Theories of Crime Unit 3 Part 4

Anomie theory Robert Merton Rebellion • Rejection of the approved goals and means of achieving them, as well as replacing these with new ones • Examples of people in this category are those who carry out coups or revolutions to overthrow government, street gang members, terrorists and freedom fighters • Rebellion entails destructive crimes, such as damage to property, public disorder, murder, and terrorist offences Anomie theory Robert Merton Criticisms • Anomie theory is not as comprehensive an account of crime and deviance • It fails to explain certain behaviours that are commonly labelled ‘deviant’ – such as recreational drug use – and which are often undertaken by people who otherwise accept the standard cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them • Predicts both too few deviant activities among the more privileged members of society • Merton made no attempt to apply his typology to women and, at first sight it seems totally inapplicable to them Cultural deviance theory • Behaviors are learnt from the society and culture that the individual is living in. These behaviors can be either positive or negative in nature • Crime is caused and influenced by some deviant people present in the individual’s surrounding • Culture can also be understood in terms of cub-culture groups defined by factors such as age, race, socioeconomic status • They have beliefs or interests that differ from that of the larger cultural context in which they are placed • These cultural or sub-cultural groups have certain norms, which determine how one responds to verbal comments, economic distress etc. Deviant sub-culture theories Cohen’s Cultural Transmission Theory • When the youth socializes into the working-class family, they are unable to sustain themselves in the middle-class set-up, or exercise a forethought, manners or socialize • These are structural deficits in the working class which also gets translated into cultural deficits because standards are set to evaluate everyone’s worth • Although society is stratified into socio-economic classes it is the norms and values of the middle class that are dominant and employed to judge the success and status of everybody in society • The focal concerns of working-class society – toughness, smartness, excitement, fate and autonomy, produce criminality • Those who respond to such concerns automatically violate the law through their behaviour • Being working class places the individual in a situation that contains a variety of direct incitements towards deviant conduct Deviant sub-culture theories Cloward and Ohlin: Illegitimate opportunity structure From this theory the existence of three separate delinquent subcultures were predicted: 1) Criminal delinquent subcultures: Available illegitimate opportunities for learning the motivations, attitudes and techniques necessary to commit crimes 2) A conflict subculture: Adolescent males – denied access to the legitimate opportunity structure because of their social class, ethnic origin, etc., have no available criminal opportunity structure, and young males work off their frustrations by attacking people (assault), property (vandalism) and each other (gang fights) 3) Retreatist subcultures: Drugs are freely available and membership is composed of those who have failed to gain access to either the legitimate or criminal subcultures. The conflict or retreatist subcultures would expand, with increased adolescent violence, ‘muggings’, vandalism and drug addiction Deviant sub-culture theories Criticisms of Cloward and Ohlin’s theory: 1) Their notion of the criminal subculture is modelled on the fairly stable and structured adolescent gangs of the Chicago slum areas of the 1920s and 1930s 2) There is an inherent assumption that the working class is a relatively homogeneous group 3) Simplistic explanation of drug misuse, common among successful middle-class professional people Spergel consequently rejected Cloward and Ohlin’s subculture categories and replaced them with his own threepart typology: • A racket subculture: Areas where organised adult criminality is already in existence and highly visible • A theft subculture: Involving offences such as burglary, shoplifting, taking things and driving away • A conflict subculture: Involving gang fighting and reputation would develop where there is limited or no access to either criminal or conventional activities Deviant sub-culture theories Walter Miller’s subcultural theory In contrast to other subcultural theories, Miller did not see deviant behavior occurring due to the inability of the lower/working class to achieve success, but in terms of the existence of a distinctive lower-class subculture In comparison to higher social strata, the lower classes are concerned with: • Toughness: Hyper masculinity and finding expression and courage in the face of physical threats as well as a rejection of timidity and weakness. This can lead to assault • Smartness: The capacity to outwit and deceive others. This can result in crimes such as hustling, conning, pimping, pickpocketing, and petty theft • Excitement: The search for emotional stimulus, as sought by practices such as gambling, sex, and drug and alcohol consumption • Fate: The belief that little can be done to change social status and one’s way of living • Trouble: An acceptance that one’s life will involve violence, and thus involvement in, rather than avoidance of, physical conflict Deviant sub-culture theories David Matza’s anti-determinism • Delinquents have similar values to those who are not delinquent, and even voice similar feelings of outrage about crime as those in the rest of society. • Behavior is adaptable and flexible, involving dimensions of choice and free will. • Delinquents are committed to the same values and norms as the rest of society, and society prevents them from being delinquent most of the time. • When delinquents commit crimes, they express regret and remorse, and disapprove of crimes such as mugging, armed robbery, and fighting with weapons. • Deviants drift into deviant activities through spontaneity and impulsiveness Deviant sub-culture theories David Matza’s anti-determinism • Everyone has a set of subterranean values — such as greed and aggressiveness, which may appear in particular situations. • These subterranean values contrast with traditional values and roles, such as one’s place in one’s family or one’s occupation • Drift is a period in adolescence where an adolescent’s bonds with society are loosened, making them more susceptible to suggestions of deviant acts from their peer group Deviant sub-culture theories David Matza’s anti-determinism • Young males utilise ‘techniques of neutralisation’ to justify their behaviour • Matza identifies five major types of neutralisation: • Denial of responsibility (I didn’t mean it) • Denial of injury (I didn’t really harm him) • Denial of the victim (he deserved it) • Condemnation of the condemners (they always pick on us) • Appeals to higher loyalties (you’ve got to help your mates) ACTIVITY • Do you think any of the cultural theories can be applied to crimes committed in the Indian context. Justify with some relevant case examples • Group discussion