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Criminology - Coggle Diagram
Criminology
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Intercationsim
See our interactions with one another based on meaning s or labels. For example criminal is a label that some people may attach to others in their intercations. 'crime 'and 'criminals' are social constructs
Labelling theory states that no act is deviant or criminal itself. It only becomes so when we create rule sand apply them to others eg. smoking cannabis only counts as a crime if society decides to make a law criminalising it
- Therefore to understand criminality, we must focus on how certain actions and people get labelled as criminal in the first place
Differential enforcement of there law - Intercationsist ague that social control agencies such as the police label certain groups as criminal. This results in differential enforcement - where the law is enforced more against one group or another
- Piliavin and Broar found that police's decisions to arrest were used on stereotypical ideas about a person's manner, dress, gender, class, ethnicity, time and place
- Similarly, Cicourel found that police use typifications of the 'typical delinquent'. Working class ethnic minority youths were more likely to be stopped, charged and arrested
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Primary deviance - acts that are not publicly labelled. Those who commit these acts do not usually see themselves as criminals
Secondary deviance - results from labelling as people may treat the offender solely in terms of the label, which becomes their master status. This status overrides all other statuses such as father, parent, work collegue
As a result, the offender may be rejected by society and forced into the company of other criminals, joining a deviant subculture
- Prison is an extreme example of this because the offender is excluded from normal society and pkaced with others who confirm their criminal identitm, provide them with role models and teach them criminal skills
- What has happened is a self-fulfilling prophecy - the individual has now become what the label said they were. The result is that further offending is more likely
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Functionalsim - Durkheim
See society as a stable structure based on shared norms, values and beliefs about what is right and wrong. This produces social solidarity or integration, where all members of society feel they belong
Some crime is inevitable
Functions of crime:
Boundary miantenncy - unites society's members against the wrong doer, reminding them of the boundary between right and wron, and reaffirming their shared values
Social change - for society to progress, individuals with new ideas must challenge existing norms and values, and at first this will be seen as deviance
Safety valve - to protects other institutions in society eg. prostitution enables meant to release sexual frustrations without treating the nuclear family
Warning light - deviance indicates institutions isn't working properly eg. high truancy rates could indicate a problem with society
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