Transcript Crime and Deviance - Villanova University

Crime and Deviance
Why are the rates of violent and
property crime so high in the US?
What policies might be more effective
in lowering them?
Contrast functional and conflict
analyses
Functional vs. Conflict
Re crime and delinquency
Most functional accounts see
punishment as the authoritative
statement of norms, reducing crime.
But most conflict theories see punitive
strategies as increasing the stigma and
social disorganization on which crime
and delinquency thrive.
Functional vs. Conflict
Re terrorism today
With respect to Saddam Hussein or
Hamas, the functional account is like
those who argue that a severe punitive
response will reduce terrorism.
While the conflict account is like those
who argue that punitive raids merely
contribute to the cycle of retaliation and
immiseration.
In Israel today
Strike directed against Hamas.
Substantial civilian casualties.
(14 dead, ranging in age from 14 to 52;
 25 in critical condition;
 100 wounded)

A blow against terror? Or for it?
Are we responsible? Opposed?
Uninvolved?
Israeli Statements:
The two missile strikes: “We were
forced to make a strike, a direct hit into
an armed people.”
Civilians: “ If damage was caused to
innocent civilians, we can be sorry, but
what can you do – this is war.”
Palestinian statements:
Palestinian authority: “The Israelis do
not want quiet. Every time we come
close, they come and make an attack.”
“How can we calm our people? What
can we tell them now?”
Hamas: “Killing civilians should be
pnished by killing civilians.
The United States’ role
The U.S. State Department, while
recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself,
said it was “deeply troubled” by
yesterdays raid and other raids in which
civilians have been killed.
Chomsky’s position
The US has given active support to many
terrorist states (Hussein, Contras, Indonesia)
The victims do not forget.
Israel is one such client state.
If an intellectual attacks “their” (i.e. Hamas’)
terror, it will have no effect except to escalate
the cycle of retaliation and violence.
But that is what most will do, because it will
be rewarded as patriotic and reasonable.
If an intellectual attacks “our” terror, it will
moderate and restrain the cycle
But such a person will be attacked and
dismissed as un-American.
Rates, Structures,
Social Facts
In many ways the analysis of crime and
deviance takes us back to the origins of
sociology in Chicago.
Areas of high poverty have rates of crime that
are 10 or 20 times as high as areas with low
rates of poverty.
Chicago sociologists explained these rates
by social disorganization,
which they related either to norms or to
economic and social resources.
International variation
The text stresses that “patterns of criminal behavior
grow out of the structure of society rather than from
the psyches of individuals” *289
For example the rates of homicide in the US are about
10 times higher than those in Europe or Canada.
Rates of imprisonment in the US are also about 10
times higher than other advanced industrial societies
E.g. world rates
Temporal variation
Even over fairly recent periods, there have been
huge swings in the crime rate.
Homicide is one of the best-measured crimes
It showed:




A 5-fold increase 1905-1932
A sharp decrease 1932-45
A sharp increase 1965-72
A sharp decrease in the 1990’s
Why?
Recent Homicide Trends
in the United States
HOMICIDE
11
1
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
Why?
What might explain the two main periods of
sharp increase (1905-1932 and 1965-1972)?
What might explain the two main periods of
sharp decrease during the New Deal (193245) and during the Clinton era (1990-2000)?
There is an enormous amount that we do not
know about each, but there is a certain
amount that we do know.
And we know that the simple, popular
answers are almost certainly oversimplified.
Functional theory of
Crime and delinquency
Centers on the concepts of anomie and
weakening of solidary groups.


