Conflict Theories
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Conflict
Marxist theories
Feminist Theories
Quiz # 5
Social Policy
Childbearing and Pregnancy Prevention
 Child Support and Low-Income Fathers
 Workforce Development and Transitional
Jobs
 Prisoner Re-Entry
 Couples and Marriage Policy
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Understanding Conflict
Conflict is a natural disagreement
resulting from individuals or groups that
differ in attitudes, beliefs, values or
needs
 It can also originate from past rivalries
and personality differences
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Examples of conflicting
values: individualism vs
teamwork, family life vs career,
What is conflict?
Conformity
Conformity is the degree to which
members of a group will change their
views and attitudes to fit the views of the
group
 The group can influence members via
unconscious processes or via overt social
pressure on individuals

Solomon Asch’s experiment (1951)
Examined the extent to which pressure
from other people could affect one's
perceptions
 He told the subjects he was studying
visual perception
 The task was to decide which of the bars
on the right was the same length as the
one on the left
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Solomon Asch’s experiment (1951)
Solomon Asch’s experiment (1951)
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Asch asked the students to give their answers
aloud
He repeated the procedure with 18 sets of bars
Only one student in each group was a real
subject
All the others have been instructed to give
incorrect answers on 12 of the 18 trials
Asch arranged for the real subject to be the nextto-the-last person in each group to announce his
answer so that he would hear most of the
confederates incorrect responses before giving
his own
Would he go along with the crowd?
Findings
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37 of the 50 subjects conformed to the majority
at least once
14 of them conformed on more than 6 of the 12
trials
The mean subject conformed on 4 of the 12 trials
Asch was disturbed by these results: "The
tendency to conformity in our society is so strong
that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning
young people are willing to call white black. It
raises questions about our ways of education and
about the values that guide our conduct."
Why did the subjects conform so
readily?
Interviewed after the experiment
 Most of them said that they did not really
believe their conforming answers, but had
gone along with the group for fear of
being ridiculed or thought "peculiar."
 A few of them said that they really did
believe the group's answers were correct.
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Revision
Asch conducted a revised version of his
experiment
 Subjects were permitted to write down
their answers after hearing the answers of
others
 Their level of conformity declined to about
one third what it had been in the original
experiment
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Conclusions
People conform for two main reasons:
 Because they want to be liked by the
group
 Because they believe the group is better
informed than they are
 The group pressure implied by the
expressed opinion of other people can lead
to modification and distortion effectively
making you see almost anything
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Conformity
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Herbert Kelman identified three subtypes
of conformity:
compliance- conforming only publicly,
but keeping one's own views in private
identification- conforming while a group
member, publicly and privately, but not
after leaving the group
internalization- conforming publicly and
privately, during and after group
membership
The ingredients of conflict
Needs - Needs are things that are
essential to our well-being. Conflicts arise
when we ignore others' needs, our own
needs or the group's needs
 Perceptions - People interpret reality
differently. They perceive differences in
the severity, causes and consequences of
problems
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The ingredients of conflict
Power - How people define and use
power is an important influence on the
number and types of conflicts that occur.
This also influences how conflict is
managed
 Values - Values are beliefs or principles
we consider to be very important. Serious
conflicts arise when people hold
incompatible values or when values are
not clear
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The ingredients of conflict
Feelings and emotions - Many people
let their feelings and emotions become a
major influence over how they deal with
conflict
 Conflicts can also occur because people
ignore their own or others' feelings and
emotions
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Types of conflict
Intrapersonal
 Interpersonal
 Intergroup conflicts
 Intragroup conflict
 International conflicts
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Conflict Theory
Opposite to the consensus theory
(common acceptance of basic values such
as virtue, honor, right, and wrong)
 There is little agreement on basic values
 Society is made up of many competing
groups, each with different interests
 Law is a weapon that the powerful use to
enforce their private interests, often at the
expense of the public interest
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Conflict Theory
Crime is a function of the conflict that
exists in society
 Class conflict
 Different social classes can be
distinguished by inequalities in such areas
as power, authority, wealth, working and
living conditions, life-styles, life-span,
education, religion, and culture.
