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CRIME & DEVIANCE - Coggle Diagram

- - - - MERTON - advertising adds to strain between legitimate means and goal of material success
        
        desire to achieve success goals outweigh pressure to obey law
    - - ROTHKOPF - top of society is 'superclass'
        
        superclass mialy run by global corporations
        
        bottom = underclass, slum dwellers, street children
      - BAUMAN - super wealthy segregate themselves from the wealthy
        
        e.g, gated community, private jets
        
        if people can afford it, they move to a better area and send people to private schools
      - Marxists = inequalities give people at the bottom a sense of injustice, anger and frustration
        
        they are not sharing the wealth being flaunted
        
        capitalism leads to a flourishing of economic crime
  - - - lack of opportunity is a 'structural feature' organised to keep the rich rich and the poor poor
        
        society bears some degree of responsibility for the crime it encourages
- - - - primary deviance = acts which have not been publically labelled (little consequence)
        
        act that goes against social norms BUT doesn't affect society
        in a drastic way
      - secondary deviance = deviance which is the consequence
        of the response of others (significant)
        
        consequences for individuals self-concept and status in the community
      - labelling can encourage deviant behaviour in 3 ways...
        1) deviant self-concept
        2) process of self-exclusion
        3) increased involvement in deviant groups
      - studied coastal inuit of Canada...
        
        long rooted problem of stuttering
        
        suggested problem was caused by the importance attached to ceremonial speech
        
        children became over anxious of abilities = stuttering
        
        stuttering produced by societal reaction
        = stuttering (secondary deviance) is a response to parents reaction to initial minor speech defects (primary deviance)
    - - Interactionist = media exaggerates deviance of youth
        subcultures (creates moral panic)
      - COHEN - 'moral panic'
        
        status frustration = alternative status hierarchy
        
        groups / members are diminished by the media as 'folk devils'
        (people who society should fear)
        
        authorities respond to public's fear - tougher laws, initiatives, sentencing etc)
      - COHEN - Mods & Rockers
        
        two youth subcultures who clashed on bank holidays at seaside resorts
        
        problem was exaggerated and publicly caused greater deviance over time
        
        effect of media coverage was to make the young categorise themselves into either mods or rockers = helped create violence
      - YOUNG - 'hippie' marijuana smokers in Notting Hill
        
        labelling could lead to deviance amplification / formation of subcultures
        
        start of study = many people casually smoked marajuana
        
        during study = pressure for police action against drug use
        (SFP occured - became more deviant as they were labelled)
        = distinctive subculture grew up
        = drug use became more deviant in response to police
- - - - 1) Subculture (LEA & YOUNG)
        
        to cope with relative deprivation
        
        SC of young blacks is different from their parents who largely accepted their marginalised position
        
        black youth SC has high material expectations / aspirations
        
        black male youth is enmeshed in values of consumption, wealth etc
        
        engage in crime because of blocked opportunities = status frustration)
        YOUNG - subcultures increase conflict / crime (marginalised groups)
      - 2) Relative Deprivation (LEA & YOUNG)
        
        frustration from disparity between expectations and reality of lifestyles leads to relative deprivation
        
        HALL argue reality for young black males is a choice of unemployment, training schemes or "white mans shit work"
        
        feel unfairly denies the 'glittering prizes' offered to others = develop into strategies which can involve criminal behaviour
        
        YOUNG - high levels of cultural inclusion are combined with social and economic exclusion of poorer groups
      - 3) Marginalisation (LEA & YOUNG)
        
        certain groups find themselves on the edge of society
        
        marginal groups tend to use violence / rioting as forms of political action
        
        white / black w/c youth often feel alienated by schools, unemployment etc
        
        young black males face marginalisation through through prejudice / harassment (e.g, stop and search)
        
        economic marginalisation is transferred into crime
      - The Square of Crime - MATTHEWS
        
        crime is a social construct and crime can be understood in 4 ways...
        1) the state
        2) the offender
        3) informal control
        4) the victim
        
        crime is produced through interactions between offender and societal reaction
      - Perry school 1950s - longitudinal study
        
        at age 40 - family support investment = less crime committed
        
        LR concluded that early support has an effect on reducing crime (time-consuming and expensive)
      - CRITICISMS...
        
