functionalists see society as a stable system based on value consensus – shared norms, values, beliefs and goals. This produces social solidarity, finding individuals together into a harmonious unit.

To achieve this, society has two key mechanisms:

• socialisation instills the shared culture into its members to ensure that they internalise the same norms and values, and that they feel it right to act in the ways that society requires
• social control mechanisms include rewards for conformity and punishments for deviance
  

while crime disrupts social stability, functionalists see it as inevitable and universal. Durkheim sees crime as a normal part of all healthy societies:

• in every society, some individuals are inadequately, socialised and prone to deviate
• in modern societies, there is a highly specialised division of labour and the diversity of subcultures. Individuals and groups become increasingly different from one another, and the shared rules of behaviour become less clear. Durkheim calls this anomie (normlessness)

• crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members against the wrongdoing and reinforcing their commitment to the value consensus
• this is the function of punishment: to reaffirm shared rules and reinforce solidarity. E.g. Courtroom rituals publicly stigmatise offenders, reminding everyone of the boundary between right and wrong

• for change to occur individuals with new ideas must challenge existing norms, and at first this will appear as deviance. If this is suppressed, society will be unable to make necessary adapt to changes and will further stagnate.
  functionalists, identify further positive functions of deviance:
• safety valve Davis argues that prostitution acts release men’s sexual frustrations without threatening the nuclear family
• warning light Cohen argues that deviance indicates that an institution is malfunctioning

• Durkheim claims society requires a certain amount of deviance to function, but offers no way of knowing how much is the right amount
• Durkheim, another functionless explain crime in terms of its function e.g. to strengthen solidarity. But just because crime does these things, doesn’t necessarily mean this is why exist in the first place

merton argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when they cannot achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. His explanation combines:

• structural factors: societies unequal opportunity structure
• cultural factors: the strong, emphasis on success goals and weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them

for Merton, deviance is the result of a strain between the goals a culture encourages individuals to aim for, and what the structure of society actually allows them to achieve legitimately

• For example, the American dream emphasises money success. Americans are expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means.
• The ideology claims that American society is meritocratic. But in reality, poverty and discrimination block opportunities for many to achieve by legitimate means
• The resulting strain between the cultural goal (money success) and the lack of legitimate opportunities produces frustration and a pressure to resort to illegitimate means
• The pressure is increased by the fact that American culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price, and upon doing so by legitimate means. Winning the game is more important than playing by the rules.

Merton seeks to explain, different patterns of deviance. He argues that an individual’s position in the social structure affects how they adapt to the strain to anomie. He identifies five adaptions:

• Conformity: individuals accept the culture of the approved goals, and strive to achieve them legitimately
• Innovation: individuals, except the money success goal, but he’s a legitimate means to achieve it. This is typical of those who lack legitimate opportunities.
• Ritualism: individuals give up on the goal, but have internalised the legitimate means, and follow the rules for their own sake
• Retreatism: individuals reject both goal, and legitimate means, and drop out society
• Rebellion: individuals replace existing goals and means with new ones with the aim of bringing about social change
  

Merton shows how both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the mainstream goals. Conformists and innovators both pursue the same goal, but by different means:
He explains the pattern shown in official statistics:

• Most crime is property crime because American society values material wealth so highly
• Working-class crime rates are higher because they have least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately

subcultural strain theory, both criticise Mertons theory and build on it. They see deviance as the product of delinquent subcultures. The subcultures of the lower class members a solution to the problem of how to gain the status they cannot achieve by legitimate means.

they agree with Merton thatworking-class youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve, and that their deviance stems from their response to this.
But they note that not everyone adapts to a lack of legitimate opportunities by turning to innovation (utilitarian crime). Some subcultures resort to violence, others turn to drug use

• In their view, the key reason for these differences is not only unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure, but an equal access to illegitimate opportunity structures. For example, not everyone who fails at school can become a successful safecracker.
• Different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers. They identify three types of sub cultures that result.

these provide you with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime. They arise in neighbourhoods where there is a long-standing stable, criminal culture and hierarchy professional adult crime.

• adult criminals can select and train those youths with the right abilities and provide them with opportunities on the criminal career ladder
  

These arise in areas of high population turnover that prevent a stable professional criminal network developing. The only illegitimate opportunities are within loosely organised gangs.

• violence provides a release for frustration at blocked opportunities and an alternative source of status and by winning ‘turf’ from rival gangs.

The ‘double failures’ who fail in both illegitimate and a legitimate opportunity structures often turned to a retreatist or dropout subculture based on illegal drug use.

• Like Merton and Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin ignore crimes of the wealthy, and the wider power structure, and overpredict the amount of working-class crime
• But, unlike Cohen, they tried to explain, different types of working-class deviance in terms of different subcultures
• They draw the boundaries to sharp between different types. Actual subculture is often show characteristics of more than one type.
  

sees crime as the product of inadequate socialisation into a shared culture. Miller argues that the lower class has an independent subculture opposed to mainstream culture, and this explains their higher crime rate.

this argues that the class structure, denies working class people opportunity to achieve by legitimate means, so they are more likely to innovate

Cohen sees working-class youths as culturally deprived and unable to achieve in education. Failure gives rise to status frustration. As a solution, they form delinquent subculture, is in which they gain status from peers. Cloward and Ohlin identify three deviant subcultures: criminal, conflict and retreatist

this rejects the view that official statistics are valid picture of what class commits most crime. They focus on the role of law enforcement agencies, which have the power to label the working class as criminals.

