PICT103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Bourgeoisie, Proletariat, Critical Criminology
9 May 2018
School
Course
Professor
Tuesday
28/03
Lecture
Wk 5
The Criminal World
• What is the “ideal” environment?
o What does this mean?
o Is it achievable?
• University = place of privilege and opportunity –
o A road to success
o Well-worn and easily available to us – but this does not apply to all
social circumstances.
• Prosperity is not equally distributed – can have a prosperous country and still
have poverty.
• In some places, survival is the key objective
o Can lead to criminal activity as existing within the limits of the law is
less of a priority compared to surviving
o Whether the act is criminal or not becomes largely irrelevant.
• Factors of crime that exist beyond the individual offender:
o Individual
▪ Offender
▪ Profile
▪ Characteristics
▪ Etc.
o Situation
▪ Immediate environment
▪ Context
o Community
▪ Local attitudes
▪ Class values
▪ Etc.
o Society
▪ Economic systems
▪ Institutions
▪ Etc.
• Anomie and Strain theory
o Durkheim and Social Norms
▪ Father of sociology Emile Durkheim (1857-1917)
• Witnessed the unveiling of the Industrial Revolution
• A fundamental state of flux and change
• Witnessed how inconsistency in societal norms can
cause uncertainty and disregard for law
o The importance of laws in creating routine
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Tuesday
28/03
Lecture
Wk 5
▪ Social norms: “cultural phenomena that prescribe and proscribe
behaviour in certain circumstances”
• Unwritten rules on how to live
o Morals
o Informal
o Commonly accepted ways of doing things
o E.g. Cutting in front of people in a line
o E.g. Speaking out of turn
▪ Fear of social stigmatisation influences our decisions – we do
what is expected of us and what other people do around us
• Conditioned to judge those who act out of order
• Taught to fear being judged – social stigma binds us to
behave according to rules
▪ Social norms and laws (legal norms) share similarities – Not the
same!!
o Anomie
▪ State of normlessness
▪ Undermines the value of social norms
▪ What happens next? If you don’t know the rules, and no one
else knows either, how are you meant to live? How are you
meant to live in harmony with one another?
• Everyone tries to fulfil their own needs
• Difficult to mediate own needs against the needs of
others
▪ Occurs when societies are destabilised, particularly during times
of sudden change:
• War
• Post-conflict/political transition
• Rapid technological transformation
o Industrial Revolution
o Mechanical society to organic society
• Economic fluctuation (boom/bust)
▪ Breakdowns of usual community bonds: people have no norms
to follow. As a result, people act in their own interest = crime
o EXAMPLE: The American Dream
▪ Developed by sociologist Robert Merton (1910-2003)
• He grew up in the slums of North America
• Was a figure of the American Dream that anyone can
make it
▪ Builds upon anomie and also emphasises the importance of
social values, particularly culturally valued goals
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
