SCLY4 REVISIONMrs Sergeant's topic

CRIME AND DEVIANCE

Functionalist theories of crime

■ Views of Durkheim: society is based on mutual agreement (value consensus) and unity (social solidarity)

■ Society is fair and meritocratic – everyone has possibility to achieve, succeed, be socially mobile, have high life chances

■ Within a class-based society some people are able to achieve more than others

■ All of society's roles get filled up (no matter how high/low they are) – role allocation

■ Crime will always occur because meritocracy creates differences and inequalities between individuals – crime is a social construction, crime changes

Functionalist theories of crime (2)■ Crime is functional for a number of reasons1. Reinforces value consensus and social solidarity – peoples’

behaviour governed by positive and negative sanctions, reminds everyone of “right and wrong”

2. Safety valve – Cohen: deviance allows people to “let off steam” in a relatively harmless way

3. Warning device – Clinard: when crime/deviance occurs it sends a message to us that society’s social order is breaking down

4. Jobs – crime creates employment, good for families and society as a whole e.g. police force

Functionalist theories of crime (3)■ When people experience inequalities and barriers to their life chances they

begin to experience anomie (normlessness), this leads them to turn to crime and deviance in order to gain things they’ve been prevented from achieving

■ Anomie results in a breakdown of social solidarity and weakens value consensus, which is described as the atrophy (erosion) of society’s norms and values

■ Atrophy is therefore dysfunctional if this occurs on a large scale■ Deviants are therefore “different” to “normal” people ■ Because of this Durkheim argues this is more likely to happen in times of

social upheaval e.g. war

Functionalist theories of crime (4)■ Strain theory – Merton: sees anomie as a much more permanent

feature of society as society puts pressure on people to achieve■ He saw this as society presenting us with cultural goals■ Society also presents us with institutionalised means (socially

approved ways) of achieving these cultural goals■ When people can’t access the cultural goals by institutionalised

means this leads to strain, which then leads them to turn to crime

Functionalist theories of crime (5)■ Status frustration (subcultural theory) – Cohen: certain groups

in society experience more “frustration” over their lack of status■ Focuses on how the W/C youth are denied status in society■ They develop their own values in direct opposition to the mainstream

value consensus due to the want of revenge on society■ Status is gained in peer groups through deviant behaviour

Functionalist theories of crime (6)■ W/C delinquency (subcultures) – Cloward and Ohlin■ Suggests Cohen is over-generalising ■ Although the W/C are likely to form deviant subcultures, different W/C

groups react differently according to their particular social circumstances

■ 3 main types of deviant subcultures1. Criminal2. Conflict3. Retreatist

Functionalist theories of crime (7)■ W/C focal concerns (subcultures) – Miller: ■ The W/C have specific focal concerns e.g. masculinity, resentment for

authority, being tough etc.■ These values oppose the general value consensus■ Due to this W/C individuals are more likely to experience anomie,

strain and frustration■ This leads them to turn to crime

Functionalist theories of crime (8)■ Delinquency and drift – Matza:■ Suggests deviants are no different to “normal” people who respect the

value consensus■ Sometimes people will “drift” out of society’s value consensus but will

ultimately drift back in ■ Subterranean values: agree with the values of society deep down■ Techniques of neutralisation: criminals try to take the blame off

themselves, e.g. in cases of theft, they might blame the victim for leaving the door unlocked

Marxist theories of crime

■ Base and superstructure – Marx:■ Believed that the economy was the driving force in society and it was

this that determined the nature of social institutions, people’s values and their beliefs

Super Structure of SocietyFamily, religion, law, politics, media, education, ideology.

Economic BaseMeans and relations of production.

Marxist theories of crime (2)■ Instruments of the R/C – Althusser:■ Repressive state apparatus: institutions within society that

suppress and control the W/C through physical force e.g. police, army■ Ideological state apparatus: institutions within society that supress

and control the W/C through manipulating and conditioning the way they think e.g. the education system

■ It seems like the W/C commit more crime due to 3 main reasons:1. Selective law enforcement: police and justice system more likely to

focus time and resources on crime amongst W/C2. Ownership of the media: the R/C able to make out W/C is a major

problem as they control the media, can sensationalise W/C crime, create folk devils and moral panics

3. Invisibility of white collar crime: crime amongst R/C which is often more damaging to society, R/C crime becomes invisible due to R/C control of media

Groups/ people that get blamed for moral panics

Created by the media, report on a particular issue multiple times, becomes a panic in society

Marxist theories of crime (3)

■ False class consciousness: the W/C suffer from a failure to realise they’re being exploited and instead go about their lives in a “brainwashed” state where they believe they’re living a reasonable life

■ Dominant ideology – Gramsci: the beliefs and ideas of the R/C which influences the rest of society in how they think and what they do, the R/C must make society believe that their lives are normal, the R/C are powerful as they control ideology within society and challenges against them fail

■ Alienation – Marx: a condition in social relationships reflected in a low degree of integration (common values) and a high degree of distance/isolation between individuals, or between the individual and a group of people in a community

■ Hegemony – Gramsci: when the R/C use their influence to convince the W/C that it’s in their best interest to do what is actually in the R/C’s best interest

Neo-Marxist theories of crime

■ Full social theory of crime – Taylor, Walton and Young: created a new model of crime, locates crime as being a product of the social system which the person is immersed in, identified 7 characteristics of this

■ Policing the crisis – Hall: study of moral panics over mugging in 1970’s, mugging used to refer to being mugged by black men, several newspapers repeatedly reported incidents of mugging, Hall looked at the idea of the black mugger as a scapegoat for other social ills, 1970’s brought an economic decline, brought about high unemployment and lower living standards, by making the black mugger someone to fear it solidified a fractured UK society around the state, society allowed the state to stop and search black youths randomly, this labelling led to a process of deviancy amplification

Interactionist theories of crime

■ Labelling theory – Becker: ■ Deviance is a quality that lies in the interaction between the person

who commits the act and the person who responds to it ■ Social groups create deviance by applying those rules to particular

people and labelling them as outsiders■ Master status label: some people are powerful enough to make a

label stick, it can’t be rejected, leads to social exclusion e.g. paedophile

Interactionist theories of crime (2)■ Selective law enforcement – Chamblis: ■ Study of 2 gangs in a small American town■ Saints (M/C)■ Roughnecks (W/C)■ Committed criminal acts in the open■ Didn’t have cars/houses like the saints

Interactionist theories of crime (3)■ Deviance – Lemert:■ Primary deviance: deviance that hasn’t been publically labelled■ Secondary deviance: deviance that follows once a person has been

publically labelled as deviant■ Stuttering among North Pacific Coastal Indians: looked at 2

tribes, in the 1st tribe there was no stuttering, didn’t know what it was, in the 2nd tribe they placed emphasis on good public speaking, found stuttering

