Crime
Fred and Rose West
"Yeah, see, you've got the killing all wrong, no, nobody went through hell, enjoyment turned to disaster, well most of it anyway." - Fred West Frederick "Fred" West and Rosemary "Rose" West were a married couple who killed at least ten young British girls, some of them their own daughters. Backgrounds Fred By Fred's own account, sexual abuse of various kinds were common in the household; he claimed his father had sexual relationships with his daughters and taught him bestiality (sex with animals)-exposed to sadism from a young age. been suspected that Fred's mother started sexually abusing him when he was twelve, though he never admitted to it and it has never been confirmed, like the stories about his father. Neither have Fred's claims that he also engaged in incest and even impregnated one of his sisters. 16-his looks improved and he became more attractive to girls. 17-he was in a motorcycle accident that put him in a coma for a week, led to him having a metal plate operated into his head and breaking one of his legs so badly it was permanently shorter than the other. Afterwards, he got a bad temper and often had violent bursts of anger. Two years after the accident, Fred hurt his head yet again when he stuck his hand up a girl's skirt and she pushed him down from a fire escape. When he was 19, he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl, even though he didn't serve any jail time because his doctor said he suffered from epileptic fits(contradicts chivalry). Afterwards, he was sent to live with his sister and was practically disowned by the rest of his family. Fred got a job in construction, but was fired for stealing from his workplace. 21-his fam let him back into their lives and he moved back to Much Markle, where he resumed a romantic relationship with an ex-girlfriend, Catherine "Rena" Costello, who had been a petty thief when they first dated and moved on to prostitution. Though Rena was already pregnant with the child of a Pakistani man, they married and kept the child; to explain why the baby was half-asian, Fred had Rena write to her parents and say that the baby had died in childbirth and that her child, a girl she named Charmaine Carol, was adopted. They married in November, only two months after getting back together, and moved to Scotland together. Fred demanded sex from Rena daily and wasn't too interested in "regular" sex. The couple had a child of their own in July of 1964, a daughter named Anne Marie. During their rocky marriage, Fred worked as an ice-cream truck driver, a job that gave him plenty of access to available young women. Their life in Scotland came to an end when Fred accidentally ran over a four-year-old boy with his truck. Though the accident wasn't his fault, Fred moved with his family as well as Isa McNeill, who took care of their children, and Anna McFall, a friend of Costello, to Gloucestershire, where he got a job at a slaughterhouse. When her marriage finally collapsed, Costello went back to Scotland alone, but came back in July of 1966 because she missed her daughter, only to discover that Fred had started a relationship with McFall. In 1967, McFall became pregnant with Fred's child and tried to get him to divorce Costello. In response, he killed, dismembered and buried her. Costello finally left Fred a few months later, leaving their children with him. Fred is suspected to have killed again in January of 1968, when 15-year-old Mary Bastholm disappeared from a bus stop. After the death of his mother in February, Fred started committing a lot of petty thefts and changed jobs a lot. It was during a stint as a bakery truck driver that he met his future wife and accomplice, Rosemary Letts. Rosemary Letts was born in Devon, England in 1953. Her household was troubled and abusive; her father, Bill Letts, was a schizophrenic who constantly disciplined her, her siblings and her mother, Daisy. While Daisy had been pregnant with Rosemary, she had received electroconvulsive therapy as treatment for her severe depression. Growing up, Rosemary was sexually abused by her father. Because she wasn't very bright and a bit overweight, she was often teased and responded by attacking her bullies aggressively. When she was a teenager, she became more sexually active and was even caught getting into bed with one of her younger brothers and sexually fondling him. Because her figure and her father's rules prevented her from dating boys her own age, she pursued relationships with older men where she lived; one of them took advantage of her and raped her. When Rosemary was 15, her mother finally had enough of her husband's abuse, took Rosemary and moved in with