Name:________________________  
                                 
                                              
                                 
          Sociology of Crime and 
                       Deviance 
                       Unit Four: SCLY4 
                                 
                            Miss Sakine Koc 
                                 
       
                                                
       
                      
       
                     Advance A Level                                                      Miss Sakine Koc                                                       Published 2015 © 
                                                                                          Course Outline 
                     
                    1 Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control 
                            o  Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control 
                            o  The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (eg biological, 
                                   psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed 
                            o  Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain 
                                   theory; manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories 
                            o  Marxist  and  neo-Marxist  theories  of  crime:  classical  Marxism,  laws  reflecting  class 
                                   interests; Neo-Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology 
                            o  Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy 
                            o  Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives 
                            o  Control  theory  and  other  contemporary  approaches  to  crime:  social  bonds, 
                                   communitarianism,  situational  prevention;  postmodern  theories;  Foucault  on 
                                   individualisation and surveillance 
                            o  Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism 
                            o  The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their 
                                   implications for social policy. 
                     
                    2 The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, 
                    locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime 
                            o  Study of statistics and other evidence on the social distribution of crime by age, ethnicity, 
                                   gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends 
                            o  Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance by age: 
                                   juvenile delinquency and youth crime 
                            o  Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and 
                                   ethnicity: explanations from different theories, racism in the criminal justice system 
                            o  Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and 
                                   gender: explanations of the rates of male and female crime, the gendering of crime, chivalry 
                                   thesis, the gender deal 
                            o  Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and 
                                   locality: rural and urban crime 
                            o  Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and 
                                   social class: explanations from different theories; white collar crime; occupational crime. 
                     
                    3 Globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the mass media and 
                    crime; green crime; human rights and state crimes 
                            o  Globalisation and crime: examples and explanations of globalised crimes such as web-
                                   based crimes, global trades in drugs, weapons and people; global corporate crime 
                            o  Mass media and crime: media’s role in social construction of crime including moral panics 
                                   and amplification; crime and news values and agenda setting; representations of crime 
                                   (both fact and fiction) 
                            o  Green crime: definitions, criminalisation of environmental offences; extent, enforcement of 
                                   green  crimes:  environmental  laws,  corporate  and  state  environmental  crimes,  crimes 
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                     Advance A Level                                                      Miss Sakine Koc                                                       Published 2015 © 
                                   against non-human species 
                            o  Human rights and state crimes: international rules and norms and examples of violations 
                                   of them; human rights violations; state crimes. 
                     
                    4 Crime control, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the 
                    criminal justice system and other agencies 
                            o  Crime control, prevention and punishment: contemporary policies, linked to the theories 
                                   studied under point 1; surveillance, zero tolerance, anti-social behaviour orders, expansion 
                                   of imprisonment 
                            o  Victims of crime: statistics and other evidence on victims of crime; ethnicity, age and 
                                   gender; different theoretical accounts, e.g. positivist and radical victimology 
                            o  Role of the criminal justice system and other agencies. 
                     
                    5 The sociological study of suicide and its theoretical and methodological 
                    implications 
                            o  Durkheim’s classic study of suicide, including typologies 
                            o  Interpretivist responses to Durkheim, e.g. Atkinson, Douglas 
                            o  Realist approaches, e.g. Taylor’s ‘people under trains’ 
                            o  The theoretical and methodological implications of the different approaches of the study of 
                                   suicide. 
                     
                                                                               
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                                              Advance A Level                                                      Miss Sakine Koc                                                       Published 2015 © 
                                                                                             Functionalism on Crime and Deviance 
                                              
                                                              o  Functionalism was one of the first theories of crime that sought to explain deviance by the 
                                                                              nature of society rather than the biology and psychology of the individual. 
                                              
                                             Durkheim – positive view of crime - thinks crime is functional for society! 
                                                              o  Durkheim believed modern societies are made up of collective conscience based on 
                                                                              moral individualism since ‘uniformity so universal and absolute’ was impossible. 
                                                                              Thus, unlike Marxism, he believed crime can never be eradicated since it’s normal and 
                                                                              appears in all societies but in different forms. 
                                                              o  Crime is an ‘integral part of all healthy societies’. This is because  individuals are 
                                                                              exposed  to  different  influences  and  will  all  not  be  committed  to  the  shared 
                                                                              values/beliefs of society. Thus, crime acts as a moral dichotomy providing us with what is 
                                                                              good/bad behaviour and in effects binds together society. 
                                                              o  Crime can be functional since all societies need to progress and social change begins 
                                                                              with some form of deviance. E.g. homosexuality was once illegal, but today its normal. 
                                                                              Thus, yesterday’s deviance must become tomorrow’s normality for change to occur 
                                                                              according to Durkheim. Moreover, this suggests crime doesn’t disappear but change it 
                                                                              form. 
                                                              o  However, Societies need both crime and punishment because without punishment the 
                                                                              rate of criminality would become dysfunctional. Thus, laws must be stricter than 
                                                                              before and must be experienced throughout society to justify the need for control. 
                                                              o               Durkheim  noted  that  too  much  and  too  little  crime  reflected  social  pathology 
                                                                              (dysfunctional). Thus balance is needed: 
                                                                                                                                      Too much crime -  not enough collective conscience, society in a state of 
                                                                                                                                       anomie (normlessness) 
                                                                                                                                      Too little crime – too strong collective conscience, totalitarian state.  
                                                              o  Lastly, the criminal was not an unsociable being but one that ‘plays a definite role in 
                                                                              social life’.  
                                             Evaluation of Durkheim’s theory: 
                                              
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