Interactionist theories of crime (4)■ Folk devils and moral panics – Cohen:■ Moral panics■ Folk devils ■ Deviancy amplification■ E.g. mods and rockers

Feminist theories of crime

■ Invisibility of females in crime – Heidensohn:■ Academics and researchers are still predominantly male■ Malestream and M/C sociologists exaggerate and are preoccupied with

W/C macho males and focus on them in the study of deviance■ There’s less female crime to study due to low female crime rate and

the nature of female crimes which often means they’re less detectable (e.g. fraud, petty theft, not paying fines)

Feminist theories of crime (2)

■ Domestic violence – Dobash and Dobash:■ Used informal interviews with victims of domestic violence and the

people who worked with/helped the victims■ Men use the façade of the family to exercise power and control over

women by physical and mental abuse

Feminist theories of crime (3)

■ Control theory – Carlen and Heidensohn:■ Females have more to lose if they turn to crime■ Their central roles as guardians of domestic morality comes with an

expectation to set a good example and not take risks ■ Women experience a higher level of control than men in all spheres of

life■ Agencies of social control restrict women’s opportunities to commit

crime ■ Males dominate in all areas of life, therefore women are controlled in

both the public sphere and the private sphere

Feminist theories of crime (4)

■ The chivalry thesis – Anderson:■ The criminal justice system is paternalistic – has a stereotypical view

of females as helpless and naïve ■ Therefore more likely to treat women more leniently and let them off

for offences which men would be punished for

Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime■ Control theory – Hirschi: ■ Assumes society is based on value consensus and social solidarity ■ Looks at why some people don’t commit crime■ People are less likely to commit crime if they have strong social bonds with

others who encourage them to exercise self-control and tie them to conformity

■ If bonds are weak then people turn to crime ■ Four types of social bonds:1. Belief2. Attachment3. Commitment 4. Involvement

Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime (2)■ Belief: people share moral beliefs, norms and values, laws reinforce

these beliefs■ Attachment: people are committed to conventional activities, this

means they must conform or risk it all ■ Commitment: people are committed to each other, their

communities and societies, therefore they avoid crime as this questions their commitment

■ Involvement: people are involved and kept busy with various groups, therefore there’s little opportunity for crime

Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime (3)■ Social structure and anomie (strain theory) – Merton:■ Conformist: most people from all social classes, conform to society’s success

goals and go about this through the “normal” means of achieving them■ Innovator: usually W/C members, least likely to succeed via the normal channels,

they turn to crime and use whatever skills they have to get what they want■ Ritualist: usually members of the lower M/C, they largely abandon society’s

success goals but are too strongly socialised to turn to crime, they deviate by scaling down their success goals, reject normal success goals

■ Retreatist: any social class, they have strongly internalised success goals and the means of achieving them, yet they’re unable to achieve success, they resolve this conflict by “dropping out” of society and retreat into a deviant subculture

■ Rebel: usually members of a rising social class, reject success goals and the institutionalised means of achieving them, they wish to replace them with their own goals and means, wish to create a new society

Left realist theories of crime

■ Inner city Islington – study by Lea and Young: victim survey, suggested W/C and black people, especially elderly women, had a realistic fear of street crime

■ The official criminal statistics are probably largely correct in their conclusions that the W/C and Afro-Caribbeans do commit most crime

■ White collar and corporate crime is under-detected but this doesn’t negatively impact people’s lives

■ Too simplistic to suggest that poverty is responsible for crime, it’s naïve to say that W/C criminals are political in their motives and aim to challenge the foundations of capitalism

Left realist theories of crime (2)

■ The reasons why W/C and Afro-Caribbeans commit crime revolves around 3 key concepts:

1. Relative deprivation: W/C youth compares itself to M/C youth in regard to life chance and opportunites, young blacks may feel that racism is holding them back

2. Marginalisation and frustration: a result of relative deprivation, negative attitude towards authority

3. Subcultures: may look to form or join these to cope with their feelings of frustration, W/C and black youth may be involved in criminal activities such as drug pushing and street crime

Right realist theories of crime■ Human beings are naturally selfish, individualistic and greedy, therefore

naturally inclined towards criminal behaviour if it can further their interests, e.g. Marsland – welfare state responsible for the emergence of the underclass

■ Rehabilitation of criminals is a soft option, the rate of re-offending suggests it doesn’t work, punishment should be the primary aim of the justice system

■ Policies aimed at tackling crime have failed because they misunderstand the origins of crime, e.g. Wilson – great USA depression in 1930’s didn’t result in parallel rise in crime rates

■ The police have generally lost their fight against crime, failed in their attempt to prevent and reduce crime despite a substantial rise in police recruitment and the introduction of new technology

■ Informal controls are breaking down, the welfare state has undermined our sense of commitment and obligation to support each other, the notion of community responsibility has broken down

Right realist theories of crime (2)■ Control theory – Hirschi: concerned with finding practical solutions to the

crime problem, the sociological focus should no longer be on why people commit crime but why people do not, most crime is opportunistic – anyone would want to commit crime if the situation was right and they stood little chance of being caught

■ People weigh up the costs vs benefits of their behaviour, suggests why younger people may commit more crime, most people don’t commit crime because they have 4 controls in their lives which means the costs of crime clearly outweigh the benefits:

1. Attachment: committed to family relationships2. Commitment: invested in education, careers or businesses, requiring a

reputation3. Involvement: involved in the community, risk of damaging reputation4. Belief: socialised to have strong belief in rules, discipline and respect for laws

Right realist theories of crime (3)■ Underclass theory – Murray: there exists a distinct lower class subculture

which subscribes to deviant and criminal values, transmits this deficient culture to their children, lacks the distinctive 4 controls found by Hirschi, the benefits clearly outweigh the costs

■ Likely to be long-term unemployed, workshy■ Prefer to be welfare dependant ■ Supplement their income by being involved in criminality■ Subculture is hostile towards the police and authority ■ Subculture is generally lacking in moral values and especially commitment,

large percentage of underclass childen brought up by single mothers who are irresponsible parents

■ Seen by politicians as the main cause of crime in recent years

Right realist theories of crime (4)■ The best way to reduce crime is to take practical

measures to reduce the opportunity and make the situation more difficult for the criminal, to make sure that the costs of crime clearly outweigh the benefits

■ Zero tolerance policing – Wilson: puts stress on the certainty of capture to increase the risks of criminal behaviour

■ Tougher laws – Van Der Haag: people would then be deterred from crime, the concept of “three strikes and you’re out” punishments for parents who don’t control their children

■ Devise policies that increase the risk of being caught including target hardening and designing out crime

Refers to making the security of society stronger to prevent the risk of attack from criminals

The proper design of the physical environment to reduce fear of crime and improve the quality of life

The implications for social policy from different theories■ New inclusionism – Young:■ The government tried to reintegrate some of the excluded back into

society■ The New Deal tried to force unemployed black youth back into work■ The Social Exclusion Unit tried to force truants back into school