one of her adult daughters and her husband. Rosemary started spending even more time with male companions. Later the same year, Rosemary, surprisingly, moved back in with her father. Not long afterwards, she met Fred West, who was twelve years her senior. In spite of the way he had treated her, Rosemary's father strongly objected to her seeing Fred and even went to the trailer park where he lived with his two daughters and threatened him. While Fred did several stints in jail for thefts and also failures to pay his fines for previous offenses, Rosemary became pregnant with his child, a girl named Heather, and took care of his children on her own. Because of her temper problems and her resentment about caring for children who weren't hers, she often treated her de facto stepdaughters badly. In the summer of 1971, Rosemary apparently snapped completely and killed Charmaine. After severing the body's fingers and toes, Fred buried it under their kitchen floor. In August of 1971, Costello disappeared when she came looking for Charmaine. Because her body was found to have had its fingers and toes cut off when it was discovered, Fred is suspected to have been the killer. Though they married on January 29, 1972, Fred encouraged Rosemary to have sex with other men, both for money and for fun, and often watched her through a peephole. He also took erotic photos of her and posted them in swinger magazines as ads for prostitution. In June of 1972, they had another daughter together, Mae West. In order to make room for their expanding family and Rosemary's business, they moved to 25 Cromwell Street, where they carried out their rapes and murders. Rosemary continued working as a prostitute from their home in a room fitted with peepholes for Fred to use and a red light outside that would be lit to tell the children not to enter. Over the following years, she gave birth to seven more children, of which three were fathered by Fred. Another may have been conceived by Rosemary and her own father, who kept engaging in incest with her even after she gave birth to her fourth child. The other three, who were of mixed race, were all fathered by her clients. Killings, Arrests and Incarcerations 25 Midland Road, where the Wests' killings occurred. In October 1972, Fred and Rosemary hired a young woman named Caroline Owens to work for them as a nanny for their children. They kept making sexual advances on her, but she declined every time. One night in December, after they both unsuccesfully tried to seduce her, she tried to leave only to be held captive overnight. When Fred threatened to let some of his friends "have" her and that he would then kill her, she complied. The next day, she was released. Though she pressed charges, Fred was able to convince the court that the acts she was forced into had been consensual, so he and Rosemary were instead only fined £50 for indecent assault. Over the next six years, they killed at least eight young women who made their way to 25 Cromwell Street as lodgers or employees together. The first was Lynda Gough, a seamstress the Wests knew personally. Next was Carol Ann Cooper, who disappeared while walking home from a movie theater. In December, Lucy Katherine Partington disappeared from a bus stop while on her way home after Christmas. She was murdered by Fred and Rosemary, who abducted her, held her captive for a week over New Year, raped and tortured her and then killed her. On January 3, Fred was treated for laceration, which is believed to have been inflicted when he dismembered Partington. From 1974 to 1979, five more women, Therese Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Juanita Marion Mott, Shirley Anne Robinson, and Alison Chambers, met the same fate. It's unknown if the Wests killed more over the following years. If they did, which is not improbable, the bodies weren't buried on their property. Some of the girls are known to have been abducted, raped, and then released. While committing murders, Fred also sexually abused Anne Marie West, his daughter from his relationship with Rena Costello. She eventually became pregnant, but the pregnancy had to be terminated because it occured in her fallopian tube. When she left home, he started abusing Heather West, who was conceived by Rosemary and possibly her own father, and one of his own daughters, Mae West. Fred disposed of the victims by burying them under the garage of the house or in the garden. To cover up the frequent burials, he pretended to be doing regular home improvement. In order to afford the supplies needed, he frequently stole and fenced the loot. Even though he was often brought to the police's attention for this reason, his