Crime and Deviance

• Foucault - definitions of C&D

  claimed that definitions of criminal and sexual deviance and madness have changed throughout history
• Plummer - Deviance


  Situational deviance and societal deviance

  situational - acts which can be defined as deviant or normal depending on the circumstance

  societal - acts which are seen by most of society as deviant in most situations
• functionalist view of crime and deviance

  - useful and necessary in society

  - reinforce the consensus of values, norms and the behaviour of the majority non-deviant population

  - reinforces differences between deviant and non deviant behaviour (boundary maintenance)

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• Durkheim - Functions of crime and deviance

  - deviance allows for social change to occur. all societies need some change to remain healthy and stable. if society reacts positively to deviant behaviour, it will eventually be seen as non deviant

  - however,he thought that crime becomes dysfunctional when the level of crime is either too high or low
• Cohen - functions of deviance

  Identified two ways that deviance maintained social order

  1) forms of deviance such as prostitution provide a safety valve for releasing tension without threatening social stability

  2) deviant behaviour such as protests and truancy is used as a warning device by society to identify emerging social problems
• Merton - explanation for crime

  - crime is a response to failing to achieve society's cultural goals e.g. success and wealth

  - concluded that the vast majority of individuals share the same goals but dint have equal access to the means of achieving these goals
• strain theory


  when an individual is unable to achieve society's cultural goals due to factors beyond their control. it causes a strain which leads to deviant behaviour
• differential association theory


  people learn deviance from others

  deviance is passed on through association with other deviants
• cohen - w/c boys

  w/c boys experience status frustration

  delinquent gangs provide prestige for adolescents frustrated at their lack of status in society. deviant subcultures
• durkheim - function of punishment

  to uphold social solidarity and reinforce shared values by expressing society's moral outrage at the offence
• two types of justice

  - retributive justice

  - restutitive justice
• retributive justice


  - traditional society has a strong collective conscience , so punishment is severe and vengeful
• restitutive justice


  in modern society there is extensive interdependence between individuals. crime damages this and the function of justice should be to repair the damage e.g. through compensation
• Walklate


  in rape cases it is not the defendant who is on trial but the victim since she has to prove her respectability in order to have her evidence accepted
• Carlen


  when women are jailed, it is less for the seriousness of their crime and more according to the court's assessment of them as wives, mothers and daughters
• adler - women in court


  women who are deemed to lack respectability find it difficult to have their testimony believed in court
• carlen 'gender deal'


  women are controlled through 'gender deal'; society's promise of reward for adopting female gender role. when rewards aren't available they return to crime and reject the 'deal
• hand and dodd


  found that the percentage of women arrested for violent crime rose by 17% each year
• net widening


  arresting and prosecuting females for less serious forms of violence than previously
• burman and batchelor


  media depicts women as drunk and disorderly. this behaviour is unusual so the media creates a moral panic about it and demonises women
• w/c white boys and crime

  less chance of success at school. masculinity as physical aggression and try to oppose authority
• how much more likely are black people to be stopped and searched than whites?

  7 times more likely
• problems in using self report studies to study ethnic differences in offending

  1) Often people wont be honest

  2) They may not know if they have committed a crime

  3) Relies on memory
• How do Lea and Young account for utilitarian and non-utilitarian crime among blacks?

  Utilitarian crime such as theft and robbery as a means of coping with relative deprivation

  Because these groups are marginalised, their frustration is liable to produce non-utilitarian crime such as violence and rioting
• how does Gilroy see ethnic minority crime?

  as political - it is a resistance against a racist society
• 2 criticisms of Gilroy's views

  Most crime is intra-ethnic so it can't be seen as an anti-colonial struggle against racism

  Asian rates are similar to or lower than whites
• According to hall et al, how did the moral panic over mugging help capitalism?


  Distracted attention from the corruption of capitalism
• social characteristics of ethnic minority groups that make them more likely to be victims

  Higher rates of poverty and unemployment; higher proportion of young males
• how does globalisation increase crime?

  an interconnectedness of crime across national borders

  transnational organised crime

  globalisation creates new opportunities for crime and new offences
• examples of crimes as a result of globalisation

  arms trafficking, trafficking in nuclear materials, smuggling of illegal immigrants, trafficking women and children, sex tourism, trafficking body parts, cyber crimes, green crimes, international terrorism, smuggling of legal goods, drugs trade, money laundering etc
• Global risk consciousness


  - globalisation creates insecurities and produces a new mentality of risk consciousness

  - increased movement of people has given rise to anxieties about risks of crime and the need to protect their borders

  - media often gives exaggerated view of dangers we face

  - media creates moral panics about immigration
• different ways of measuring crime

  - official statistics

  - victimisation studies

  - self report studies
• disadvantages of victim studies

  - rely on victims' memory of events

  - only cover personal crimes which make up about 1/5 crimes

  - excludes under 10s - minority ethnic groups contain higher proportion of young people

  - excludes crimes by and against organisations
• Ethnicity and arrest stat

  - black people 3x more likely than whites to get arrested
• policing and ethnic minority groups

  - more oppressive policing

  - higher arrest rates for blacks than whites

  - more minority groups stopped and searched

  - prison - 15% black but only make up 2.8% of the population
• Sadiq Khan's recent plans to tackle knife crime in london

  - called for gov to reverse 7 years of cuts to youth and education services, probation and prisons - should help tackle the root coause of violent crime
• Findings of Stephen Lawrence case and MacPherson report

  - declared that there was institutional racism within the met police

  - gov pledged to increase number of officers from minority ethnic groups
• Prison Stats


  - being sent to prison is the most common form of punishment used

  - USA has highest prison population rate - 700 per 100,000

  - world prison population is 9million
• reasons for using prison as a punishment

  - takes criminals away from society - protect people

  - act as a deterrent

  - rehabilitation

  - retribution (society taking revenge for offender breaching its moral code)
• Foucault - 2 types of power

  - Sovereign power - punishment before the 19th century were a public spectacle with hangings and stockades, it was a way of asserting the monarchs power over its citizens

  - Disciplinary power - punishment after 19th century was not just about governance over the body but the mind or soul, that is done through surveillance