AQA A Level Sociology Paper 3 - Crime and Deviance 2024
1. clinard: should be reserved for behaviour that is so disapproved of that the
community find it impossible to tolerate
2. deviance: subjective, and culturally determined - cultures changed over time
and very between societies
3. normative definition of deviance (conform): refers to actions which differ
from the accepted standards of society - consists of the violation of social norms
4. Durkheim: "every society shares a set of core values" no society has
complete behavioural conformity
5. relativistic definition of deviance (conflict): the basis of society is a
diversity of values - not consensus society far too complex conflicts in interest
values in constant change of state
6. dynamic process: 1. labelling/ interactionist 2. conflict
the dominant values are the outcome of the struggle
7. functionalism: - society based on consensus
values
- ensures social solidarity
- 2 functions: socialisation and social control
7. Durkheim on crime and deviance:
"crime is normal... an integral part of all healthy societies"
- crime inevitable and universal
- due to inadequate socialisation or anomie (the collapse of the collective
conscious
- modern society rules less clear cut due to increased individuality)
9. boundary maintenance (Durkheim): - crime produces a reaction that unites
members by condemning wrongdoing and reinforcing values and social solidarity
10. boundary maintenance (Cohen): - media creates moral panics (exaggerated
over reaction by society), which enlarges problem out of proportion to real
seriousness
- media identifies a group as a 'folk devil' (threat)
11. adaption and change (Durkheim): - crime starts with an act of deviance from
individuals with new ideas that have been suppressed e.g. racism
- neither very high or low levels desirable
- too much threatens bonds of society apart
,- too little means society controlling its members too much, preventing freedom
and change
12. Davis - function of crime (safety valve): prostitution a safety valve for
releasing mens sexual frustrations without threatening nuclear family
13. Polsky - function of crime: pornography safely 'channels' sexual desire away
from alternatives e.g. adultery
14. Cohen - function of crime: warning institution not working
15. functionalists - function of crime: - boundary maintenance
- adaption and change
16. Erikson - function of crime: - manages and regulates deviance rather than
eradicate it entirely e.g. police
- festivals e.g. license misbehaviour that may be punished in other contexts -
young may be given leeway to 'sow their wild oats' - a way of coping with strains
of transition to adulthood
17. criticisms of functionalism: - only say why crime exists, not how it came to
be
- society doesn't make crime with intention to strengthen society
- ignores how crime may affect different groups e.g. what about perpetrator
- doesn't always promote solidarity
18. subcultural theory of crime: - deviance a product of a delinquent subculture
with different values from those of mainstream society
- these provide an alternative opportunity for the who are denied the chance to
achieve by legitimate means
19. A.K. Cohen: status frustration (subcultural): - agrees with Merton: deviance
mostly wc phenomenon
- results from inability to achieve goals by legitimate means
- however, not an individual phenomenon or focuses on utilitarian crime
- focuses on wc boys as face anomie in mc world
- cultural deprivation - lack of skills to achieve
20. Alternative status hierarchy (subcultural): - values spite and hostility for
those outside of it
- inverts values of mainstream society e.g. truancy at school
- offers boys ways to achieve
- explains non-utilitarian deviance e.g. vandalism
- ignores possibility of not sharing mainstream views in first place
, AQA A Level Sociology Paper 3 - Crime and Deviance 2024
21. Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures: - agree with Cohen: wc denied
legitimate opportunities
- not everyone wants to innovate: different subcultures act differently
- unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate means
- different neighbourhoods offer different illegitimate opportunities
- results in three subcultures
22. Cloward and Ohlin: criminal subculture: - provides apprenticeship for
career in utilitarian crime
- only in neighbourhoods with longstanding, stable criminal subcultures with
established hierarchy of professionals
- learn from adult criminals
23. Cloward and Ohlin: conflict subculture: - areas of high population turnover
making for high levels of social disorganisation
- loosely organised gangs and violence release frustration by winning 'turf'
24. Cloward and Ohlin: Retreatist subculture: - double failures: cannot make
legitimate or illegitimate means
- retreat to drug use
25. Shaw and Mckay: cultural transmission theory: criminal culture transmitted
from generation to generation
26. Sutherland: differential association theory: deviance learnt through social
interaction with those who are already socially deviant