killings went unnoticed. The couple came close to being exposed in 1986, when Heather told her friends about the abuse she suffered. In June of the next year, Fred and Rosemary strangled her to death to silence her. She was then dismembered and buried in the garden. The Wests were finally exposed in May 1992, when Fred videotaped himself raping one of his daughters. When she told her friends, one of them reported the Wests to the police. The investigating officer, Hazel Savage, had heard of Fred while he was in a relationship with Rena Costello. When another girl raped by Fred came forward, the police obtained a search warrant. In August, they searched the house for evidence of child abuse. Fred was arrested for rape and sodomy of a minor and Rose was arrested as an accomplice. While they were being processed, their younger children were placed in the care of the government. While Fred was in custody, Rosemary became depressed and even attempted suicide once, but was saved by one of her sons. Unfortunately, the rape case fell apart when the victims backed out. Meanwhile, Savage became increasingly suspicious of the Wests' past, the disappearance of Heather and the results of the interviews of the West children, especially that they had been threatened by Fred that they would be buried under the patio like Heather. She was able to obtain another search warrant to have the property dug up. The task was simplified when Fred confessed to Heather's murder in custody. When human bones started cropping up, Fred confessed to having committed the murders alone in order to protect Rosemary. However, he would not admit to raping any of his victims, saying they had wanted to have sex with him. Soon enough, the bodies of Anne McFall and Charmaine West turned up as well. Seeking to protect herself, Rose cut off all contact with her husband. On December 13, 1994, he was charged with a total 12 murders. On New Year's Day, he hanged himself in his cell at Winson Green Prison with a knotted bedsheet. His body was cremated and his funeral unattended except for five of his children. Rose was also put on trial in the end, first for rape but then for murder as well. She never confessed to any murders and the evidence against her was largely circumstantial. An important witness was Janet Leach, Fred's appropriate adult, who revealed that Fred had told her that Rose had been involved in the murders and even killed Charmaine West and Shirley Robinson on her own. On November 22, 1995, Rose was found guilty of 10 murders and sentenced to life in prison. She will be never released. Though she maintains her innocence, she announced in 2001 that she will not try to appeal her conviction. In 1996, 25 Cromwell Street was completely demolished and the site turned into a pathway. Modus Operandi The Wests' victims were Caucasian females in their mid-teens to early twenties and sometimes related to them. The ones who weren't were usually lured to the house under the premise that they would be hired as nannies or some other job. When the victim was under Fred and Rosemary's control, they would rape and torture her in elaborate and sadistic bondage acts for days and then strangle or suffocate her and bury her on the property. Fred's signature was cutting off the victims' fingers and toes and sometimes their knee caps post-mortem before burying them. Known Victims West victims Some of the Wests' victims. Caroline Owens Caroline Owens. ◾November 4, 1965: Unnamed four-year-old boy (accidentally killed; was run over by Fred) ◾Unspecified date in 1967: Anna McFall (was pregnant; killed and dismembered by Fred alone; her body was found June 7, 1994) ◾January 5, 1968: Mary Bastholm, 15 (possibly; suspected to have been killed by Fred alone) ◾1971: ◾June: Charmaine West (Fred's daughter from his first marriage) ◾August: Catherine "Rena" West (née Costello; Fred's first wife; possibly) ◾December 1972: Caroline Owens, 17 (held captive overnight, bound, smothered with a pillow and raped by both; released the next day) ◾1973: ◾April 19: Lynda Gough, 19 ◾November 10: Carol Ann Cooper, 15 ◾December 27: Lucy Katherine Partington, 21 ◾1974: ◾April 15: Therese Siegenthaler, 21 ◾November 14: Shirley Hubbard, 15 ◾April 12, 1975: Juanita Marion Mott, 18 ◾May 10, 1978: Shirley Anne Robinson, 18 (was pregnant) ◾August 5, 1979: Alison Chambers, 16 ◾June 1987: Heather Ann West (daughter of Rosemary and possibly her own father; was choked, strangled with a pair of stockings and dismembered) ◾Note: In addition to the above crimes, Fred is known to have committed several additional rapes whose victims are anonymous or unnamed. He also claimed to have committed more murders.
