AQA A2 SCLY4 sociology complete revision

SCLY4 REVISION
Mrs Sergeant's topic

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 reasons
1. 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

■ 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

■ 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

■ Status frustration (subcultural theory) – Cohen: certain groups in society experience
more “frustration” over their lack of status
■ Focuses on how theW/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

■ W/C delinquency (subcultures) – Cloward and Ohlin
■ Suggests Cohen is over-generalising
■ Although theW/C are likely to form deviant subcultures, different W/C groups react
differently according to their particular social circumstances
■ 3 main types of deviant subcultures
1. Criminal
2. Conflict
3. Retreatist

■ W/C focal concerns (subcultures) – Miller:
■ TheW/C have specific focal concerns e.g. masculinity, resentment for authority, being
tough etc.
■ These values oppose the general value consensus
■ Due to thisW/C individuals are more likely to experience anomie, strain and frustration
■ This leads them to turn to crime

■ 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 Society
Family, religion, law, politics, media,
education, ideology.
Economic Base
Means 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 theW/C through physical force e.g. police, army
■ Ideological state apparatus: institutions within society that supress and control
theW/C through manipulating and conditioning the way they think e.g. the
education system
■ It seems like theW/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 amongstW/C
2. Ownership of the media: the R/C able to make outW/C is a major problem as
they control the media, can sensationaliseW/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: theW/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 theW/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 andYoung: 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

■ 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

■ 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 withW/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

■ 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

■ 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. Belief
2. Attachment
3. Commitment
4. Involvement

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

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: usuallyW/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 andYoung: victim survey, suggestedW/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 andAfro-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 whyW/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 relationships
2. Commitment: invested in education, careers or businesses, requiring a reputation
3. Involvement: involved in the community, risk of damaging reputation
4. Belief: socialised to have strong belief in rules, discipline and respect for laws

■ 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

■ 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 andWales 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 arrested
b) 5 times more likely to be in prison
c) More likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty
d) More likely to be charged and face court if arrested
e) 3 times more likely to be cautioned by police
f) More likely to be arrested for robbery

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 arrested
c) More likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty
d) More likely to be arrested for fraud and forgery

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

and crime (4)
■ The effects of police prejudice, military policing and deviance amplification – Lea
andYoung:
Unemploymen
t
Racial prejudice +
discrimination within the police
Rising street crime
+ civil unrest
Stereotype the black
community as crime
prone (scapegoats)
Moral panic
hyped up by
the media
Alienation of
black community Military police tactics
Mobilisation
of bystanders
Reduced cooperation
with police
Collective resistance
from community
Reinforcement of folk devils, moral
panic, prejudice and racism

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)

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

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

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
5
4
3
2
1
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 andYoung: 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
theW/C
■ Deviancy amplification –Young: the media has the power to emphasiseW/C crime,
controlled by the R/C so only includesW/C crimes, R/C largely underrepresented in
crime statistics

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 theW/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,
mainlyW/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

class and crime (3)
■ Rational choice theory: theW/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 theft
2. Cyber pornography
3. Cyber trespass
4. 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/water
b) Illegal dumping/disposal of toxic/hazardous waste or waste in general
c) 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 theWest (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 sentences
3. Standardise “green” guidelines
4. Encourage cooperation across borders
5. Heavier fines
6. 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 damage
2. 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 resources
2. Secondary: crimes that grow out of flouting rules aimed at preventing or regulating
environmental disasters

Green crime (5)
■ Example – Bhopal Disaster: 1984 at the UnionCarbide 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.CocaCola’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 did
2. “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 REALISTS
Emphasise 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.

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
surveillance
2. 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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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)

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)

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

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

punishment (13)
VIEWPOINT WHYTHEY BELIEVE PRISON IS POSITIVE
Functionalists 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

punishment (14)
VIEWPOINT WHYTHEY BELIEVE PRISON IS NEGATIVE
Anderson 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 upon
2. 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

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

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 suicide
2. Alturistic suicide
3. Anomic suicide
4. 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 anything
Alturistic 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 intention
2. Mode of death – the way the person died
3. 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

Quantitative data
■ Information in numerical form e.g. official statistics, results of surveys
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Personal 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 study
Involve 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
Provides depth and detail Usually fewer people studied
Looks 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)
Mail questionnaires are relatively cheap The proportion of people who return
questionnaires is small
Can 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)
Data 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
It allows for the precise control of
variables
Chance of human error
Samples might not be representative
Human results can be difficult to
measure

Primary data
■ Information collected by sociologists themselves for their own research purposes
■ E.g. participant observation, social surveys, experiments
Sociologists 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 documents
A 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

■ 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

■ 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 production
Community life
Science aided progress and finding the truth
Nationhood
Overt social control
A one-way media
A role for education
A belief in continuity and situation
Social class
Family
• 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 changes
2. Economic changes
3. Political changes
4. Changes in culture and identity

Post-modernity
Search for truth – modern age has lost the
enlightenment
People less likely to follow rigid ideology –
fragmentation of social life
Greater pluralism in modern life – no absolutes
Culture and structures are fragmented – less
predictable
Traditional labels and categories loose relevance
– transformation of the “self” (pick ‘n’ mix)
The impact of ICT and social life
Consumerism is all
Globalisation 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 science
VIEWPOIN
T
WHYTHEY 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 WHYTHEY BELIEVE SOCIOLOGY CAN’T BE A SCIENCE
Positivists 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

■ 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

POSITIVEVIEW NEGATIVEVIEW
Giddens – 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

AQA A2 SCLY4 sociology complete revision

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AQA A2 SCLY4 sociology complete revision