LU 3

Theme 2
What is the relationship between social structure and crime?
What is the relationship between social processes and crime?
How is poverty a key component of the Social Structure Theories?
How do poverty and crime relate?
How does the Social Disorganisation Theory explain crime?
How is a disorganised community a pathway to criminal behaviour?
How does Merton’s Anomie Theory explain crime?
How does General Strain Theory build on Merton’s Theory?
How do the various Subculture Theories differ?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Social Structure Theories?
How do the Social Structure Theories inform policy?
How can any of the Social Structure Theories be applied to graffiti specifically?
What are the main propositions of the Theory of Delinquent Subcultures?
How can this Theory be applied to the crime of trainsurfing?
How would a Social Structure theorist explain middle class crime?
How can Miller’s Theory, specifically his concept of focal concerns be criticised?
How has the concept of strain changed over time?
How is crime socially constructed?
How does the social construction of crime relate to the relativity of crime?
How does the Social Learning Theory draw a pathway to criminal behaviour?
What are the principles of Differential Association Theory?
How do these principles explain crime?
What is the role of the peer group in the commission of crime?
How do Differential Association and Differential Reinforcement Theories differ?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Differential Association and Differential Reinforcement Theories
How do Sykes and Matza explain crime?
What are the neutralisation techniques individuals use?
How relevant are these techniques in contemporary society?
What are the fundamental assumptions of all Social Control Theories?
How can the importance of the self-concept in the commission of crime be explained?
How does the Social Bond Theory explain crime?
What are the processes that occur within the Social Reaction Theory?
What is secondary deviance?
What is the dramatisation of evil?
What value to the Social Process Theories have in explaining crime?
How can Social Bond Theory be applied to school shootings?
How can the Social Reaction Theory be applied to adolescent status offences, for example drug abuse or
promiscuity?
How can Social Structure and Social Process Theories be applied to crime policy?
What is the relationship between social structure and crime?

Social structure theories suggest people's places in the socioeconomic structure influence their
chances of becoming a criminal.
Poor people are more likely to commit crimes because they are unable to achieve monetary or
social success in any other way.
Social structure theory has three schools of thought--social disorganization, strain, and cultural
deviance theories.
Social disorganization theory suggests that slum dwellers violate the law because they live in
areas where social control has broken down.
The origin of social disorganization theory can be traced to the work of Shaw and McKay, who
concluded that disorganized areas marked by divergent values and transitional populations
produce criminality.
Strain theories view crime as resulting from the anger people experience over their inability to
achieve legitimate social and economic success.
These theories hold that most people share common values and beliefs but the ability to achieve
them is differentiated throughout the social structure.
The best known strain theory is Merton's, which describes what happens when people have
inadequate means to satisfy their needs.
Cultural deviance theories hold that a unique value system develops in lower class areas.
Lower-class values approve of behaviors such as being tough, never showing fear, and defying
authority. Cloward and Ohlin argue that crime results from lower-class people's perceptions that
their opportunities for success are limited.
What is the relationship between social processes and crime

Social process theory views criminality as a function of people's

interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in
society; people in all walks of life have the potential to become
criminals if they maintain destructive social relationships.
How is poverty a key component of the Social Structure Theories

Structural theories emphasize the demographic and labor market context,

which causes both behavior and poverty.

Poverty results from the fact that poor people lack the motivation to work and
have certain beliefs and values that contribute to their poverty.
Some jobs are more important than other jobs. For example, the job of a brain surgeon is
more important than the job of shoe shining.

Some jobs require more skills and knowledge than other jobs. To stay with our example, it
takes more skills and knowledge to perform brain surgery than to shine shoes.

Relatively few people have the ability to acquire the skills and knowledge that are needed
to do these important, highly skilled jobs. Most of us would be able to do a decent job of
shining shoes, but very few of us would be able to become brain surgeons.

To encourage the people with the skills and knowledge to do the important, highly skilled
jobs, society must promise them higher incomes or other rewards. If this is true, some
people automatically end up higher in society’s ranking system than others, and
stratification is thus necessary and inevitable.
How do poverty and crime relate
Poverty and crime often occur simultaneously. However, analyses show that crime is not
driven by poverty alone, but rather by inequality. Countries with high overall levels of
poverty do not necessarily have higher levels of crime. It is places with high levels of
income inequality that typically have the highest levels of crime. Another driver of crime
is a breakdown in social norms and values which results in, and is worsened by, factors
such as unemployment, incomplete education, a break down in family structures, limited
opportunities and exclusion from the formal economy.
International organisations also blame crime – including corruption – for putting at
risk Africa's chances of development nowadays. The same goes for Latin America.
Crime has this capacity to generate vicious cycles causing unemployment, economic
downturns and instability. Poverty and crime combined together leave people with
two choices: either take part in criminal activities or try to find legal but quite
limited sources of income - when there are any available at all.
Unemployment, poverty and crime

Starting from the 1970s, studies in the US pointed more and more at the link between
unemployment, poverty and crime. After that other connections with income level,
time spent at school, quality of neighborhood and education were revealed as well.
Fresh research from the UK even indicates that economic cycles may affect
variations in property and violent crimes.

