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Youth Crime (booklet) (INTERACTIONIST EXPLANATIONS (Interactionism -…
Youth Crime (booklet)
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- Pattern and Trends of Delinquency
1.Gender
- Bob Coles (1995) Of those offenders who are identified by the courts or the police, 80% are male and almost half (47%) are committed by those under 21. Therefore crime is predominantly an issue to do with young men.
- Delinquency is an overwhelmingly male phenomena.
- Frances Heidensohn (1985) suggests that the lack of female involvement could reflect their lack of opportunity to commit crime and the greater surveillance juvenile females have to face. Strict social controls.
- Black youths are much more likely to get stopped and arrested by the police than white youths. 8 times more likely to get stop and searched. MacPherson report (1999) labelled the Metropolitan Police as 'institutionally racist' in relation to its failure to arrest and prosecute the murderers of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
- Tarling (1993) on a study done by Ouston in the mid80s - by age 17, 28% of boys with parents born in the UK and Eire had been either cautioned or convicted, while 39% of boys with parents born in the West Indies or of West Indian parents had been.
- However, Tarling (1993) goes on to point out out that once social class and educational achievement are taken into account, the ethnic differences virtually disappear.
- Coles (1995) argues that some studies point to a clear link between material and social deprivation and levels of offending.
- Serious offending is seen to be more prevalent among sons of manual workers and those who live in big families. Unemployment and ill health are also seen as factors.
- Coles argues that we need to focus much more on the process of decision-making concerned with becoming a delinquent rather than simply looking at the social background of offenders
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MARXIST EXPLANATIONS
- CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of study was the then new field of cultural studies.)
- Deviance is a form of resistance against society's control and a reaction to their identity being threatened. Resistance against bourgeoisie. Brake, magical solutions.
- Left Realism
- Young (1997) argues that you have to be tough on crime, but this does not just mean being tough on criminals, it means being tough on trying to change the social factors which have a long term impact on crime rates and ensuring that the criminal justice system promotes social justice. Since WW2, rising living standards and welfare provisions have gone hand in hand with higher crime rate. Lea and Young claim they can explain this with the following key concepts - relative deprivation, marginalisation and subcultures
Relative deprivation - Lea and Young argue that crime has its roots in deprivation, but it is not in itself directly responsible for crime.
Today, although people are better off than in the past, the media and advertising have raised everyone's expectations for material possessions - we are wealthier but we feel poorer. Pressure to get more stuff to keep up with everyone else leads to more crime.
Subculture - LRs see subcultures as a group's collective response to relative deprivation, and draw on Cohen's theory of status frustration to explain how they emerge.
Not all subcultures result in crime - only those who still subscribe to mainstream values of material wealth but lack legitimate opportunities to achieve those goals.
Marginalisation - where people lack power/resources to fully participate in society. LRs say that marginalised groups lack both clear goals and organisers to represent their interests. E.g. groups like workers have clear goals (good pay and conditions) and have trade unions to represent them so don't need violence/crime.
Unemployed youth are marginalised which results in resentment and frustration. Frustration can be expressed through violence. Only will be heard through protest and riot.
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