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sociological theories - Coggle Diagram

- - - - all institutions serve a purpose
      - some crime is inevitable and beneficial
      - crime is in all societies
        
        functional
      - law reinforces a collective conscience
      - lack of socialisation
        
        "sense of moral confusion"
      - organic analogy
    - - adaptation + change
        
        crime/deviance helped societal evolution
        
        "yesterday's deviance must become today's morality"
        
        e.g suffragettes
      - boundary maintanence
        
        crime = public outrage
        
        reinforces collective conscience/ social cohesion
        
        "punishment serves to heal the wounds of collective sentiments"
        
        e.g 9/11 bringing everyone together
      - crime as a 'safety valve'
        
        crime can be used to relax from stresses of life
        
        maintain social order
    - - S
        
        support for the belief that crime is inevitable
        
        criminal behaviour in all societies
        
        social order and value consensus
        
        e.g Japan still has crime
        
        credible
        
        crime is universal
        
        evidence of crime causing social cohesion
        
        9/11
        
        came together- boundary maintanence
        
        valid
        
        crimi behaviour is good for society
      - W
        
        doesn't explain what causes crime
        
        focuses on how social change impacts crime
        
        doesn't consider how crime begins
        
        slightly reductionist
        
        reduces usefulness of theory
        
        limits practical applications
        
        overlooks negative impacts on victims
        
        e.g terror attacks
        
        overlooks emotional/ physical harm
        
        encourages crime
        
        unethical
  - - - S
        
        offers a reason why people commit crime
        
        e.g all the illegitimacies
        
        retreatism
        
        rebellion
        
        innovation
        
        supporting evidence
        
        strain = crime
        
        london's most deprived areas = 52% more crimes
      - W
        
        assumes everyones dreams are materialistic
        
        some people want non-tangible items
    - - merton
      - everyone shares same value consenus
        
        same goals of the american dream
        
        upward social mobility + prosperity
      - individuals experience the strain
    - - conformity
        
        means+ goals
      - innovator
        
        illegitimate means but has goals
        
        e.g drug dealing
      - ritualism
        
        means but no goals
        
        e.g dead end job
      - retreatism
        
        rejecting the goals and the means
        
        withdrawn/ socially isolated
        
        e.g homeless drug addict
      - rebellion
        
        unconventional means and goals
        
        "action or process of resisting authority, control or convention
        
        rejecting mainstream means/goals
        
        e.g eco terrorism
  - - - proletariat vs bourgeoisie
        
        exploitation
    - - capitalism is criminogenic
        
        cause of crime due to systems exploitation
        
        leads to inequality/poverty
        
        alienation= vandalism + violent crimes
        
        bonger
        
        argues capitalism breeds competiton/ selishness/ envy/ consumerism/ indivdualism
      - selective law enforcement
        
        law reflects ruling class interests
        
        snider
        
        argues that the state is unwilling to enforce laws against business interest
        
        e.g disregarding the health of workers
        
        w/c heavily policed
        
        w/c crime in news regularly
        
        false consciousness of an attack on society from the poor
        
        e.g laura woodward case
        
        wealthy oxford student
        
        medical career
        
        stabbed boyfriend
        
        10 month custodial sentence
      - ideological functions of the law/state
        
        althusser
        
        argues the ideological state apparatus
        
        serves interests of capitalism
        
        crime/deviance is defined by bourgeoisie= social control
        
        not conforming to ruling class values= punishment
        
        agents of social control
        
        police
        
        justice system
        
        family
        
        schools
        
        prisons
        
        religion
        
        mass media
    - - S
        
        an explaination for all social classes
        
        capitalist society = upper class commit crime to increase wealth
        
        e.g tax evasion
        
        e.g WCC
        
        explains w/c poverty and resorts to crime
        
        credible + useful
        
        supporting examples
        
        impact of selective law enforcement
        
        lavina woodward
        
        average sentence should have been 10 years NOT months
        
        social status can impact how the justice system treats you
      - W
        
        communism isn't practical
        
        no empircal evidence/ research
        
        not all capitalist societies have high crime rates
        
        japan/ switzerland have lower crime rates than usa/uk
        
        limits practical use
        
        lacks generalisability
        
        deterministic
        
        overpredicts amount of crime
        
        not all poor people commit crime
        
        ignores free will
- - - - not all considered deviants/criminals
      - "powerful groups create rules or laws to define what counts as criminal"
      - a deviant is only deviant when the label is attached to them
    - - deviance/crime increased by media= hysteria from the public= more crime
    - - labelled
      - self fulfilling prophecy
      - deviant career
        
