Crime and
Deviance
Functionalist, Strain and Subcultural Theories
Interactionism and Labelling
Class, Power and Crime
Realist Theories of Crime
Gender and Crime
Ethnicity and Crime
Crime and Media
Globalisation, Green Crime, Human Rights and State Crime
Control, Punishment and Victimisation
,FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES
SUBCULTURAL STRAIN THEORIES MILLER: FOCAL CONCERNS
- Sees deviance as the product of a delinquent subculture with - Norms & values of working class
different values from those of mainstream society. Provide - Lower class develop their own independent subculture separate from
v
alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied achieving mainstream – more prone to being criminals
by legitimate opportunities. - FATE, AUTONOMY, THOUGHNESS, EXCITEMENT, TROUBLE,
COHEN – STATUS FRUSTRATION SMARTNESS
- Focuses on deviance among working-class boys - he argues they - Don’t value success in the first place so members not frustrated by
face anomie in the middle class dominated school system. They failure.
suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve leaving
them at the bottom of status hierarchy.
- As a result, the boys suffer STATUS FRUSTRATION, they face the FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES
problem of adjustment to the low status they are given by HIRSCHI SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY (NOT FUNCTIONALIST, SUPPORTS
FUNCTIONALISM)
mainstream society- instead of internalising this, they turn to other
boys in the same situation forming a DELINQUENT SUBCULTURE - Crime increases when the bonds attaching the individual to society
weaken.
ALTERNATIVE STATUS HIERARCHY
- Invert the values of mainstream society offering an alternative status - Crime as a result of social institutions losing control over individuals
(breakdown of local communities, family types, lack of trust with
hierarchy, create own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they
can win status from peers. government and police)
- Four bonds that bind us together – attachment, commitment,
Offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance involvement and belief.
- According to this theory, predicts the typical delinquent to be young,
single, unemployed, probably male.
FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES - Good primary socialisation is essential in preventing crime
SUBCULTURAL STRAIN THEORIES - GLYN – young offenders suffer parent deficit
CLOWARD AND OHLIIN – THREE SUBCULTURES
- They recognise unequal access to illegitimate opportunity success.
1. CRIMINAL SUBCULTURES – provide youths with an
apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime, arise in
neighbourhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with
an established hierarchy.
2. CONFLICT SUBCULTURES – arise in areas of high population
turnover which results in social disorganisation preventing a stable
professional crime network. The only illegitimate opportunities
available are in loosely organised gangs where violence is a release
of frustration.
3. RETREATIST SUBCULTURES – those who fail in both legitimate
and illegitimate opportunity structures ‘double failures’.
Evaluation
- Provide explanation for different type of working class deviance
- Fail to consider white collar crime
- Women have more failed opportunities than men but less likely to
join delinquent subcultures.
- Not everyone joins subcultures
,FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES FUNCTIONALIST, STRAIN AND SUBCULTURAL THEORIES
DURKHEIM’S FUNCTIONALIST THEORY MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY
- Functionalism society based on value consensus, members - Strain theories argue that people engage in deviant behaviour when they
sharing a collective conscience (shared norms and values). are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.
Sharing the same culture produces social solidarity, everyone has Merton states strain between two things: goals that a culture encourages
meritocracy. individuals to achieve and society allowing them to be achieved
THE INEVITABILITY OF CRIME legitimately.
- functionalists see too much crime as destabilising society, but also - AMERICAN DREAM = pursue ‘money success’ by legitimate means (self-
see it as inevitable and universal, it exists as not everyone is discipline, qualifications), American’s living in a meritocratic society where
socialised into the same norms and diversity in modern society. anyone who makes effort can get ahead. HOWEVER, DISADVANTAGED
Modern society with inequality and barriers produces ANOMIE GROUPS DENIED OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVE LEGITIMATELY.
(normlessness) weakening the collective conscience and o Results in strain to anomie and produces status frustration.
producing deviance – turn to crime in order to gain the things they
have been prevented from achieving through illegitimate means. DEVIANT ADAPTIONS TO STRAIN
- Atrophy – breaking down of social solidarity – dysfunctional. 1. CONFORMITY - individuals accept the culturally approved goals and
POSITIVE FUNCTIONS OF CRIME strive to achieve them legitimately.
BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE 2. INNOVATION – individuals accept the goal of money success but use
- Crime produces a reaction from society, uniting its members in new illegitimate means to achieve.
condemnation of the wrongdoer and reinforcing their commitment 3. RITUALISM – individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but
to the shared norms and values internalised the legitimate means so follow rules for own sake.
