Criminal and Deviant Behaviour

• Crime statistics show that there are variations in the rates of criminal and deviant behaviour based upon different social characteristics
• Social characteristics to consider


  • Social class
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
• Statistics suggest that working-class criminality is higher than that of the upper and middle classes
• Corporate crime and white-collar crime are often more complex to work out and as a result are underreported compared with stereotypically working-class crimes such as assault and theft
• Functionalist explanations


  The working class has developed a subculture that is independent of mainstream society that is based upon the focal concerns of excitement, autonomy, smartness, trouble, toughness and fatalism
• Marxist explanations


  Society's unequal structure is to blame for social class differences in offending. Capitalism generates the conditions for crime by simultaneously promoting goods and services that people cannot afford and ensuring that wages stagnate to protect the profits of the ruling class
• Interactionist explanations


  It is members of the working class who are most likely to be labelled as criminals. Social reactions to working-class crime will lead to negative stereotypes of the working class and, as a consequence, greater focus on their behaviour from the authorities
• Explanations for gender differences in offending


  • The chivalry thesis
  • Socialisation
  • Feminist explanations
  • Functionalist explanations
  • Subcultural explanations
  • Marxist explanations
  • Interactionist explanations
• The chivalry thesis


  The paternalistic nature of the male-dominated criminal justice system treats female criminals differently to male criminals. Women are judged to have made errors of judgement and judges and police act protectively (and somewhat patronisingly) and act leniently when sentencing or charging women with crimes
• Socialisation


  Male and female socialisation differs. Males are socialised into a form of hegemonic masculinity, based on toughness and aggression that leads them to take more risks and become involved in more crime. Females are socialised into caring and nurturing roles, and their socialisation keeps them from areas where criminal behaviour occurs
• Feminist explanations


  Patriarchal control of women leads to fewer crimes being committed by women. Women turn to crime if they are unable to accept either the gender deal (being a wife and mother) or the class deal (having a career and receiving material rewards)
• Functionalist explanations


  Males are more likely to feel the strain to anomie than females, in part due to their socialisation into an instrumental role in society, needing to provide for their family and feeling strain when they are not able to achieve society's goals
• Subcultural explanations


  The blocked opportunities that deny males status in society are likely to lead to the formation of subcultures. These subcultures adopt an alternative status hierarchy in order to achieve status from their peers and, as a result, this leads to criminality
• Marxist explanations


  The alienating effects of capitalism can lead to workers, particularly males, displaying their frustrations through deviant behaviour
• Interactionist explanations


  Males, particularly young men, are more likely to be perceived negatively when acting in a deviant manner. Folk devils are often portrayed as young and male and this influences others' perceptions of their criminality
• Reasons for differences in rates of offending by ethnicity

  • Over-representation in police statistics
  • Symbolic resistance
  • Institutional racism
  • Poverty
  • Marginalisation
  • Stereotyping and labelling
  • Moral panics
• Over-representation in police statistics


  The police focus more resources on areas with high concentrations of ethnic minority residents and so more crime is caught in these areas
• Symbolic resistance

  Minority groups that have a history of being poorly treated by the British Empire have developed techniques to resist further oppression in the UK and this makes them a target for police, resulting in over-representation in crime statistics
• Institutional racism


  The Metropolitan Police operated on procedures and policies that disadvantaged some ethnic groups, as suggested by the MacPherson Report conducted after the murder of Stephen Lawrence
• Poverty


  Black and Asian groups are over-represented in poverty figures and this could lead to the strain to anomie
• Marginalisation


  Black and Asian groups are often socially excluded from society and routinely denied opportunities for social mobility, according to Left Realists
• Stereotyping and labelling


  Negative stereotypes of black criminality and scapegoating of black and Asian communities for failings of society have led sociologists, such as Stuart Hall, to suggest this contributes to their over-representation in crime statistics
• Moral panics


  The media and politicians have created moral panics around the criminality of certain ethnic minority groups, leading to their over-representation in crime statistics
• Black and Asian groups are over-represented in poverty figures and this could lead to the strain to anomie
• Black and Asian groups are often socially excluded from society and routinely denied opportunities for social mobility, according to Left Realists
• Negative stereotypes of black criminality and scapegoating of black and Asian communities for failings of society have led sociologists, such as Stuart Hall, to suggest that these groups are being used to divide society and divert attention from the failings of the existing system
• Media reporting of crime associated with minority ethnic groups, e.g. knife crime in London and terrorism in the UK, have created folk devils from black and Islamic communities, generating fear of and social exclusion for these communities
• Delinquency and drift (Matza)


  Young people are more likely to be involved in criminal behaviour as they strive to assert themselves in the adult world. Matza argued that young adulthood is marked by changing norms, values and responsibilities, and that this 'no man's land between childhood and adulthood allows them to drift in and out of criminality. Eventually, Matza argued, young people grow out of criminality as their identity becomes more stable and they take on the responsibilities of the adult world
• Edgework (Katz and Lyng)


  Young people are drawn to acts of criminality and deviance as they are looking for excitement in a period of their lives when they have less responsibility. Lyng suggested that young people are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours and as a result this leads them towards criminal and deviant behaviour, such as vandalism, theft and substance abuse
• Subcultural explanations


  Focus on younger people who have experienced blocked opportunities in society and how they gain status from their peers for performing criminal and deviant acts. Furthermore, sociologists such as Miller suggest that the focal concerns, particularly of young working-class males, leads them to take more chances, assert their masculinity through not backing down when faced with trouble and displaying autonomy and dealing with situations themselves, rather than informing the authorities
• Socialisation (New Right theorists)


  Suggest that there is a 'society of idle young men' raised by single parent families (usually headed by women) into a culture of welfare dependency and petty crime. They stress the lack of a father figure to socialise young boys into work leads to them seeking out acceptance from their peers, usually in the form of status given for criminal or deviant acts
• Marxist explanations


  Suggest the youth crime is a reaction to the inequalities of capitalism and the lack of opportunities provided to young males in particular. Marxists suggest that as young people are less likely to feel the pressures of capitalism, they are able to resist the methods of social control that institutions such as the family, religion and media impose on others in society
• Control Theories


  Suggest that young people are less likely to be adequately integrated into society and as a consequence more likely to react in criminal and deviant ways
• The age of criminal responsibility is ten years old, at this point individuals are aware of the consequences of their actions
• Serious offences pose a danger to society and as such those that commit them should be removed from society until they can prove they have learnt the error of their ways
• Some children are socialised inadequately and have rejected the norms and values of society. As a result, they need to be punished so that they will learn that there are consequences for those who do not conform
• High levels of reoffending means that imprisoning young offenders leads to future deviant careers
• One reason for youth crime is a lack of opportunities-money spent on youth offender institutions would be better spent providing education and training to allow young offenders a chance to compete in society
• Labelling a young person as criminal could lead to further deviance and more crime
• Evidence suggests that many criminals have been young offenders and that prison does not provide the correct opportunities for rehabilitation