27. Park and Burgess: social disorganisation theory: rapid change in society
causes instability and poor social control
28. Cloward and Ohlin - critiques: - too deterministic
- ignores wider power structures
- South: can be more than one subculture
- Reactive theory: not everyone starts off hating mainstream
- Miller: people focus on own goal not societies
- Matza: criminals not that dedicated to subcultures
29. Cloward and Ohlin - strengths: - provides an explanation of all types of
crime - influence on later theories of crime:
Merton helped left realism: in 1960s helped president Johnson's war on poverty
Ohlin developed crime policy in USA under Kennedy
, 30. Recent Strain theory: - new variety of goals: boys want to be "real men" ->
Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory: obsession with money =
anomic (gormless culture)
- USA economic goals = more valued e.g. school
- Labour market as opposed to value sharing e.g. respect
- society based on free market capitalism, so crime in inevitable
31. Merton's Strain Theory: - people engage in crime if they cannot achieve
socially achievable goals by appropriate means
- structural: unequal opportunities
- cultural: emphasis on goals but not how to achieve them legitimately
- developed from Durkheim's anomie
32. Merton - The American Dream: - expected to pursue by legitimate means
- Americans sold their society meritocratic with opportunities for all
- different in reality; disadvantaged groups denied opportunities to achieve
- strain between goal and lack of legitimate means produces frustration
33. Conformity (Merton - adaption to strain): accept approved goal and strive
to achieve them legitimately
34. Innovation (Merton - adaption to strain): accept goal but uses legitimate
means, those at the end of class structure
35. Ritualism (Merton - adaption to strain): give up on achieving goals but
have interlaced legitimate means so they follow the rules, typical of lower MC
office workers
36. Retreatism (Merton - adaption to strain): reject goals and means and
become a drop pit, typically trams, drug addicts e.g.
37. Rebellion (Merton - adaption to strain): reject existing rules in society and
replaces with new goals hoping to bring about revolution e.g. political radicals and
counter-cultures like hippies
38. Merton - critiques: - takes official statistics at face value - over represents
WC and sees crime as WC
- Marxists: ignore power of ruling class
- Assumes value consensus
- Only accounts for utilitarian crimes for monetary gain
39. Merton - strengths: - explains patterns shown in crime statistics
1. clinard: should be reserved for behaviour that is so disapproved of that the
community find it impossible to tolerate
2. deviance: subjective, and culturally determined - cultures changed over time
and very between societies
3. normative definition of deviance (conform): refers to actions which differ
from the accepted standards of society - consists of the violation of social norms
4. Durkheim: "every society shares a set of core values" no society has
complete behavioural conformity
5. relativistic definition of deviance (conflict): the basis of society is a
diversity of values - not consensus society far too complex conflicts in interest
values in constant change of state
6. dynamic process: 1. labelling/ interactionist 2. conflict
the dominant values are the outcome of the struggle
7. functionalism: - society based on consensus
values
- ensures social solidarity
- 2 functions: socialisation and social control
7. Durkheim on crime and deviance:
"crime is normal... an integral part of all healthy societies"
- crime inevitable and universal
- due to inadequate socialisation or anomie (the collapse of the collective
conscious
- modern society rules less clear cut due to increased individuality)
9. boundary maintenance (Durkheim): - crime produces a reaction that unites
members by condemning wrongdoing and reinforcing values and social solidarity
10. boundary maintenance (Cohen): - media creates moral panics (exaggerated
over reaction by society), which enlarges problem out of proportion to real
seriousness
- media identifies a group as a 'folk devil' (threat)
11. adaption and change (Durkheim): - crime starts with an act of deviance from
individuals with new ideas that have been suppressed e.g. racism
- neither very high or low levels desirable
- too much threatens bonds of society apart
,- too little means society controlling its members too much, preventing freedom
and change
12. Davis - function of crime (safety valve): prostitution a safety valve for
releasing mens sexual frustrations without threatening nuclear family
13. Polsky - function of crime: pornography safely 'channels' sexual desire away
from alternatives e.g. adultery
14. Cohen - function of crime: warning institution not working
15. functionalists - function of crime: - boundary maintenance
- adaption and change
16. Erikson - function of crime: - manages and regulates deviance rather than
eradicate it entirely e.g. police
- festivals e.g. license misbehaviour that may be punished in other contexts -