suicide
Durkheim believed that suicide could be studied scientifically; therefore positivist methods could be used to help explain the suicide rate. He developed the comparative method whereby he compared official suicide statistics from different countries. He found that suicide rates varied fairly consistently. High rates of suicide were correlated with: - Protestants rather than Catholics or Jews. - Married people rather than single people. - Parents rather than the childless. - Political stability and peace rather than political upheaval and war. From the statistical patterns, Durkheim believed there were four types of suicide: 1) EGOISTIC:insufficent integration/ 'excessive individualism'. individ's aren't well integrated into soc through social istit's like fam, marriage, tight-knit orgs/communs & have weakened ties w others. 2) ANOMIC: when there's anomie; arises when social guidelines and a clear framework for behav are unclear, absent or confused. ppl feel 'lost' over how to behave and what ti believe and lose a sense ofd purpose and meaning e.g. high suicide rate for middle aged men due to a crisis of masc. 3) ALTRUISTIC: excessive integration, and the individ has lil v compared to the needs of the grp e.g. suicide bombers-v a cause even + than their own lives. 4) FATALISTIC: excessive/oppressive regulation of individ's w suicide prov'ing an escape froma future of unending despair & hopelessness e.g. slaves or prisoners. Positivists are generally in favour of Durkheim's work, however there are some minor criticisms: Halbwachs (1930): Durkheim over-estimated the importance of religion. He ignored the fact that living in urban areas may contribute to suicide rates. Gibbs and Martin (1964): Tried to define INTEGRATION more precisely than Durkheim, by using the concept of status integration. Durkheim's methods and findings are heavily criticised by interpretivists: Interpretive theories of suicide: J.D.Douglas (1967) the degree of social integration influences whether a death gets classified as suicide. the fam & friends of soc'ly integ'd victims may try to cover up a suicide e.g. destroying evidence (suicide notes)/ by trying to persuade the coroner it wasn't suicide, bc of their own sense of shame, guilt or failure. those who are integ'd e.g. single/ w/o relatives/mates-may have no 1 to cover up their suicide or argue on their behalf that it wasn't in fact suicide. AO2:There is no reason to believe that a sociologist is more qualified than a coroner in defining the causes of suicide. He is inconsistent and suggests that official stats are a result of coroners opinion and then suggesting they are useful to highlight trends. Social Meanings: Given to suicide can affect the stats. e.g. for catholics- suicide is regarded as a sin and in catholic countries coroners may be + willing to bring in a verdict of accidental death or misadventure to spare the relatives the social stigma attached to suicide. Jean Baechler (1979): develops Douglas's approach, defining suicides in terms of the types of solution they offer to different types of situation: 1) ESCAPIST SUICIDES involve fleeing from an intolerable situation. 2) AGGRESSIVE SUICIDES are used to harm others. 3) OBLATIVE SUICIDES are used to obtain something that is desired (e.g. saving another or getting to heaven) 4) LUDIC SUICIDES involve taking risks for excitement or as an ordeal. Interpretive theories can also be criticised, primarily because the categories used to classify suicides are simply a matter of the researchers judgement. Therefore Phenomenologists such as Atkinson have developed the following view: Dorais (2004): Homophobia and Canadian men: Dorais found that many men had attempted suicide because they were, or were perceived by others to be gay or bisexual in a society that was still homophobic. As a result many of the men felt isolated from social groups. This research partially supports Durkheim's arguments regarding a lack of integration as a cause of suicide. J. Maxwell Atkinson (1978): Believes that it is impossible for coroners or researchers to OBJECTIVELY classify suicides. The facts are simply a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION. From the studies of coroners' courts he finds that four factors shape the commonsense theories of coroners: 1)suicide notes- imp clues- may show a person's intention to die. only about 1/6 ppl leave a suicide note-may be written under the influence of drugs/ alcohol--> ambiguous motives, may be faked to hide a murder-unsatisfactory as sources of evidence. 2)modes of death- the way the person died, death by hanging is + likely than death in a car crash to result in a suicide verdict. 3)location & circumstances of death-place the death occurred & the circumstances surrounding it. 4)life history & mental condition of the victim- whether or not he/she was a socially isolated 'loner'. the state of mental & physical health & whether the victim was in debt/ had just failed exams/lost a job/got divorced/suffered a bereavement. Phenomenologists believe that when Positivists study suicide statistics, all they uncover are the commonsense theories of coroners, for example the tendency to record the deaths of depressed or lonely people as suicides. Phenomenologists can also be criticised for basing all their work on subjective interpretation, Barry Hindess (1973) is one such critique. Steve Taylor: A REALIST approach to suicide (1982, 1990): Taylor attempts to move beyond positivism and phenomenology, using a realist approach. He agrees with phenomenologists that certain factors influence coroners, using his study of deaths on the London Underground to prove that coroners give a verdict of suicide when there is evidence of social failure or social disgrace. However, Taylor argued that evidence from case studies revealed underlying patterns of suicide. Suicides can be seen as one of four types, based on a person's certainty or uncertainty about themselves or others: 1) SUBMISSIVE: life is over & others can't help-e.g. arising from a terminal illness/death of a partner 2) THANATATION: unsure whether to live/die, & others aren't helping to find a solution. risk-taking and gambling w death, & perhaps surviving it, might provide a remedy & a re-evaluation of life's meaning. 3) SACRIFICE: others made life intolerable & they're left w no choice but to kill themselves, bc they've harmed/been harmed, by someone they relate to- for example, their partner goes off w another lover, or they have been exposed as a paedophile. 4) APPEAL: others have made the potential victim's life difficult & this is a cry for help to save them from death e.g. an attempt to win back a partner who has gone off w another lover. Taylor explains some variations in suicide, for example, why some suicide attempts are more serious than others, but his theory is hard to test and relies upon the interpretation of sometimes limited secondary data. He does not however explain what social factors influence certainty and uncertainty. Some 6,045 people killed themselves in 2011, an increase of 437 since 2010. The highest suicide rate was among men aged between 30 and 44. About 23 men per 100,000 took their own lives. On average, across both sexes, 11.8 people per 100,000 population killed themselves in 2011, up from 11.1 people the previous year. The ONS data revealed there were 4,552 suicides by men in 2011, more than three times the number by women and the highest rate since 2002. The suicide rate among middle-aged men aged 45 to 59 was also high, increasing from 21.7 deaths in 2006 to 22.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2011.