Statistics and issues related to age and crime■ The peak age of offending in England and Wales is between 15-18 (Browne)■ Deviance amongst younger generations is called juvenile delinquency, been

present in society for a long time despite the claim by many that it was never this bad

■ 2002 – roughly half of all convictions were offenders aged 21 or under■ 2002 – over half of all secondary students admitted that they had broken the

law ■ 2008 – Roe and Ash: self-report survey, 22% of all 10-25 year olds admitted to

committing at least one offence over the past 12 months ■ Edgework and the peer group – Katz and Lyng: all young people tend to

live on the edge, the buzz of deviant activities excites them and often outweighs the risk of getting caught

Statistics and issues related to age and crime (2)■ As the young have the most opportunity to commit crime, they’re also

more likely to be victims■ 2006 – Wilson: young people are most likely to be victims of crime,

27% of 10-25 year olds have been victims of crime e.g. assault, theft

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime■ Huge differences between the offending rates of different ethnic groups■ Certain ethnic groups are highly represented in official crime statistics■ 2008 Ministry of Justice – compared to whites, blacks were:a) 3.5 times more likely to be arrestedb) 5 times more likely to be in prisonc) More likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guiltyd) More likely to be charged and face court if arrestede) 3 times more likely to be cautioned by policef) More likely to be arrested for robbery

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime (2)■ 2008 Ministry of Justice – compared to whites, Asians were:a) 2 times more likely to be stopped and searched (mainly for drugs)b) More likely to be charged and face court if arrestedc) More likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guiltyd) More likely to be arrested for fraud and forgery

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime (3)■ Black crime (1970’s) was a form of political resistance against a

repressive, racist state (Gilroy)■ During 1970’s Britain was facing a crisis of hegemony, high unemployment

and civil unrest in relation to political issues, R/C needed a scapegoat, created the black mugger, created a folk devil and moral panic, convinced the public that the black mugger is to blame for society’s problems, police were justified in using aggressive/oppressive tactics against the black community, reinforced stereotypes and racism (Hall)

■ Black crime is higher than whites for some offences, it’s not just a social construction, the police and racism can’t be blamed for black crime (Lea and Young)

■ High levels of poverty and social exclusion could explain why there’s a high level of robbery amongst black people (Bowling and Phillips)

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime (4)■ The effects of police prejudice, military policing and deviance

amplification – Lea and Young:Unemploym

entRacial prejudice +

discrimination within the police

Rising street crime + civil

unrest

Stereotype the black community as crime prone (scapegoats)

Moral panic hyped up

by the mediaAlienation of

black community

Military police tactics

Mobilisation of

bystandersReduced

cooperation with police

Collective resistance from

communityReinforcement of folk devils, moral panic, prejudice and

racism

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime (5)■ Canteen culture – Reiner:■ A canteen culture exists amongst the police■ This is a macho, racist, suspicious and mistrusting culture against

non-whites■ Because of their job the police tend to all socialise together (e.g. in

the canteen)

Statistics and issues related to ethnicity and crime (6)■ Minority ethnic groups and crime – Sharp and Budd:■ Black people were more likely to have contact with the police, been to

court and convicted■ This is despite lower levels of offending than whites in general ■ Black and Asian offenders more likely to be charged, granted bail and

given custodial sentences than whites

Statistics and issues related to gender and crime■ 2014 – Browne: by their 40th birthday, 1 in 3 males have a conviction

of some kind compared to 1 in 10 females ■ Men are responsible for around 4 offences compared to every 1

female offence■ Men are more likely to be repeat offenders■ Control theory and rational choice – Carlen and Heidensohn:

females have more to lose if they turn to crime, their central roles as guardians of domestic morality carries with it an expectation to set a good example and not to take risks, women experience higher levels of control than men in all aspects of life, agencies of social control restrict women's’ opportunities to commit crime

Statistics and issues related to gender and crime (2)■ The chivalry thesis – Anderson: the criminal justice system is paternalistic,

has a stereotypical view of females as helpless and naïve, treat females more leniently than men and let them off for more offences

■ Women are twice as likely to be denied bail when charged with drug offences and 3 times more likely for serious offences including dishonesty (Carlen)

■ The changes in typical gender roles are to blame for such an increase in female offences, this change is largely due to the growing independence of women and lack of traditional controls (Adler)

■ Ladette – Denscombe: females who are taking on more typical male characteristics, more likely to take risks, disrespect authority and engage in drinking and violence, ladette culture has become somewhat of a moral panic lately

Statistics and issues related to gender and crime (3)■ Hegemonic masculinity exists in society, a male gender identity that’s

seen as a “real man”, men who don’t want to be regarded as wimps must take risks, be tough, aggressive, competitive and powerful (Connell)

■ Men often turn to crime as a way of asserting their masculinity, especially when traditional means are unavailable e.g. getting a job, crime becomes a masculine-validating resource (Messerschmidt)

Statistics and issues related to locality and crime■ Ecology theory – Park and Burgess: crime is linked to the

environment, certain types of areas in society are likely to experience high levels of crime

54321

Urban zones and the zone of transition Commuter

zone

Residential zone – when industry begins to unwind and go bust people from zone 2 who have already made their money move outwards

Working men's homes

Zone of transition – when industry is booming people are attracted to it and move to the surrounding areas, quickly becomes slum area with cheap housing and poor living conditions, new people attracted to cheap housing, lacks social cohesion and policing, people more likely to turn to crime

Central business district zone – cities are focused around industry due to work and money, industry found here

Statistics and issues related to locality and crime (2)■ Ecology theory – Shaw and McKay: produced maps of where

offenders lived, where truants lived, where demolished buildings were■ Found high deviance within and next to industrial areas with high

numbers of condemned buildings■ High deviance in mixed ethnicity population areas – if people have

moved there from another country then they’re more likely to be housed in zone 2 (transition zone) as it may be all they can afford

■ Fully social theory of deviance – Taylor, Walton and Young: this model locates crime as being a product of the social system the person is emerged in

Statistics and issues related to social class and crime■ W/C highly represented in crime statistics■ Strain theory and anomie – Merton: W/C turn to crime because

they feel strain (media presents them with M/C ideas that they can’t afford/get by legitimate means), assumes all classes have the same norms and values

■ Labelling theory – Becker: powerful groups have the power to impose these labels on the W/C

■ Deviancy amplification – Young: the media has the power to emphasise W/C crime, controlled by the R/C so only includes W/C crimes, R/C largely underrepresented in crime statistics

Statistics and issues related to social class and crime (2)

■ Folk devils and moral panics – Cohen: mods and rockers, according to the media the violence between the mods and rockers was a national problem that represented the atrophy (decay) of society

■ The underclass – Murray: a specific class lower than the W/C, subscribe to different values

■ Ecology theory – Park and Burgess: crime is linked to the environment, certain types of areas in society are likely to experience high levels of crime, mainly W/C areas

