Essay
AQA A Level Sociology Paper 3 Crime and Deviance Essay Plans
- Course
- Institution
These are the essay plans that I memorised which helped me to achieve an A* grade. There is an essay plan for every topic within crime and deviance.
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
woah2807
Reviews received
Content preview
FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES:PEELE 1: DURKHEIM POSITIVE FUNCTIONS
P – Durkheim argues that crime has 2 positive functions
E – Boundary Maintenance (function of punishment to reaffirm social solidarity) and Social
solidarity.
E – Crime brings society together in the condemnation of criminals. Boundary maintenance
= desirable amount of crime in society.
L – Cohen and folk devils
E – Doesn’t always reinforce social solidarity and may cause the opposite effect of isolation
e.g as a result of secondary vicitmisation
PEELE 2: DURKHEIM ADAPTION AND CHANGE
P – Durkheim argues that deviance is necessary for society to adapt and change.
E – Individuals with new ideas and values should not be stifled by the weight of social
control. Initially, appears as deviant.
E – Authorities often persecute religious visionaries, in the long run their views may rise new
culture and morality. Society would stagnate without changes.
L – Davis prostitution acts a safety valve for the release of male’s sexual frustration
E – Marxists criticise this view as in a capitalist society not everyone is punished equally.
Views of those who are in opposition to capitalists may be shut down.
PEELE 3: MERTON STRAIN THEORY
P – Merton says deviance is the result of strain between goals a culture encourages and the
opportunities to achieve the goals legitimately.
E – ‘American Dream’ and lack of opportunity to achieve.
E – Strain between cultural goal of material wealth and the lack of legitimate opportunities
to achieve it produces frustration. There are 5 adaptions to strain: conformity (accept goals
and means – middle-class), rebellion (reject goals and means – hippies) , retreatism (reject
goals and means – psychotics, vagrants), innovation (accept goals, new means – theft, fraud)
and ritualism (give up on goals, internalised means – lower m/c).
L–
E – Only accounts for utilitarian crime, and not crimes of violence, vandalism etc; He also
assumes that everyone will fit into one adaptation of strain.
,PEELE 4: COHEN DEVIANT SUBCULTURES
P – Cohen focuses on understanding deviance among working-class boys. They suffer
anomie in middle-class-dominated school system.
E – Boys suffer status frustration and form/join a delinquent subculture.
E – Alternative status hierarchy – inverted mainstream values.
L–
E – Assumes the boys share the same goals as the middle class.
PEELE 5 : CLOWARD AND OHLIN - 3 TYPES OF DEVIANT SUBCULTURE
P – Cloward and Ohlin say that different subcultures respond to status frustration differently
depending on their location.
E – Criminal subcultures, Conflict and Retreatist.
E - Criminal = areas with a stable gang culture, alternative status hierarchy, adult criminals.
Conflict = high population, loosely organised gangs, non-utilitarian crimes. Retreatist =
‘double failures’, school dropouts and drug takers.
L–
E – South (2014) – many drug dealers also take them. Not everyone can fit into one strand
of subculture.
, MARXIST APPROACH
PEELE 1: RATIONAL RESPONSE
P – Crime is inevitable as Capitalist society is criminogenic, it's nature causes crime.
E – David Gordon says crime is a rational response to the capitalist system that is found in all
classes.
E – Capitalism breeds crime by exploiting the working-class. Poverty = crime for survival.
Capitalist advertising = crime. Alienation = crime. / Capitalism encourages greed and self-
interest. Encourages capitalists to commit white-collar crimes.
L–
E – Not all Capitalist societies have high crime rates e.g homocide rate in Japan and
Switzerland is 1/5 of that in the US.
PEELE 2 : STATE AND LAW-MAKING
P – Chambliss says The law is made by the elite and supports their interests such as
protecting their property.
E - Trespass, theft, copyright, main purpose of the law is to prevent others from possessing
private goods.
E - Working class crime is more likely to be punished and criminals jailed due to selective
law enforcement.
E – Laws are created on a consensus agreement.
PEELE 3: CLASS CRIME
P – Snider argues that all classes commit crime
E – Crimes of the elite are more harmful and they are more likely to get away with them
(Hall et al – scapegoats)
E – Bernie Madoff
E – Not pragmatic, doesn’t offer a solution to crime
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through EFT, credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying this summary from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller woah2807. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy this summary for R126,30. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67474 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy summaries for 14 years now