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Capitalism
Demoralization of the English
Working Class (Engels)
The worker is poor, he is deprived of
virtually all pleasures
 Life has nothing to offer him
 Consequently, he does not fear the
penalties of law
 Distress due to poverty gives the worker
only the choice of starving or taking what
he needs (stealing)
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Demoralization of the English
Working Class (Engels)
Capitalistic society breeds hostility
between the individuals man and everyone
else
 If demoralization passes beyond a certain
point then worker will turn into a criminal
 Acts of violence committed by working
class against bourgeoisie are frank and
undisguised retaliation for the thefts
perpetrated by the middle class against he
workers
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Marxism
Was interested in the crime rate across
types of societies
 Was not interested in differences in
individuals or group behavior within the
same society
 Preferred to compare existing capitalist
society with ideal, future socialistic
systems
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Marxism
Bourgeoisie and proletariat have different
interests
 The political and economic philosophy of
the dominant class influences all the
aspect of life
 Consciously or unconsciously artists,
writers, teachers, and philosophers work
to the whims of the capitalistic system
 Law system is also influenced by capitaism
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Marxism on crime
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Crime diverts the lower classes attention from
the exploitation they experience towards other
members of their own class, rather than towards
the capitalist economic system
Crime enables the ruling class to create false
consciousness among the ruled by making them
think that their own interests and those of the
ruling class are identical
Members of the ruling class will be able to violate
the laws with impunity while members of the
subject classes will be punished
Richard Quinney: Class, State, and
Crime (1980)
Crime is an inevitable response to the
material conditions of capitalism
 Crimes of working class: “crimes of
accommodation” or “crimes of resistance”
 Crimes of accommodation are predatory
crimes, such as burglary and robbery
(reproduce the capitalistic system) and
violent crimes, such as murder, assault,
and rape committed by those who are
“brutalized” by capitalism
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Richard Quinney: Class, State, and
Crime (1980)
Crimes of resistance include both nonrevolutionary, unconscious reactions
against exploitation and crimes
deliberately committed by proletariat as
acts of rebellion against capitalism
 Alcoholism, destroying property, fighting,
etc.
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Quinney on the ruling class
Crimes committed by the ruling class are
the result of the capitalistic system as well
 “Crimes of domination and repression”
committed by capitalists to protect their
interests
 Examples: corporate crimes (price fixing,
bid rigging, security violation)
 “Crimes of control” are committed by
criminal justice personnel are the ruling
class’s effort to ensure its continued
domination
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Policy Recommendation
There can be no solution to crime under
capitalistic society
 All classes are affected by the egoism and
greed produced by capitalism
 Change the society (socialism as a
different mode of economic organization)
 Socialist societies should have much lower
rates of crime because the less intense
class struggle should reduce the forces
leading to and the functions of crime.
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Feminist Theories
Criminology has been dominated by males
(theory is flawed by the “masculine”
perspective)
 Two main issues for Feminist theories of
crime: “Do the theories of men’ crime
apply to women?” and “Can the theory
explain the well known gender difference
in crime?”
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Liberal feminism
“Liberation perspective”
 Greater equality in education, politics,
economy, and military
 An unintended consequence of this
availability to women of a wider range of
social roles is their greater involvement in
crime (arena dominated by men)
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Power- Control Theory of gender and
Delinquency (John Hagan, 1987)
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Explain difference between male and female
rates of delinquency
Two types of family structures (“Patriarchal”
families vs “egalitarian” families)
Socialization within each family structure is
different – the delinquency rate is different
Parents tend to reproduce themselves
As mothers gain power relative to husbands,
daughters gain freedom relative to sons
Assessing power-control theory
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The theory is unclear about how
delinquency is affected by the parenting
practices of single mothers/or single
fathers
Quiz # 5
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If Karl Marx were alive today, what would
he think about the prosperity enjoyed by
the working class in industrial societies?
Might he alter his vision of the capitalistic
system?