Flashcards · 8192 · Topic 5

Crime and deviance flashcards

17 cards on Topic 5, subtopics 3.5.1 to 3.5.4. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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Crime vs deviance: Crime is behaviour that breaks the law. Deviance is behaviour that breaks social norms. Deviance is broader: a deviant act need not be illegal.
What are Merton's five responses to success goals?: Conformity, innovation (illegitimate means, e.g. crime), ritualism (abandoning goals but keeping rules), retreatism (dropping out of both) and rebellion (replacing goals and means).
What is anomie in Merton's theory?: When success is valued more than the means of achieving it, the usual rules are abandoned and "anything goes" in pursuit of wealth (Merton, 1938).
What did Becker (1963) argue about deviance?: An act only becomes deviant when others define it as such. The label becomes a master status, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy and a deviant career.
What does the social construction of crime mean?: What counts as crime and deviance depends on who commits the act, when, where and who reacts, so definitions vary between societies and over time.

Formal vs informal social control: Formal: official agencies with written rules and sanctions, e.g. police and courts. Informal: unwritten rules and sanctions from family, peers and others, e.g. disapproval.
What did Heidensohn (1985) argue about female conformity?: Patriarchal societies control women more effectively than men: at home (housework, childcare), in public (threat of male violence, reputation) and at work (male hierarchies, harassment).
What is control theory?: People are neither naturally good nor bad but make a rational choice to turn to crime when the advantages outweigh the disadvantages; strong social controls make crime less likely.
Positive vs negative sanctions: Positive sanctions reward conformity (praise, promotion). Negative sanctions punish deviance (fines, exclusion, disapproval).

What did Albert Cohen (1955) argue about delinquent subcultures?: Working-class boys share mainstream success goals but, after educational failure, suffer status frustration and form subcultures that give status for stealing, vandalism and truancy.
What did Carlen (1988) find about women, crime and poverty?: From interviews with 39 mostly working-class women, crime becomes more likely when the "class deal" (consumer goods for wages) and "gender deal" (rewards from a male breadwinner) fail.
Which factors affect criminal and deviant behaviour in the specification?: Social class, gender, ethnicity and age.
Name some public debates about crime: Concerns over violent crime, sentencing, the treatment of young offenders, the prison system and media coverage of crime.

What is the dark figure of crime?: Crime that is unreported or unrecorded, so it does not appear in official statistics.
Official statistics vs victim surveys vs self-report studies: Official statistics: crimes recorded by the police. Victim surveys: ask people about crimes against them, revealing unreported crime. Self-report studies: ask people about crimes they have committed.
Why might people not report a crime?: They may think it too trivial, fear reprisals, distrust the police, feel embarrassed, or not realise a crime has taken place.
How do interactionists view crime statistics?: As socially constructed: they reflect decisions by victims to report and by police to record, and policing that targets some groups, rather than the true amount of crime.