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:

  1. label attached by police and courts
  2. label becomes master status ~ overrides other status e.g sibling, friend
  3. labelled person accepts label ~ how we see ourselves relies on how others see us
  4. 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