Youth Crime
official stats show juvenile crime has declined in recent years after its peak in 1984/5
Ricky Taylor (1998) analysis of official stats between 1957/1997 show in 1958 56% of guilty/cautioned offenders were 20 or under, with 38% in 1997
1/10 crimes result in arrest/conviction so likely youth involvement in crime could be higher
Patterns and trends of delinquency
Gender
Bob Coles (1995) said:
- of identified offenders by courts/police 4/5 are male, almost 1/2 are under 21, to police crime is predominantly a young men issue
- stats suggest youth delinquency is structured by social class, gender and ethnicity, delinquency is overwhelmingly male phenomena, 1980/95 pronounced gender imbalance
- mainly male youth delinquency, clearly gendered category
Moore (1988)
- peak age for female crime 13/15
- males 14/18
Feminist suggest extent of female delinquency is somehow masked
- Campbell used self report studies on sample of young girls
Critics
- more serious offences prominently male
- males also more likely to be victim
- typical offender someone who goes out drinking and fight, also typical victim
Frances Heidensohn (1985)
- suggests lack of female involvement may reflect lack of opportunity to commit crime
- female have greater surveillance to face
- less control of females increase involvement in crime and juvenile delinquency
- rate of imprisonment and time imprisoned for women's increasing
Ethnicity
Ruggiero (1995)
- argued 'Fortress Europe' policy of strict immigration led to greater control over ethnic minorities
- led to heavier policing and imprisonment of groups who're a threat to order and stability
- greater attention to immigrants, asylum seekers, guest workers and foreigners
Tarling (1993)
- reports on study by Ouston (mid 80s) relating to young people at schools in London
- by age 17 28% boys born in Uk had been cautioned/convicted
- 39% boys/ their parents born out of UK cautioned/convicted
- Black and Asian youths more likely to be stopped/arrested
- led to allegation police support racism and deliberately target ethnic minorities
- MacPherson (1999) labelled Metropolitian Police as 'institutionally racist' after failure to arrest and prosecute murderers of black teen Stephen Lawrence
- over representing of ethnic minorities in stats relating to delinquency led to debate on racism
- criminalisation of black community
- goes on to point out once factors such as class and educational achievement taken into account ethnic differences disappear
Class
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- serious offending seen more prevalent among sons of manual workers and those in big families
- unemployment and ill heath are other factors, these are more prevalent in low income areas
Coles (1995)
- clear link between material and social deprivation and levels of offending
- argues we should focus more on process of decision making rather than social background of offenders
Functionalist explanation
- deviance is a result of individuals conforming to values and norms of social group, if these differ from main society you become deviant
- focus on working class
Strain Theory ~ Robert Merton
- argues youth offending result of strain between accepted goals of society and socially approved means of reaching them
- some socially accepted ways of achieving goals may not be possible for some due to social deprivation, poverty, lack of education etc
- sense of anomaly occurs, they feel frustrated and develop responses to deal with it
- seek new ways to achieve goals including crime (innovation)
- going through motions (ritualism)
- drugs/alcohol (retreatism)
- political and social rebellion
criticised for:
- assuming people share set values
- failure to notice numerous goals and ways to achieve them
Sub-cultural Strain theory / Status Frustration ~ Albert Cohen
- explains why so many young offenders come from working class backgrounds
- argued reason was low self esteem and status at school
- working class boys more likely to fail at school
- feel humiliated so to deal with this they gain status among peers and develop subcultures
- invert traditionally middle class values e.g obedience, politeness and obeying law
- behave badly, engage in antisocial behaviour
- norms/value within subculture give them status
- only explains non-monetary offences e.g joy riding and vandilism
- more applicable to males than females
Sub-cultural Strain Theory / CCR ~ Cloward and Ohlin (1960)
- emphasis on existence of illegitimate opportunity structure in working class areas
- illegal ladder of success
- thriving local criminal subculture provides successful adult role models
- join criminal hierarchy in form of criminal apprenticeship
- if it doesn't exist young people with from either
- conflict sub cultures which violent disputes over territory result
- retreatist subcultures which petty theft is used to support retreat into drugs/alcohol
Different types of subcultures
Retreatist:
- failed in criminal subcultures, 'double failures'
- drug/alcohol abuse to deal with rejection from other subcultures
Conflict:
- emerge in areas with little organised adult crime
- focus on gaining respect through gang violence
Criminal:
- tend to emerge in areas with organised adult crime
- criminal role models, learn how to commit crime
- climb up professional criminal ladder
- usually utilitarian crimes concerning yield financial reward
The underclass ~ Charles Murray
- youths not been socialised properly into value consensus
- developed alternative set of deviant norms and values based on dependency, criminality and laziness
- places blame on single mothers
- argues growing up in single parent family is more accurate indicator of criminality than poverty
- boys in particular as no father figure
- 'boys without fathers grow up unsocialised, have poor impulse control and tend to be sexual predators
Marxist explanation
CCCS ~ deviance is a form of resistance against society's control and a reaction to their identity being threatened
(Neo Marxist) Left Realism ~ Causes of crime
- Young (1997) argues you have to be tough on crime, not just on criminals
- tough on trying to change the social factors which have long term impact on crime rates
- ensure criminal justice system promotes social justice
- since WW2 rising living standards and development of welfare provisions have gone hand in hand with rising crime rates
- unemployment = deprivation/marginalisation
- media frustrates youths
- rise of individualism, decline of community
- explained with following concepts....
