AGE and CRIME / DEVIANCE
Y.C. = youth crime
NOTE – you will also need to use your
information on VICTIMISATION
There is a strong association between youth and crime
• But remember ‘youth’ is a social construction, the
‘teenager’ is an U.S.A. post WW2 invention
• Since the 1950’s there has been a focus on youth
culture and links with crime and deviance
• Pearson - youth crime is not a new phenomenon, it’s
historically present, but the focus on it is new
AGE + CRIME – GENERAL STATISTICS
• Peak offending age 15 – 18 yr, male dominated
• Each generation has its ‘youth C/D problem’ > picture
sheet
• Aprox 50% of all convictions are for people aged 21 or
under
• Self report studies have large % of secondary school
students admitting to breaking a law [they may be lying
to look impressive]
• Age 14-25 concentrated in urban areas > lots
opportunity - residential, shops, offices etc
• M.class Y. less opp. > in full time education or working,
parents give them £
YOUTH CRIME DUE TO STATUS FRUSTRATION
• Cohen, most YC is motivated by status frustration
• Y. frustrated by lack of independent status in society –
caught in transition between child and adult status
• Peer group provides an alternate / more important
identity and status from your status in family or school
• Lack of fully adult responsibilities + search for
excitement reinforced in peer group >> C/D
• Peer group pressure may give confidence +
encouragement for C/D that wouldn’t do as individual
• Status frustration affects all social classes but affects
young w.class more due to lack legitimate opportunities,
w.class youth more likely form delinquent subculture
YOUTH CRIME + HISTORIC W.CLASS CULTURE
• Miller, argues w.class have historically different values
resulting young males being more C/D than females and
m.class males
• 6 focal concerns / values > carry risk of law breaking >
• Toughness / masclunity, smartness, excitement /
thrills, fatalism, autonomy and trouble [see reading]
• For young w.class male these focal concerns are
exaggerated as they try and prove their masuclinity and
gain status in the peer group
YOUTH CRIME IS TEMPORARY / DRIFT
• Matza – youth status frustration > weakens sense of
identity + weakened social control = drift
• Drift + peer group + masculinity / status / thrills > C/D
• Young put aside normal ‘good’ values / neutralisation to
justify C/D behaviour
• denial of > responsibility, hurting the victim, anyone
actually being a victim, Condemning the condemners
– the police are just as bad / corrupt as I am, and appeal
to higher loyalties – I had to help my mates
• Matza, C/D isn’t a permanent neutralising of normal
values, as we get older we return to ‘normal’ values /
behaviour > partners / children/ employment
• Many Y. ‘drift’ into trouble with the law, may only be the 1
recorded crime but it increases Y.C. statistics
YOUTHE CRIME + MEDIA LABELLING
• media stories create moral panics > demonise / folk devils a social
group > often young > sensitisation occurs> over policing etc >
deviancy amplification >
• 'Folk Devils + Moral Panics', Cohen - mods + rockers, initially
only minor scuffles, no worse than anywhere else at the time >
media exaggeration 'Clacton terrorised / pitched battles rival gangs'
= not true > but created moral panic > police forced into stronger
action
Y.C. AS RESISTANCE THROUGH RITUAL – MARXISM
• Youth are not fully controlled by capitalist values / false class
consciousness etc – don’t have pressures of £ a family, keeping a
job etc
• Resist capitalist values by own youth style / ritual > clothes,
language, music etc > can result in C/D
• E.g. youth resist / challenge authority, Marxism sees capitalists very
dependent on effective authority to protect capitalists
• Young people often involved in anti-capitalist protests
YOUTH CRIME AS A LACK OF SOCIAL CAPITAL Coleman
Social capital = social advantages a person has by having strong
family relationships e.g.
• High levels of interaction between parents and children
• Clear rules and values in the home
• link between these factors + low rates of Y.C.
• lack strong family / social capital > high rates of Y.C.
• New Right policy makers see value in social capital idea > supports
familial ideology of trad. Nuclear family > + their view of ‘dysfunctional’
single parent families linked to Y.C.
Criticisms
• vague concept – many single parent families are not dysfunctional;
they are stable + secure; and are not linked to Y.C.
• Ignores material deprivation - Marxists and others argue that lack of
£ is the bigger problem > MC parents can be weak / bad > but
because of their cultural and £ capital > children can avoid Y.C.
• It’s not all the lower WC - Marxists and others argue that the
concentration on lower class Y.C. as an easy target > ignores the big
area of white collar crime
YOUTH CRIME DUE TO WEAK SOCIAL CONTROL
'controls' on behaviour are weakened for some young
people
e.g. New Right view of dysfunctional welfare dependency
children raised in SPF
e.g. poor education > w.class children > lack of positive
opportunities / future jobs
e.g. less religious / secular > white youth > removes
another moral control / guidance possibility
e.g. rising youth unemployment –means many youth,
especially w.class, have no positive work role models
YOUTH CRIME + EDGEWORK with the peer group
• Katz, Lyng – see both classes and genders attracted to
thrill seeking C/D, known as ‘edgework’
• More about thrills than £ / material gain > shoplifting,
vandalism, doing drugs, fighting
• Peer group status can be achieved via these activities
• Successful C/D = a ‘trophy’ in a risk taking game
• Peer group offers support and encouragement + being in
a group increases chances of ‘getting away with it’
• Edgework especially appeals to young w.class males
lack legitimate opp.to prove masculinity + gain status
PEER GROUP + WEAKENED SOCIAL CONTROL
• Control theory argues C/D happens when integration with
family, education, work and community are weak
• This weakening often applies to teenagers experiencing
status frustration > peer group replaces normal controls
YOUTH CRIME + POLICE, COURTS STEREOTYPING
• All the reasons above > police see youth as source of
problems >
• Youth are subject more police attention > more Y.C.
gets detected > more Y.C. gets recorded > increases
Y.C. statistics
• Also police racism aspect negative stereotypes young
black males > see New Criminology
• Police Y.C. and class labelling > see ‘Saints’ +
‘Roughnecks’ > police ‘let off’ m.class delinquents
• Courts – Y., W.C. spend less legal representation
Any crime statistics are a social construction – they
are a product of policing policy decisions, often linked
to stereotypes and prejudices
OLDER PEOPLE - Discouraging C/D
• Steep drop crime rate after age 25 > take on more
mature roles, threat jail treated more seriously etc
• O. women less opportunity if housewives / mothers
• Middle aged / elderly may be more home focused than
outside focused > values don’t support crime
• Being home focused reduces C/D opportunities
OLDER PEOPLE - Enabling C/D
• older people, more likely to be employed compared to
youth > more work related crime opportunity
• E.g. middle class and middle aged ‘white collar’ crime
• Bored middle aged might engage in C/D that’s thrill
seeking / ‘edgework’
• Older people more likely to ‘retreat’ / ‘ritualise’ as e.g. of
deviance – applying Merton
‘SAGA LOUT’ – recent ^ U.K. pensioner crime, rises
between 15% and 25% depending on the location.
• full range crimes – drugs, weapons, indecency, financial
• Causes
• ageing population / longevity = more C/D opportunity
• economic / disposable income for drink, drugs
• economic / increased poverty
• social / loss of status, loss community > ‘disassociation’
• Japanese research > prison = ‘safe haven’
• medical / many later diagnosed with dementia
• harsher sentencing / police and courts are showing
less pity to the elderly
• Prison response – ‘elderly wings’, stair-lifts, new
medical provision to meet elderly needs