Crime and Deviance

• Functionalists believe that crime is inevitable in society; poor socialisation and inequality result in the absence of norms and values being taught. In addition, functionalists believe crime is positive for society.
• Crime is inevitable


  Poor socialisation results in not everyone being taught the same norms and values
• The inevitability of crime


  Stems from the inequality that exists in society
• Crime is positive


  Boundary maintenance - crime is functional in society when there is the right amount, as punishing criminals teaches the rest of society not to go against norms and values, strengthening boundaries and preventing further crime
• Davis agrees with Durkheim


  Crime can be positive, as prostitution provides positive functions by allowing men to express sexual frustration without threatening the nuclear family
• Adaptation and change


  Some crime can be functional for society because it allows social adaptation and change; a criminal act must take place for society to have norms and values that change as a form of rationalism
• Merton's 'strain theory'


  Crime is caused by the failure to achieve the goals of the American dream through legitimate means
• Responses to the American Dream


  • Conformism - accepting the goals and legitimate means to achieve them
  • Innovation - subscribe to the goals of the American dream but use illegitimate means to achieve them
  • Ritualism - reject the goals but conform to the means
  • Retreatism - reject both the goals of the American dream and subscribe to illegitimate means
  • Rebellion - replace the goals and means with their own
• Cohen's 'status frustration' theory focuses on working-class boys in schools who fail to succeed in middle-class environments, and in turn, form delinquent subcultures that go against middle-class norms and values. Subsequently, working-class boys try to succeed within subcultures by trying to rise in the hierarchy, which they have more chance of succeeding in. This explains why people commit non-utilitarian crimes.
• Cloward and Ohlin's development of Cohen's status frustration theory


  • 3 types of subcultures
• Criminal subcultures


  Provide 'apprenticeships' for utilitarian crime, exist in areas with stable criminal cultures, with hierarchies of professional criminals (e.g. drug dealers)
• Conflict subcultures


  Exist in areas of high population turnover, social disorganisation and only loosely organised gangs (e.g. postcode/turf wars)
• Retreatist subcultures


  Formed of people who fail in both legitimate AND illegitimate means and may turn to illegal drug use (e.g. 'junkies')
• Interactionists

  Focus on the social construction of crime, whereby an act only becomes deviant when labelled as such, through societal reaction
• Not every deviant act or criminal is labelled, and labelling theory is selectively enforced against some groups
• Becker


  The social construction of crime - a deviant is someone who the label has been successfully applied, and deviant behaviour is simply behaviour that people so label. Those who are labelled are labelled based on gender, class and ethnicity.
• Cicourel


  Officers typifications (stereotypes) of the typical criminal lead to them concentrate on types of people that are more likely to offend - for instance, by patrolling working class areas.
• Lemert


  Distinguishes between two types of deviance:

  Primary deviance - deviant acts that have not been publicly labelled as criminal.

  Secondary deviance - deviant acts and individuals that are labelled. Once an individual has been labelled, people may only see him according to his master status (whereby a criminal is defined by their deviant act), which may lead to a deviant career because they struggle to find employment.
• Braithwaite


  Distinguish between types of shaming:

  Reintegrative shaming - punishes them in a way that strengthens their bonds with society.

  Disintegrative shaming - punishment which isolates the individual and causes secondary deviance.
• Douglas


  Rejects the use of official statistics when examining suicide. Whether a death is labelled as a suicide depends on the interactions and negotiations between social actors (doctors, the coroner, family). Statistics therefore tell us nothing about the meaning behind an individual's decision to commit suicide.
• Marxists


  Believe crime is inevitable in a capitalist society because it encourages poverty, competition and greed
• Although all classes commit crime, the working class are largely criminalised for their actions because the ruling class control the state and can make and enforce laws in their own interests
• White collar and corporate crimes are often ignored
• Criminogenic capitalism


  Capitalism is criminogenic - by its very nature, it causes crime
• Poverty (caused by capitalism)


  • May mean that crime is the only way the working class can survive
  • Crime may be the only way the working class can obtain consumer goods encouraged by capitalist advertising, resulting in utilitarian crimes such as theft
  • Alienation and lack of control may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism
• Chambliss states that laws to protect private property are a cornerstone of the capitalist economy
• Snider argues that the capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
• Selective enforcement


  Although all classes commit crime, when it comes to application of the law by the criminal justice system, there is selective enforcement. While powerless groups such as the working class and ethnic minorities are criminalised, the police and court tend to ignore the crimes of the powerful
• Ideological functions


  Laws give capitalism a 'caring' face, and create a false consciousness among workers. This is because the state enforces the law selectively, crime appears to be largely a working-class phenomenon. This divides the working class due to how it encourages workers to blame criminals in their midst for their problems, rather than capitalism
• Taylor et al criticise Marxists for economic determinism and instead see crime as meaningful action and a conscious choice by the actor
• Taylor et al argue that crime often has a political motive (for instance, to redistribute wealth from the rich to poor)
• Criminals are not passive puppets whose behaviour is shaped by capitalism: they are deliberately striving to change society
• Taylor et al's fully social theory of deviance


  1. Considers the wider origins of the deviant act - the unequal distribution of wealth and power in capitalist society

  2. Considers the immediate origins of the deviant act - the context in which the individual decides to commit the act

  3. Considers the act itself - its meaning for the actor

  4. Considers the immediate origins of social reaction - the reactions of those around the deviant act

  5. Considers the wider origins of societal reaction - who has the power to define actions as deviant and to label others, and why some acts are treated more harshly than others

  6. Considers the effects of labelling - what effects does the deviant act have on the future actions
• White collar crime


  Crimes committed by high-class people
• Corporate crime


  Crimes committed by corporations
• The more likely a crime is to be committed by high-class people


  The less likely it is to be treated as an offence
• There is a much higher rate of prosecutions for the typical 'street crimes' that poor people commit


  (such as burglary and assault)
• Crimes committed by the higher classes (such as tax evasion)


  Are more likely to get a more forgiving view from the justice system
• Corporate crime


  • Has enormous costs: physical (deaths, injuries, illnesses), environmental (pollution) and economic (to consumers, workers, taxpayers and governments)
• Reasons for invisibility of corporate crime


  • The media give very limited coverage to corporate crime, thus reinforcing the stereotype that crime is a working-class phenomenon
  • Lack of political will to tackle corporate crime - politicians rhetoric of being 'tough on crime' only applies to street crime
  • Crimes are complex - law enforcers are often understaffed, under-resourced and lack technical expertise
  • Delabelling - at the level of laws and legal regulations, corporate crime is consistently filtered out from the process of criminalisation
  • Under-reported - individuals may be unaware they have been victimised