■ Relative deprivation: W/C deprived compared to other groups in society, in Britain one of the largest gaps between the top and the bottom – 10%

Over simplified, ill-informed generalisations of a particular group or person who moral entrepreneurs wish to demonise

The process of arousing social concerns over an issue – usually the work of moral entrepreneurs, involves the creation of a folk devil

Statistics and issues related to social class and crime (3)■ Rational choice theory: the W/C really do commit more crime than

the R/C, they think rationally and weigh up the cost vs rewards, thinking rationally and making the decision to turn to crime

■ Less informal social control: blames exclusion and marginalisation for crime, W/C individuals are controlled less by institutions like the family, education and peer groups

■ More detectable offences and more likely to be caught: W/C crime is very obvious and blatant in nature e.g. burglary, these are the sorts of crimes that the public constantly think and worry about (largely due to the media), police more likely to focus on this, M/C may be guilty of white collar crime which isn’t as easily detected e.g. fraud within a company, link to Chambliss – angels and roughnecks

Globalisation and crime■ Modern forms of communication have made physical distance and national

borders far less important barriers between social groups, this means that what happens in one society can impact others (Giddens)

■ The ability to move finance around the world with limited controls permits money laundering, tax evasion and insider trading, cheap international transport and communication permits less costly developing world production and the repatriation of profit to the developed world (Taylor)

■ The decline in employment in industrial countries has encouraged small businesses to operate illegally thereby avoiding health and safety laws and by employing illegal immigrants and not paying minimum wage (Ruggierio)

■ Multinationals dump products and plants on poorer countries who have fewer legal controls or where officials can be bribed, such crimes are hidden behind an ideological screen and seen as less harmful to society than street crime (Box)

Globalisation and crime (2)■ Illegal/immoral practices are normal under capitalism (Slapper)■ However such behaviour isn’t limited to capitalist countries, the nuclear plant

at Chernobyl that exploded was in a communist country and some of the most dangerous/lowest paid work existed under a communist regime (Carrabine)

■ Globalisation has brought about an explosion in transnational organised crime ■ Marxists see that the real criminals are the R/C who break the law where it

conflicts their own interests, they’re also less likely to be punished■ Modern transnational companies can practice law evasion, setting up factories

in countries that don’t have pollution controls or health and safety legislation, they may also sell goods that have been deemed unsafe in other countries (Kramer)

Globalisation and crime (3)

■ There has been a globalisation of crime – an increasing interconnectedness of crime across international borders (Held)

■ There’s now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion per annum (Castells)

■ By giving free rein to market forces, globalisation has created greater inequality and rising crime (Taylor)

■ Glocal: crime works as a glocal system – still locally based, but with global connections (Hobbs and Dunningham)

■ McMafia: criminal organisations that franchise to other countries and become global (Glenny)

Cybercrime ■ A wide range of criminal acts committed via the use of ICT – usually the

internet, cybercrime is the fastest growing criminal activity in the world (Browne)

■ Cybercrime has created new forms of trouble and new worlds of crime: internet based fraud, identity theft, child pornography and paedophilia, terrorist websites and networking, organised crime rings, hacking, online bullying and harassment, phishing, money laundering (Macionis and Plummer)

■ 4 categories of cybercrime – Wall:1. Cyber deception and theft2. Cyber pornography3. Cyber trespass4. Cyber violence

Green crime

■ Many are committed by individuals, but the majority are committed by big businesses

■ Not necessarily illegal but can cause many problems to the environment e.g. not illegal in every country to dump rubbish into a river but it still harms the environment so it’s classed as green crime

■ Types of green crime include:a) Discharge/emission of dangerous/toxic substances into the

air/soil/waterb) Illegal dumping/disposal of toxic/hazardous waste or waste in generalc) The destruction of wide areas by oil spills, exploration or

development

Green crime (2)

■ Environmental crimes don’t respect national boundaries as they’re not contained/restrained within national borders, many western countries pay off officials of other “needier” countries to dispose of the waste there instead (South)

■ The illegal trade in Caiman alligators – over 1 million alligators are killed for the fashion trade per year in the West (Hughes and Langan)

■ 73% committed by corporations■ 260 environmental activists threatened with murder due to their fights

against others■ Many of these activists have actually been killed by gunmen employed by

loggers, farmers and ranchers e.g. Nigeria executed environmental campaigners going against Shell

Green crime (3)

■ Strategies used to combat green crimes:1. Enforcing existing green crime laws 2. More prison sentences3. Standardise “green” guidelines4. Encourage cooperation across borders5. Heavier fines6. More prosecutions

Green crime (4)■ Individual green crimes include: fly tipping, littering, bonfires,

shooting endangered animals■ Corporate green crime: crimes committed by a corporation or by

individuals acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity■ 2 approaches to green crime:1. Transgressive: things that might not be criminal should still be

defined as green crime, things that cause environmental damage2. Traditional criminology: we should only look at things which are illegal■ Green crimes are also classified into 2 types:1. Primary: crimes that result directly from the destruction and

degradation of the earth’s resources2. Secondary: crimes that grow out of flouting rules aimed at preventing

or regulating environmental disasters

Green crime (5)

■ Example – Bhopal Disaster: 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited. Over 500,000 people were exposed to gases and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way into and around the shanty towns located near the plant. The official immediate death toll was 2259. The local government confirmed a total of 3787 deaths related to the gas release. None of the victims have ever been compensated for it. There is still over 120,000 people suffering from blindness and birth defects as a result of this incident.

■ Example – Killer Coke: in 2008 more than 500 protestors in India rallied and marched to condemn Coca Cola. 3 communities in India were experiencing severe water shortages as a result of Coca Cola’s mining of common groundwater resources around its’ facilities. Coca Cola’s indiscriminate dumping of waste water into the ground has polluted the scarce water that remains. A number of farmers committed suicide as a result of the water shortages which led to severe crop failure.

Human rights and state crime

■ Natural rights – these are what people are regarded as having simply by virtue of existing e.g. rights to life, liberty and free speech

■ Civil rights – these are others like the right to vote, privacy, liberty and education

■ However states can violate these human rights■ We should define crime in terms of the violation of basic human

rights, states that deny individuals of human rights must be regarded as criminal, states that practice imperialism, sexism and racism, or inflict economic exploitation on their citizens are communicating crimes, the state can be seen as a perpetrator of crime (Schwendlinger)

Human rights and state crime (2)

■ The culture of denial – Cohen:■ When the government re-labels crimes so they don’t seem as bad■ 3 ways in which dictators deny human rights violations:1. “It didn’t happen” – this works until the media uncover evidence

that it did2. “If it did happen, it’s something else”3. “Even if it’s what you say it is, it’s justified” – they had to do it

Crime control, prevention and punishment

RIGHT REALISTS LEFT REALISTSEmphasise the individual, benefits outweigh the cost of crime, society needs to increase the “cost” of crime.

