labeled) and secondary deviance (acts publicly labeled), which can impact the offender's self-concept
• Master status is a label that becomes someone's 'controlling identity', impacting how they are viewed in society
• Deviancy amplification spiral occurs when attempts to control deviance worsen the situation, as seen in cases like Mods and Rockers
• Stanley Cohen's study on Mods and Rockers shows how media-created moral panics can lead to further deviance in a deviancy amplification spiral
• Braithwaite suggests using reintegrative shaming over disintegrative shaming to reduce deviancy amplification spirals
• Douglas argues that the labeling of suicide depends on interactions between social actors like coroners and parents
• Lemert discusses how the labeling of paranoia can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and master status
• Rosenhan's study shows how participants faking symptoms were labeled as schizophrenic, impacting their actions and perceptions
• Goffman describes institutionalization as a process where individuals in psychiatric wards undergo a 'mortification of the self'
• Branginski's study shows how long-term psychiatric patients manipulate symptoms to stay in the ward but have free movement
• Marxist view of crime suggests that capitalism is criminogenic, laws are selectively enforced, and have an ideological function
• Left realism criticizes other criminal theories and advocates for reform to tackle crime, focusing on relative deprivation, subcultures, and marginalization
• Late modernity and crime theory by Young argues that social instability and job insecurity lead to relative deprivation and downward relative deprivation in society
• Left realist ways of tackling crime include democratic policing and reducing inequality through major structural changes
• Gender patterns in crime show that 4/5 convicted offenders are male, with men more likely to be repeat offenders and commit serious crimes
• Chivalry thesis suggests that the criminal justice system is lenient towards women, leading to underreporting of female crimes
• Functionalist sex role theory by Parsons explains that women and girls have different role models at home, influencing their behavior and potential for crime
• Control theory by Heidensohn and Carlen suggests that women are heavily controlled in society, limiting their opportunities for criminal behavior
• Liberation thesis by Alder argues that women's liberation from patriarchal control leads to their involvement in more traditional 'male' crimes
• Net widening and defining deviance up contribute to the perception of women committing more violent crimes, along with moral panics about girls' behavior
• Ethnicity and official statistics show disparities in the prison population and stops and searches based on race
• Racism in policing is evident in discriminatory practices towards ethnic minorities, leading to disparities in stop and searches
• Low discretion stops and searches highlight how police actions are based on racial profiling rather than reasonable suspicion
• Under the Terrorism Act 2000, police can stop and search people without reason
• Low discretion stops and searches are based on reasonable suspicions e.g. offender profiling
• High discretion stops and searches are not based on reasonable suspicions
• Reasons for ethnic differences in stop and search statistics:

  • Ethnic differences in offending
  • Police racism
  • Demographic factors
• Racism in arrests and cautions:

  • Black people are 3 times more likely to be arrested than white people
  • Blacks and Asian people are less likely to receive a caution
• Racism in prosecutions:

  • Crown Prosecution Service is more likely to drop cases against ethnic minorities, showing racism at previous stages