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Youth Crime (Functionalist explanation (Sub-cultural Strain theory /…

- - - - 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
  - - - 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
- - - - 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
- - - - goes on to point out once factors such as class and educational achievement taken into account ethnic differences disappear
  - - - 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
- - - - 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
      - Goffman:
        
        deviant career
        
        learn culture ~ novice to expert
        
        learn symbols, gradual adjusting identity
      - Lemert:
        
        deeper level of 'secondary deviance'