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CRIME AND DEVIANCE - Coggle Diagram
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
SUBCULTURAL THEORIES
COHEN, CLOWARD & OHLIN
Explain deviance in terms of a subculture of a certain group. Subcultures are groups where members develop distinct norms and values that encourage criminal activity, rejecting mainstream values and establishing their own, deviant/criminal ones.
COHEN
Status frustration
Working class youths (mainly boys) as a whole suffer from status frustration (realise that they cannot achieve status in mainstream society in middle class terms).
the lower working class may suffer from blocked avenues of success, so they develop an alternative set of goals and values which they can achieve (alternative status hierarchy).
Delinquent subcultures
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The delinquent subculture takes its norms from the larger mainstream culture but turns them upside down. For example, you get respect for stealing a car, vandalism, and truanting.
CLOWARD & OHLIN
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CRIMINAL, CONFLICT, AND RETREATIST SUBCULTURES
CRIMINAL
provides an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. These arise in areas where there is established criminal activity
delinquent youths have a chance of becoming successful within a hierarchy of organised crime e.g. burglary, drug dealing.
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RETREATIST
when a person fails to become part of the legitimate or illegitimate structure (double failures) they turn to other avenues such as drug use.
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MERTON'S STRAIN THEORY
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THIS IS NOT A SUBCULT THEORY, BUT THEY DO LINK
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EVALUATIONS:
MATZA (1964)
criticises subcultural theories for over-estimating juvenile delinquency. They do this by assuming that membership of delinquent subcultures is permanent. He argues that individuals drift in and out of delinquency, employing techniques of neutralisation (e.g. they deserved it) as they do so, and therefore crime and deviance is temporary and episodic (every now and gain).
KATZ - EDGEWORK
believes that people commit crime purely for pleasure. Thrill-seeking and risk-taking may be motivations for crime rather than simply material gain. This goes against Merton’s strain theory.
MARXIST
CRIMINOGENIC CAPITALISM
Crime is inevitable because capitalism by its very nature it causes crime. It is based on the exploitation of the working class and this may give rise to crime
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• Crime may be the only way they can obtain the consumer goods they are encouraged by advertising, resulting in utilitarian crimes such as theft.
• Alienation and lack of control over their lives may lead to frustration and aggression, resulting in non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism.
• Crime is not confined to the working class. Capitalism encourages capitalists to commit white-collar and corporate crimes.
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FUNCTIONALIST
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FUNCTIONS OF CRIME
- SOCIAL CHANGE
crime is something that is necessary to generate social change - innovation only comes about if old ideas are challenged
known as the boundary testing function of crime
- SOCIAL SOLIDARITY
a small amount of crime also has the beneficial effects of reminding people of the law as a result of court cases being reported. Also, media publicity of terrible crimes draws innocent people closer together in horror and in support of the victim
emphasises COLLECTIVE VALUES
- SAFETY VALVE
A certain amount of crime is a sign of a healthy society, if we didn’t have crime it would be an extremely repressive society. Deviance can help release stresses in society
- WARNING DEVICE
crime can also act as a warning device that society is not working properly.
THEORIES
DURKHEIM 1895
Durkheim argued that crime is an inevitable feature of social life. Individuals are exposed to different influences and circumstances, and so not everybody can be committed to the shared values of society.
SUTHERLAND - DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
people learn to become offenders from their environment. Through interactions with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, methods and motives for criminal behavior.
(LINKS TO SOCIALISATION)
FOCAL CONCERNS - MILLER (1962)
People in deviant families and communities favour deviant attributes
Miller's 6 focal concerns are:
trouble, toughness, smartness, excitement, fate, autonomy
(LINKS TO SOCIALISATION)
LEFT AND RIGHT REALISM
RIGHT
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EVALUATIONS
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assume that offenders act rationally in choosing crime and derive some benefits from it, but some crimes are impulsive or irrational and do not have any obvious gain, like vandalism or violence.
LEFT
CAUSES OF CRIME
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poverty, unemployment, poor housing and education, poor parental supervision, and broken families and family conflict.
PREVENTION STRATEGIES
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Multi-agency intervention: not just police, but child services etc.
PUNISHMENT
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RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
face to face meetings, to help repair the harm done and make offenders take responsibility for the consequences of their actions
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LABELLING THEORY
BECKER (1963)
argued that “deviance is created by society”-- the groups that make and enforce the rules decide what is criminal or deviant and label those who break the rules as deviant.
It is not the act itself that is deviant but the reaction of others that defines it as such – the meaning they attach to it
Agents of social control or Moral entrepreneurs – (a person or group with the power to create or enforce rules, such as the police, courts etc.) and their actions in defining, labelling and punishing crime.
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• They focus on the crimes that are most obvious, frighten people, and are relatively easy to clear up.
• They focus on those groups which their experience and prejudices tell them are most likely to commit crimes – the w/c, young, males, ethnic minorities; such groups are therefore labelled as being potentially criminal.
• The police therefore target such groups. This often produces a “criminal” reaction by people who feel they are picked on. This is called secondary deviance.
• It may also provoke increased deviance/crime because of publicity which leads to deviancy amplification and a deviant career. This suggests that it is not the act itself, but the hostile reaction to it, that creates serious deviance
• Because people are labelled and “picked on” they therefore live up to the label – self-fulfilling prophecy. Because the police focus on these groups, they show higher rates of crime in the official figures, so the police’s “theories” are confirmed!
• Jock young and the drug takers is an example of crime and labelling. Hippies were labelled as drug users by the media and police even though this was a peripheral part of their lives. However, this label soon became their “master status” and drug taking became more central.
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