Higher rates of men, singles, cities, adolescents,
children from broken families…
Anomie is a weakening of norms.
By almost any measure, the US shows
weakening of both norms and families,etc.,
and the poor areas of the US show very, very
high levels.
Social Patterns of Crime
and Delinquency
The age and sex pattern of crime and
delinquency is very similar to suicide.
Weakening of an adolescent’s tie to family,
school, community or career (job-track)
greatly increases their risk.
Network ties and gang structures further
increase it.
Racial and ethnic fractionalization contributes
to and accentuates all these processes.
Functional theory of
Punishment
Durkheim argued that sanctions against
norm violation define the norms.
e.g. the negative feedback loop:
Violation of
norms
+
Negative
sanctions
-
But what are the side effects of negative
sanctions?
Merton’s theory of
Strain and Anomie
Merton * (p. 93; 117; 135; 141; 279-282) was
a student of Parsons.
He is still active in American sociology.
Merton argued that anomie is produced by
structural strain**, a discrepancy between
cultural goals and the availability of
legitimate means for attaining those goals.
“Structural strain” is a relative of Durkheim’s
concept of the “forced division of labor**”
resulting from inherited property.
Goals and legitimate
means
In premodern societies with fixed social
position, there was no assumption that
anyone could be a material success if they
tried hard enough,
but in modern society there is such a goal
(“organic solidarity,” “American Creed,”
“American Dream”).
Nevertheless, Merton suggested, if there is (a
perception of) highly unequal opportunity,
that leads to pressure either to shift goals or
to adopt illegitimate means
Merton’s typology
Goal Means Concept
+
+
Conformist
+
Ritualist
+
±
±
Innovator
Retreatist
Rebellion
Example
Executive
Librarian who guards books; bureaucratic
personality
Drug dealer; Enron executive
Alcoholic or addict
Someone who rejects both goals and
means and works to substitute new
ones.
Conflict Theories of
Crime
There is a very strong (negative) association
between social class and most forms of crime.
Part of that relation may result from differential
enforcement (e.g. having a good lawyer).
Part may result from the different constraints
under which people make choices: E LA v. 90210
There is virtually universal adolescent deviance,
but not all adolescents are labeled as criminals
and locked into lives of crime.
How could crime control
promote further crime?
For example, a recent Scientific American
Article on US crime suggests that the high
imprisonment rates in the US may actually
increase crime rates



By further stigmatizing people
disorganizing communities,
And serving as schools of crime.
Either of these processes might produce
addictive, cancerous feedback.
Review of conflict
themes
We have seen that race and social class are
associated with cumulating disadvantages in
many ways.
E.g. 187; networks, Code of the Street
These phenomena can be accentuated by
deviant solidary groups,
and the criminal justice system may produce
stigma and a “record” that further amplifies
the process.
Labeling theory
Labeling theory argues that many forms of
labeling by schools, courts, and mental
hospitals actually increase deviance.
The label becomes a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Primary deviance” *p.284 is then
compounded by “secondary deviance”*
Secondary deviance is that caused by the
label or attempt at control
Secondary deviance creates a positive
feedback
Schools for Crime
Prisons and reform schools usually do
not improve inmates’ character or life
chances.
Antagonism with guards and officers
creates a deviant reference group.
Stigmatization and lowered life chances
weakens any bond to the rest of the
society.
99% will get out. What will they be like?
The Vicious cycle
Conflict theories stress ways that crime may
be part of a vicious cycle of powerlessness
and lack of resources.
+
+
Lack
crime
criminal
+
of resources
lack of defense
record
+
Secondary deviance
The Macro Vicious Cycle
Some theorists suggest that the society
can be caught in a vicious cycle in
which the more we imprison, the more
we need to imprison.
Crime + imprisonment + social disorg.
+
Many societies have gotten caught in a
cycle of increased coercion and crime.
Disorganizing
communities
From 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 people
are in the criminal justice system.
In many poor communities it goes over
1/3 of the adolescent male population,
Each person incarcerated then affects
about 10 other people – e.g. young
women who are not going to be able to
find a husband.
Chambliss: The Saints
and the Roughnecks
Appearance:
The upper status saints appeared to be
model students who were not in trouble
with the law
The lower status roughnecks had
miserable academic records and most of
them ended up with police records as well.
It appeared low social class
delinquency
Chambliss’ account of
the reality
The saints committed more and more serious
crimes and an equal number of academic
infractions.
Their demeanor, network and parents’
protection kept them from being labeled
They had cars.
And so, he suggests, the real difference was
class.
Reality: low social class
labeling and stigma