crime

• Functionalist Theory of Crime

  Durkheim - although crime can be bad for society, too little crime is also bad for society
• Boundary Maintenance


  • The law and justice system dramatise evil to act as a warning to society
  • The justice system makes examples of criminals by giving them long prison sentences which maintains the boundary to law-abiding citizens to continue to be good
• Adaption


  • When individuals challenge or go against social norms they may be seen as deviants at first
  • However challenging social norms allows society to grow and adapt so it can meet the functions of its members
  • E.g. the Suffragettes challenged patriarchy and were seen as deviants at the time yet without them society wouldn't have become more equal, women wouldn't be able to vote
• Safety Valve


  • Crimes such as prostitution protect the nuclear family as it provides the man of the family a safe way to release sexual frustration without breaking his family
• Failing Institution


  • Crime may be a warning for when an institution is failing to function
  • E.g. ↑truancy may indicate that the education system isn't meeting the needs of all its members
• Durkheim fails to state which levels of crime is the right amount for society
• Hirschi's Social Bond Theory


  • Belief - People share moral beliefs such as obeying laws
  • Commitment - Committed to work and education so don't break law as it would risk it
  • Involvement - People are too busy with activities and life to commit a crime
  • Attachment - People are attached to their family and friends and are sensitive to their needs and wishes
• Hirschi's Social Bond Theory shows us how socialisation is essential in maintaining social control and social cohesion
• Hirschi's Social Bond Theory Weaknesses

  • Weak Bonds - fails to explain why some people in society have weaker bonds than others
  • Diff Types of Crime - fails to explain why we have different types of crime and deviance and how they occur, they see crime as one homogenous action
  • Tight Bonds But Still Deviant - he doesn't recognise when people have tight bonds and are still deviant e.g. white collar crimes
  • Everyone is a Potential Criminal - see's everyone as a potential criminal if their bonds are weakened, so surveillance is high
• The American Dream


  • Anyone can become famous or rich, they can be anything they want to be if they work hard
  • The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of the American Dream
• Merton's Strain Theory


  • In society there's a belief of the American dream
  • But when there's a difference in goals it causes a strain
  • This leads to 5 responses: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism, Rebellion
• Merton's Strain Theory Responses

  • Conformity - pursuing cultural goals through socially approved methods e.g. Rich businessman
  • Innovation - using socially unapproved or unconventional methods to obtain culturally approved goals e.g. dealing drugs
  • Ritualism - using the same socially approved methods to achieve less elusive goals (more modest) e.g. In stagnation
  • Retreatism - To reject both the cultural goals and the methods to obtain it, then find a way to escape it e.g. Alcoholics
  • Rebellion - To reject the cultural goals and methods, then work to replace them e.g. The Nazis
• Marxist Theory of Crime - Criminogenic Capitalism: Capitalism based on gaining profit no matter what, Poverty may mean that crime is the only way to survive, Bourgeoisie encourage consumers to buy goods by advertising, Working class turn to crime to obtain these consumer goods, Crime can also be a way for the working class to release their frustrations of being alienated
• Marxist Theory of Crime - Too deterministic in suggesting people are forced to commit crime by forces beyond their control
• The State and Law making

  • Law making and enforcement only serves the interest of the Bourgeoisie
  • Chambliss during the British colonisation of African countries, the British were interested in tea and plantation, the economy wasn't based on money but the British introduced tax which could only be paid with money, If people were unable to pay for land then they would be punished, The only way for them to earn money was through working on the plantations
  • Bourgeoisie won't introduce any laws that may impact their profit
  • This is selective enforcement - crimes of the powerful are ignored whilst the powerless are criminalised
  • E.g. Legal aid cuts - the Bourgeoisie have made it law to have a lawyer but by cutting legal aid they make it impossible for the working class to get off
• Ideological Functions


  • Laws may appear to be in the interest of the working class e.g. health & safety laws, Pearce saw these laws as benefiting the bourgeoisie as they keep the workers fit and enforced, Bourgeoisie pretending to care creates a false consciousness as the laws are only a distraction, These laws aren't rigorously enforced, it's criminal to commit corporate homicide yet there has only been one prosecution despite the large number of employee deaths caused by employer negligence, Working class are the criminals as law enforcement is selective
• Marxist Theory of Crime - Firms Have Been Charged: There have been some cases where corporations have been investigated due to negligence e.g. Grenfell
• Marxist Theory of Crime - There are other social groups that have larger differences e.g. gender, a much larger number of males commit crimes than females
• Marxist Theory of Crime - Bourgeoisie don't always get away with crime e.g. Starbucks
• Marxist Theory of Crime - Can't explain how capitalist societies have different levels of crime, USA is ranked 1st whilst Japan is ranked 6th
• Neo-Marxism Theory of Crime

  • They agree with Marxism that capitalism exploits workers and a classless society would greatly ↓or even remove crime altogether, However they see Marxism as too deterministic e.g. all workers commit crime out of economic necessity
• Critical Criminology