Marginalisation:
- where people lack power/resources to fully participate in society
- marginalised groups lack both clear goal and organisations to represent their interests
- groups like workers have clear goals (e,g better pay) and organisations to represent them (trade unions) so no need to resort to violence to get goals
- unemployed youths are marginalised, no organisation representing them, no clear goals, results in frustration and resentment
- no access to legitimate political means to pursue goals means frustration expressed through violence
Relative Deprivation:
- deprivation itself isn't directly responsible for crime
- e.g living standards have risen so level of deprivation has fallen but crime rates rose
- Runciman's (1966) ~ how some feel in relation to others or compared with their own expectations
- concept led to apparent paradox of increasing crime in context of increasing wealthy society
- despite having more money there's a greater feeling of deprivation due to media and advertising raising expectations for material possessions
- wealthier but feel poorer
- more pressure to get stuff to keep up, generates historically high crime rates
Internationalist explanation
How people and society interact and how this affects criminal behaviour
Labelling Theory
Labelling process:
- label attached by police and courts
- label becomes master status ~ overrides other status e.g sibling, friend
- labelled person accepts label ~ how we see ourselves relies on how others see us
- self-fulfilling prophecy ~ whether true/false originally we act in accordance with it, confirms beliefs
Studies
Howard Becker:
- process of person and act getting labelled as deviant
- argues no act is intrinsically deviant
- relies on context to determine acceptability
- e.g nudity, inject oneself, murder
- society defines actions as deviant creating outsiders
- middle class negotiate with police more
- laws = relative = serve interests of minority - conservative
- moral entrepreneurs - campaign to change law to serve their interests/values
- use media to 'stir' 'moral crusaders' to influence public views
- underdog has little say
- how outsiders/stigmatised are rejected by society and form their own subculture
Stanley Cohen: (Moral Panic)
- studied how media has often demonised youth culture
- happened to mods and rockers (1964), seen as modern day folk devils threatening social order
- found actual acts of deviance were minimal
- argues youths are not coherent social groups that appear spontaneously as reaction to structural forces e.g class
- many deviant youth subcultures were socially constructed, maintained and killed off by media
- media label/stereotype powerless groups e.g youths by sensationalising stories creating moral panic, exaggerates threats posed by groups
- results in demonisation, 'folk devils' created, pressure to get rid of problem
- media is key role in causing public fear about certain groups e.g immigrants
Deviancy amplification spiral:
- says sensationalist reporting by newspapers distorts acts of crime or deviance, increasing public awareness
- public pressure put on police/courts to act
- creates Moral Panic, certain acts/groups seen as threat to social order
- efforts to control deviance creates more deviance
- secondary deviance grows after sensitisation and social reaction
- argues powerful groups shape societal reaction by making rules for powerless groups e.g young and labelling them via police/media as moral panics
- normal/deviant defined by society ~ not fixed
- labels = sterotypes
- greater surveillance of powerless groups
- studies in UK & USA show youths especially blacks are negatively labelled as suspicious or criminal
- results in over proportionate stops/arrests
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Critics:
- most working class boys don't commit crimes
- ignores female deviance
- ignores middle class subcultures
- ignores crimes of powerful
- most youths grow out of it
- assume working class youths are raised in vacuums and cut off from wider society/values
- ignore labelling/biased policing
- deterministic ~ ignore free will
- accept crime stats as true
New Right/Control Theory
- fears of moral decay
- desire for greater control of people who harm normal society
- critical of welfare state
- people are naturally selfish
- need control through laws
- rational choice ~ cost/benefit analysis
- welfare = dependency = laziness = damaged bonds and informal social control
Underclass theory ~ Murray:
- underclass reject mainstream norms and values
- dependency culture
- rise of single parents, lack of discipline, no father figure, poor socialisation, instability
- communities damaged, no bonds, 'good people' move away
- moral decline
Rational choice theory
Wilson (broken Windows)
- communities need informal social control to regulate deviance
- cost-benefit analysis = less chance of getting caught/no fear of punishment
- neighbourhood watch
- strength communities, surveillance and chance of being caught
Etzionl
- government is dis-empowering communities
Control theory ~ Hirschi
- low attachments = low crime
- bonds (attachment, commitment, belief, involvement)
- family = vital for socialisation
- collapse of community and bonds
Critics:
- Marxists are critical as the right use this theory to justify inequality
