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aqa alevel sociology crime summary
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A concise summary of all the content needed for aqa sociology A-level for the crime module
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TOPIC ONE FUNCTIONALISM, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURESDurkheim (functionalist):
Crime is inevitable- unequal socialisation eg single parents and diverse lifestyles/values
Crime is positive- Boundary maintenance because punishment of a crime creates a reaction
that reinforces social solidarity like modern courtrooms but it's not functional for victims.
Adaptation and change means new ideas are not stifled by social control like the suffragettes
but he does not state how much crime is the best level.
Anomie- rapid social change means norms have become unclear so we turn to crime to
achieve the goals, strain to anomie
Merton:
Strain theory- I want to achieve society's goals but i dont have the opportunities I need so I
turn to illegitimate means and utilitarian crime (crime for monetary reward) . Eg the American
dream where everyone has jobs to get rich. But not everyone who's struggling deviates.
Deviant adaptations of strain: retreatism is to drop out of goals and means like alcoholics,
innovation is to have the goals but not the mean like crime, rebellion is have your own
alternative means and goals like Marx violent revolution, conformity is to have the means
and goals even if they are never reached and ritualism is to have the means but not the
goals so just in a dead end job. But ignores that value consensus might not exist so not
everyone had this goal in the first place
Cloward and Ohlin:
There's a parallel, illegitimate opportunity structure, where young people turn to organised
crime for a career within subcultures. Criminal subcultures are in areas with a stable
hierarchy of professional adult criminals that can provide young people with an
apprenticeship in utilitarian crime where they can climb the career ladder. Conflict
subcultures are loose gangs where violence releases frustration and gains status. Retreatist
subcultures happen everywhere where double failures fail legitimately and illegitimately to
achieve the goals so drop out and do drugs. But ignores the crimes of the wealthy
Cohen:
Nonutilitarian group deviance comes from subcultures that have alternative values because
society denies them status, which causes status frustration, so they turn to crime to get
status from peers. But Matza says delinquency and drift so we mostly conform but drift in
and out of deviant subcultures.
, TOPIC TWO INTERACTIONISM AND LABELLING THEORY
Becker’s social construction of crime:
Moral entrepreneurs (want to influence ideas about what's right and wrong in society) go on
moral crusades to try and change opinions by using the media. The new ideas create
outsiders but this is a self fulfilling prophecy of a label so they seek out other outsiders who
reinforce their identity and start their deviant career. Then they master status as criminals.
But who has the power to make these labels? Who are moral entrepreneurs? Thornton also
says that there's too much blame on moral entrepreneurs as many criminals deserve their
label, instead of the victim status labelling theory gives them- people have free will so should
accept the consequences of their actions if they choose to commit a crime.
Cicourel’s police typifications say that justice can be negotiated if you don't fit the
stereotypes of what a criminal looks like which supports the idea of a dark figure of crime
statistics.
Lemert’s short term effects of labelling:
Primary deviance- deviance before its publicly labelled, commonly rationalised away
Secondary deviance- after a crime is publicly labelled, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Young’s hippies- drug taking only became central to them after the media labelled it as.
But this is deterministic, labels can be ignored or proven wrong
Cohen's long term effects of labelling:
Deviance amplification is when an attempt to control deviance increases its levels, often due
to moral panics and folk devils caused by the media, like the mods and rockers in clacton.
Braithwaite's shaming:
Reintegrative- labelling the act, not the person. Creates lower crime rates within society
Disintegrative- labels both crime and criminal as bad so excludes them from society
Douglas’ socially constructed suicide stats:
Coroners can make classification errors so they are meaningless and qualitative data like
suicide notes should be analysed to explore the meanings
Atkinson says that coroners use assumptions about a typical suicide like the mode
(hanging), location (railway), life history (mentally ill) and current circumstances (grief)
Goffman’s asylum studies:
Being admitted to an institution leads to the mortification of the self because their identity is
replaced with “mentally ill” by degradation rituals like confiscation of personal items or
identification numbers and uniforms which reduces them to the master status of mentally ill.
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