But most importantly, what reveals the unmistakable connection between poverty and
crime is that they’re both geographically concentrated - in a strikingly consistent way.
In other words, where you find poverty is also where you find crime. Of course this
doesn't include "softer" crimes such as corruption which causes massive damage to
people's lives but in a more indirect type of violence.
On average, the more time you spend at school
the less violent you will become. Schools don't
just teach you about history or maths, they teach
you how to live in society.
Inequalities & mixed populations

Another study across 20 cities in the US analyses how local inequalities and mixed
populations can influence crime rates. As ever more countries face problems related to
immigration, policymakers should be aware that inequality, even within one ethnic
group, is a major cause of crime.

It's also crucial to take into account how many ethnic groups live within a single
neighborhood to understand local dynamics. Some are more likely to clash against
others, depending on where they live. When inequalities are great, crime goes over the
roof both within and between different ethnic populations. The more heterogeneous,
the more jealousy, the more misunderstandings and the more crime there can be in a
given place.
And while it’s been well-established that where poverty and police activity are strongly connected to
property crime, they hardly have any impact on violence.

This is one (very) important lesson for governments: property crimes are correlated to hard times (i.e.
poverty) but violent crimes are tied to the lack of social cohesion or harmony and can lead to riots and
social unrest. In the end, it’s no big surprise that unemployment is also connected with crime as it's an
important factor of inequalities. It’s only recently that studies have revealed that unemployment causes not
only higher property crimes but violent ones too.

https://www.restlessstories.com/poverties/poverty-and-crime
How does the Social Disorganisation Theory explain crime

Social disorganization theory in criminology states that communities with high

population turnover rates, diverse populations, and poverty are more likely to
experience high levels of crime due to weakened social bonds.
What is secondary deviance

Secondary deviance refers to the deviant identity or career that results after deviant
activity is recognized by society, and the perpetrator is formally labeled as deviant. This
is distinct from primary deviance, deviant behavior that occurs unlabelled.

For example, if a gang engaged in primary deviant behavior such as acts of dishonesty
or drug addiction (Smoking weed), subsequently moved to criminal behavior, such as
murder, this would be the stage of secondary deviance.
What is the dramatization of evil?
It means that once an act is deemed evil it automatically defines the person as
evil. Leading to labelling of that individual and segregation, and only involving
themselves with people who they believe they are like.
According to the criminological literature, Frank Tannenbaum's theory of “The
Dramatization of Evil” was the first formulation of an approach to deviance that
in the 1960s became known as the “labeling” theory.
Cases

Uncaught to this day, the Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California in 1969 and 1970. The mysterious man killed
at least five people and taunted regional newspapers by sending them baffling ciphers to solve.

The San Francisco Chronicle received four Zodiac Killer ciphers between July 31, 1969 and June 26, 1970. One was
quickly solved just a week after it was sent. Another was solved in 2020, leaving just two to be decoded.

Only an obsessive few stayed on the case, and not all were authority figures. In June 2021, French engineer and
business consultant Fayçal Ziraoui claimed to have cracked the final two ciphers. These were called Z13 and Z32 for
the number of coded characters that each contained.
To decode the messages, Ziraoui recycled old work that international codebreakers had used to solve another
Zodiac Killer note. Since the codebreakers had released their encryption key in the public domain, Ziraoui
simply applied that same key to Z32. Though he ended up with a jumble of letters, he tried rearranging them,
struggling to find the right answer.

But eventually, he ended up with this: “LABOR DAY FIND 45.069 NORT 58.719 WEST.” Ziraoui then realized
that the Zodiac Killer had sent the cipher on the same day that he had threatened to “wipe out a school bus.”
Turns out, when Ziraoui followed those coordinates based on Earth’s magnetic field, he found a location that was
close to a school near South Lake Tahoe.

As for the other cipher, Ziraoui said that it actually revealed the killer’s identity as Lawrence Kaye, who had
been a suspect in the original case. While some cast doubt on Ziraoui’s work, he did send his findings to the FBI
— who were unable to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Victim/s: The Zodiac claims 37 murders, law enforcement attributes 5 murders and 2
attempted murders

Location/s: Northern California - Benicia, Vallejo, Napa County and San Francisco

Date/s: Late 1960s

Outcome: Never solved