This assignment will evaluate the Functionalist,
Marxist and Social Action approaches to crime and deviance.
From the functionalist perspective, crime and
deviance are caused by the structure of society and a lack of moral regulation
and social integration. Also known as a Structural theory, functionalist theorists
believe that deviance is necessary, serves a function and is an inevitable
aspect of society. It can viewed as problems occurring within the social
structure that require change and argue that all social change begins with
deviance from the norm. Deviant acts can sometimes heighten social solidarity
and become part of the consensus (Haralambos, Holborn: 1995) (Chapman, Steel:
2011).
Father of Functionalism and the positivist method, Emile
Durkheim concluded that crime and deviance were social facts and discussed in the rules of Sociological method how
crime was inevitable within societies because everyone cannot be the same,
their social and cultural influences make it impossible to be alike, meaning
some will be more willing to break the law than others because they do not
share the common consensus of the collective. He suggested that crime was a
rare occurrence within pre-industrial societies because of a high social integration;
emphases were placed on family values, traditions and religion and were used as
social control mechanisms. Durkheim suggested that crime rates were higher in
larger cities because, in the face of the complexities of modern social life;
peoples’ religious beliefs waned, leading to feelings of anomie, less social
integration and therefore believed it more acceptable to commit crime. His
theory does not attempt to explain why certain groups of people commit crimes,
but rather why most conform to the collective sentiments of society. Marxists
would argue that he placed very little emphasis on social conflict and the
inequalities of modern societies causing crime (Ibid).
Robert Merton expanded these ideas further by
suggesting that crime is caused by the relationship between culture and the structure
of society. He argued that within modern capitalist nations such as the USA,
mass media has been used to socially engineer people to believe that material
success is a realistic goal for everyone; he noted that resources and
opportunities were not evenly distributed among the populous and that anomie
occurred when people failed to achieve these cultural norms and goals set by
society via conventional, institutional means, they then tuned to innovate
methods instead such as crime or entrepreneurism to achieve their goals (Ibid).
Our countries collective cultural goals are centred
on monetary success, a celebrity lifestyle and materialism, and are in fact the
only way the current economic model can survive. Merton identified five ways in
which people could react to achieving or not, the cultural goals set by
society; conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion and argued
that criminals are no different to ordinary citizens; they share the same
cultural ideals, but having failed to achieve them through education and work,
their opportunities blocked due to their social status and class position turn
to crime instead. Jock Young, heavily influenced by Merton also suggested that
meritocracy is a fallacy within a capitalist society, and that the educational
institutions, possibly via a hidden curriculum and media are used to propagate
this myth. It could be that Merton identified the main cause of acquisitive
crimes within capitalist societies in the lower classes; however he does not
attempt to explain the cause of violent and sex crimes, why white collar crime
occurs among higher classes and fails to address who benefits the most from the
capitalist model of society. Marxists argue that the ruling classes benefit the
most, as they are the ones who create the laws that govern the general
consensus of society and therefore the definitions of what is criminal or
deviant behaviour (Ibid).
Karl Marx himself did not write at length about
crime; however sociologists have used his concepts in an attempt to understand
why deviance and crime may occur within capitalist societies. Marx suggested
that laws which are made by the state mostly represent the interests of the
ruling class and capitalists, and that those who do not conform will be
punished. This assumption forms the basis of the Marxist perspective on crime
and deviance (Ibid).
Marxism is a Structuralist theory like Functionalism
and they argue that it is the inequalities, distribution of wealth and profits
that cause poverty among lower classes within capitalist societies, which in
turn cause crime. Laureen Shnider (et al)
recorded how capitalist states are often reluctant to pass laws that will
damage or restrict profits and deter possible investments, even at a cost to
the rest of society. Hermann Mannheim wrote about how ‘the history of criminal
legislation in England and many other countries, shows excessive prominence was
given by law to the protection of property.’ Marxists also argue that white-collar
crimes such as financial terrorism, fraud and tax evasion are often ignored and
lower class crimes like benefit fraud, burglary and theft are given prominence
and heavily punished to make an example, and that we are encouraged to conform
to capitalism, consumerism and the legitimisation of slave labour by the
institutions we are surrounded by; school, media, laws, the police, judicial
system and religion (Ibid).
