Sociologists explanations to criminal and deviant behaviour

AIM: To be able to discuss sociological explanations of crime and deviance based

on inadequate socialization, the opportunity structure and relative deprivation

Sociologists

• Some believe this is a learned behaviour which develops through the socialization process

• Other explanations focus more on the availability of legal and illegal opportunities in a person’s life or relative deprivation

Inadequate socialization

• Young people’s involvement in crime and deviant behaviour has been explained in terms of the negative influence of family background and home environment.

Inadequate socialization • The New Right: suggest that children

from parentally deprived homes tend to be more prone to crime. (lack of supervision at home leads to delinquency)

• Other agencies like schools, religions and mass media are also to blame for the lack of socialization.

• Mass media – glamorize gun crime and violence

The Opportunity Structure • Juvenile and adult crime has been linked to

the levels of legal and illegal opportunities available to the individual.

• Employment and education low, people may turn to illegal ways of achieving success. (p157)

Relative deprivation

• This happens when groups or individuals feel that they are unfairly disadvantaged compared with other similar people. (for example a person may feel they do not earn enough at work compared with colleagues with similar levels of qualifications)

Relative deprivation• The experiences of relative

deprivation leave the individuals or groups feeling discontent. This discontentment may then lead to involvement in crime and deviance

Q. How far do you agree with each of the three explanations of criminal and deviant behaviour?

Sub-cultural Theories • Albert Cohen (1955) studied juvenile delinquency

among working class boys in North America. • He said that individuals did not carry out

delinquent acts such as vandalism or violence on their own (young males learn this by becoming members of groups or gangs.)

• Delinquency is to do with being part of a delinquent subculture or way of life amongst boys’ gangs in urban neighbourhoods of large cities.

Albert Cohen• Schools have middle-class values

and expectations and working-class kids cannot compete on the same terms.

• Working class boys feel frustrated at failing to meet these expectations

• The delinquent subculture enables them to gain status and to flout the school rules and hit back the school system that had branded them as failures

Q. Is this Vandalism or Art? Explain what you think.

Paul Willis (1977) • Cultural practices of the ‘lads’, a group of 12 non-

academic, working class boys in a Midlands secondary school.

• They were strongly anti-social, they were influenced by the values that stressed masculinity and toughness.

• They openly resisted values of the school and authority of teachers.

• Their future jobs would involve manual labour (factory work, building site) rather then ‘pen pushing’ (working in an office)

Marxist explanation

• They are critical of capitalist societies in which a small group of very wealthy and powerful people own big businesses, factories and land (the bourgeoisie)

• These people exploit the poorer working-class people in order to make as much profit as possible. (the proletariat)

Marxist explanation

Values that Capitalist society is based on

Materialism Consumerism

Competition between individuals

Q:What are these things? Can you explain?

Media• The media continually reinforces

these values through advertising in magazines, television game shows and Hollywood films

• It is then likely that some people will get what they want through any means possible. Crime can be seen as a by-product of the way capitalist society is organized.

Q. How far do you agree that the media reinforces values such as materialism and consumerism?

Laws

• Criminal law is made by and works in interest of those who own property

• Laws relate to the protection of private property

• It is likely that working class people will be caught breaking the law while crimes committed by the powerful bourgeoisie go undetected. (p159)