        JONES - not all people who experience relative deprivation turn to crime
        
        over-predicts crime in a consumer society
        
        not all marginalised groups turn to crime (e.g, religious)
        
        focus on victim = little info about offenders
        
        neglected organised and corporate crime
        
        produces a more rounded way of understanding criminality
  - - - 1) Biological difference (MURRAY)
        
        main cause of crime is low intelligence (biologically determined)
        
        WILSON & HERRNSTEIN - use a biosocial theory (biological and social factors)
        
        some a innately more predisposed to commit crime
        
        personality traits (e.g, aggression) makes them risk-takers without self-control
      - 2) Underclass / socialisation (MURRAY)
        
        faulty socialisation = kids don't learn self-control and internalise moral values of right and wrong (feral children)
        
        misguided generous welfare and a mass of single parent families spawn delinquents
        
        underclass live in different world - lifestyle characterised by reckless and non reckless behaviour
        
        London riots
      - 3) rational choice theory (WILSON)
        
        crime is seen as essentially rational
        
        crime is committed when chances are highest of getting the max reward with minimum risk
        
        crime arises if more profitable than a job
        
        "cost-benefit analysis"
        
        perceived costs of crime are low = explains why crime increases
        
        FELSON - 'capable guardians' deter crime because as they act as a deterrent
      - Prevent & Punishment - practice solutions:
        
        proactive policing (zero-tolerance = law enforced rigorously)
        
        broken window policy (WILSON & KELLING)
        
        strong communities - naming and shaming
        
        target hardening - making it harder to commit crime
        
        situational management / defensible space - take control of an area before criminals do
        
        crime deterrence
        
        swift and lengthy imprisonment
      - CRITICISMS
        
        ignores wider structure causes e.g, poverty
        
        overstates rationality of offenders (cost / benefit applies to utilitarian but NOT non-utilitarian)
        
        ignores corporate crime
        
        zero tolerance may give police free rein to discriminate - displace crime to other areas
        
        over-emphasis of control rather than tackling causes of neighbourhood decline
- - - - 3 possible subcultures
        
        1) Criminal = thriving local criminal subculture
        
        young offenders ' work their way up the ladder'
        
        recruited when young
        
        2) Conflict = territorial gangs exist
        
        gangs engage in violence as a means of acheving 'respect'
        
        respect may bea substitute for qualifications, jobs etc
        
        Retreatist = individuals have no opportunity to engage in subcultures OR achieve success in legitimate ways
        
        'double failures' - retreat to alcohol / drugs
      - EVALUATION
        
        weaknesses of MERTONS original theory
        
        difficult to accept neat distinctions into 3 clear categories in real life (may be an overlap between criminal / retreatist)
        
        no discussion of female deviancy / crimes committed by higher social classes
    - - AIM = to address questions about why groups commit crimes and people people commit non-utilitarian crimes
      - argued that w/c boys often failed at school resulting in low status
        
        response to this was formation of 'subcultures' with values that were largely the reverse of mainstream values
      - w/c boys strove to emulate m/c values but lacked the means to attain success
        
        found it difficult to get status from exam success
        
        led to status frustration - sense of personal failure
        
        rejected values of 'acceptable' behaviour
        
        to gain status they 'invert' traditional m/c values by engaging in antisocial behaviour
      - EVALUATION
        
        suggest it only applies to a minority of offenders who originally accepted mainstream values and then turn
        
        MIlLER - opposition to mainstream values more widespread in w/c because culture does not correspond to largely m/c school environment
        
        does provide explanation of non-utilitarian crimes
    - - MATZA & SYKES
        
        states most of use are able to suppress these delinquent values (although we all share them)
        
        people are neither conformal / deviant = they 'drift' between both
        
        proof for existence of these subterranean subcultures values
        comes from the fact people 'neutralise' deviant acts
      - KATZ - argues crime is seductive
        
        young males get drawn into it because it is 'thrilling'
      - LYNG - argues young males like taking risks /
        engaging in 'edgework'
        = going to the edge of acceptable behaviour (flirting with danger)