Crime and deviance - Topic 3: Class, power and Crime
Explaining class differences in crime-sociologist list
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Functionalism
- Functionalist perspective → view the law as a reflection of society’s shared
values, and crime as the result of ineffective socialisation in the mainstream
society
- Difficult for modern, complex societies as everyone is different, and may
create their own culture(values/norms)
● Miller
- The lower class has made their own independent subculture
- They have their own values/norms which do not apply to the norms/values
adopted by the mainstream society
- Result → lower class have a higher crime rate
- Subcultural norms(e.g. excitement/toughness) clash against the law
Strain theory
- Strain theory perspective → when legitimate opportunities are blocked,
people will then deviate(e.g. Merton → American dream only applies to
middle-upper classes, and denies w/class of achieving ‘money success’,
through legitimate means)
- Illegitimate means are the only reasonable option, as legitimate means are
denied(e.g. Educational qualifications)
- New uses of deviate means(innovation → e.g. theft) used by w/class
- Explains the higher rates of w/class utilitarian crime, than the m/class
1
, Subcultural theories
● Cohen
- A branch from Merton’s strain theory on w/class restriction on legitimate
means
- Working-class youths are culturally deprived
- Not learning the mainstream culture/values, leaves them at the bottom of the
official status hierarchy
- Failure to achieve → status frustration
- Delinquent subculture is the solution to gain status(from peers via delinquency)
- Cohen → explains the reasons for w/class youth non-utilitarian crime
Labelling theory
- Official statistics do not give a valid picture of w/class crime
- Focus on why w/class people become to be labelled as criminal, not on the
causes of w/class criminality → emphasise stereotypes held by
ASC(Agencies of Social Control) on w/class people(‘typical criminals’)
→ powerful labelling the powerless
- ‘Problem takers’(functionalist, strain and subcultural theorists) → take
official statistics for granted, and want to explain the reasons for w/crime
- ‘Problem makers’(labelling theorists) → official crime statistics are not valid
and want to explain the reasons for the construction/labelling of the
powerful
2
Explaining class differences in crime-sociologist list
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
Functionalism
- Functionalist perspective → view the law as a reflection of society’s shared
values, and crime as the result of ineffective socialisation in the mainstream
society
- Difficult for modern, complex societies as everyone is different, and may
create their own culture(values/norms)
● Miller
- The lower class has made their own independent subculture
- They have their own values/norms which do not apply to the norms/values
adopted by the mainstream society
- Result → lower class have a higher crime rate
- Subcultural norms(e.g. excitement/toughness) clash against the law
Strain theory
- Strain theory perspective → when legitimate opportunities are blocked,
people will then deviate(e.g. Merton → American dream only applies to
middle-upper classes, and denies w/class of achieving ‘money success’,
through legitimate means)
- Illegitimate means are the only reasonable option, as legitimate means are
denied(e.g. Educational qualifications)
- New uses of deviate means(innovation → e.g. theft) used by w/class
- Explains the higher rates of w/class utilitarian crime, than the m/class
1
, Subcultural theories
● Cohen
- A branch from Merton’s strain theory on w/class restriction on legitimate
means
- Working-class youths are culturally deprived
- Not learning the mainstream culture/values, leaves them at the bottom of the
official status hierarchy
- Failure to achieve → status frustration
- Delinquent subculture is the solution to gain status(from peers via delinquency)
- Cohen → explains the reasons for w/class youth non-utilitarian crime
Labelling theory
- Official statistics do not give a valid picture of w/class crime
- Focus on why w/class people become to be labelled as criminal, not on the
causes of w/class criminality → emphasise stereotypes held by
ASC(Agencies of Social Control) on w/class people(‘typical criminals’)
→ powerful labelling the powerless
- ‘Problem takers’(functionalist, strain and subcultural theorists) → take
official statistics for granted, and want to explain the reasons for w/crime
- ‘Problem makers’(labelling theorists) → official crime statistics are not valid
and want to explain the reasons for the construction/labelling of the
powerful
2
