UNDERSTANDING CRIME

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UNDERSTANDING CRIME
- What is crime? - Why does it occur? - What
are the best ways of sociologically thinking
about and researching It?
Prof. David Inglis
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LECTURE CONTENTS

• Crime in the headlines
• Psychological criminology and sociological
  criminology
• The politics of criminology
• Functionalist approaches
• Neo-functionalist approaches
• Sub-culturalist approaches
• Labelling theory
• Marxist approaches
• New Left Realism
• 10. Evaluation

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CRIME IN THE HEADLINES

• Crime as a political football
• Rising crime rates (?)
• Regular scandals and outrages
• Getting tough on crime
• More policemen on the street

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Psychological Criminology

• Psychology of individual criminal
• Psychology defective
• Cause of crime individuals mentality

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Psychological Criminology

• HANS EYSENCK
• - neurotic extrovert
• JAMES Q. WILSON RICHARD HERRNSTEIN
• - young males naturally aggressive
• thus naturally oriented towards criminal acts
• NORMAL / ABNORMAL

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Sociological Criminology

• Social reasons for criminal acts
• Patterns of crime
• Cause of crime
• social conditions
• (varies between approaches)

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Sociological Criminology

• Social relations shape individuals and their
  actions
• Social contexts
• not individuals alone
• Society defines
• what is ABNORMAL
• NO abnormal individuals
• Abnormal is a label

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The Politics of Criminology

• Highly controversial area
• Tied up with government policies
• Psychological views right-wing policies
• Sociological views
• left-wing policies

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WHAT IS CRIME?

• Deviance any social behaviour which departs
  from that regarded as normal or socially
  acceptable within a society or social context
• Jary Jary,
• Collins Dictionary of Sociology
• Breaking of social norms
• Breaking of informal social rules
• Backed up by sanctions - collective morality and
  opinion

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WHAT IS CRIME?

• Crime an infraction of the criminal law
• Jary Jary, Collins Dictionary of Sociology
• Breaking of legal rules
• Breaking of formal social rules
• Formal written down,
• regarded as official
• Backed up by sanctions enforced by bureaucracies
• Criminal justice system
• Policing
• Courts
• Prisons

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WHAT IS CRIME?

• 1. What counts as deviance and crime varies
• from society to society
• over time (e.g. homosexuality)
• 2. What counts as NORMAL and ABNORMAL is variable
• 3. Not all deviance is regarded as crime
• e.g. cross-dressing
• 4. Not all crime is regarded as deviance
• e.g. speeding

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FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES

• Crime is a social institution like any other
  (economy, politics, religion, etc.)
• Crime is primarily about MORALITY
• Crime is
• - socially necessary
• - socially useful (functional)
• 4. Approach - theorising

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FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES

• Emile Durkheim
• Each part of a society (a social institution)
  contributes to the smooth-running operation of
  the whole society
• Each of the parts must work together effectively
  with all the other parts
• Crime helps keep the whole society functioning

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• 1) Cannot have morality without deviance
• Cannot have law without crime
• (Black / white necessary contrast)
• 2) MUST have crime
• Clarifies what is good and bad
• 3) MUST identify deviant minority
• To remind majority what acceptable behaviour is
• 4) TRIALS
• - ceremonies of degradation
• produce strong collective feelings
• reproduce shared sense of morality

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Kingsley Davis - Prostitution

• Particular crimes are socially necessary
• Nuclear family units breeding rearing
  children
• Male anarchic sexuality
• Prostitution safety-valve

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• ISSUES PROBLEMS
• 1) Theorising about societys needs
• Are there such things?
• Macro-perspective / victims points of view
• 2) Society requires crime deviance
• - murder, paedophilia, rape, etc.
• These are socially functional
• Is this true?
• Davis on prostitution male bias?
• 3) HOW MUCH crime does a society require?
• When is there too much crime?
• When does crime become socially DYSfunctional?

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NEO-FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES

• 1) Extension and refinement of original
  functionalist views
• 2) Dont assume crime is always socially
  functional
• Crime can be socially dysfunctional
• 3) Crime happens when different parts of society
  are not properly coordinated with each other
• 4) Approach - theorising

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Robert Merton Anomie Theory (Strain Theory)

• Writing in 1930s
• 1) Goals
• 2) Means of achieving goals
• The American Dream
• Goals wealth high social status

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Mertons Anomie Theory

• Legitimate means
• Educational success
• Hard work
• Illegitimate means
• Criminal activities
• Gangsterism
• Organised crime

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• WHY do people turn to illegitimate means
  (criminal activities)?
• - When strong anomie is experienced
• i) Anomie blocked aspirations
• ii) High aspirations (American Dream)
• VERSUS
• Actual social situation (lowest social class,
  poverty, poor schooling, etc.)
• Strain between aspirations (culture) and
  actuality (low social position)
• iii) Legitimate means closed
• Only illegitimate means open

