theories on crime and deviance - 2

Crime is caused by labels that are put on groups

Becker

social groups create deviance by creating rules whose interaction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outcasts. People who decide if an act is deviant are moral entrepreneurs. this leads to the creation outsiders and expansion of social control agencies

Cicourel

acts control agencies are the result of the tipification (stereotypes of what a typical delinquent is like) individuals that fit this typification are more likely to be stopped arrested and charged., different factors, like background and circumstances can have an affect on typification. Middle-class youths are less likely to be stopped and then charged due to judgement and parents negotiation.

primary deviance, secondary deviance

It is a criminal acts that have not been publicly labelled as a criminal. Primary deviance is widespread and everyone commit them. E.g. fair dogging, speeding

it is labelled for the crime publicly. Labelled as deviant due to societal reaction.

The process whereby an attempt to control deviance leads to further deviance

The deviant incident happens, Media amplifies the deviant behaviour, this thing creates a folk, devil, this then causes moral panic due to the societal reaction, then there’s a crackdown due to the deviant act. This can be things like laws, being put in place or restrictions.

reintegration shaming is a good thing for criminals to be able to re-integrate back into society. As it labels, the crime not the offender, so the offender can be accepted back into society.

Shows the law is often in force indiscriminatory ways, Explain how reaction of society effects individuals, Says the outsider groups are created by society

we don’t know if reintegration works effectively., The labelling theory is to deterministic implying once labelled will have a deviant career is wrong, Doesn’t explain why people commit primary deviance before they are labelled, emphasises the negative effects so gives offenders a kind of victim status

they don’t believe in the social construction of crime like interactionalist and Marxist do

Wilson

biological differences, socialisation and the underclass, rational choice theory

biological differences, make some pre-disposed to crime as they have higher aggression extroversion, risk taking

biological theory of crime and a combination of biological and social factors causes people more likely to commit crime

argued that the main cause of crime is low intelligence, which they see as being biologically determined

effective socialisation reduces the risks of offending as people that are socialised effectively have more self control, knowledge of right from wrong. The best agency to provide effective socialisation is the family.

Murray

Underclass is growing in the US due to the culture of welfare dependency, decline in marriages and a growth in one parent family reduces the responsibility from the family as they have no need to work, lone parent measures are in a fission agents of socialisation, especially for boys and absent fathers, black parent, all discipline and male role models. They tend to alternative delinquent role models to gain status through crime.

crime is the result of growing up, surrounded by deviant and criminal adults design temperature use vicarious predatory streets crime

Individuals have free will, and power of the reason. Clarke committing crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the likely consequences if the reward outweighs the risk, then people are more likely to offend

they don’t deal with the causes of crime, displaying the biological or socialisation factors as they believe this cannot be changed. They seek practical measures to make crimes less attractive, so they focus on control, containment and punishment of offenders rather than eliminating. The underlying causes

Felson

Things that crime needs is unmotivated, offender, a suitable target and absent capable guardia. offenders are a scene to act rationally. The presence of a guardian is likely to deter offences

Ignores wider structural causes such as poverty, View that criminals are rational conflicts with there biological theory, Only talks about Street and petty crime and ignores corporate crime, zero tolerance may give police freedom to discriminate against ethnic minorities

puts theories into action with real things like laws and restrictions

Crime is a real problem that affects disadvantage groups who are the main victims.

Lea and Young

relative deprivation, subculture, marginalisation

Runciman the concept of relative deprivation house, more sales deprived in relation to others or compare to the own experiences. how this leads to crime is due to the resentment they feel so they turn to crime as a way to obtain what they are feel they’re entitled to, Young says the lethal combination is relative deprivation and individualism. This causes crime by the pursuit of self interest at the expenses of others.

forming a deviant subculture is a groups collective solution to relative deprivation. Criminal subcultures, still subscribe to the goals of society where the legitimate means are blocked these groups resort to crime

these groups lack clear goals, an organisation to represent their interests. In employment or marginalised as they have no goals or organisation, just frustration and resentment. They express this true criminal means such as violence rather than political means.

Traditional Marxists concentrate on the crimes of the powerful and neglect working-class crime, and it’s affects, Neo Marxists romanticise the working-class criminals as a modern day Robin Hood stealing from the rich as a form of political resistance to capitalism, labelling theories, see working-class as the victims due to discrimination, but left realists argue that this ignores the real victim is the working-class people that suffer at the hands of the criminals

Young we are living in the stages of late modernity where instability insecurity and exclusion makes the problem of crime worse, Young compares our current age with the 1950s and 60s, which was the golden age of modern capitalism were. There was stability, security and social inclusion as I was falling, cloyment, welfare, state, low divorce rates and strong communities.

Left realists use the figures of rising crime to suggest that the police are losing the fight against crime, especially in inner cities . And although they accept that inequality and perception of injustice on major causes of crime left realism does suggest that better policing is a crucial means of reducing crime., They believe in greater Democratic control of the police. It also argues that are genuine accountable. Police force will be more effective since the flow of information from the police on which the police when I have any will be restored.

The view of young received a mixed response. Many in the mainstream sociology were favorably impressed by his realistic view of the problems of street crime and misery they can cause., They were also impressed by the fact that he put forward policies suggesting such as Democratic policing as a way of reducing crime levels