Crime + Deviance

• what are white collar crimes?

  crimes committed by the middle class e.g tax evasion
• what is crime?


  behaviour that breaks the law, it is punishable by a state or other authority if detected
• What is devience?


  behaviour that does not conform to societies rules, norms and values. If detected it is likely to lead to an informal negative sanction
• what social factors does deviancy depend on?

  -timing of the day

  -social context

  -social setting

  e.g swearing is acceptable at a football game, but not at a funeral
• what is an act that is a crime but not deviant?

  an act that used to be criminal?

  an act that used to be deviant?

  an act that is deviant but not criminal?

  speeding/illegally downloading music

  homosexual behaviour

  wearing short skirts/dresses

  cutting a queue
• What are formal and informal rules?

  formal- written down laws or code of conduct with an official status

  informal- unwritten guidelines on acceptable behaviour in particular social settings
• What are formal and informal sanctions?

  formal- actions legalised and official in nature and enforced by an authoritative force

  informal- not laws in a legal sense, but occur regularly in society
• give a positive and negative informal sanction

  positive- receiving a 'thank you'

  negative- disapproving looks
• give a positive and negative formal sanction

  positive-knighthood

  negative- ASBO (anti-social behaviour order)
• what are some formal agencies of social control?

  -the judicial system (judge, jury, barristers, lawyers)

  -police force

  -parliament (prime minister, MP's)

  -army
• what are some informal agencies of social control?

  -religion

  -education system

  -work

  -family

  -media

  -peers
• what are the biological explanations for crime?

  -Lombroso believed that criminals were born and could be identified by physical characteristics e.g large jaw size, big ears (C- no scientific coloration)

  -a more recent explanation is that some people are more likely to commit violent crimes due to the genes they have inherited
• what are the physiological explanations for crime?

  -personality traits (e.g being impulsive) is linked to criminal tendencies by some

  -mental illness (e.g kleptomania, schizophrenia) is also linked to crime

  Case study- two 10 year olds were kidnapped by a caretaker who was a psychopath (who was working with the police)
• what is a utilitarian and non-utilitarian crime?

  -a crime that produces a monetary reward e.g tax evasion

  -crimes that are not based around money e.g vandalism
• what is the functionalist view of crime?

  crime is functional for society, providing the crime is not too high or low frequency

  -when a criminal acts happen, social change can occur e.g homosexuality

  -when a criminal is punished, it could prevent other criminal acts from occurring through fear of punishment

  -provides jobs for law enforces and in the judicial system
• What is Durkheim's perspective of crime?

  -when a criminal acts happen, social change can occur e.g Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for being a 'terrorist' but later became the president of South Africa. society needs innovators in order for it to progress

  -societies need both crime and punishment. Through degradation ceremonies such as criminal trials and public punishments, we are reminded of our shared norms and values, and we learn the limits of toleration and unite against the condemned
• what are some criticisms of Durkheim's perspective of crime?

  -it is more relevant to small-scale societies, as opposed to large scale, modern, industrial societies

  -many crimes harm the victims and damage communities, and are unlikely to reaffirm shared values and beliefs

  -feminists and Marxists believe the law functions in the interest of powerful groups (men, the bourgeois)
• What is strain theory?

  society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream), though they lack the means. This leads to strain and anomie (rejecting the value consensus) which may lead the individuals to commit crimes, e.g selling drugs or becoming involved in prostitution, to gain financial security.

  By Robert Merton, structuralist
• what are some factors that affect chances of success?

  Class

  Age

  Gender

  Ethnicity

  Disability
• which class most strongly feels the strain to anomie?

  those at the bottom of the class structure as they are less likely to get the skills and qualifications needed to get to the top, and so, are more likely to resort to illegitimate means
• what are the types of people according to Merton?

  -conformists

  -innovators

  -rebellion

  -retreatism

  -ritualism
• what are conformists?


  accept the culturally approved goals and achieve them legitimately
• what are innovators?


  accept goal, illigitemate means
• what is rebellion


  reject goal and replace them, and reject legitimate means
• What are retreatists?


  where they reject both goals and means (dropouts)
• what are ritualists?


  give up achieving the goals, but internalize the legitimate means and follow the rules
• what is the chivalry thesis?

  women are treated with more leniency within the criminal justice system
• what is the double deviance thesis?

  women who do not conform to traditional feminine stereotypes are treated more harshly than others as they have broken both the law and the norms governing gender behaviour
• how does heindersohn say women are controlled in the home?

  -women's opportunities to commit commit crime is limited by their housewife role which takes up time

  -daughters, especially from the working class, are expected to stay closer to home than sons, and spend more time on classwork
• how does heindersohn say women are controlled in public?

  -controlled by the threat of violence. despite being no more at risk from street violence than men, they fear sexual assault

  -fear of a bad reputation. men control women's reputation by describing them in terms in their sexuality
• how does heindersohn say women are controlled at work?

  - in the workplace, men hold authority over women as managers and supervisors

  -sexual harassment at work also limits women's freedom in the workplace
• what is control theory?

  social bonds between people prevent them from turning to crime, acting as a mechanism of social control
• what is the interactionalist view on crime and who thought of it?

  becker

  -deviant behaviour is labelled as such depending on factors such as time, place, who commits the act and who feels harmed as it

  -labelling someone as deviant can cause them to commit deviant actions though a self fulfilling prophecy
• what are some criticisms of the interactionalist approach to crime?

  -does not explain why individuals commit crime in the first place

  -veiws criminals as victims of labelling theory and ignores the fact that some choose to break the law

  -feminist and Marxist theories
• what is the Marxist perspective of crime?

  -we live in a criminogenic society where crime is caused by capitalism

  -alienation due to a lack of social mobility, resulting in non utalitarian crimes of frustration e.g vandalism

  -poverty, common for ethnic groups, immigrants, women may mean that crime is a means of survival

  -strain to anomie. crime may be the only way to achieve the culturally approved goal of economic success. utilitarian crimes such as corporate and white collar
• why are statistics on crime unreliable?

  -not all crimes get reported

  -not all crimes get recorded

  -not all crimes have witnesses e.g white collar and corporate crimes
• why don't some people report crime?

  -the crime is too minor

  -victim suffered no personal loss

  -victim may believe the police will handle the incident in an insensitive way e.g sexual assault

  -victims of violent crimes e.g domestic abuse may believe that it is a private matter

  -if crimes occur at work employers may prefer to sack the workers
• what is the dark figure of crime statistics?

  crimes that are not reported by the police
• why are Police Reported Crime statistics a good way of measuring crime?

  it records what the police consider to be crime. it is more representative than victim surveys which may not accurtly represent the crime due to stigma e.g male sexual assault. additionally a self report survey will most likely be innacurate due to criminals not wanting to confess their crimes willingly
• what do Marxists believe about crime statistics?

  -crime statistics reflect class inequalities

  -crimes committed by the working class are given too much attention, as opposed to utilitarian crimes, as they are more public e.g vandalism

  -bourgeois create and enforce laws, and control the media