Unit 4 SCLY4 - Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods; Stratification and Differentiation with Theory and Methods
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Summary Crime and Deviance - Sociology A Level (A*)
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Unit 4 SCLY4 - Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods; Stratification and Differentiation with Theory and Methods
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These are my condensed revision notes for all topic areas within the Crime and Deviance section of AQA A-Level Sociology Paper 3. These notes helped me achieve an A-A* across all assignment modules for this topic and an A* in my final exam.
Unit 4 SCLY4 - Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods; Stratification and Differentiation with Theory and Methods
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Crime and Deviance – Condensed Revision Notes:
Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories:
Durkheim: socialisation instils shared culture and social control.
Inevitability of crime; not socialised equally, prone to deviate, diversity –
subcultures, mod society anomie. Positive functions of crime: 1. Boundary
Maintenance – reaction reinforces value consensus, punishment reinforces
solidarity. 2. Adaptation/Change – too much crime threatens bonds, too
little prevents change, controlling. Davis: prostitution safety valve for
men’s sexual frustration. Cohen: young cope with strains of transition.
How much is right? Not functional for victim, isolation due to fear.
Merton – strain: structural and cultural factors; deviance strain between
cultural goals and how to achieve legitimately. American dream –
meritocratic ideology but strain to anomie. Deviant adaptations to strain:
conformity, innovation (illegit), ritualism (follow rules for own sake),
retreatism (drop outs), rebellion (replace goals to bring change).
Stat patterns – property crime for material wealth.
Over-represent w/c crime, deterministic, ignores r/c to enforce laws,
assumes value consensus, ignores violent/state crime.
Subcultural strain theories: delinquent subculture with different
values. Cohen – status frustration, w/c anomie in m/c school, cultural
deprivation, low status hierarchy. Alt status hierarchy – invert values.
Cloward & Ohlin: Criminal subculture – stable crim culture career,
hierarchy, role models. Conflict subculture – high population turnover,
high social disorganisation, prevents stable network, violence is men’s
frustration, status. Retreatist subculture – double failures (drugs).
Ignores wealthy, overestimates w/c crime, boundaries too sharp, lower
class don’t value success so not frustrated.
Miller – focal concerns: independent subculture values smartness,
trouble, excitement, toughness, fate and autonomy.
Interactionist and Labelling Theory:
Social construction: criminal act due to societal reaction. Becker –
deviant = label applied successfully. Moral entrepreneurs crusade to
change law – creation of group of outsiders, expansion of social control
agency, e.g. Victorian – juvenile separate. Stats: agencies decide whether
to proceed, outcome depends on label. Stats only tell us police activity –
dark figure.
Who gets labelled? Interactions with agencies, appearance, situation,
physical cues. Cicourel negotiation of justice; typification’s show class
bias, m/c don’t fit type.
, Effects of labelling: Lemert – primary/secondary deviance. Primary not
publicly labelled, secondary societal reaction. Master status – self-fulfilling
prophecy, deviant career – join subculture.
Deviance amplification spiral: Cohen – reaction to mods/rockers.
Press exaggerate, began moral panic, crackdown demonising folk devils.
Less tolerant of minor deviance, re-label status offences more serious.
Reintegrative shaming – label act but not actor.
Mental illness and suicide: label depends on interaction between social
actors. Need to use quali methods to understand meaning. Taken for
granted assumptions from coroners. Mental illness – label gives further
reason to exclude, e.g. mental patient master status.
Deterministic, ignores victims, ignores free will, why do people commit
primary deviance? Fails to analyse source of power, ignores origin of
labels.
Marxism: Class, Power and Crime:
Marxism: criminogenic capitalism – cap causes crime, obtain consumer
goods (poverty). Alienation = frustration, non-utilitarian crime. Ruthless
competition, profit encourages greed. State/law making ; law serves r/c,
selective enforcement, performs ideological functions, laws appear to
benefit w/c, false consciousness, media distortions.
Ignores other inequalities, deterministic, not all cap societies have
high crime rates, ignores intra-class crimes.
Neo-Marxism: critical criminology. Taylor et al – voluntaristic view;
crime meaningful conscious choice – political motive. Fully social theory –
unequal distribution of walth and meanings: wider/immediate origins of
deviant act, act itself, wider/immediate origins of reaction, effects of
labelling.
Romanticise w/c criminals as Robin Hoods, ignores w/c victims, too
idealistic to be helpful.
Realist Theories:
Left:
Disadvantaged main victims. Aetiological crisis, relative deprivation. Lea
& Young deprived in relation to others/own expectations, resent others
unfairly, aware due to media – individualism. Subculture – close
deprivation gap, blocked opportunities. Marginalisation – lack
goals/organisations to represent them, express frustration criminally.
Late modernity, exclusion and crime: Young; cultural inclusion and
economic exclusion. Media promotes cult inclusion, emphasise immediate
gratification, poor denied opportunity. RD spread, reaction to crime
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