Functionalism
Functionalists adopt a different stance to psychological and physiological approaches. Rather than looking at how an individual's biology/psychology might lead them to be deviant, they focus on how the nature of society can cause deviance, in particular how deviance is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED. Functionalists agree that social control mechanisms such as the police and the courts are necessary to keep deviance in check; however they also argue that a certain amount of deviance is good for society. Collective conscience-shared n's & v's in soc working towards the same goal. Crime is an integral part of all healthy soc's as not all ppl will be exposed to the same influences/socialization so will not all be committed to the shared beliefs of soc. The cc is maintained when ppl react in unison to shocking deviant acts e.g. cases of paedophilia/terrorism. e.g. Jimmy Saville-negative, Je suis.../Paris attacks-change FB profile pic to French flag-show solidarity. Boundary maintenance-whole purpose of the law & justice system is to "dramatise evil" in order to act as a warning to the law-abiding citizens. increase in social solidarity by reaffirming the good v's. dysfunc-if no punishment, cr would become dysfunc. moral bound's of soc are defined when we see ppl receiving punishments which acts as a deterrent for others. e.g. harsh sentences passed after the London riots are a good example. deterrent when people get punished. Social change-some deviance is necessary to allow new ideas to develop and enable soc to change & progress e.g. suffragettes-trespass-gained women's vote. Nelson Mandela arrested as a terrorist-end apartheid. C can be func as all soc'l change begins w some form of dev. in order for change to occur, yesterday's dev must become tomorrows normality. Albert Cohen-developed Durkheim's views and believed that dev had 2 possible funcs:1) 'safety valve'-release stresses in soc. prov's a relatively harmless expression of discontent. e.g. prostitution performs a safety valve func w/o threatening the instit of the fam/ fam stability--> enables man to escape from fam life. 2) warning device-indicate an aspect of soc is malfunctioning. e.g. truancy in sch may reveal unsuspected causes of discontent leading to changes. Cohen also looked at how wc youths suffered from status frustration aar of educ'l failure. Robert Merton-strain theory-Merton explains how deviance can result from the culture and structure of society. He looks at the value consensus in American society and the feeling of anomie that individuals often face when they are unable to achieve material wealth.Merton picked up on Durkheim's ideas, especially the notion of anomie. He argued crime and deviance took place when there was a clash between the goals society sets its members and the means or ways it says the goals should be obtained Writing about the USA he said it was clear that the main goal people were taught to aim for was material success i.e. become filthy rich!! He described the American Dream as being every person aspired to having all the things money can buy; house, car, possessions etc. However it is fairly clear that not everyone (indeed very few) can actually achieve this, especially not in ways society defines as acceptable (hard work etc.) This produces a strain to anomie where people are tempted to ignore the norms or legitimate ways of achieving success Faced with the desire to gain material success but realising how difficult/impossible this might be Merton argues people have got the following ways of adapting (responding): CONFORMITY: most of the pop cope by doing their best & making the most of what soc offers them. INNOVATION: commitment to cultural goals may remain strong, but some ppl reject the conventional means of acquiring wealth & turn to illegal means (lc's-fewer qualifications) E.g drug dealing,credit card theft, trafficking RITUALISM: some ppl have lost sight of material goals but derive satisfaction from fairly meaningless jobs e.g. teachers who have given up caring about student success. RETREATISM: a small no. of ppl reject both the goals & the means, by dropping out of soc e.g. drug addicts or tramps. rejected both the shared v of success & the means prov'd to achieve it. REBELLION: ppl may rebel & seek to replace shared goals & instit'l means w + radical alternatives, & may use viol methods to achieve this e.g. revolutionaries wish to create a new kind of soc e.g. Islamic State. Criticisms of Merton: 1) Criticisms of Merton: 1) Strain Theory cannot explain why some people commit non-utilitarian crimes which have no financial gain such as vandalism or joyriding. Not all crimes are financially motivated 2) Merton is deterministic as he assumes that everyone in American society is motivated by wealth, there are other goals! 3) Merton's theory exaggerates working class crime and underestimates white collar crime. 