- Durkheim states this explains the function of punishment – reaffirm 4. RETREATISM – reject both goals and legitimate means, become drop
society’s shared rules and reinforce solidarity. Done through outs.
courtroom and publicly shaming offender to dramatise wrongdoing 5. REBELLION – individuals reject existing society’s goals and means, but
and discourage others. they replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary
ADAPTION AND CHANGE change.
- Durkheim states all change starts with an act of deviance,
individuals with new ideas and values must not be completely Response Goal Means
stifled by the weight of social control. There must be scope to Conformity + +
challenge existing norms, may look like deviance but in the long Innovation + -
run may give rise to a new culture and morality Ritualism - +
- COHEN – WARNING DEVICE: institution isn’t functioning properly Retreatism - -
SAFETY VALVE Rebellion -/+ -/+
- DAVIS - Deviance allows some people to ‘let off steam’ in a EVALUATION
relatively harmless way, de-stress and can remain functional e.g.
prostitution Takes official crime stats at face value, these over represent working
CRITICISMS
class crime. DETERMINISTIC – working class experience the most strain
Durkheim states society requires a certain amount of deviance to
function successfully but doesn’t state what is the right amount yet they don’t all deviate.
Ignores how it may affect individuals e.g. seeing a murderer Marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and
punished for his crime may be functional to society but is not enforce the laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich
‘functional’ for the victim. Assumes there is a value consensus – everyone strives for ‘money
Safety valve – prostitution FEMINISTS state objectifies women success’
Society doesn’t actually create crime with the intention of Only accounts for utilitarian crime for monetary goals
strengthening solidarity
, INTERACTIONISM AND LABELLING THEORY INTERACTIONISM AND LABELLING THEORY
THE EFFECTS OF LABELLING THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME:
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DEVIANCE DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION SPIRAL
- LEMERT (1951) distinguishes between primary and - Is a term labelling theorists use to describe a process in which the
secondary deviance. attempt to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of
- PRIMARY DEVIANCE = deviant acts that haven’t been deviance, leads to greater attempts to control it and in turn this
publically labelled, pointless to seek the causes of produces yet higher levels of deviance.
primary deviance, since it is so widespread it is unlikely - STANLEY COHEN (1972) folk devils and moral panics, a study of the
to have a single cause, often trivial. societal reaction to the ‘mods and rockers’ disturbances involving
- SECONDARY DEVIANCE: result of societal reaction groups of youths at English seaside resorts.
o MASTER STATUS = once an individual is - Press exaggeration and distorted reporting of the events began a
labelled / stigmatised, this becomes their master moral panic, with growing public concern and with moral
status overriding all others. This can provoke a entrepreneurs calling for a ‘crackdown’. The police responded by
crisis for the individual’s self-concept or sense of arresting more youths, while the courts imposed harsher penalties.
identity. One way to resolve this crisis is for the This confirmed the truth of the original media, provoking more public
individual to accept the deviant label = self- concern = UPWARD SPIRAL OF DEVIANCE AMPLIFICATION. At the
fulfilling prophecy = acting up to label same time demonising of mods and rockers as ‘folk devils’ caused
o DEVIANT CAREER = secondary deviance is their further marginalisation as ‘outsiders’ resulting in more deviant
likely to provoke further hostile reactions from behaviour.
society and reinforce the deviant’s ‘outsider’ INTERACTIONISM AND LABELLING THEORY
status e.g. the ex-convict finds it hard to be THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME:
employed etc so seeks other outsiders for LABELLING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY
support. this may involve joining a deviant - studies have shown how increases in the attempt to control and
subculture that offers deviant career punish young offenders can have the opposite effect
opportunities and role models etc. - TRIPLETT (2000) notes an increasing tendency to see young
case study: JOCK YOUNG (1971) study offenders as evil and to be less tolerant of minor deviance. The
of hippy marijuana users in Notting Hill, criminal justice system has relabelled status offences as more serious
initially drugs were peripheral to the offences resulting in much harsher sentences. Therefore, to reduce
hippies’ lifestyle (primary deviance) deviance, we should make & enforce fewer rules for people to break.
however persecution and labelling by the REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING:
control culture led the hippies to see - BRAITHWAITE (1989) identifies a more positive role for labelling;
themselves as outsiders. Fewer social o DISINTEGRATIVE SHAMING – crime and the criminal is
rules = less deviance.
labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society
- LEMERT & YOUNG - illustrates the idea not the act
o REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING – labels the act but not the actor
itself but the hostile social reaction to it = social
- Reintegrative shaming avoids stigmatising the offender but at the
deviance.
same time making them aware of negative impact upon others –
- DOWNES & ROCK (2003) we cannot predict whether
encourages others to forgive.
someone who has been labelled will follow a deviant
- Makes it easier for both offender & community to separate the offender
career because they are always free to choose not to
from offence and re-admit wrongdoer back into mainstream society.
deviate further
