theories of crime
Merton's strain theory
argues people engage on deviant behvaiour when they are unable to ah cive socially approved goals by legitmate means
crutural facrors societies unequal opportunity structure) and cultural facrors (strong emopahasis on sucess goals and weakeer emphasis on using kegitmimate means to acheive them) both are explaiantions for crime
deviant adaptations to strain- he argures that an indivuals psotiton in the social structure affects the way that they adapt or respond to the stain to anomie
ex: American dream
types of adaptation to strain:
rebellion- indvudals reject the exisiting sociietyies goals and means, repolace with new ones
ritualism- indivudals give up on trying to ahcive the goals
innovation- indivudlas accept the goal of money sucess ut use new legitmiate measn like theft or fruad to ahcive
conformormity- accept the culturally approved goals and stive to achieve them legitmimately
retretism- indivudla reject both the go9qal and the legitmiate means= dropouts
evaluation-
-over represents lower class crime
+explains the patterns shown in offical crime statisitcis (class)
-marxisits argue it ignores the power of the rukling class
only accounts for utiltarian crime not violent crimes
only explains individual crime
marxism
beleive the law is enforced disprootionately against the working class and therfore the offical crime sttistics cant be taken at face value. see the capitalist society as deiveded into 2 classes: the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and working class (proletariat)
for marxists the structure of capitalist society explains crime. their view of crime has three main elements; criminogenic capitalism, the state and law making, ideological functions of crime and law
criminogenic capitalism- crime is inevitable becuase the capitalist cuases crime. Gordon argues crime is a rational repsonse to the capitalist system and hence it is ffound in all social classes even though offical staitists show it minky lower class.
state and law making- marxists see law making and law enforcment as only serving the interests of the capitalist class. Chambliss (1975) argues that laws to protect privatre property are the cornerstone of the capitalist economy
ideological functions of crime and law- laws are occasionally passed that appear to be for the benefit of the working class rather than capitalism (workplace health and safety laws)
Durkheim, functioanalist crime
society requires a certain amount of deviance to function sucessfully
postive functions of crime
adapataions and change- Durkhiem veleives all changes start with an act of deviance
boundary manaitenace- crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its memebers so reinforces thier committment to norms and values
inevitabilitiy of crime
not everyone is equally effecitivly socialised into the shared norms and values
diversity of lifstyles and vlaues 9different groups have theri own subcultures, so some may be seenas deviant)
neo marxist
have been influenced by many ideas by marxism but combine with approaches like
taylor et al- believe capitalist society is based on exploitation and class conflict and characterised by extreme inequalities of wealth and power (same as marxists). however they argue marxism is deterministic, they take a voluntaristic view (free will)
labelling theory
can be applied to suicide and mental illness
Lemert (1967)- "rest heavily on the idea that deviance leads to social control. I have come to beleive the reverse idea (social control leads to deviance"
labelling theorists claim by labelling certain people as criminal or deviant society encourages them to become more so
Becker
a deviant is simply someone who the label has been successfully applied and deviant behaviour is just behaviuouring as thier label
Cicourel: the negotiation of justice
offivers decisions to arrest are infleuenced by thier sterotypes about offenders. Cicourel found that officers typical sterotypes led them to consentrate on certain types of people. this results in law enforcement showing class bias,working class are tyoical delinquents. Cicourel beleivesjustice is not fixed but negotiable
labelling may cuase the label to become the indivudlas master status leading to a deviant amplification spiral resulting in increased control and then increaced deviance
critisised for determinism and failing to explain primary deviance and the origin of labels
subcultural strain theories
Cohen: status frustration
focuses on deviance amoung working class boys- suffer from cutural deprivation and lack of skills to ahcieve, form delinquent subcultures
crtisises merton for ignoring group crimes and focuses on utiltarian crime like theft and fraud, ignores crime with no economic motive
deviance is largely a lower class phenomenon, results from the inability to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means (educational achievement)
Cloward and Ohlin: 3 subcultures
they agree that working class youths are denied legitmate opportunities to achieve 'money sucess', their deviance stems from the way they respond to the situation
note that not everyone int thisn ituation adapts to it by turning to innovation- utiltarian crimes
they identify 3 types of deviant subcultures:
retreatist subcultures- mot everyone who aspires to be a professional crimininal or gang leader actually sucessd, just as in the legitmiate opportunity structure
criminal subcultures- provide youths with an apprentiship for a career in utiltarian crime
conflict subcultures- arisie in areas of high population turnover, high levels of social disorganisation which prevents stabiltiy
Cloward and Ohlin: 3 subcultures
evaluation
-assume that everyone starts off sharing the same mainstream success goals
-ignore the wider power strcuture
+provide an explanation of differnt types of working class deviance
-only mentions achieveing mainstream goals not own goals
right realism
sees crime as a real and growing problem that destroys communities, undermines social cohesion and threatens society work ethic
reject the idea put forward by marxists like poverty and inequality are uases of crime. right realists beelive crime is the product of three factors: indivdual biological differences, inadequate socialisation and the indivudals rational choice to offend.
socialisation- Murray claims that the crime rate is increasinf becuase of a growing underclass who fail to sacialsie their children properly
rational choice theory- assumes that indivudals have free will and power of reason. Clarke argues that the decision to commit crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences
Wilson- beleives if the supply and value of legitimate opportunities was declining at the very time that the cost of illegitmate opportunities was also declining
critisms-
-ignores wider structural cuases such as poverty
-overstates offenders rationality and how far they make cost benefit calcualtions v=before commiting a crime
-over emphasises biological factors
tackeling crime- focus on control, containment and punishment of offenders rather than eliminating the underlying cuases of offending or rehabilitaing them
left realism
reformists-beleive in gradual change rather than the violent overthrow of capitalism as the way to achieve greater equality
crime affects disadvantaged groups in partciular
they believe we need explanations of crime that will lead to practical strategies for reducing it now rahter than waiting for a revolution
causes of crime
relative deprivation
subculture
marginalisation
tackeling crime
policing and control- Lea and young argue more police is needed and they mainly depend on the public (military policing)
positivist
see sociology as a science
favour quantitative data
reliable so can be repeated