Theories + crime

• Postmodernists:

  • suggest that to reduce crime/social harm a large number of strategies both large + small, public + privately funded are required
• Foucault(PM) :

  • Example of using private security firms to provide CCTV
  • People who know they're being watched are less likely to commit crime
• Baumann + Lyon (PM) :

  • Contemporary society accepts invisible surveillance (phones) + attitude is nobody should have anything to hide
• Henry + Milovanovic (PM) :

  • Suggest concept of crime replaced with concept of social harm
  • Could cover a much more diverse array of deviant behaviours. 2 categories:
  • Harms of reduction - power used that results in an immediate loss of possession/causes harm to a person
  • Harms of repression - power that threatens someone's future growth + development
• Postmodernists (explain crime)

  • Society = fragmented + characterised by increasing individualism
  • Not interested in patterns of crime/ narrow reasons of why crime is committed
  • Crime reflects highly individual experiences + choices, so can't be generalised
  • Crime = product of the individual who has free will to decide to commit/not
• Lea + Young (left realist) (relative deprivation) :

  • Relative deprivation = crime as people who are deprived resent others with more material goods, so resorting to illegitimate means
  • Today's society people are both prosperous + crime ridden
  • Media + advertising contribute by raising people's expectations for material possessions
  • Recognises that crimes require an element of individualism
  • The disitigration of families + communities = increased individualism
• Lea + Young (subcultures)

  • Subcultures form a collective solution to relative deprivation
  • Some may turn turn to crime to close the deprivation gap
  • These subcultures subscribe to materialism + consumerism (eg. Wanting labelled goods)
• Lea + Young (marginalisation) :

  • Marginalised groups (eg. Unemployed youth) lack goals and organisations to represent them = frustration + resentment
  • Express frustration through criminal acts (violence + rioting)
• Clarke (right realist) (rational choice theory) :

  • Decision to commit crime is based on a rational calculation of consequences
  • If perceived rewards outweigh the costs, people more likely to offend
  • Argued the leniant punishments have led to increased crime rate
• Herrnstein + Wilson (RR) (Biological factors) :

  • Biological differences between individuals make some more predisposed to crime
  • Eg - personality traits such as aggression, extroversion + low impulse control = people greater at risk of offending
  • Low intelligence = contributing factor seen as biologically determined
• Murray (RR) (inadequate socialisation) :

  • Crime increasing due to increase in underclass, defined by their deviant behaviour
  • Growing underclass caused by welfare dependency
  • Easily accessible benefits created decline in marriage + increase inone parent families
  • Lone mothers + absent fathers = ineffective socialisation
  • Men have little motivation to work as not required to look after a family
  • Absent fathers = lack of male role model for boys
  • So young males turn delinquent
• Becker (Labelling theory) :

  • Social construction of crime - a deviant = someone who the label has been successfully applied
  • Deviant behaviour = behaviour of those labelled
  • Those labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity  
• Cicourel (negotiation of justice) :

  • Officers stereotypes of typical criminal leads to them concentrating on the types of people likely to offend
  • Eg. Patrolling working class areas
• Lemert (primary + secondary deviance) :

  • Primary - deviant acts not been publicly labelled as criminal (moments of madness)
  • Secondary - deviant acts of those labelled, people view this person according to their master status (criminal/deviant )
• Braithwaite (disintegrative + reintegrative shaming) :

  • Disintegrative - punishment that isolates the individual promoting labelling + it's effects (eg. Stigma, shaming, exclusion)
  • Reintergrative - punishes the individual in a way that strengthens the bonds with society + only labels the act (done a bad thing, is not a bad person)
• Eval of neomarxism :

  • Burke - neomarxism is too general to explain crime and too idealistic to tackle crime
• Snider (Marxist) (law making) :

  • The capitalist state is reluctant to ss laws that regulate the activities of businesses/threaten their profitability
• Taylor et al (neo Marxist) :

  • Criticise Marxists for economic determinism
  • NM see crime as meaningful action + conscious choice by actor
  • Argue crime often has political motive (eg. Redistribute wealth from rich to poor)
  • Criminal not passive puppets, whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism
  • They're deliberately striving to change society
• Pearce (Marxist) (ideological functions of law) :

  • Law gives capitalism a caring face + creates a false consciousness among workers
  • Eg - workplace + health and safety laws
  • However benefits ruling classes as workers stay fit for work
• Reiman (Marxist) (selective enforcement) :

  • Ruling classes more likely to commit crime but less likely to have offence treated as criminal offence
  • Due to selective bias within CJS
• Hirschi (F) (Bonds of attachment) :

  • Focuses on why people don't commit crimes
  • Identifies 4 bonds of attachment that keep people linked to value consensus = social control
  • Attachment - care what close family think
  • Commitment - the risks of losing a job
  • Involvement - how involved in society are we hobbies + jobs take up time for commiting crime
  • Belief - moral code : abiding by law = right thing
• Miller (F) (Focal concerns) :

  • Suggests wc boys socialised into no. of distinct values that together meant they were more likely to engage in delinquent /deviant behaviour
  • = focal concerns
  • Excitement, toughness, smartness, trouble, fate(future already decided) , autonomy (wish to be independent + not rely on others)
• Merton (F) (strain theory) :

  • social deviance = result of the interaction between individual +social system
  • American dream leads to crime (illegitimate means of obtaining)
  • Conformity - achieve goals of society + have opportunity to do so
  • Innovation - want to achieve goals but turn to illegitimate means 
  • Ritualism - given up on achieving goals + carry on with lives (dead-end jobs)
  • Retreatism - reject both goals + means
  • Rebellion - form own goals + means to create a new society
• Durkheim (F) (inevitability of crime) :

  • Crime = normal + integral part of all healthy societies
  • 2 reasons why crime +deviance found:
  • Not everyone effectively socialised
  • Too many aspects of diversity in complex modern day society - creating subcultures that are seen as deviant to some
• Erikson (F) -

  • Due to positive functions of crime - police are designed to create + maintain crime
  • Rather than stop it
• Durkheim (positive crime) :

  • Boundary maintenance - crime produces a reaction = strengthens norms and values through punishment
  • Adaption + change - for norms + values to exist in society, deviant acts must occur