- Contradiction ~ belief in selfish interests and community
- most working class citizens are moral even though struggling in poverty
- ignores middle class crime
- ignores how powerful manipulate society to control poor
- attack single parents
- ethnocentric-ism ~ bias
- ignores wider structural causes e.g poverty
- assumes rational choice, doesn't explain violence
- blames environment not values/culture
- no empirical evidence of underclass subculture
Conflict theories
Neo-Marxism:
- crisis of hegemony
- symbolic resistance
- CCS (Marxist subcultural theory)
- fully social theory of deviance
- selective policing
Labelling:
- social construction of deviance
- deviance as relative concept
- labelling process and selective policing
- effects of labelling (primary-secondary deviance)
- deviance amplification
- rule creation
Traditional Marxism:
- criminogenic capitalism
- laws serve ruling class
- ideological role of law/social control
- white collar crime
- selective law enforcement
- society shaped by economic base
- capitalist exploit working class
- society based on conflict, inequality and power central to crime and deviance
- law serves powerful ~ ideological
Critics:
- not all laws are just serving ruling class, many benefit workers
- laws reflect value consensus
- too deterministic
- high crime rates in socialist countries
- ignore importance of values/culture and socialisation in criminality
- ignores individual motivation
- ignores gender/ethnic inequality
- not all white people commit crime
- laws can act against the ruling class
White collar crime
Types:
- employee theft
- fraud
- computer crime
- tax fraud
- crimes against consumers
- crimes against employees
Level of harm:
- 20 x more harmful than street crime
- harm from faulty goods/safety/infringements/pollution etc
- fraud, far greater than burglary, muffing, theft
- middle class crime by people of high status/respectability
- corporate crimes
- white collar (employees)
Why it's hard to detect:
- very hard to investigate due to invisible nature
- hard to isolate blame
- no direct victim
- law is ambiguous/grey area
- consumers don't report/trivial
- policed by inspectors
- technical knowledge/ complex ahead of police skill set
Subculture:
- group's collective response to situation of relative deprivation
- use Cohen's theory of Status frustration to explain how they emerge
- lead to crime if they still subscribe to mainstream values of material wealth but lack legitimate opportunities to achieve those goals
- British Crime Survey 1983 shows poor and marginal are main victims of crime
- Main criminals are working class
- capitalists create crime
- inequality = frustration/tension
- welfare reduces problems/inequality
Critics:
- too much focus on working class crime, ignores white collar crime and level of harm
- over reliance on stats
- too much faith in police as 'neutral'
- underplay role in media in influencing police
- ignores labelling process and effect, needs more qualitative data to explore motives
- deterministic = not everyone who experienced relative poverty becomes a criminal
- too much focus on 'urban' crimes in inner cities, seems like greater problem
- not very new, no insights
Clarke (rational choice)
- crime is choice when rewards outweigh costs = low chance of being caught and punishment doesn't deter
Felson
- absence of 'capable guardian'
- need informal social control/community to trigger the 'inner policeman' (morality/duty)
Solutions:
- accountable policing
- reduce inequality
- social/community crime prevention ~ housing/poverty/jobs/job creation/education
Effects:
- self concept shaped
- primary/secondary deviance
- stigmatisation and social reaction increase label = master status = identity
- reject outsiders = join deviant subcultures
Critics:
- over romantic ~ too committed and see criminal as not so bad
- too much focus on exotic and bizarre deviance
- ignores origins of deviant acts
- too deterministic, simplistic
- deviants can adopt identity without being labelled
- where do stereotypes come from, why police only use some
- out of date, police trained to not be prejudiced
- ignore economic power. nature of capitalism in deviance
- ignore women
- ignores benefits of mass media, public awareness, crime reduction,
- people are now more 'media savy' and sceptical about media stories
White collar crime
Goffman:
- deviant career
- learn culture ~ novice to expert
- learn symbols, gradual adjusting identity
Lemert:
- deeper level of 'secondary deviance'
Studies:
Phil Cohen:
- skinheads
- ultra working class symbols
- response to destruction of working class communities in 60s
Hebdige:
- Punk
- shock collaging of symbols and distorted images
Hall:
- Rastas/ Rudies
- challenges to racist Babylon
Identity
Resistance
Socialisation
- working class youths find 'magical solutions' to oppression
- resistance through rituals
- symbolic resistance expressed through subcultures
- subculture bricolage ~ stealing signs and distorting their meaning
- Juvenile delinquency
- socialisation altered norms and values
- reject mainstream values
- gain status and rebellion
- status frustration
- illegitimate opportunities structures
- careers in crime
- networks/role models
Miller:
- focal concerns of lower class culture
- source of status/self esteem