珏儿对《Theories of Crime》的笔记(1)

摘录

emile durkheim was the founder of the structural functionalist approach in sociology we will start by briefly setting out his broad theoretical position before examining his application of this to explaining crime,

he argued that social order had to be based on a core of shared values which formed the moral basis for what he termed social solidarity. he believed that without the regulation of society individuals would simply aim to satisfy their own needs and wishes without regard for others. this regulation would have to be based on shared values which were generally accepted by members of the society.

durkheim developed the argument that crime is universal, it exists, albeit to varying extents, in all known societies and must therefore be inevitable. and as well as being inevitable it must also be necessary and useful for society.
in terms of encouraging social change, criminal behaviour can introduce new ideas into a society and so allow a society to move on and develop.

chicago school:  on the basis of durkheim’s work, the chicago school saw crime as a social, rather than an individual, phenomenon. they argued that social life in certain areas and neighbourhoods was chaotic and pathological and that in such situations crime was an expected and normal response.

stain theory robert merton
saw crime as a social rather than an individual phenomena. they argued that social life in certain areas and neighbourhoods was chaotic and pathological and that in such situations crime was an expected and normal response.

albert cohen and subcultural theories
delinquent boys 1955
different version of strain theory. cohen questions whether criminal and delinquent behaviour is caused by a desire for material goals. like merton, he focuses on the working class delinquency but argues that a large amount of such behaviour is expressive in character and not centred on acquiring money or goods. delinquency centred n vandalism or violence is a clear example.

cohen’s argument is that american society is dominated by middle class values and norms which are passed on through the education system and mass media.

such working class boys, or corner boys as cohen called them, suffer status frustration at school and respond by attempting to turn the middle class value system on its head. anything the school disapproves of the corner boy will see as good.

so just being working rather than middle class would predispose individuals towards criminality, with the delinquent subculture seen as one sort of response to working class life.

subcultural theories focus on young offenders reacting against middle class society and the norms associated with it. however offer no explanation as to why such young offenders stop offending as they become older. most people remain in the same social class after they reach adulthood and are still likely to experience the same lack of success.this raises the question of why their behaviour changes away from delinquency.

control theory trevor hirschi
williams (2004) parents at home, teachers at school and other individuals in the community…spend a lot of time and effort in controlling each of us. she sees the essence of control theories as offering explanations for why people conform to rules and accept the social order as it is. criminal behaviour is then the breakdown of the socialisation process.


interactionist theories
became particularly influential in sociology in the 1960s and 1970s. rather than seeing crime and deviant behaviour as a response of people to their social situation and a response which established them as distinct from the mainstream－normal people, the interactionist position was that the criminal or deviant can be quite normal.the emphasis should be on how society defines certain individuals and groups as criminal or deviant.interactionists refer to both crime and deviance, and the terms are quite often used interchangeably. crime can be defined as action that breaks the criminal law and can be followed by criminal proceedings, while deviance is not used in its literal sense but taken to refer to any behaviour that is outside the rules of society and that is generally disapproved of.

labelling theory
key element of interactionist theorising on crime and deviance. the focus is on the relationship, or interaction, between the criminal and those groups of individuals who define him or her as such.the argument is that the criminal or deviant is an individual who has been labelled by society. 
in terms of what happens to the individual once she or he is labelled as a criminal or deviant, the process by and extent to which the label becomes fixed is important to consider. labelling an individual will mark them out, and knowing a person has been labelled will be liable to influence the behaviour of other people towards them. knowing that someone has been convicted of theft, might well influence how other people react and respond keeping a closer eye on their possessions perhaps. furthermore, the individual who has been labelled will  be likely to view himself or herself in terms of the label and act accordingly. 

labelling theory was criticised for implying that criminals were powerless and passive victims who have just had the misfortune to be labelled criminal and have not been able to do much about it. this seemed to ignore the fact that criminals might often choose to become so.


conflict based and marxist based theories
have been categorised under various headings including critical criminology, radical criminology, left realism and left idealism.
crime is largely the product of capitalism.many forms of crime are to be expected under a capitalist system.
to the fact that basic motivations of capitalist societies, such as materialism and self enrichment.
key features of class struggle in the marxist analysts.


feminist criminology 
the feminist explanations in the 1970s came as a relief from these early deterministic theories and have been seen as part of a second wave of feminism
the fact that the discipline has been dominated by men, which affects such things as access to male gangs, cultural assumptions about masculinity and felinity, and a fascination with the macho, working class deviant.

until the 1970s. the study of crime had been a very male dominated area. 
in 1950 pollack argued that female crime occurred to a much greater extent than crime extent than crime statistics indicated but that female crime was much less likely to be detected, in part because of the naturally devious and cunning nature of women which enabled the to successfully conceal their crimes and avoid bring caught.

although the female crime rate is lower than the male rate, explanations for male crime based around structural factors such as poverty, inner city life the mass media and so on did not explain why females faced with similar experiences apparently committed less crime. 

feminist approaches have also considered issues around criminal justice.these issues include the treatment of women offenders by the criminal system-the police course and prisons in particular and the ways in which women working within the system have fared,
psychological explanation
ADHD attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder is a personality disorder. researchers have only recently explored the link between ADHD and crime. there is also some debate about the diagnosis of ADHD and about the fact that its is being used to explain any children who have even minor behavioural problems.
intelligence: firstly, there is a possibility that those with low intelligence could be more likely to be actually caught when committing crime. the second possibility is that the less intelligent could simply be more ready to admit to committing crime.
impulsivity: people are likely to act almost on instinct and seldom weigh up the consequences of their actions. poor self control mechanisms led to impulsive and often criminal behaviour. 
locus of control: impulsivity was concerned with the way in which offenders might not anticipate the consequences of their actions adequately, the idea of having a locus of control describes the way in which people accept there being different explanations for thins that happen. people with internal locus of control perceive events as being largely under their own command. 

biological explanations
most biologists agreed that there were some human behaviours largely under genetic control there was a powerful negative response to extending this to what were felt to  be behaviours shaped by our education, society and moral beliefs.
the male age crime curve MACC show how number of male offenders per thousand males changes as their age increases. there are very few offenders up until about 11 years of age. the curve increases steeply until the proportion who are convicted offenders reaches a peak at about 18 years. from there it drops- steeply at first, but reducing more gently after 25 years of age. the MACC has been called the best accepted fact in criminology.