young may be given leeway to 'sow their wild oats' - a way of coping with strains
of transition to adulthood
17. criticisms of functionalism: - only say why crime exists, not how it came to
be
- society doesn't make crime with intention to strengthen society
- ignores how crime may affect different groups e.g. what about perpetrator
- doesn't always promote solidarity
18. subcultural theory of crime: - deviance a product of a delinquent subculture
with different values from those of mainstream society
- these provide an alternative opportunity for the who are denied the chance to
achieve by legitimate means
19. A.K. Cohen: status frustration (subcultural): - agrees with Merton: deviance
mostly wc phenomenon
- results from inability to achieve goals by legitimate means
- however, not an individual phenomenon or focuses on utilitarian crime
- focuses on wc boys as face anomie in mc world
- cultural deprivation - lack of skills to achieve
20. Alternative status hierarchy (subcultural): - values spite and hostility for
those outside of it
- inverts values of mainstream society e.g. truancy at school
- offers boys ways to achieve
- explains non-utilitarian deviance e.g. vandalism
- ignores possibility of not sharing mainstream views in first place
, AQA A Level Sociology Paper 3 - Crime and Deviance 2024
21. Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures: - agree with Cohen: wc denied
legitimate opportunities
- not everyone wants to innovate: different subcultures act differently
- unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate means
- different neighbourhoods offer different illegitimate opportunities
- results in three subcultures
22. Cloward and Ohlin: criminal subculture: - provides apprenticeship for
career in utilitarian crime
- only in neighbourhoods with longstanding, stable criminal subcultures with
established hierarchy of professionals
- learn from adult criminals
23. Cloward and Ohlin: conflict subculture: - areas of high population turnover
making for high levels of social disorganisation
- loosely organised gangs and violence release frustration by winning 'turf'
24. Cloward and Ohlin: Retreatist subculture: - double failures: cannot make
legitimate or illegitimate means
- retreat to drug use
25. Shaw and Mckay: cultural transmission theory: criminal culture transmitted
from generation to generation
26. Sutherland: differential association theory: deviance learnt through social
interaction with those who are already socially deviant
27. Park and Burgess: social disorganisation theory: rapid change in society
causes instability and poor social control
28. Cloward and Ohlin - critiques: - too deterministic
- ignores wider power structures
- South: can be more than one subculture
- Reactive theory: not everyone starts off hating mainstream
- Miller: people focus on own goal not societies
- Matza: criminals not that dedicated to subcultures
29. Cloward and Ohlin - strengths: - provides an explanation of all types of
crime - influence on later theories of crime:
Merton helped left realism: in 1960s helped president Johnson's war on poverty
Ohlin developed crime policy in USA under Kennedy
, 30. Recent Strain theory: - new variety of goals: boys want to be "real men" ->
Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory: obsession with money =
anomic (gormless culture)
- USA economic goals = more valued e.g. school
- Labour market as opposed to value sharing e.g. respect
- society based on free market capitalism, so crime in inevitable
31. Merton's Strain Theory: - people engage in crime if they cannot achieve
socially achievable goals by appropriate means
- structural: unequal opportunities
- cultural: emphasis on goals but not how to achieve them legitimately
- developed from Durkheim's anomie
32. Merton - The American Dream: - expected to pursue by legitimate means
- Americans sold their society meritocratic with opportunities for all
- different in reality; disadvantaged groups denied opportunities to achieve
- strain between goal and lack of legitimate means produces frustration
33. Conformity (Merton - adaption to strain): accept approved goal and strive
to achieve them legitimately
34. Innovation (Merton - adaption to strain): accept goal but uses legitimate
means, those at the end of class structure
35. Ritualism (Merton - adaption to strain): give up on achieving goals but
have interlaced legitimate means so they follow the rules, typical of lower MC
office workers
36. Retreatism (Merton - adaption to strain): reject goals and means and
become a drop pit, typically trams, drug addicts e.g.
37. Rebellion (Merton - adaption to strain): reject existing rules in society and
replaces with new goals hoping to bring about revolution e.g. political radicals and
counter-cultures like hippies
38. Merton - critiques: - takes official statistics at face value - over represents
WC and sees crime as WC
- Marxists: ignore power of ruling class
- Assumes value consensus
- Only accounts for utilitarian crimes for monetary gain
39. Merton - strengths: - explains patterns shown in crime statistics