  • Believe crime is voluntary, The 'New Criminology' - Taylor, Walton and Young see inequalities of capitalism as the root cause of crime, The working class use crime to fight back, Crime is a meaningful act by oppressed proletariats that re-distribute from rich to poor, Hall and Gilroy investigated the relationship between race and crime, They see crime as politically motivated, Mass media creates a view that black criminals are pathological, Which creates a moral panic and Black/Asian youths became heavily policed, This → to a division between black and white working class, Diverting people away from the real issues
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance


  • The wider origins of the deviant act - The fact that in a capitalist society wealth and power are unequally distributed
  • The immediate origins of the deviant act - The specific context where an individual decides to commit a crime
  • The act itself - What it means to the person committing the crime e.g. was it an act of rebellion against capitalism
  • The immediate origins of social reaction - The reactions of others around the deviant e.g. Family, The Police
  • The wider origins of social reaction - In a capitalist society there's issues over who has the power to say which acts are deviant and label them as deviant, also why some acts are treated more harshly
  • The effects of labelling - A deviant's future actions e.g. why does labelling lead to deviance amplification for some but not others?
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance - Over romanticises the working class as Robin Hoods - in reality many victims of the are working class
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance - Ignores the effect crime has on the working class
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance - Difficult to imagine who crimes such as rape and domestic violence are politically motivated
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance - It's too idealistic to be useful in tackling crime
• A Fully Social Theory of Deviance - Hall et al applied Taylor et al's approach to explain moral panic over mugging in the 1970s
• White collar crime


  A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation
• Occupational crime


  Committed by employees simply for their own personal gain, often against the organisation where they work e.g. stealing from the company
• Corporate crime


  Committed by employees for their organisation in pursuit of its goal e.g. deliberately mis-selling products to increase company profits
• Pearce and Tombs definition of corporate crime

  An illegal act or omission that is the result of deliberate decisions or culpable negligence by a legitimate business organisation that's intended to benefit the business
• Types of Corporate Crime

  • Financial crime - E.g. Tax evasion, bribery, money laundering and illegal accounting. Victims include other companies, shareholders, taxpayers and government
  • Crime against consumers - E.g. False labelling and selling unfit goods
  • Crime against employees - E.g. sexual or racial discrimination, violation of wages
  • Crime against the environment - any crime that harms the environment
  • State-corporate-crime - Refers to crimes committed when government institutions and businesses pursue their goal
• The Abuse of Trust

  • High status professionals occupy positions of trust and respectability, We entrust them with our finances, our health, our security and our personal information however their positions and status give them opportunity to abuse this trust, Accountants and lawyers can be employed by criminal organisations e.g. to launder money into legitimate businesses, They can also act corruptly by inflating fees, committing forgery, illegally diverting clients' money, GP Harold Shipman in 2000 he was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients, He had been convicted of obtaining powerful drugs through forgery which violated the trust society places in professionals
• Invisibility of Corporate Crime

  • The Media focus less on corporate crime and more on working class crime reinforcing the idea that crime is always to do with the working class, Lack of Political Will - To tackle corporate crime being tough on crime is focused on street crime, Crimes are Often Complex - Law enforcers have a lack of; staff, resources and technical expertise to investigate effectively, De-labelling - At the level of laws and legal regulations corporate crime is consistently filtered out from the process of criminalisation, Under Reporting -Often the victim is society as a whole or the environment rather than an individual so members of society are unaware they are victims
• Labelling Theory


  Interactionists are interested in how acts can be seen as deviant, They see deviance as a social construct, Becker moral entrepreneurs - groups in society that create a set of rules and apply them to others, The people they label as deviant become outsiders, They themselves or the acts they do only become deviant when labelled by others
• Typifications


  • Certain groups are more likely than others to be labelled as deviant by agencies of control, Reiner found that some police officers share a canteen culture that focuses on white male conservative values→ police are more likely to stop and search ethnic minorities→ labelling ethnic minorities as deviant, Cicourel police officers use typifications in stopping, arresting and charging individuals, These typifications are based on stereotypes about who is most likely to commit crime→ working class and ethnic minority youths are more likely to be arrested
• Labelling Theory - Reject Statistics: typifications by officers→ labelling theorist reject official statistics validity
• Labelling Theory - Marxists: labelling theory fails to examine where the initial labels caused by the inequality of capitalism came from, also fails to specify who makes the rules in the 1st place Marxists believe it's the ruling class
• Primary and Secondary Deviance

  Primary deviance - an act that goes against society's norms and values but isn't labelled as deviant e.g. stealing a sweet from a corner shop, Secondary deviance - an act labelled as deviant e.g. robbery, This can have a dramatic impact on and individual→ individual becomes an outsider, The label becomes the individuals master status→ deviant career = self-fulfilling prophecy