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Summary Sociology AQA Crime and Deviance notes
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, ********Please ignore SPAG errors. Topic 9 on globalisation and crime is not fully ompleted and the topic of measuring crime is not included in this booklet*******
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opic 1: Functionalist, strain and
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subcultural theories
Durkheim's functionalist theory
alue consensus: sharing a common culture
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Socialisation and social control are used to achieve solidarity and a value consensus
he inevitably of crime
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Crime threatens social order but it is an inevitable feature of society
2 reasons why crime is found in all societies
1. Not everyone is equally socialised into the shared norms and value
2. There is diversity in values - different groups develop their subculture with distinctive norms
odern societies have a complex specialised division of labour, leading to individuals becoming
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increasingly different. This weakens shared culture and results in deviance.
The positive function of crime
1. Boundary maintenance
Crime produces a reaction that units its members in condemning the wrongdoers and reinforces their
commitment to shared norms and values, discouraging deviance
2. Adaptation and change
All change starts from an act of deviance. Individuals with new values, challenge existing values which
may appear deviant at first. However, their values may give rise to a new culture. If new ideas are
suppressed we will be unable to make necessary adaptive change
ther functions of crime
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Davis:Crime acts as a safety valve eg. prostitution releases men’s sexual frustration without
threatening the monogamous nuclear family
Choen:a warning that an institution is not functioning properly. eg high truancy may tell us that there
are problems with the education system and that policymakers need to make appropriate changes to it
Erikson:If deviance is positive, society is organised to promote deviance. The true function of
agencies of social control may be to sustain a certain level of crime rather than to rid society of it
Criticism
- Society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully but doesn’t say how
much is the right amount
- Society doesn’t create crime in advance to strengthen solidarity
- Focus on crimes functions for society and ignores the individuals and groups affected eg
prostitution may be functional for the male but it's not for the illegally trafficked sex workers
- Crimes doesn’t always promote solidarity but can lead to isolation eg. forcing women to stay
indoors in fear of attack (Sarah Everard)
Merton’s strain theory
eople engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by
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legitimate means.
, his is a result of 2 factors:
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Structural factors: society’s unequal opportunity structure
Cultural factors: the strong emphasis on achieving goals and weaker emphasis on using legitimate
means
he American dream
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Americans meant to pursue their goals through legitimate means (self-discipline and study) but
poverty and other factors deny the opportunity to achieve goals legitimately, creating pressure to
resort to illegitimate means - called strain to anomie
train to anomie:pressure to deviate as a result of strain between goal and mean
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The pressure to deviate comes from the emphasis on achieving success through the media
eviant adaptation to stain
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Merton says there are 5 adaptations to strain
Conformity: accept goals and legitimate mean
Innovation: accept goal and reject mean
Ritualism: reject goal but have internalised the mean so they follow rules for their own sake
Retreatism: reject goals and mean
Rebellion: reject goals and try to replace them with new ones
valuation of Merton
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Patterns shown by official statistics
- Most crime is property crime because American society values wealth
- Lower-class crime rates are higher because they have fewer opportunities to obtain goals and
mean
Criticism
- Takes official statistics at face value
- Deterministic - the WC experiences the most strain yet they don’t all deviate
- arxists argue that it ignores the power if the ruling class to enforce laws in ways that
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criminalise the poor but not the rich
- ssumes there is a value consensus ( that everyone strives for money) but not everyone
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shares this goal
- xplain how deviance results from individuals adapting to the strain of anomie but ignore the
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role of group deviance
Subcultural strain theories
ubcultures: groups that have different values from mainstream society. They offer an alternative
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opportunity structure to those denied the chance to achieve through legitimate means
ohen's: status frustration
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He agrees with Merton that deviance is a lower-class phenomenon, as a result of their inability to
achieve mainstream success.
However, he criticises Merton
1. Merton sees deviance as an act of an individual and ignores advances done by groups
2. Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain but ignores non-utilitarian
crimes
e focuses on working-class boys who face anomie in the MC-dominated school system
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Unable to achieve and are stuck at the bottom of the status hierarchy
This causes status frustration, they resolve the frustration by rejecting MC mainstream goals and
joining delinquent subcultures
,(Revenge and joy riding)
lternative status hierarchy
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The subculture values are:Spite, malice, hostility and contempt which are inverted values of
mainstream society
ubculture’s function is that it offers an alternative status hierarchy which you can achieve through
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illegitimate and delinquent actions
Evaluation
- Explains non-utilitarian deviance
- Ignores the possibility that working-class boys may not have shared middle-class success
goals in the first place and so never saw themselves as failures
loward and Ohlin: three subcultures
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*Agree with Merton that the WC are denied legitimate opportunities
ot everyone turns to innovation and utilitarian crimes
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Different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunities. They argue that
different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to develop a
criminal career. There is also unequal access to illegitimate opportunities
They identify three types of deviant subcultures as a result:
riminal subculture:provide youth with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. Arise in
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neighbourhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of an
adult criminal who provides training and role model
onflict subculture:Arises in areas of high population turnover. High levels of disorganisation
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prevent a stable criminal network. Violence provides a release for young men’s frustration due to their
lack of opportunity
etreats subculture:in neighbourhood where they fail to be a professional criminal and achieve
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legitimately ‘double failure as a result may turn to retreatist subculture becoming addicts and
committing crimes like shoplifting to maintain that lifestyle
Evaluation
- hey ignore the crimes of the wealthy, focusing on the WC
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- Ignores wider structure of who enforcing and making the law
- They draw the boundaries too sharply eg.Matzaclaims that most delinquents are not strongly
committed to their subculture and can drift in and out of delinquency
, opic 2: Interactionism and labelling
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theory
The social construction of crime
Labelling theories are interested in how and why certain acts come to be labelled as criminal
hey argue that no act is criminal or deviant, instead, it becomes criminal when others label it as such.
