Revision notes covering topic 1 of AQA A Level Sociology Crime and Deviance, including social control, the social construction of crime and deviance, non-sociological theories of crime, functionalist and subcultural theories of crime, control theory, and radical criminology
1.1 Social Control
Social control = various methods used to persuade/force individuals to conform to the dominant
social norms/values of a society/group
Formal social control = +ve/-ve sanctions applied by the police/courts/prisons
- E.g. restraining order, custodial sentence, ban from entering certain areas
Informal social control = norms/values taught through institutions which teach you right/wrong
- E.g. CCTV, being stigmatised within society for deviant/criminal behaviour
1.2 Social construction of crime & deviance
Social construction of crime = perception of crime varies between situations/people/cultures etc.
- The fact that criminal law varies from country to country (+ changes over time) e.g. laws
around assisted suicide, it being legal to buy + carry guns in the US but not in the UK
Social construction of deviance = perception of deviance varies between situations/people/cultures
etc.; 5 examples of deviance being a social construction:
- Non-deviant crime: criminal acts which aren’t generally regarded as deviant e.g. underage
drinking
- The time: some acts stop being considered deviant over time, or begin to be perceived as
deviant e.g. smoking indoors wasn’t considered deviant until it was criminalised in 2007
- The society/culture: acts considered deviant within one society/culture are perceived as
normal in others e.g. Saudi Arabia didn’t allow women to drive until 2018
- The social group: different subcultures view certain acts as deviant/not deviant e.g.
piercings/tattoos/dyed hair
- The place/context: the same act can be perceived differently depending on the context it
occurred in e.g. ‘justifiable’ homicide, euthanasia
Societal deviance = acts which are seen by most members of a society as deviant
- E.g. drinking alcohol, rape, child abuse
Situational deviance = acts which are only defined as deviant in particular contexts
- E.g. swearing, use of drugs (perceived differently depending on the person taking them)
1.3 Non-sociological theories of crime
- Biological: a criminal’s genetic makeup makes them predisposed to turn to crime
- Lombroso: criminals have ‘atavistic’ features which indicate a genetic predisposition
to crime e.g. dark skin, extra fingers, + are often unemployed/have tattoos/use
‘criminal slang’
- Psychological: links criminal behaviour to genetics based on personal characteristics
- E.g. the Mobley Defence: Stephen Mobley was convicted (+ later executed) in
Georgia for killing a college student; his lawyers appealed + argued he was
genetically predisposed (due to brain trauma) to seek violent solutions to conflict (this
wasn’t accepted)
Sociological theory of crime: rejects biological/psychological theories of crime b/c they fail to
recognise that the meanings attached to crime/deviance are created by social/cultural factors
1.4 Functionalist & subcultural theories of crime and deviance
Functionalist view of crime:
- Can only be explained by looking at society’s social structures; crime is caused by society, not
individual circumstances
Durkheim:
- Crime = inevitable feature of social life (b/c not everyone will commit to shared values/morals
+ individuals are exposed to different influences) + necessary to an extent; performs 4
functions
, - Strengthens collective values: reasserts the boundaries of acceptable behaviour e.g.
Sarah Everard case reaffirmed collective values: Wayne Couzens was sentenced to a
whole-life order b/c of the severity of the crime
- Enables social change: a certain amount of deviance allows for new ideas
- Acts as a safety valve: can relieve frustration/stresses in society e.g. 2011 London
Riots in response to the killing by police of Mark Duggan, 2020 BLM protests
- Acts as a warning device: highlights problems that need addressing e.g. high rates of
suicide in UK prisons suggest the incarceration process isn’t working
AO3: concept of a ‘safety valve’ excuses the problems of capitalism as inevitable/unchangeable +
excuses the impact that crime has on others/society
Merton (strain theory):
- Social order is based on shared goals + people having the means to achieve them
- Society is unequal so not everyone has the means: leads to strain (between a person’s goals
+ the acceptable means of achieving them) + anomie; 5 responses to strain:
- Conformity: acceptance of the socially accepted goals + means (most typical)
- Innovation: maintaining cultural goals (e.g. wealth), but rejecting conventional means
+ turning to crime instead
- Ritualism: losing sight of goals but following the means regardless
- Retreatism: rejecting both the goals + the means + dropping out of society e.g.
addiction
- Rebellion: replacing the shared goals/means w/ radical alternatives
AO3: clearly explains deviance as arising from the structure of society
Cloward & Ohlin:
- W/c youth live in varied circumstances, so can enter 3 types of delinquent subculture:
- Criminal: established pattern of adults performing utilitarian crime (e.g. theft) which
creates a career structure to replace the job market; older criminals exercise social
control over younger ones (to stop them committing non-utilitarian crime that could
attract police attention)
- Conflict: social disorganised so there is a lack of social cohesion; street crime/gang
warfare/street robbery etc.
- Retreatist: w/c youth who are ‘double failures’ (= haven’t been able to succeed in
either mainstream society or criminal/conflict subcultures) so retreat into petty crime
AO3: some subcultures contain elements of more than 1 of the 3 categories e.g. criminal + conflict in
instances of drug dealing; differences between the 3 have been exaggerated
- Matza: criminality is a phase young men drift in/out of (not a deviant career)
- Helpful as an insight into why w/c delinquency may take different forms in different
communities
- Theory is exemplified by the gang culture developing in low-income areas of UK cities/towns
Cohen:
- W/c youth believe in the mainstream goals but don’t have the means to achieve them
- They feel they’re denied status in mainstream society leading to ‘status frustration’
- They react to this by developing an alternative set of values through delinquent
subcultures in order to allow them to gain status within their peer group
- Status is awarded in these groups based on an ‘alternate status hierarchy’, which
awarded higher status to its members for deviant activities than it did for conformity
- Juvenile offences often aren’t committed for material gain but rather out of desire for
peer group status
AO3: concept of status frustration could explain the high % of excluded pupils who go on to commit
crime; crime prevention policies targeting young people often address issue of status e.g. boxing
clubs
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