Functionalism
Name 3 functionalists
Left Realists believe these are the 3 main causes of crime.
Relative deprivation
Marginalisation
Subcultures
Deciding to commit a crime is a choice: individuals weigh up the costs and benefits to assess whether a crime is worth committing.
What is Rational Choice Theory
Marxist theories are social explanations based on the ideas of this person
Who is Karl Marx
Postmodernists would argue the idea that crime is a...
social construction
This is one of Merton's 5 responses people may take when they cannot achieve their goals.
where people Adopt alternative goals and aiming to bring revolutionary change to society. Rejecting the existing goals to replace them with new ones.
What is Rebellion?
These Left Realists argue that relative deprivation, marginalization and subcultures are the main cause of criminal behaviour.
Who are Lea and Young ()
Developed by Cohen and Felson. For crime to occur, 3 factors/conditions are needed:
1. Individuals who were motivated to offend
2. The availability of opportunity and targets (victim/property)
3. The lack of capable guardians such as parents or police who might prevent crime occurring (police/neighbour)
What is Routine Activities Theory (1979)
Marxists argue that a capitalist society is divided into two classes. These are...
The ruling capitalist class (bourgeoisie).
The working class (proletariat).
People are persuaded to participate in a consumer society (not engage in crime).
For example - we buy things. We work to pay for the things we want – you keep your job if you behave and do not break the law.
This maintains _______.
social control
This theory explains that people turn away from legitimate means of achieving material success and partake in crime to achieve it.
These groups are ones that have no organisations that will represent their interests, and they lack clearly defined goals.
According to Lea and Young, marginalised groups
The rise in lone-parent families has led to poor socialisation and encouraged society to become ‘welfare dependant’.
What is the The ‘underclass’ theory!
What does it mean to say capitalism is criminogenic?
This means that the Capitalist system encourages criminal behaviour.
__________: The breaking down of shared norms and values, leading to individuals adopting more personalised and complex identities and lifestyles.
What is Fragmentation
Rejecting both the goal and the means to achieve it. Deemed a ‘dropout’. Merton associates these individuals with alcoholics and drug addicts.
What is Retreatism?
a _________is a group's way of solving the problem of relative deprivation. So some subcultures turn to crime to solve this problem.
subculture
This includes undue noise, graffiti, begging, dog fouling, littering, vandalism.
What is ‘Broken Windows’ theory
Marxist argue that the state practices selective Law enforcement
he Criminal Justice system mainly concerns itself with policing and punishing the marginalised, not the wealthy.
According to Post Modernists:, the causes of crime are:
The causes of crime:
Individualism
Culture of resentment
WHich theory explains. The behaviours that delinquent subcultures value are those that wider society tends to condemn.
Status Frustration Theory. Albert Cohen
Left Realists draw on ______theory of status frustration to explain how subcultemerge.
Cohen’s
According to these individuals, biological differences make some individuals more likely to commit offences.
Biological differences between individuals make some people innately predisposed (more likely) to commit crime.
This is greater in personality traits associated with criminality such as aggressiveness, risk taking or low intelligence.
Who are Wilson and Herrnstein (1985)
This theorist argues that Capitalist societies are ‘dog eat dog societies’ - each individual company and each individual is encouraged to look out for their own interests before the interests of others.
David Gordon
Every crime is motivated by an infinite number of causes specific to that individual.
There is no one single cause of crime.
Crime is caused by the _______not society
individual