This theory has empirical support. For example Morrison found the underclass are faced with blocked opportunities due to their position in the social structure. Crime is then commuted because of group feelings of resentment and revenge suggesting there is some validity in this theory. Cloward and Ohlin however critical Cohen for failing to recognise different types of crime that emerge out of the legitimate opportunity structure. Cloward and Ohlin's theory differs (as the source states) from Cohen's slightly: They state access to criminal networks shape subculture types.
Most, if not all, acts of crime are categorized as deviant behaviour, for example, murder. Deviance is behaviour which drifts away from society’s established norms and values, but is not necessarily perceived as crime, such as queue jumping (Haralambos and Holborn 2009). The functionalist approach to crime and deviance is one of value consensus. They emphasise social stability and collective public values, a ‘collective conscience’. Functionalist define crime and deviance as functional and necessary to society as a whole, with just the right amount of crime to avoid anomie; normlessness.
As explained in item a, the labelling theory explains how actions become labelled as criminal or deviant. The labelling theory explains how crime and deviance is a social construct as the laws and norms are constructed by society. The theory can be seen as useful in explaining crime and deviance yet this can be disputed. First of all, the labelling theory aims to answer the question, why and how people get labelled. One researcher found that police made decisions on whether to arrest youth based on their physical cues.
‘Outline and explain ways in which data about crime is collected’ Crime can be defined as deviant activities that break the law in any particular society. Finding out how much crime takes place isn’t easy, and attempts to measure crime can prove misleading. This doesn’t mean that crime statistics aren’t affective, but it does mean that no single measure can be fully relied upon. Many sociologists see crime statistics as a social construction, as collecting crime data is a result of the cultural expectations of society, and by understanding who commits crime and what sorts of crimes are committed, we can get a clearer picture of why people commit crime in the first place. Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur.
This happens in many ways, but Merton most pertinently mentions 'innovative' citizens who commit crime to achieve society's goals, 'rebels' who actively reject society's values, causing them to commit crime and a 'retreatist' form of living that often involved law-breaking via drug consumption. This is useful as it not only links crimes such as robbery to the structure of society - implying that impoverished people may 'innovatively' steal the consumer goods that capitalism implies hold social gravitas - but also explains the various different fragments of society who cause different types of crime. One criticism of Merton's theory is that does not explain why people will choose a certain type of crime when faced by the 'strain' of society. Marxists also believe that the crime rate amongst the bourgeoisie is much higher than official statistics show, with much of ‘white-collar’ crime going undetected. Hughes and Langdon investigated this phenomenon and found four fundamental reasons: low visibility; high complexity; difficulty to assign blame and difficulty to ascertain victims.
Being a criminal or deviant could be seen to be a social construct and therefore this may mean that you could question what criminal activity is and whether this social construct is even right since it has been constructed by members of the society. The laws of the society have also constructed the norms and values of society and therefore if someone were to go against that they would be seen to be criminal however, this may differ in other parts of the world because what may be criminal and deviant in our society may be seen to be the norm in another. The labelling theory helps us to understand why people commit crimes and why people end up being deviant within the community. One reason may be that this stereotypical view or pre-judgement enables people to self-fulfil their prophecy and therefore creates criminal for example. Someone who comes from poor background and where’s hoodies does not automatically mean that they could be deviant.
The Neurobiology of Criminal Minds It has been said in numerous works of literature that criminals and police officers have very similar thought processes. That is why a mental examine is required before a police officer officially become a cop. A lot of times a prospective cop would be rejected because their mental examine did not pass. It would not necessarily mean that that person would one day become a criminal, but it would help prove that cops and criminals are very alike. To an untrained eye, it seems as though the fundamental difference would be that cops are “good guys” and criminals are “bad guys”.
Both writers disagree on how addicting the Marijuana is, and if the government is part of this. Stanton Peele describes addiction this way. " I have described addiction as a consequence of involvement with absorbing experiences that provide essential emotional satisfactions but that detract from people's ability to cope with their lives". Peele has a valid point, in which the user is in a emotional state in which they want to forget about their problems, and want something to get their mind of problem. That's when they are most fragile to get addicted to Marijuana.
Subculture theories is a theory where individuals have the same interests, problems and concerns which will form a subculture. Deviance in terms of the subculture of a social group arguing that certain groups develop norms and values which are to some extent different from those held by other members of society. There are a number of sociological theories. Functionalist see shared norms and values as the basis of social order and social solidarity. they consider crime and deviance, ahead of a certain level to be dysfunctional to society, as it is seen as threat to social order.
Crime as defined by Winterdyk, “is a socially constructed concept used to categorize certain behaviours as requiring formal control and warranting some form of social intervention” (Winterdyk, 2006, p. 491). Individuals that commit these criminal acts are believed to have made a specific choice in the matter. The benefits and consequences have been weighed therefore the criminal has made the choice, but what other circumstances can have a role in this decision? It is understood that social structures, social processes and human biology can all have an affect on the outcome of our individual acts. However the biological flaws of persons are not as significant as one may think.