paper 3 socio :(

• Crime and deviance


  Socially constructed and culturally determined
• Examples of crime and deviance

  • Arranged marriages legal in India but not UK
  • Child labour acceptable 100 years ago but now illegal
  • Rape in marriage was acceptable 100 years ago but now illegal
• Situational deviance


  Depends on the context of the behaviour (e.g. being naked in your own home vs in public)
• Societal deviance


  Something that society agrees is inappropriate and deviant (e.g. swearing at a person of authority)
• Maternal deprivation


  Can lead to multiple personalities which could possibly lead to criminality
• Genetic abnormalities


  Can make people more aggressive and hostile
• PET scans


  Have shown psychopaths have physical brain abnormalities
• Biological explanations say some people are born criminal
• Study found Italian criminals had abnormal physical features compared to the rest of the Italian population
• Durkheim's positive functions of crime


  Strengthens collective values, leads to social change, acts as a safety valve, acts as a warning device
• Merton's strain theory


  People commit crime to achieve the American Dream due to inequality of access
• Merton's 5 types of strain

  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
  • Rebellion
• Hirschi's control theory


  People break law due to a breakdown in societal bonds of attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief
• Cohen's subcultural theory


  Working class boys form delinquent subcultures to gain status through illegitimate means
• Types of delinquent subcultures

  • Criminal
  • Conflict
  • Retreatism
• Miller's theory


  Male working-class delinquency is a normal part of macho lower-class culture
• Marxist theory


  Capitalism is criminogenic as the classified means the working-class have to commit crime to survive
• Selective law enforcement focuses on policing and punishing the marginalized
• Chambliss argues there is one law for the rich and one for the poor
• Snyder argues the capitalist state only passes laws that regulate working-class behaviour, not their own
• Ideological functions of crime


  Divides the working class and creates a false consciousness that they are the problem, not capitalism
• Neo-Marxist theory


  Crime is voluntary and politically motivated, people have free will and make meaningful choices
• Labeling theory


  Primary deviance is an act not yet labeled as deviant, secondary deviance is deviance that follows after a person has been publicly labeled as deviant
• Becker's work


  Relativity of crime and deviance, interaction between deviance and those who define it, selective enforcement, consequences of deviant label, who has power to attach labels
• Left realist theory


  Focuses on the reality of crime, impact on victims and communities, practical policies to reduce crime
• Right realist theory


  See crime as a real problem that destroys communities, focus on biological differences, rational choice, practical measures to make crime less attractive
• Sources of crime statistics

  • Police recorded crime
  • Victim surveys
  • Court records
  • Prison records
  • Self-report
• There is a hidden figure of crime that is not captured in official statistics
• Perspectives on crime statistics

  • Functionalist, New Right, Right realist (accept statistics uncritically)
  • Interactionism, labeling theory (see statistics as distortion of reality)
  • Marxism, neo-Marxism (recognise systemic bias in application of law)
  • Feminism (statistics underplay female victims)
  • Left realism (statistics have some value but typical offenders are young, working-class, black males)
• Gender differences in crime

  • Women more likely to commit property crimes
  • Men more likely to commit murder, rape, sexual assault
• Pollock argues gender crime statistics are incorrect as women are more likely to be undetected
• feminists argue that the statistics underplay the extent of female victims as many are innocent reluctant to report domestic or sexual offences
• Males can be victims of domestic or sexual offences and are even less likely to report it
• Official statistics have some value but accept the typical offenders are young, working class, black males
• Victim surveys show fear of crime
• Gender differences in crime

  • A third of female prisoners committed property crimes
  • 13% of male criminals committed murder
  • 13% of male criminals raped or sexually assaulted someone
• Pollock argues that gender statistics are incorrect as women are more deceitful when committing crime
• The chivalry thesis impacts whether women are properly prosecuted
• Reasons why women may commit less crime than men

  • Feminine characteristics discourage crime
  • Women have less opportunities
  • Women are more controlled in public, home and workplace
  • Bedroom culture socializes girls not to engage in crime and deviance
• Reasons for increased female crime

  • Liberation thesis - increased feminism has led to less patriarchal control
  • Chesney-Lind - women commit male crimes linked to prostitution
  • Feminization of poverty - women more likely to turn to crime to survive