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Working-class criminality - Coggle Diagram
Working-class criminality
Working-class are more prominent in crime statistics.
Miller
(1958) working-class boys have their own
'focal concerns
' which have potential to lead to deviancy. Fate, Autonomy, toughness, excitement, being in trouble and smartness
Strain theory:
Society is unequal in structure. Opportunities for legitimate success denied.
Subcultural strain:
Cloward and Ohlin and Cohen blocked opportunities = status through subculture.
Cohen:
status frustration = non-utilitarian crime. Status in the eyes of others.
Katz and Jackson-Jacobs
(2004): argue that 'gangs make local attachments glorious', transforming the continuation of childhood friendships and hangouts into matters of pride - phrase 'homeboy' badge of honour. Gangs are a way for those who failed to climb social ladder maintain status & respect.
Marxists:
Creation and enforcement of laws = overrepresentation of working-class criminals.
Chambliss:
laws are created in the interests of ruling class. Capitalism creates desire to consume and and inability to do so.
Gordon:
dog eat dog nature causes crime. Companies bend and break laws to maximise profits.
Rational response for position people find themselves in, capitalism creates conditions for inequality.
Bonger:
exploitation of workers and promotion of material goods. Means breaking the laws to achieve the goods that keep capitalism alive. Link between economic conditions and crime.
Box
(1983): uses concept of murder to show how crime is socially constructed. Murder is seen to have typical setting, actor and instrument etc. Deaths from employers =
avoidable killing.
Official statistics socially constructed to criminalise powerless. Idea most crime is done by working-class justifies more surveillance, policing and punishment. This illusion diverts us from more serious crimes.
Alienation and competition created by capitalism creates criminality.
Interactionists:
Stan Cohen:
Media.
Cicourel.
Becker:
working-class more likely to be labelled as criminals so therefore targeted by police.
Cicourel:
negotiation of middle-class boys and parents.
Chambliss
: Saints and Roughnecks. 2 high schools.
Right realists:
Domain of underclass of idle young men.
Murray:
the underclass.
Areas in which they live.
Broken windows theory.
Rational choice theory:
Wilson.
Hirschi: Some people are too well integrated into society. Those who do not have strong 'social bonds' will commit crime.
Criticised for being based upon stereotypes.
Gallie (1994)
interviewed the long-term unemployed about their attitudes to work & most had strong work ethic and wanted to work.
Sociology of vindictivness.
Social bonds:
Attachment: attached to others in society.
Commitment: having responsibilities i.e. a job.
Involvement: being part of a workplace, community or social group.
Belief: subscribing to a value system. Society's general values or morals.
Left realists:
Relative deprivation. Materialism and false needs.
Marginalisation:
Economic exclusion which pushes them to the end of society.
Many working-class students turn to subcultures.
Matthews and Young (1992):
The square of crime.
Crime arises at an intersection.
Need to understand:
The individual.
The state.
Public opinion and informal control.
The victim.
Post-modernism:
Winlow:
research in Sunderland. Crime is viable career opportunity and status.
Neo-marxism:
Interactionism & marxism. Criminality occurs through social structure but those at the bottom are most likely to be convicted, arrested and identified.
Look at labelling process and CJS.
The new criminology:
Taylor
Fully social theory of crime and deviance: holistic approach. Deviancy influenced by agency and structural forces.
Those deviating has agency in their actions, show meanings in their actions.
Active resistance towards unequal structure brought about by capitalism.
Fully social theory:
Wider origins of deviant act. Refers to structure of society the 'pushes'
Immediate origins of deviant act. Circumstances that led to crime.
The act: what was it? and its purpose?
Immediate origins of societal reaction: close family.
Wider origins of social reaction.
Impact of social reaction on future behaviour.
Over complex.
Hall:
The black mugger.
Political act of resistance.
Statistics:
Sociologists point out that 74% of prison population is drawn from poorest 20% of general population.
Unemployment rate of general population is 5% compared to 67% in prison.
Half of male prisoners were excluded from school and majority have no qualifications.
Trust for London
: 80% more crimes were recorded in the most income-deprived areas.
Violence, robbery and sexual offences are 2.6x more prevalent in most income-deprived 10% of areas.
11% of prisons were in care, homeless or ran away from home.
Seductions of crimes:
Katz
Lyng
Ferrell
: (1999)
Williams et al.
(2012)
Ran away from home
truancy
Domestic abuse/alcohol/drug misuse.
Imprisonment of the working-classes neutralises the opposition.