Focus on organisation of society, especially inequality, disadvantage and poverty that results from this the environment of crime that’s created.

Crime control, prevention and punishment (2)■ Situational crime prevention – ways to reduce the opportunities

for crime:1. Victims should make themselves harder targets by investing in more

security and surveillance2. Increase the risk of the criminal being caught and/or deterring

criminality by reducing the opportunity for crime 3. Car manufacturers’ investment in satellite technologies, disabling

services and computerised locking systems has reduced car theft in the UK

4. CCTV in shops and security guards increase the likelihood of shoplifters getting caught

RIGHT REALIST

Crime control, prevention and punishment (3)■ Environmental crime prevention and zero tolerance policing –

Wilson:■ Crime is caused by anti-social behaviour■ If these behaviours are tolerated then an “anything goes” attitude

develops (link to broken windows thesis)■ This happens due to a little sense of community■ Community feel powerless■ Police target more serious crime and don’t focus on anti-social behaviour■ Council housing estates experience most social problems – tower blocks

difficult to police■ Residents don’t take responsibility for common entrances, stair wells and

lifts, and as a result anti-social elements take over ■ Police should tackle all types of crime using zero tolerance (zero tolerance

policing – any type of crime, should all have just as harsh of a punishment)

RIGHT REALIST

Crime control, prevention and punishment (4)■ Broken windows thesis – Wilson and Kelling:■ Perfect neighbourhood – well maintained areas, low crime rates,

residents feel part of society, therefore less likely to offend■ In a neighbourhood with “broken windows” (low social bonds,

damaged neighbourhood) – no social control, residents lose their sense of belonging, increase in crime, damage society

RIGHT REALIST

Crime control, prevention and punishment (5)■ Social and community crime prevention:■ Treats the symptom of the crime rather than the cause■ Risk conditions of crime need to be assessed ■ Urban crime is a rational response to the lack of legitimate

opportunities and the powerlessness felt by deprived groups

LEFT REALIST

Crime control, prevention and punishment (6)■ Solutions to crime:■ Government should tackle crimes in inner city areas and on “sink”

council estates■ Educational programmes – improving educational success in inner

city areas, reducing exclusions and the number of 16 y/o leaving school with no qualifications

■ Pay people a living wage so they’re not welfare dependent ■ Reduce the wealth and income inequalities through taxation ■ Invest in poorer, urban communities to create jobs

LEFT REALIST

Crime control, prevention and punishment (7)Deterrence Right Realists suggest prison works as prisons deter many

potential offenders away from crime by increasing the cost of crime

Incapacitation Right Realists suggest prison is important because it removes known criminals from the streets so they can’t offend again. (In other societies incapacitation can involve cutting of people’s hands, chemical castration and capital punishment; California has a “3 strikes and you’re out” policy – committing even a minor third offence can lead to a lengthy prison sentence.)

Rehabilitation Punishment can be used to reform or change offenders so they don’t return to their criminal careers. Education and training are encouraged so prisoners can earn and honest living once they’re released.

Crime control, prevention and punishment (8)■ Does prison work?■ The UK is heavily invested in prisons – the prison population is still high■ Rather than reducing crimes, prisons act as “universities” of crime and

are an expensive way of making bad people worse (Matthews – criticism of Right Realism)

■ Prisons are warehouses in which reasons for offending are rarely addressed and little attempt is made to rehabilitates the offender

■ Many people imprisoned for minor offences, whereas a community punishment may be more suitable (Soloman)

■ The high rate of recidivism (repeat offending) suggests prison doesn’t deter people away from crime

Crime control, prevention and punishment (9)■ The function of punishment – Durkheim:■ Punishment upholds social solidarity, reinforces shared values, strengthens the

collective conscience■ Punishment performed differently in different societies■ Traditional societies use retributive justice – collective conscience is so

strong that when people offend the reaction is swift and vengeful as a means of repressing the wrongdoer, punishment is severe and cruel and it’s motivation is purely expressive (stocks, hangings etc.)

■ Modern societies use restitutive justice (restoring what is lost) – crime damages the interdependence between individuals so this needs to be repaired and restored to the pre-offence state of society, punishment is restitutive (compensation)

Crime control, prevention and punishment (10)■ The function of punishment – Marxist view:■ Punishment helps to maintain the existing social order, capitalism and

the R/C, part of the repressive state apparatus■ In the 18th century, punishments such as hanging and transportation

to the colonies for theft and poaching were part of the “rule of terror” by the aristocracy over the poor (Thompson)

■ Each type of economy has its’ own type of penal system, e.g. money fines are impossible without a money economy, under capitalism imprisonment became the dominant form of punishment because the capitalist economy is based on the exploitation of wage labour (Rusche and Kirchheimer)

■ Imprisonment reflects or corresponds to capitalist relations of production (Melossi and Pavarni)

Crime control, prevention and punishment (11)■ The function of punishment – Marxist view (continued):

CAPITALISM PRISONS IN CAPITALIST SOCIETIES

Puts a price on worker’s time Prisoners “do time” to “pay” for their crime or “repay a debt for society”

Factories use strict discipline Prisons use strict discipline, subordination and loss of discipline

Crime control, prevention and punishment (12)■ Discipline and punish – Foucault:■ A striking contrast between 2 forms of punishment – sovereign power and

disciplinary power■ Sovereign power – typical of the period before the 19th century, when the

monarch had power over people and their bodies, inflicting punishment on the body was the means of asserting control, punishment was a spectacle e.g. public execution

■ Disciplinary power – became dominant after the 19th century, seeks to govern the body and the mind or “soul” e.g. surveillance

■ Panopticon – a prison which was designed so that the prisoners could be observed by the guards at all times, because they might be watched the prisoners behaved themselves at all times , turned into self-surveillance/self-discipline

Crime control, prevention and punishment (13)

VIEWPOINT WHY THEY BELIEVE PRISON IS POSITIVEFunctionalists Durkheim saw prison and punishment reinforced social solidarity, retribution

provides an opportunity for society to express its’ disapproval of criminal behaviour

Right Realists

Prison is a deterrent for offenders, it increases the cost of crimes, the New Labour Government also agree with this view

Government Prison punishment is the most comprehensive social control and crime prevention tool, all aspects of the prisoner are considered when they’re jailed, prison is more disciplinary than other institutions, it maintains public order with the aim of stopping offenders from causing further harm, by the end of their sentence criminals will ideally be reformed characters, they can get an education and be prepared for release into wider society

Rehabilitation services

Exist for offenders after they’ve been released from prison, e.g. the Clink Charity has restaurants where ex-prisoners can learn skills, therefore preventing further crimes from being committed

Cohen The growth of community control has simply cast a net of control over more people, the increased range of sanctions available enables control to penetrate even deeper into society, community controls may divert young people into crime.