4) Taylor et al (1973) argues that strain theory cannot explain politically motivated crime, where people break the law because of commitment to a cause, for example terrorism (of any kind) and the illegal actions of animal rights activists. Hirschi (1969) - Bonds of attachment (Control Theory) Hirschi agrees with Durkheim that social order is based on shared values and socialization through institutions integrating individuals into society. However, rather than focusing on what forces people to turn to crime, Hirschi asks why most people DO NOT commit crime even when the temptation is there. He believed that people with strong SOCIAL BONDS were less likely to turn to crime and where these bonds were absent, criminality was more likely. His four bonds were: 1)ATTACHMENT: to what extent do we care about other ppl's opinions & wishes. e.g. qqun from a tight fam wouldn't want to bring shame on the fam name e.g. Mulan. 2) COMMITMENT: refers to the personal ionvestments that each of us make in our lives. what have we got to lose if we commit a crime? e.g. a person w a high powered job e.g. doctor/lawyer. :(-they commit wh-collar c--> will not want to risk losing their salary. 3)INVOLVEMENT: how busy are we? is there time & space for law breaking and dev behave? e.g. ppl w ft jobs have - time for c than those who are unemployed. 4)BELIEF: how strong is a person's sense that they should obey the rules of soc? e.g. proper primary socialization/strong religious beliefs would deter potential criminals. Hirschi's ideas are closely connected to the work of Charles Murray who argued that improper socialization (often in single parent households) was a major cause of crime and deviance as weak social bonds would be developed. Criticisms of Hirschi: 1) Hirschi's work fails to recognise that many law breakers have strong bonds of attachment e.g. gang members 2) White collar crime is usually committed by people who have strong bonds of attachment, for example the MPs expenses scandal. 3) doesn't explain the variety of forms of dev & c. 4) doesn't recog that it's possible to be dev & have tight soc'l bonds.
state crime and green crime
GREEN CRIME • Green crime: This can be defined as crime against the environment. Regardless of the creation of nation states the Earth is in fact a single connected eco-system. Atmospheric pollution in one country turns to acid rain in another country. Use the text to find another example. • Global risk society and the environment: The major risks we face today are of our own making. Eg. Global warming Beck (1992) -new technology and productivity have created new dangers which are global rather than local. Beck calls late modern society 'global risk society' • Green criminology: Many of the problems created by technological advances such as global warming are not the result of criminal activity, as such. Traditional criminology has only been interested in law breaking activity. This makes for clear cut subject matter but it is criticised for accepting the definitions of crime shaped by big business and power elites. • Green criminology GC takes a more radical approach. It starts from the notion of harm rather than law. White (2008) argues that if harm is done to the environment or human/non-human animals that this should be the subject of green criminology regardless of it's legal status. • This is transgressive criminology since it oversteps the traditional boundaries of criminology. Where have you encountered this term before? White points out that different countries have different laws so it makes sense to adopt a wider global perspective. How is this view similar to Marxist analyses of crimes of the powerful? • Types of green crime South et al (2008): identifies 2 types of green crime. Primary crime- resulting directly from the destruction of the Earth. These include-air pollution, deforestation, species decline, water pollution. Secondary crime- this comes of breaking the rules that could prevent environmental disasters. These include - state violence against opposition groups and illegal waste dumping. • Evaluation of green criminology: It recognises the growing threat of environmental issues and provides a focus to examine some of these risks It is too broad a field of study because it operates outside legally defined boundaries. It is thought to be too based on values and therefore not objective enough. STATE CRIME • State Crime: Green and Ward define state crime as 'illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of, state agencies'. This can include genocide, war crimes, torture, imprisonment without trial and assassination. Identify McLaughlin's 4 categories of state crime. • This is one of the most serious crimes because.... The sheer scale of such crime. For example Pol Pot in Cambodia is estimated to have killed 1/5 of the countries population. And it is not just third world countries but Britain