David Gordon suggested that the psychology of
capitalism encourages criminal behaviour within all social strata, the desire
for a materialist and a consumerist lifestyle create a culture of greed and
self-interest, and he also argues that most working-class crime is a natural
response to the inequalities of a capitalist society. A modern example of the
law working in favour of capitalists and against the lower classes is the
London inter-banking lending rate scandal, which uncovered one of the biggest cases
of fraud in history earlier this year, apart from the process of money creation
itself (Op Cit: positivemoney.org), which is as old as the Bank of England and
also overlooked within all of these sociological methods. At a cost of untold
millions to millions of people worldwide, over possibly a lot much more than
seven years, the Libor scandal resulted in a handful of executives being sacked
or resigning and some even being paid a severance (Op Cit: bbc.co.uk). Bob
Diamond was expected to receive somewhere in the region of £30,000,000 and his
resignation for his part (Op Cit: indpendent.co.uk), whereas a single mother of
four children aged 16-21 was sentenced to six months in prison for claiming an
extra £44,000 (national average wage £26000 per year) in benefits over a period
of five years, in her defence she said her children would have starved had she
not acted in this manor (Op Cit: thisisplymough.co.uk) (Ibid).
The welfare state is constantly under attack from
the media and government critiques, even though it was designed to protect the
most vulnerable and needy within society. Laureen Snider identified
white-collar crime as having by far a more devastating effect on the economy
and far reaching consequences for society as a whole, possibly even on a global
scale. It could be possible that the media subjugate the British public into
believing that it is the 3% (approx.) of “lazy” unemployed people within the UK
that are the cause of the economic crisis to confuse, cause conflict and
distract people from the truth about legitimised corporate crime, data shows
that some areas are more heavily affected by unemployment than others (Op Cit:
bbc.co.uk), especially Hull at 8%, which is still a relatively low number,
however even Durkheim criticised the reliability of secondary statistics
(Ibid).
Marxist theories about the laws being written to
protect the interests of the ruling class and capitalists still ring true today
as privately owned companies with the power to create money and control the
money supply push millions of people in the UK into relative poverty for the sake of their own personal greed and
conglomerates which supply some of the goods, services and resources we need to
survive compete on stock markets, trade insider information, create inflation
bubbles artificially raising prices, making the bourjois richer and the
proletariat poorer, all within the constraints of the law.
The
government has implied that immigrant and migrant workers actually benefit the
economy and do not take British jobs, it could be the state of the economy only
benefits the capitalists (Banks and their affiliates, governments, corporations
or anyone with a large amount of money) as they hold all of the cards and make
a majority of the profit, whilst average citizens do not concern themselves with
economics or politics, just paying taxes. Working-class British people have
been forced to compete with foreign nationals who will work for much less,
which has in turn stagnated wages, this coupled with ever rising inflation is
increasing the wealth divide exponentially. Marx would have said this was
further adding to the reserve army of labour, meaning the capitalists no longer
needed to raise wages and after Margaret Thatcher dismantled the unions and
stifled the movement (Op Cit: greenleft), workers believe they are powerless to evoke change (Ibid).
Social Action theorists study the resulting
behaviour from labelling and rely on qualitative methods of research analysis
as well as discuss the relevance of who imposes the definitions of these labels.
Howard Becker suggested that, in essence there is no act which is intrinsically
deviant behaviour, only the label to which is applied. These labels reflect the
power structure of society as it is generally wealthy people who make rules for
the poor, men for women and ethnic majorities for the minorities.
References
Michael Haralambos and Martin Holborn; Sociology; Themes and Perspectives 4th edition (1995)
HarperCollins, London
Steve Chapman and Liz Steel; Crime and Deviance with theory and methods
10th edition (2011) HarperCollins, London
The Independent;
Bob Diamond could receive £30 million payout despite being
forced to resign as Barclays chief executive
This is Plymouth; Plymouth single mother of four
jailed for £44k benefit fraud
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Plymouth-single-mother-jailed-pound-44k-benefit/story-16385837-detail/story.html (28.11.2012)
Positive Money; why we are in so much debt; where new money comes from http://www.positivemoney.org/ (28.11.2012)
History Learning Site; Marxisim and crime; http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/marxism_crime.htm (28.11.2012)
Bibliography
Stow College social science webpage; Criminology, Functionalist perspective on
crime and deviance http://socialscience.stow.ac.uk/criminology/criminology_notes/functionalism.htm (27.11.2012)
The Christian Science monitor: How the Libor scandal affects you; http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/0925/Five-ways-big-banks-Libor-scandal-affects-you/As-an-investor (28.11.2012)
The Daily Fail: How 2000 Britons are costing the UK 1 billion a year by tax avoidance;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205884/How-2-000-Britons-living-Monaco-costing-UK-1bn-year-lost-taxes.html
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