PRISON WORKS

Crime control, prevention and punishment (14)

VIEWPOINT WHY THEY BELIEVE PRISON IS NEGATIVEAnderson Despite the decline in crime rates, prison population is increasing Lauer and Lauer Nearly 2/3 of prison inmates are confined to units with less than 60

square feet of space, 1/3 spend 10 or more hours a day in that space, such conditions are stressful and make many elements of rehabilitation difficult

Boorman and Hopkins

54% of those released from prison committed at least 1 offence within a year, 68% after 2 years

Haycock 50% of prison inmates engage in self-destructive behaviour, 10% carry a serious risk of suicide

Goffman Prisons have their own subcultures which provide “training grounds”, which confirm the criminal label

Becker Prisons produce master status labels, the “ex-con” label makes re-entrance into society difficult, the likelihood of reoffending is higher as legitimate opportunities are blocked by this label

Althusser Imprisonment is part of the repressive state apparatus

PRISON DOESN’T

WORK

Crime control, prevention and punishment (15)Social Control

■ Societies exist if there’s a degree of social order, with no order there would be chaos

■ Societies or more powerful members develop methods to control those who fail to adhere:

1. Informal social control: negative comments, looked down upon2. Formal social control: organisations that exist solely or partly to

enforce order■ The criminal justice system operates to look after the interests of

society as a whole, without this control there would be anomie (Durkheim)

■ The criminal justice system operates to benefit the R/C, law and police and both agents of the R/C (Marx)

Crime control, prevention and punishment (16)Social Control (2)■ Society is a battleground of competing interests, the key to gaining power is to

have control over knowledge and the methods of achieving this, those who succeed in having their definition of knowledge accepted gain power and in turn will use this to enforce their view of the world, the criminal justice system plays an important part in enforcing these rules (Foucault)

■ Key themes in the changing nature of the formal control in western society – Cohen:

a) Penetration: society seeks laws to be penetrated throughout society, there’s more conformity and control right through to the media, schools and even private companies

b) Size and destiny: the number of people in control is larger than that previously, this then leads them to process larger numbers of crime

c) Identity and visibility: crime used to be public, there’s now subtle forms of social control (CCTV, door staff at nightclubs etc.), this draws on the notion of a surveillance society

Crime control, prevention and punishment (17)■ Two main positions in understanding the relationship of the police to

society:1. Consensual approach – police having a close relationship with the

area being policed, the police are a reflection of active community helpers, they’re drawn from the community and reflect characteristics of common values, individuals are caught due to complaints from the majority

2. Conflict policing (Scraton) – police can be seen as an occupying force, imposed upon W/C ad ethnic minority communities, military style policing (Young), large numbers of officers patrolling areas in vehicles using advanced technology

Crime control, prevention and punishment (18)■ 3 ways of categorising police discretion – Reiner:1. Individualistic: police has their own discretion, specific concerns and

interests and applies it to the law accordingly, racist police officers were a lot harsher to ethnic minorities (Gorman)

2. Cultural: police officers are overwhelmingly white and male, have a very specific occupational culture, as part of their training they’re taught to discriminate between “decent” and “deviant” people, spend a large amount of time with their peers, isolated from the public, rely on each other for support, must abide by the law, those who want to join the police force hardly ever have a strong political attitude

3. Structural: the very definition of the law is based in favour of the powerful, the police’s definition of crime derives from their role as agents of control in a capitalist society

Victims of crime■ Impact – disrupted sleep, feelings of helplessness, increased security-

consciousness, difficulties in socialising, fear in communities (indirect victims)■ Fear – the media has a large part to play, men more likely to be victims of

violence statistically but women fear going out late at night■ Class – poorest groups are most likely to be victims of all crimes, homeless

12x more likely to experience violence than general population■ Age – younger people most at risk of assault, theft, sexual harassment etc.,

infants under 1 most at risk of being murdered■ Ethnicity – minority ethnic groups most at risk of all crimes, also more likely

to feel under-protected■ Gender – males most at risk from violent attacks by strangers, 70%

homicide victims are male■ Repeat victims – once you’ve been a victim once you’re very likely to be a

victim again, suggests people were victims for a reason, maybe targeted

Durkheim’s study of suicide■ Set out to show how even a personal, individual act such as suicide can be

a product of external forces (suicide is a social fact)■ Compared suicide statistics from different countries to find correlations and

patterns between them, hoping to uncover a cause and effect formula for suicide

■ Durkheim found the following statistics: in each society the suicide rate was fairly constant and stable over time, there were significant differences in suicide rates between societies and countries of different religions, there were significant differences between social groups in society

■ As these patterns were so consistent and constant, suicide couldn’t be explained as individual, personal acts

■ There must be forces in society that cause suicide

Durkheim’s study of suicide (2)■ Durkheim concluded that suicide was linked to social integration and

moral regulation■ Social integration – integration of individuals into social groups, binding

them into society and building social cohesion■ Moral regulation – regulation or control by social values of the actions

and desires of individuals■ He saw that people commit suicide based on their level of social

integration and moral regulation, and from this Durkheim developed 4 types of suicide:

1. Egoistic suicide2. Alturistic suicide3. Anomic suicide4. Fatalistic suicide

Durkheim’s study of suicide (3)Egoistic suicide Not enough integration, committed by people who don’t feel

part of a social group e.g. feel they don’t belong to anythingAlturistic suicide

Too much integration, suicide committed for the benefit of others e.g. jumping in front of your friend as someone is about to shoot them

Anomic suicide Not enough regulation, reflects an individual’s moral confusion and lack of social direction e.g. a person can’t reach their goals and becomes frustrated

Fatalistic suicide

Too much regulation, where the individual experiences pervasive oppression e.g. if you’re gay and want to get married but it’s still illegal in your country

• Durkheim attempted to explain suicide as a structural problem by comparing quantitative suicide rates from different countries

• He concluded that external forces act on the individual and lead them to suicide

Interpretivist responses to Durkheim’s study■ It’s impossible to uncover the causes of suicide, a “suicide” might not

be a suicide at all, suicide and suicide statistics are social constructions■ The social meanings of suicide – Douglas:■ Each suicide is individual and unique, no 2 suicides are the same, can

only be understood by the interpretations of others effected by the death, can’t be explained by formulaic causes and effects, generalisations shouldn’t be made

■ Statistics can’t be treated as valid/reliable as they’re influenced, e.g. a family might cover up a suicide by destroying evidence

■ Statistics are merely a picture of social meaning, e.g. Catholics see suicide as a sin, coroner might be more inclined to give the verdict “accidental death” instead to save the family from stigma

Interpretivist responses to Durkheim’s study (2)■ The role of the coroners’ definitions – Atkinson:■ Looked at how the decision to label a death as suicide is reached by the

coroner, quantitative methods to study suicide are useless as a ruling of suicide is influenced by many factors, the exact number of suicides will never be known

