Sociological explanations of crime and deviance
Functionalists
Merton
Durkheim
E: funct. subcultural
2 functions of punishment
2 functions of crime
1- acts as a deterrent. 2- reinforces wrong and right ideas
1- boundary maintenance. 2- adaption and change
E: Matza
Subcultural Views
Functionalists
Marxists
WC subcultures = fertile ground for crime to take place
Hall + Jefferson
Matza
Cloward + Ohlin
Miller
Cohen
Marxists
Pearce
Slapper + Tombs
Gordan
Snider
Chambliss
Neo-Marxists/Critical Criminology
Taylor, Walton + Young
crime is not inevitable
Davis- safety valve
Cohen- warning device
strain theory
strain between goals and achieving them
crime is a WC phenomenon
theory of anomie
crime is a feature of everyday life
Hirschi
why don't more people commit crime?
bonds of attachments
prevents anomie
commitment
attachment
belief
innovation
crime occurs when one is broken
5 responses to material goals of society
retreatism
rebellion
ritualism
innovation
conformity
E: 'white collar crime' is ignored
WC subcultures causes WC crime
failing in school = join delinquent subcultures
overcome status frustration
achieve status through membership in gangs
crime youth takes depends on illegitimate opportunity structure in their neighbourhood
conflict subculture
retreatist subculture
criminal subculture
utilitarian crime
gangs conflict
drugs
E: only focus on WC
delinquents part of mainstream WC culture
focal concerns
smartness
toughness
excitement
critical of funct. subcultural approach
youth drift in and out of delinquency
crime = more casual than made out to be
E: Hall + Jefferson
youth subcultures = symbolic/ritualistic attempts to resist the power of the bourgeois
adopt behaviour that seems threatening
e.g. punks
E: feminists - ignores gender inequality in crime
E: idolises people that commit crime
make them appear as victims of capitalism
laws created by ruling class
say what is/isnt crime
protect their own interests
selective policing = law favouring MC
capitalism = crimogenic
norms and values of capitalist societies create crime
E: ignores non-utilitarian crime
bias against the WC
why crime seems like WC phenomenon
E: not bc selective, bc MC crime is hard to detect
laws that benefit the WC, benefit the MC
e.g. health and safety laws keep the workforce strong and give MC a caring face
agrees with Pearce
capitalists states reluctant to pass laws that regulate activities of businesses that threaten their profitability
compare crime = rarely prosecuted and punished
encourages companies to use crime as a means of making profit
a 'fully socialised theory of crime and deviance
E: ignore intra-class crime
WC victims of crimes committed by WC
Interactionists
Focus on small scale studies
Cicourel
Cohen
Lemert
Braithwaite
Becker
deviance in the eye of the beholder
someone isn't deviant unless caught in the act
lead to...
master status
deviant career
self-fulfilling prophesy
secondary deviance
societal reaction
primary deviance
no point in studying
most important is SR in producing SD
typifications
ideas about what a typical delinquent is like
more likely to be charged
MC don't fit this
Mods and rockers
once labelled by the media they will live up to it
2 types of shaming
disintegrative shaming
reintegrative shaming
labelling results in social exclusion
act is labelled, not the actor - easier for criminals to be accepted back into society