As he is unable to achieve these luxuries through work, he may turn to criminal activity because he wants to be like his peers as he feels pushed out. Sociologists believe that to some extent, relative deprivation is the key cause of crime in society however there are some other aspects that affect this. Sub-cultural theories are a belief of some sociologists where crime is explained by saying that criminals learn how to commit these crimes from their peer groups or subculture. Cohen in 1955 completed a study on working class boys in North America and found that they were easily involved in gangs. One aspect that was said to have pushed them away from the education system and towards these gangs was because they had middle class standards and values and these boys were unable to live up to the high expectations of these teachers.
Using materials like anti-climb paint or neighbourhood watch schemes they make the target harder to achieve, or more risky. This process is called target hardening. An advantage of this is that it directly influences the criminal by allowing them to stop and think about the real consequences to their actions. Another concept that right realists believe should be implemented is a zero tolerance policy. A zero tolerance policy is a tough system of policing that was put into practice in New York, USA, in which even minor offences are punished.
One major criticism of the differential association theory is that it is very difficult to actually put to a test. In order to test the effects differential association has on individual behavior, there truly is not a specific experimental design to go by. However, there is an adequate amount of studies done that resulted in interesting findings. One individual, Donald R. Cressey, spend a good amount of time researching incontrollable crimes in the framework of differential association. Throughout the years, Cressey places this type of criminality in a sociological context.
At the end of the day, social disorganization meets the measures of organized crime, it is totally not for the usual beliefs and set values by the public through the predominant law liberated for the safety of individual’s right or freedom. Unlawful behavior is commonly exist within the environment of social disorganization and finally street gangs possibly will develop as groups that will possibly have fundamental have connections with corrupt officers leading to their economic, social and governmental power. Because of those fundamental ins and outs, without a doubt the social disorganization for example in the circumstance of gang culture ultimately meets the standards for organized crime. In reality, it is evolution significantly completes the accomplishment of those measures. As argued, social disorganization and organized crime possibly will result in having similar economic, political and social objectives.
‘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.
Albert Cohen was the first sociologist to use the subcultural theories to try and explain working class crime. He largely agreed with Merton’s idea of a strain to anomie. He agreed that deviance is largely a lower class problem. Like Merton, he thought that crime in the lower classes came from the fact that people cannot get success by legitimate means. This is due to the working class having a lack of access to things such as Education.
Throughout many years, crime scholars have pointed to the potential benefits of focusing crime prevention efforts on crime places. A number of studies suggest that crime is not spread evenly across city landscapes. Rather, there is significant clustering of crime in small places, or hot spots, that generate a vastly disproportionate number of criminal events. Even within the most crime-ridden neighborhoods, crime clusters at a few discrete locations and other areas are relatively crime free. A number of researchers have argued that many crime problems can be addressed more efficiently if police officers focus their attention on these deviant places.
In this case, the broken window is a signal that the community in New York was neglected, causing others to commit other types of crimes too. Once the window is repaired, people will feel less neglected and refrain from committing other crimes. However, recent studies and experiments, discussed in Caitlin M. Jones’ article “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Criminal Behavior”, show results that both contradict and support Gladwell, stating that genes also play a vital role in the outcomes of individuals’ behaviors. Other theories have also emerged; one of the more surprising ones coming from economist Rick Nevin, discussed in Shankar Vedantam’s “Research Links Lead Exposure, Criminal Activity”. Here, his theory argues that a high level of lead exposure leads to more violent behavior due to lead being a neurotoxin that causes impulsivity and aggression.
Originally proposed by Dr. James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, broken windows theory suggests that a society or subset of society that appears to be lawless will itself breed lawlessness. Broken windows theory is most closely associated with conservative sociology, focusing on social cohesion and law and order. It has had great influence on law enforcement policy from the 1980s to the present, but its proposals have not always proven accurate. According to Lilly, the central theme of broken windows theory holds that when neighborhoods appear to be broken down, disordered, and generally unfriendly, they serve as a magnet to delinquent behavior and crime. This is essentially to say that communities that lack in any sense of social cohesion and mutual interest witness a significantly higher risk of criminality.
It is evident that crime and deviance play an important role in society today and form the “out of ordinary” actions that take place as a subsequence. Crime is a well-known term to many and is believed to involve a breach of rules or laws implemented by authorities that lead to convictions or punishment for those involved in the criminal activity. However; deviance is a term which creates much difficulty in terms of a specific definition, but the closet definition came from two men; Downs and Rock who believed that “deviance may be considered as banned or controlled behaviour which is likely to attract punishment or disapproval”. Haralambos and Holborn Sociology, Themes and Perspectives seventh edition, 2008. This demonstrates that there is some concept of difference between criminal and deviant behaviour.