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The act is not what makes it a crime but people’s reaction. “Deviance is in the eye of the beholder”
-becker
eckersays that a deviant is someone to whom the label has been successfully applied and deviant
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behaviour is behaviour labeled so
ecker: interested in the role of moral entrepreneurs - people who lead a moral campaign to change
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the law
New laws have 2 effects:
- The creation of a new group of outsiders - deviants who break the law
- The expansion of social control agencies to enforce the rule
Becker says social agencies campaign for change in the law to increase their own power.
Eg. US FBN Marjiana Tax Act 1937- this was to protect young people but Becker says it was
to extend their control
ho gets labelled?
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Not everyone who commits an offence gets punished. Depends on: interaction with social control
agencies, appearance and background and situation of the offence
Studies show that certain groups are more likely to be held accountable
Piliavin and Briar:Police decisions to arrest a youth were mainly based on physical cues (dress and
manner)
icourel: the negotiation of justice
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Officers decision to arrest is influenced by stereotypes
Cicourelfound that officers' typifications led them to concentrate on certain types, resulting in class
bias. In turn, police patrol working-class areas more intensively resulting in more arrests and
confirming their stereotypes
J ustice is not fixed but negotiable. White, male, MC men are less likely to be charged as their
background doesn’t fit the ode of the police’s typical background. Their parents also also able to
negotiate successfully on their behalf.
Topic VS resources
icourel argues that stats don’t give a valid picture of the patterns of crime and cannot be used as a
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resource ( a fact of crime)
We should treat stats as topics - something to investigate, processes of their creation
he social construction of crime statistics
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Interactionists see crime statistics as socially constructed
At each stage of the criminal justice system agents of social control make decisions about whether or
not to proceed to the next stage. That outcome depends on the label they attached to the individual,
the label is affected by the typification.
tats produced by the criminal justice system only represent the decisions of the social control
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agencies and not the amount of crime there is in society
, The dark figure of crime:refers to the real rate of crime, unreported, unrecorded and undetected
lternative statistics:sociologist use victim surveys or self-reported studies to gain a more accurate
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view of the amount of crime
The effects of labelling
rimary and secondary deviance
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Lemert:
Primary deviance: deviant acts that have not been publically labelled eg fair dodging
econdary deviance:the result of societies reaction, when the act is witnessed and a label is
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attached
Master status:
hen labeled others may see them as that label. It becomes their master status, in the eyes of
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society, they are an outsider. This leads to people accepting the deviant label (SFP) and creates
further deviant behaviour and deviant careers.
eviance amplification spiral
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Attempting to control deviance leads to an increase in the level of deviance
Eg.Cohen’sFolks Devils and moral panic study of the societal reaction to the mods and rockers'
disturbance involving a group of youths. The media exaggeration created moral panic and called for a
crackdown. The police responded by arresting more youths.
abeling and criminal justice policy
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Increasing control and punishing young offenders has had the opposite effect
Troplett: notes an increasing tendency to see young offenders as evil. The criminal justice system has
relabeled status offences such as truancy as a more serious offence. This increased offending.
o reduce deviance we should make and enforce fewer rules for people to break.
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Eg decriminalisation of drugs to reduce the risk of secondary deviance
eintegrative shaming
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Labeling has a negative effect
Braithwaite: identifies two types of shaming that have a positive role in labelling
isintegrative shaming:the crime and criminal labelled as bad and excluded from society
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Reintegrative shaming: label the act, not the actor
Reintegrative shaming avoids stigmatisation of the offender as evil while making them aware that their
actions had negative impacts, avoiding pushing secondary deviance on them.Braithwaiteargues that
crime rates tend to be lower in societies where reintegrative shaming is more dominant
Criticism of labelling theory
It fails to explain primary deviance/why people offend in the first place which occurs before they have
been labelled
Determinism; wrongly assumes labelling automatically leads to a deviant career
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