Sociology-Crime and Deviance

• Crime and deviance can be considered socially constructed as it is culturally determined
• Examples of societal changes over time include:

  • Arranged marriages being legal in India but not in the UK
  • Sending children to work being acceptable in the UK 100 years ago but now illegal before the age of 13
  • Rape in marriage being legal 100 years ago but now illegal
• Situational deviance depends on the context of behavior:

  • Being naked in your own home is acceptable
  • Being naked in public is considered deviant
• Societal deviance includes behaviors that society agrees are inappropriate, such as swearing at a person of authority
• Maternal deprivation can lead to split personalities, potentially leading to criminality
• Genetic abnormalities, such as an extra Y chromosome, may make people more aggressive and prone to hating others
• PET scans have shown that psychopaths have physical brain abnormalities
• Italian criminals have been found to have abnormal physical features compared to the rest of the Italian population
• Durkheim's positive functions of crime include strengthening collective values, leading to social change, acting as a safety valve, and serving as a warning device
• Merton's strain theory explains that people commit crime to achieve the American Dream due to inequality of access
• Hirschi's control theory states that breakdown in societal bonds, including attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief, can lead to crime
• Cohen found that working-class boys faced status frustration, leading to the formation of delinquent subcultures
• Marxists argue that capitalism is criminogenic, leading working-class individuals to commit crime to survive
• Selective law enforcement focuses on prosecuting the working class while ignoring crimes of the ruling class
• Raymond suggests that crime of the powerful is often treated differently than crimes of the less powerful
• Selective lawmaking is influenced by the interests of the ruling class
• Labeling processes can lead to primary deviance (unlabeled acts) and secondary deviance (acts labeled as deviant)
• Becker's work emphasizes the relativity of crime and deviance, influenced by societal definitions and reactions
• Labeling theories focus on consequences of labeling, such as self-fulfilling prophecy and societal reactions leading to more crime
• Left realists focus on the impact of crime on victims and communities, advocating for practical policies to reduce crime
• Right realists see crime as a problem that destroys communities and undermines social cohesion, focusing on biological differences and rational choice in committing crime
• Measuring crime includes trends showing a decrease since 1995, sources such as police recorded crime, victim surveys, court records, and self-reports
• Functionalists, new right, and right realists accept crime statistics uncritically, while interactionists and labeling theorists find them useless and distorted
• Marxists and neo-Marxists recognize systemic bias in law enforcement and stress the prevalence of white-collar and corporate crime
• Feminists argue that crime statistics underplay the extent of female victims, especially in cases of domestic or sexual offenses
• Fennec feminists argue that statistics underplay the extent of female victims as many are reluctant to report domestic or sexual offences
• Criticism: Males can also be victims of domestic or sexual offences and are even less likely to report to the police
• Official statistics show that typical offenders are young, black, working-class males
• Victim surveys show fear of crimes
• A third of female prisoners committed property crimes, while 13% of male criminals committed murder and another 13% raped or sexually assaulted someone
• Pollock argues that gender statistics are incorrect as women may be more deceitful when committing crimes
• Chivalry thesis impacts whether women are properly prosecuted
• Reasons why women may commit less crime than men include socialization expectations, control theory, and opportunities
• Ethnicity and crime: African Caribbean males in prison are 15%, females are 21%
• Minorities are twice as likely to be stopped and searched, more likely to be charged than cautioned, and receive harsher sentences
• Young people in general commit more crime, creating an illusion that minorities are committing more crime
• Reasons for criminality among black boys: lack of a father figure, negative experience of white culture, media influence
• Social class and crime: majority of those in prison come from semi-skilled or unskilled manual backgrounds
• Middle class individuals may turn to crime due to relative deprivation and more opportunities
• Media influence on crime: functionalism, Marxism, feminism, post-modernism perspectives