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1930s gangsters Abnormal or typical? High
aspirations versus Low social position (poor,
immigrants) ? Turn to illegitimate means
Al Capone
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• Conformists law-abiding majority
• Accept societys goals
• Use legitimate means
• Innovators law-breakers
• Accept societys goals
• Use illegitimate means
• Rational response to the situation
• Crime is societys fault
• Everybody given high aspirations
• - Some people not given opportunities to pursue
  them legally

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Merton Issues Problems

• Theory rather than empirically proven
• 2. EVERYTHING explained in terms of anomie
  (blocked aspirations)
• - Other reasons?
• 3. Only explains certain kinds of crime
• - Murder as business / not murder for other
  reasons

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SUB-CULTURALIST APPROACHES

• Crime as a product of sub-culture membership
• Deviant and criminal sub-cultures
• Sub-cultures exist separately from, and in
  opposition to, mainstream society and culture
• Must explore fine-grained details of life in a
  sub-culture
• Approach - ethnography

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• Albert Cohen (1950s)
• - Working class boys
• - Frustrated with social position
• - Rejection of middle class culture
• - Sub-cultural norms of defiance
• Cloward Ohlin (1960s)
• - Working class boys
• - Strongly accept middle class values
• - Have been encouraged to have high aspirations
• - But are frustrated by social position ? crime

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• Middle class culture
• VERSUS
• (Lower) working class culture
• - Law-abiding / Trouble
• - Refinement / Toughness Masculinity
• - Self-control / Autonomy freedom
• Young males over-conform

W. B. Miller (1950s)
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Issues Problems

• Most crime is not committed by gangs
• Assumes strong sense of membership
• - But drifting in and out of a subculture
• 3) Over-emphasises the gulf between sub-cultures
  and mainstream society and culture
• - Constructs a big divide between normal and
  abnormal behaviour
• - What is mainstream anyway?
• - Everyone is deviant in some way depends on
  whether they are labelled that way or not

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LABELLING THEORY

• No action is naturally deviant or criminal
• No person is naturally deviant or criminal
• 2. It depends on whether they have been labelled
  that way by
• - Society as a whole
• - Powerful groups within it - police, courts
• 3. Approach symbolic interactionism /
  ethnography / life-histories
• 4. Sympathy for underdogs

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• Howard Becker
• Outsiders (1963)
• Edwin Lemert
• Primary deviance
• Breaking norms
• Secondary deviance
• - Labelled as a criminal

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• Secondary deviance
• 1) Stigmatisation
• 2) Deviance amplification
• See oneself as a criminal
• Engage in further criminal acts
• 3) Retrospective labelling
• 4) Deviant career
• - Vicious circle

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Issues Problems

• 1. Does not explain WHY crimes occur
• - Does not look at individuals motivations
• - Only looks at societys responses to crime
• 2. Assumes individual gets locked into deviant
  career (may be the opposite?)

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MARXIST APPROACHES

• Karl Marx
• 1. Law serves ruling class interests
• protects middle classes ruling groups
• 2. Law particularly penalises punishes working
  classes
• 3. Bias in law goes unrecognised
• 4. Approach theory / some ethnography

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• Taylor, Walton, Young (1973)
• The New Criminology
• 1. Middle class crimes go relatively
• - undetected (e.g. tax evasion)
• - unpunished (e.g. corporate crime)
• 2. Middle class deviants often undetected or let
  off lightly
• - likely not to be labelled as criminals

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• 3. Working class criminals
• Likely to be negatively labelled
• Rebels against capitalist system
• Crime a disguised form of protest against social
  inequalities
• Robin Hood figures

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Issues Problems

• Explains all crimes in terms of social class
  capitalist society
• paedophilia? sex crimes?
• 2. Overly romantic notion of criminals as
  working class heroes
• Most crime (violence, theft, etc.) occurs WITHIN
  the working classes

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NEW LEFT REALISM

• 1980s onwards
• Developed as a response to Marxist approaches
• Increases in crime HAVE occurred
• Legitimate public concerns about crime

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• 1) Need more emphasis on victims of crime
• 2) Approach
• cant trust official statistics
• many crimes go unreported
• Use victim surveys
• 3) Particularly high crime rates in deprived
  inner cities
• - deprived groups suffer most crime

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• 4) Causes
• Not poverty alone
• Poverty PLUS other forms of
• social exclusion
• Race and ethnicity
• 5) Pragmatic approach
• Formulate better crime policies
• From military policing to community policing
• Locally-elected police authorities

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Issues Problems

• 1. Uncritical and naïve?
• Accept views of rising crime rates put about
  by government, police and media
• 2. Sold out to the system?
• 3. Over-emphasis on street crime and thefts
• - Ignore white collar crime, corporate crime

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT .

• 1) Consider both the theoretical and
  methodological aspects of each approach
• Theory connecting crime to wider society
• Methodology research methods used
• How good (or not) are these?
• 2) Which sorts of crimes are best explained by
  which approaches?
• 3) Which seem the strongest and weakest
  approaches overall?
• 4) Can different approaches be successfully
  combined?