crime

• Functionalists


  Believe that crime is inevitable in society; poor socialisation and inequality results in the absence of norms and values being taught
• Functionalists


  Believe crime is positive for society because it allows boundary maintenance and allows a scope for adaptation and change
• Durkheim


  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
• Durkheim


  Crime is positive - 'Boundary maintenance' is the concept that crime is functional in society when there is the right amount. When people are punished for committing crimes, it teaches the rest of society not to go against norms and values, in turn strengthening boundaries and preventing further crime
• Davis


  Agrees with Durkheim in that crime can be positive, but in a different way. He believes prostitution provides positive functions because it allows 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; this means that for society to have norms and values that change as a form of rationalism, a criminal act must take place
• Merton's 'strain theory'


  Crime is caused by the failure to achieve the goals of the American dream through legitimate means
• Merton's five different 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


  Develop Cohen's status frustration theory by suggesting there are 3 types of subcultures: Criminal subcultures provide 'apprenticeships' for utilitarian crime, Conflict subcultures exist in areas of high population turnover with social disorganisation and only loosely organised gangs, Retreatist subcultures are formed of people who fail in both legitimate AND illegitimate means and may turn to illegal drug use
• Interactionists


  Focus on the social construction of crime, whereby an act only becomes deviant when labelled as such, through societal reaction. However, not every deviant act or criminal is labelled, and labelling theory is selectively enforced against some groups. Some sociologists believe labelling may cause an individual to be defined a master status
• 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. In this instance, white collar and corporate crimes are often ignored
• Criminogetic capitalism


  Marxists believe that capitalism is criminogenic - by its very nature, it causes crime. Poverty (caused be capitalism) may mean that crime is the only way the working class can survive. Crime also 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
• The state and law making

  Chambliss state that laws to protect private property are a cornerstone of the capitalist economy, Snider argues that capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses or threaten their profitability
• Selective enforcement


  Marxists believe that 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


  Pearce theorises that 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 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. In particular, they 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'

  Takes into account: The wider origins of the deviant act, Immediate origins of the deviant act, The act itself, Immediate origins of social reaction, The wider origins of societal reaction, The effects of labelling
• Reiman and Leighton


  The more likely a crime is to be committed by high-class people, the less likely it is to be treated as an offence. Also, 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
• Tombs


  Corporate crime has enormous costs: physical (deaths, injuries, illnesses), environmental (pollution) and economic (to consumers, workers, taxpayers and governments)
• Invisibility of corporate crime

  The media give very limited coverage to corporate, 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
• Box


  If a company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legal means, it may employ illegal ones instead
• Sutherland's differential association theory


  Crime as behaviour learned from others in a social context. The less we associate with people who hold attitudes favourable to the law and the more we associate with people with criminal attitudes, the more likely we are to become deviant ourselves
• Cicourel's labelling theory


  Typically, the working class are more likely to have their actions labelled as criminal. The middle class are more able to negotiate non-criminal labels for their misbehaviour
• Right realists


  See crime as a real problem for society; they see the cause of it as partly biological and party social. Because these causes cannot easily be changed, they focus on deterring offenders
• Left realists


  Believe crime is caused by relative deprivation, subcultures and marginalisation. Their solution for such stems from reducing societal inequality
• Hernstein and Wilson


  Argue that biological differences between individuals make some individuals more predisposed to crime. For instance, personality traits such as aggression and low impulse control signify people who are at greater risk of offending. In addition, low intelligence is also a contributing factor
• Murray


  Crime is increasing due to the mounting underclass defined by their deviant behaviour
• Clarke's rational choice theory


  The decision to commit a crime is based on a rational calculation of consequences. If perceived rewards outweigh costs, people are more likely to offend
• Lea and Young's relative deprivation theory


  Relative deprivation leads to crime because people who are deprived resent others having more material goods than them, thus resorting to illegitimate means to achieve the same level of materials
• Subcultures


  Form as a collective solution to relative deprivation, and some may turn to crime in order to close the 'deprivation gap'
• Marginalisation


  Marginalised groups lack clear goals and organisations to represent them, which leads to frustration and resentment. In turn, they express this frustration through criminal acts such as violence and rioting
• Zero tolerance policing


  A zero-tolerance policy to undesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging and drunkenness. Police should patrol the streets and take a 'short, sharp, shock' approach, and carry out on stop and search on suspicious characters
• Wilson & Kelling's broken window thesis

  It is essential to maintain orderly characteristics of neighbourhoods and reduce any signs of crime immediately
• Target hardening


  If you making it harder to commit crime (Eg. by locking doors) this will reduce the rewards and act as a deterrent