■ He interviewed coroners and studied case records, concluded that coroners ultimately make a “guess” of suicide as long as the circumstances and evidence fit typical assumptions/theories of suicide

■ Coroners are influenced by 4 main types of evidence:1. Suicide notes – these show intention2. Mode of death – the way the person died3. Location and circumstances – where the person died and the

circumstances surrounding it 4. Life history and mental condition of victim

Realist responses to Durkheim’s study■ Persons under trains – Taylor:■ Studied suicides and attempted suicides on the London underground■ Found that coroners build up a biography of victims’ life history and

mental conditions■ Statistics reflect subjective data■ External forces do act upon the individual that might lead them to

suicide■ Suicide largely depends on peoples’ attachments and certainty about

themselves

THEORY AND RESEARCH METHODS

Quantitative data

■ Information in numerical form e.g. official statistics, results of surveysADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESPersonal bias can be avoided by researchers keeping a “distance” from participating subjects and employing subjects unknown to them

Results are limited as they provide numerical descriptions rather than detailed narrative and generally provide less elaborate accounts of human perception

Increasing the generalisation of results can lead to greater accuracy of results

Pre-set answers will not necessarily reflect how people really feel about a subject and in some cases might just be the closest match

Allow for a broader studyInvolve a greater number of subjects

Qualitative data

■ Information expressed in words about people’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, attitudes and values e.g. participant observation, unstructured interviews, diaries, letters

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESProvides depth and detail Usually fewer people studiedLooks deeper than analysing ranks

Generally more time consuming

Counts by recording attitudes and feelings and behaviour

Dependent on the skills of the researcher

Attempts to avoid pre-judgements

Staffing and budget normally leads to a smaller sample size

If used alongside quantitative data collection it can explain why a particular response was given

Particularly in the case of recording research in interviews and observation

Social surveys

■ Open questionnaires – likely to receive longer answers, they ask the respondent to think and reflect, they give the researcher an insight into opinions and feelings

■ Closed questionnaires – can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase

■ Interviews – a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee

■ E.g. Chubb and Moe – survey carried out on parental attitudes on top schooling, chose this method to make generalisations about parents’ views on the way schools are run and how much choice they have

Social surveys (2)

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESMail questionnaires are relatively cheap The proportion of people who return

questionnaires is smallCan be used to cover a wide geographical spread

Face-to-face interviews may lead to low reliability if talking about taboo subjects

Interviews can allow the researcher to build rapport with the subject

Observation

■ Participant – a structured type of research, allows the researcher to gain a close and intimate relationship with a given group of individuals, practiced through an intense involvement with subjects in their natural environment, usually over an extended period of time

■ Covert – the researcher doesn’t inform the subjects of their involvement, usually undertaken in those groups which may pose a threat to the researcher e.g. gangs, intense involvement with people in their natural environment

■ Overt – the researcher is open with the group about their involvement, before joining the researcher informs the subjects of their involvement

■ E.g. Spencer – found teachers spend more time interacting with boys than girls■ E.g. French and French – found the amount of attention teachers pay to boys

and girls are for very different reasons

Observation (2)

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESData gathered can be highly reliable People may feel uncomfortable being

watched so may perform differently when being observed

The researcher is able to see what is being done

Some activities may take place at odd times so may be at a convenience for the researcher

Is less expensive to carry out compared to other techniques

People may temporarily act in a different way when being observed so the research won’t show a true picture of their behaviour

Non-participant or covert observation doesn’t affect the behaviour of the subjects being researched

Some groups can be dangerous or put the researcher at risk

Experiments

■ Field experiments take place in natural surroundings such as school and the work place

■ E.g. OFSTED – observe teachers and pupils in the classroom to monitor pupil progress and build statistics to rate schools

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESIt allows for the precise control of variables

Chance of human error

Samples might not be representativeHuman results can be difficult to measure

Primary data

■ Information collected by sociologists themselves for their own research purposes

■ E.g. participant observation, social surveys, experimentsADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESSociologists may be able to gather the precise information they need to test their hypothesis

Can be costly and time consuming

Possible to capture data changes over time

Ethical issues around confidentiality

Flexible to the advantage of the researcher

If the researcher discovers something of outstanding risk to the subject’s health and safety then there is difficulty around how to act about this information

Secondary data

■ Information not collected by sociologists themselves for the purpose of their research but by other people, possibly for non-sociological purposes

■ E.g. official statistics, the media, personal documentsADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGESA quick and cheap method of gathering research as it’s already been collected

Those who produced the research may not be interested in the same issue (research may be biased)

Rapidly available May not provide the exact information the sociologist needs

Covers large numbers

Positivism

■ Sociology can and should use the methods of natural sciences■ Should use quantitative methods ■ Should aim to identify and measure social structures■ E.g. Durkheim – study of suicide

Interpretivism

■ Scientific methods are inappropriate for the study of society because humans think and reflect

■ Human beings can change their behaviour if they know they’re being observed, unlike objects which science studies

■ If we want to understand social action then we have to delve into the reasons and meanings which that action has for people

Realism

■ Acknowledge that scientific methods aren’t fool proof and agree that humans are reflective

■ However this doesn’t mean that either set of methods isn’t useful when studying humanity, positivist or interpretivist

■ Sociologists can be pragmatic and use whatever methods are appropriate for those circumstances

■ E.g. Kuhn – paradigms

Social facts

■ Suicide is caused by external social facts acting on the individual – the individual remained passive and was effectively “forced” to commit suicide due to external influences (Durkheim)

Ethical issues■ Issues can arise around:1. Informed consent – people being studied should have the right to

refuse, participants should be fully informed about they study, consent must be obtained before the research begins

2. Confidentiality and privacy – identities of participants should remain private, researchers need to respect the privacy of the participants

3. Effects on research participant – researchers must be aware that research conducted may effect participants in a negative way, researchers must try to anticipate and prevent these negative effects

4. Vulnerable groups – include those vulnerable by age, disability or mental/physical health issues

5. Covert research – where the researcher’s identity and purpose are hidden from the group being studied, creates serious ethical issues, researcher obviously can’t gain consent when doing research covertly

Social action theories■ Social action – Weber:■ People hold meanings about the world and act on the basis of them■ Behaviour is derived from the meanings people attach to actions■ Verstehen – the aim of sociological investigation should be the

creation of an understanding of the meanings, motives and values involved in social actions

■ The looking-glass self – Cooley:■ Negotiated interaction■ We construct our identity from how others see us■ We use others like a mirror

Social action theories (2)■ Symbolic interactionism – Mead:■ People define and interpret the world through the meanings they

attach to it■ “Reality” is therefore a subjective reality ■ The meanings people hold are communicated in the form of symbols■ Meanings are constantly negotiated and re-negotiated■ People can do this by being able to “take the role of the other”■ Symbolic interactionism – Goffman:■ Dramaturgical analogy – life is like a stage, impression management■ Roles aren’t fixed, people can interpret their roles in many different

ways■ Life is a process of self-presentation■ We have the ability to see ourselves how others see us