        deviant subcultures
      - master status
    - - vs. bullingdon club- no label
  - - - investigated police using subject perception/stereotyping
    - - 'typical delinquents'
      - stopped+searched
      - due to 'disheveled appearance'/ posture/ slang
    - - more respectable
  - - - examples to support
        
        mods v rockers incident
        
        negatively labelled as "thugs"
        
        increased deviance
        
        credible self fulfilling prophecy
      - highlights unethical police practices
        
        stop+ searcihng young black men
        
        4x more likely
    - - assumes everyone reacts to labels the same way
        
        self refuting prophecy
        
        lacks generalisability
      - reductionist
        
        doesn't acknowledge any other theories
        
        need more holistic approach
- - - - relative deprivation
        
        lea+young
        
        crime isnt caused by poverty
        
        media/consumerism=aware of deprivation compared to others
        
        leads to crime
        
        feel resentment to the rich
        
        e.g shoplifting
      - marginalisation
        
        groups find themselves on the edge of society
        
        e.g ethnic
        
        economically/politcally
        
        feel powerless
        
        these people dont feel influential
        
        leads to frustration crimes
        
        shoplifting/violence/vandalism
      - subculture
        
        groups in society w/ their own values
        
        consequence of relative deprivation/marginalisation
        
        some w/c may seek collective response
        
        forms deviant subculture
        
        these groups tend to have conflict
        
        e.g police vs young black men
    - - intervention
        
        identify groups at risk of committing crime
        
        taking action to limit offending
      - community based approaches
        
        local community combat crime
      - early interventions
      - young and matthews
        
        argue youth facilities/reduction in income inequality/improvement of housing can reduce crime
      - need positive r/ships with police
        
        90% of crime solved using public info
    - - S
        
        examples to support relative deprivation=crime
        
        2011 london riots
        
        looters steal luxuries
        
        cant buy through legititmate means
        
        real world examples
        
        credible
        
        practical applications/realistic solutions
        
        reducing social inequality should remove feelings of RD/marginalisation
        
        reduce crime
        
        achievable through gradual change
        
        useful/effective
      - W
        
        cant use it to explain all crimes/criminals
        
        doesnt consider upper class criminals
        
        loses credibility
        
        less generalisable
        
        deterministic
        
        assumes sufferers of RD/marginalisation will resort to crime
        
        doesnt consider free will
        
        lack of usefulness/generalisability
        
        no empirical research
  - - - mostly committed by w/c juveniles
    - - lack of self control
    - - e.g cctv
      - need practical solutions
    - - biological factors
        
        wilson+hernstein
        
        bio-social criminality theory
        
        more people predisposed to committing crime
        
        e.g hormones/ traits
        
        increased aggression/risk taking
        
        main cause of crime= low intelligence levels
        
        "naturally selfish + individualistic"
        
        naturally inclined towards criminal behaviour
      - socialisation
        
        effective socialisation= reduced risk of criminality
        
        people should be socialised into societal consenus+ self control
        
        crime increase due to growing underclass
        
        underclass fail to socialise/ lack self control
        
        murray
        
        underclass are 'work shy'
        
        dependency culture
        
        happy to live off the state
        
        absent fathers
        
        boys have no role models
        
        turn to delinquent role models on streets
      - rational choice
        
        clarke
        
        individuals rationally choose to commit crime
        
        costs are outweighed by the benefits
        
        thought through rational choices to commit
        
        current percieved costs of crime are low
        
        increased crime rate
        
        crims forsee little risk of getting caught
        
        punishment is weak
    - - situational crime prevention
        
        protect specific targets from potential criminals
        
        cctv
      - environmental crime prevention
        
        crime resistant neighbourhoods
        
        more police on streets
      - target hardening
        
        harder punishments
      - zero tolerance
        
        no excuse for any crime
        
        immediate punishment
    - - S
        
        offers practical applications to tackle crime
        
        realistic solutions
        
        target hardening/zero tolerance
        
        some police forces do use these
        
        achievable+realistic
        
        not entirely reductionist
        
        offers multiple explainations
        
        considers bio-social factors
        
        wilson +hernstein
        
        predisposition for crime
        
        flood et al
        
        researched links between crime/ family relationships
        
        supports idea of ineffective socialisation
      - W
        
        focuses on w/c criminals
        
        doesnt explain all crims
        
        most w/c crimes are instead caused by poverty not inadequate soc
        
        what about m/c criminals who are properly soc
        
        key principles are unethicsl/discriminatory/racist
        
        tendency to overly focus on ethnic minorities
        
        hernstein/murray linked to white supremacist ideology
        
        no objectivity due to personal bias