ReviseSociology

Tag: crime

  • Tombs and Whyte: The Cost of Health and Safety Infringements

    Marxist Criminologists argue that the costs of elite crime are greater than the costs of street-crime, yet the elite are more likely to get away with their crimes. The piece of research below strongly supports this view (refs to follow!) In the UK Safety Crime has been studied extensively by Professor Tombs, and Dr Whyte…

  • Evaluating Marxist Theories of Crime Part 2 – Kweku Adoboli

    In 2013 Kweku Adeboli was jailed for 7 years for committing the biggest White Collar fraud in UK history. This case study can be used to selectively criticise aspects of the Marxist theory of crime.  A City trader recklessly gambled with illicit trades to boost his bonus, and ran up potential losses of more than £7bn at…

  • Evaluating the Marxist Perspective on Crime (part 1)

    All of the material below takes you to evidence that broadly supports two ideas held by Marxists about Crime – you could also use the examples from the ‘data response exercise – no.2 above.  Are the crimes of the capitalist class more costly than street crime? Research by Tombs and Whyte – VERY IMPORTANT –…

  • Marxist Theories of Crime – A Summary

    Covering crimogenic capitalism, selective law enforcement and the ideological functions of crime control

  • Subcultural Theories of Crime – A Summary

    Introduction/ The basics Subcultural Theory explains deviance in terms of a deviant group, split apart from the rest of the society which encourages deviance Historical Period: The 1940s- 60S, Underclass Theory – 1980s Albert Cohen: Status Frustration working class boys try to gain status within school and fail, thus suffer status frustration Some such boys…

  • Consensus Theories of Crime -Functionalist and Strain Theories: Summary Version

    Introduction/ The basics Consensus Theory – Social Institutions generally work, social control is good, crime is dysfunctional (bad) Closely related to Subcultural Theories 1890 -1940s Durkheim’s Functionalist Theory Crime is natural and inevitable, society needs crime. There are three positive functions of crime – social integration/ social regulation/ social change Hirschi’s Social Control/ Bonds of…

  • Consensus Theories of Crime: An Introduction

    Consensus theories generally see crime as unusual, dysfunctional and believe something has ‘gone wrong’ for the people who commit crime. Consensus theories include functionalism, strain theory and subcultural theory. Consensus Theory: the Basics According to consensus theories, for the most part society works because most people are successfully socialised into shared values through the family…

  • The Underclass Theory of Crime

    An American Sociologist Charles Murray (1989) first coined the term ‘the underclass’ to refer to that group of people in America who were long term unemployed and effectively welfare dependent. In the late 1980s he argued that the first generation of underclass were then having children and socialising the next generation of children into a…

  • Subcultural Theories of Deviance

    subcultural theorists argue that deviance occurs because of peer pressure within a subculture that has broken off from mainstream society. This post covers ‘consensus subcultural theory’ including Albert Cohen’s status frustration and Cloward and Ohlin’s three types of subculture.

  • Evaluate the Contribution of Marxism to our Understanding of Crime and Deviance (30)

    An essay plan on the Marxist Theory of Crime and Deviance – starting with an introduction outlining the Marxist conception of social class and then covering 4-5 key points such as the costs of corporate crime, selective law enforcement and crimogenic capitalism, with some overall evaluations and a conclusion to round off.  The link above…