Social action theories (3)

■ Symbolic interactionism – Becker:■ Labelling theory■ Self-fulfilling prophecy ■ Master status label■ Phenomenology – Schutz:■ The way humans make sense of and classify the world around them■ We have a series of typifications we use to organise the world as we

see it■ We have a store of common-sense knowledge which helps in

everyday interaction

Social action theories (4)

■ Ethnomethodology – Garfinkel:■ Methods used by people to construct, account for and give meaning

to their social world■ Unwritten rules govern everyday situations■ We actively construct our social world every time we interact with

others

Modernity

Mass productionCommunity lifeScience aided progress and finding the truthNationhoodOvert social controlA one-way mediaA role for educationA belief in continuity and situationSocial classFamily

• Modernist theories (e.g. Marxism) are part of the enlightenment project – the idea that through reason and science, we can discover true knowledge and progress to a better society

• Globalisation is occurring for several reasons:

1. Technological changes2. Economic changes3. Political changes4. Changes in culture and identity

Post-modernitySearch for truth – modern age has lost the enlightenmentPeople less likely to follow rigid ideology – fragmentation of social lifeGreater pluralism in modern life – no absolutesCulture and structures are fragmented – less predictableTraditional labels and categories loose relevance – transformation of the “self” (pick ‘n’ mix)The impact of ICT and social lifeConsumerism is allGlobalisation has narrowed time and space

• We now live in a new era• There’s no objective criteria to prove

a theory true therefore any theory claiming to have the truth about how to create a better society is a metanarrative

• We should celebrate the diversity of views rather than seek to impose one version of the truth

• Postmodernists don’t accept the ideas from the enlightenment project

• Media produces an endless stream of images making society unstable and fragmented, there’s no longer a shared set of values, people cease to believe any one version of the truth

• We can change our identities

Sociology can be a scienceVIEWPOINT

WHY THEY BELIEVE SOCIOLOGY CAN BE A SCIENCE

Comte Believed we must seek cause and effect, this led to the positivist view of sociology, society (reality) exists outside of and independent from individuals, nature is made up of observable, objective, physical facts which exist regardless of individuals, society is also an objective fact that exists regardless of individuals and is made up of observable, measureable things

Durkheim

Society is made up of social facts and it’s the job of the sociologist to discover real, measurable laws and patterns of society and behaviour, individuals are governed by objective, external social facts – they are passive, wherever possible, the Hypothetico-Deductive method should be applied to the study of society, this allows a theory to be formulised and other researchers to scrutinise the theory

Mayhew and Rowntree

Collected government statistics on income, drug addiction, education, poverty and crime, looked for causal relationships between social facts in order to understand society

Positivists

Use the hypo-deductive method, for theories to be scientific they must be testable/falsifiable, a scientifically-backed method is far more valid

Sociology can’t be a science

VIEWPOINT WHY THEY BELIEVE SOCIOLOGY CAN’T BE A SCIENCEPositivists The world is largely socially constructed, scientific methodology

isn’t useful to the study of human interaction or sociology in general

Popper Science is unique, science is objective whereas sociology isn’t, sociology can’t be considered a science until it’s value-free.

Kuhn Science is based on a set of assumptions called paradigms, sociology is different as sociological theories disagree on fundamental issues, sociology can never be a science as it’s founded on competing ideas and theories.

Billig It’s important to embrace many different knowledge paradigms instead of trying to be purely scientific, sociology limits itself by trying to be a science.

Subjectivity

■ If a sociologists’ research is subjective then it’s influenced by their personal opinion

■ The aim of sociological research is to remove these subjective, bias values from the research in order to gain a more accurate result from the study

Objectivity

■ If a sociologists’ research is objective then it’s free from personal bias■ This is what all sociological research should aim to be■ The best results can come from objective research as it allows the

results to be balanced and fair

Value freedom

■ Positivists: value freedom is possible■ We should copy the methods of the natural sciences■ Sociologists also study phenomena that exist externally to the

individual■ These social facts can be observed objectively by following scientific

procedures■ Any biases are irrelevant as long as the research is well designed and

the findings aren’t altered/tampered with■ Sociologist – Gouldner – sociologists should focus on and challenge

the powerful groups of society as these create the structures of oppression

Value freedom (2)

■ Interpretivists: value freedom is not possible (Weber)■ Weber sees that values cannot be disproved and they have an essential role in

sociological research■ Values as a guide to research – they’re essential to help us choose which

aspect of social life to study■ Values and data collection – Weber believed we should keep our values out of

this process■ Values and data interpretation – we need to put the findings into a theoretical

concept, need to inform others of our values so our research can be understood in its’ context

■ Values and effects of research – we should think about the concequences

Value freedom (3)

■ Interpretivists: value freedom is not possible (Becker)■ Sociologists should argue from the side of the underdog (criminals,

homeless, mentally ill, lower class etc.)■ Little is known about their position – need to find out more

Sociology and social policy

■ Social policy – policies the government create and fund subject to legislation■ E.g. Surestart – set up for pre-primary school ages, designed to help with

cultural and material deprivation, funding cut as research didn’t show improvements by the time the children reached reception

■ Sociologist – Worsley – a social problem is a piece of social misbehaviour that causes public friction/misery, calls for collective action to solve it e.g. poverty, crime, underachievement in education

■ Sociological problems – something that occurs which isn’t necessarily considered a social problem

■ Sociologists called upon to produce research over behavioural patterns which is often used to influence social policy

Sociology and social policy (2)

■ Sociologist – Simmel – interested in social characteristics, wished to uncover “taken-for-granted” behaviour in society, why people behave in certain ways in a social situation

■ Factors influencing social policy:■ Electoral popularity – will it be popular with voters?■ Ideological/policy preferences of government – does the

research agree with the government’s ideology? ■ Interest groups (try to influence political parties) – may be able to

influence whether or not a government follow up on research

Sociology and social policy (3)

■ Cost – the government needs money to implement the policy, might have other spending priorities

■ Funding sources – the sociologist may “tone down” their research to please the agency funding them, if the research doesn’t suit the agency’s values then they may not continue with funding

■ Globalisation – national governments increasingly controlled/shaped by international relations e.g. European union

■ Critical sociology – some sociologists critical of the government■ Sociologist – Burden – policy making is extremely political and in the

hands of those with power, what counts as a “problem” is a matter of political debate

Sociology and social policy (4)

POSITIVE VIEW NEGATIVE VIEWGiddens – social policy helps asses the effects of policies and increases our self knowledge

Government are limited by financial constraints

Gives an awareness of cultural differences and an understanding of social situations

Some policies are met with too much opposition

Governments have tried to tackle discrimination after sociological research, e.g. Hall – the black mugger

Governments only act to protect powerful groups and those without power are often ignored