marxists agree that the law is unforced, mainly against the working class and the official statistics are flawed. But they criticise labelling theory for ignoring the structure of capitalism within which law making, enforcement and offending take place. Marxist explanations of crime flow from their analysis of the nature of capitalist society.
Marxism sees capitalist society as divided into the ruling capitalist class, who own the means of production, and the working class, who is labour capitalist exploit for profit.
Marxism is a structural theory: society is a structure who is capitalist economy base determines the superstructure i.e. all other institutions, including the state, the law and criminal justice system. Their function is to serve ruling class interests. For Marxists the structure of capitalism explains crime.

crime is inevitable in capitalism, because capitalism is criminogenic - its very nature causes crime.
working-class crime capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class for profit. As a result:

• Poverty may mean crime is the only way some can survive
• Crime may be the only way of obtaining consumer goods, encouraged by capitalist advertising, resulting in utilitarian crimes
• alienation may cause frustration and aggression leading to non-utilitarian crimes
  ** capitalism is a win at all costs system of competition, while the profit motive encourages greed. This encourages capitalists to commit corporate crimes e.g. Tax evasion, breaking health and safety laws.
  As Gordon, 1975, argues, crime is a rational response to capitalism, and thus is found in all classes

marxists lawmaking and enforcement, as serving the interests of the capitalist class. Chambliss (1975) argues that laws to protect private property, are the basis of a capitalist economy. The ruling class also have the power to prevent the introduction of laws harmful to their interests. Few laws challenge that unequal distribution of wealth

while all classes commit crime, there is selective enforcement of the law.

• Reiman (2001) shows the crimes of the powerful and watch this likely to be treated as criminal, offences and prosecuted
• By contrast, there is a much higher rate of prosecutions for the crime of the poor

crime and the law perform ideological functions for capitalism.

• Some laws benefit workers e.g. Health and safety. However, Pearce (1976) argues that these also benefit capitalism. By giving it a caring face., it creates false consciousness
• Because the state enforces the law selectively, crime appears to be largely working class. This divides the working class, encouraging workers to blame, working-class criminals for their problems, rather than capitalism
• Selective enforcement distorts the crime statistics. By making crime appear largely working class, it’s shifts attention from a more serious ruling class crime

Neo-Marxist Taylor, Walton and Young agree with traditional Marxists that:

• Capitalism is based on exploitation and inequality. This is the key to understanding crime.
• The state makes them in forces laws in the interest of capitalism and criminalises the working class
• Capitalism should be replaced by classless society, which would greatly reduce crime
  However, Taylor et al criticise traditional Marxism for its determinism. They reject this view, along with other theories that claim crime is caused by external factors.

instead, Taylor et al take a more voluntaristic view, (the idea that we have free will): crime is a conscious choice, often with a political motive, for example, to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. Criminals are deliberately struggling to change society.

Taylor et al aim to create a fully social theory of deviance -a comprehensive theory that would help to change society for the better. This Siri would have two main sources:

• Marxist, ideas about the unequal distribution of wealth, and who has the power to make an enforce the law
  -Labelling theorists ideas about the meaning of the deviant act for the actor, societal reactions to it, and the effects of deviant label the individual

although all classes commit crime, the law is selective reinforced and higher class and corporate offenders are less likely to be prosecuted.
white collar crime: Sutherland (1949) define is white collar crime as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high status in the course of his occupation. This can include:

• occupational crime committed by employees for personal gain e.g. Stealing from the company.
• corporate crime committed for the companies benefit e.g. To increase its profits.
  the scale of corporate crime: corporate crime does far more harm than ordinary crime. It has enormous physical, environmental and economic costs. Tombs (2013) includes that corporate crime is widespread routine and pervasive.
  — financial crimes
  — crimes against consumers
  — crimes against employees
  — crimes against the environment

Professionals occupy positions of trust and respectability that give them the opportunity to violate this trust. In Sutherlands view, this makes white collar crime, a greater threat to society than working class ‘street’ crime, because it promotes distrust of key institutions and undermines the fabric of society.

corporate crime is often invisible or else not seen as real crime, because:

The media give very limited coverage to corporate crime and often describe it as technical infringements. This reinforces the stereotype that crime is a working class phenomenon.

foreign forces under resourced and lacked technical expertise to investigate effectively

offences are often defined as civil; penalties are often fines, not jail.

often, the victim is society at large, rather than a particular individual. Victims may not know they have been victimised, not regard it as a real crime or feel powerless and not report the offence

Company cannot achieve its goal of maximising profit by legitimate means, it may employ illegal ones instead. Clinard and Yeager (1980) found companies law violations increased as their profitability declined

Sutherland sees crime as socially learned behaviour. If a company is deviant subculture is justifies committing crime, employees will be socialised into criminality. They may learn techniques of neutralisation to justify their crimes.

an act counts as a crime, only if it has been labelled. Companies often have the power to avoid labelling e.g. By hiring expensive lawyers. The inability of enforcement agencies to investigate effectively also reduces the number of offences officially labelled.

marxism sees corporate crime as resulting from the normal functioning of capitalism. Because capitalism is goal is to maximise profita, it’s inevitability causes harm e.g. to employees and consumers. Corporations comply with the law, only if it is enforced strictly.

capitalism creates the ideology that corporate crime is less widespread or harmful than working class crime. It also controls the state, so that it can avoid making laws that conflict with it interests

RR sees crimes, especially street crime, as a growing problem
Attitude to other theories RR believe other theories have failed to solve the problem of crime. They regard labelling theory and critical criminology as too sympathetic to the criminal and hostile to the police and courts
Practical solutions RRs are mainly concerned with practical solutions to reduce crime. In their view, the best way to do so is through control and punishment, rather than by rehabilitating offenders or tackling causes such as poverty

it, except the authorities definition of crime has been street crime of the poor and ignores the harm done to the poor by the powerful. Marxists argue that it fails to explain corporate crime.

• It over predicts the amount of working-class crime
• Understanding offenders motives require qualitative data, but left realists rely on quantitive data from victim surveys