and the US have been guilty of torture in Ireland and more recently Guantanamo Bay. The national government is the source of law, so it is hard to challenge these abuses. The state can persecute those who speak against it. • Herman and Julia Schwendinger: argue that we should define crime in terms of the violation of human rights rather than the breaking of rules. If a state practises racism or sexism or economically exploits its citizens it is violating human rights and should br guilty of a crime. • In this view the definition of crime is highly political. For example the Nazi's simply made it legal to persecute Jews. If we accept the legal view we may become subservient to whatever the government decides. The Schwendingers argue that Sociology should defend human rights- this again is transgressive criminology because it goes beyond traditional criminology as defined by law. Evaluate this position using Cohen. • State crime and the culture of denial: Cohen does see human rights and state crime as increasingly important because of the growing impact of human rights organisations and the focus in criminology on victims. While dictatorships simply deny human rights abuses, democracies have to legitimate their actions in complex ways. • The social conditions of state crime: Social psychologists have explained crimes of 'obedience' such as the holocaust or My Lai (where 400 were massacred by American soldiers in Vietnam) as a result of socialisation and social processes where such behaviour becomes acceptable. What are Kelman and Hamiltons 3 features which produce obedience? • Bauman (1989): Bauman argues that the social conditions which produced holocaust included many of the features of modern society- such as science and technology and the division of labour. He says that to understand the holocaust one must understand the ability of modern society to turn mass murder into a routine administrative task. Green and Ward (2004) describe state crimes as illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by, or with the complicity of, state agencies to further state policies. State crimes are generally taken to include offences like torture and other violations of human rights. However, there is considerable controversy in defining what a state crime is. This is because the state is the source of law within nations, and itself defines what a crime is. It therefore has the power to avoid defining its own acts as criminal. Eugene McLaughlin (2001) identifies four categories of state crime: 1) Political Crimes: censorship & corruption 2) Crimes by security and police forces: e.g. genocide, torture and the disappearance of individ's 3) Economic crimes: e.g. the violation of health and safety laws. 4) Social and cultural crimes:e.g. instit'l racism. Human Rights and Transgressive Criminology: Herman and Julia Schwendinger (1970) argue that we should define crime in terms of the violation of human rights rather than the breaking of rules. If a state practises racism or sexism or economically exploits its citizens it is violating human rights and should be guilty of a crime. In this view the definition of crime is highly political. For example the Nazi's simply made it legal to persecute Jews. If we accept the legal view we may become subservient to whatever the government decides. The Schwendingers argue that Sociology should defend human rights- this again is transgressive criminology because it goes beyond (transgresses) traditional criminology as defined by law. Criticism of Schwendinger and Scwendinger: Cohen (2001) argues that there is a great deal of difference between 'gross' violations of human rights such as genocide and torture, and other acts such as economic exploitation which although immoral are not classified as criminal and should not be placed in the same category as mass atrocities such as the Holocaust. State crime and the culture of denial: Although Cohen criticises the Schwendinger's he does see human rights and state crime as increasingly important because of the growing impact of human rights organisations and the focus in criminology on victims. He focuses on the ways in which states conceal and legitimate their actions in complex ways - a spiral of denial. He provides the following examples: -Stage 1 - It did not happen - the state claims there was not a massacre. Then human rights groups find the bodies and prove it did. -Stage 2 - Its not what it looks like - they try to cover it up. -Stage 3 - They justify it - to protect national security or fight the war on terror. Cohen argues that states often use TECHNIQUES OF NEUTRALIZATION in order to justify their crimes: 1)re-label the c's they've committed as something else/ excusing them as regrettable but justifiable. 2)e.g. illegal torture & detention of terrorists is justified by denying they're victims of abuse as they themselves show no regard for human life/ human rights, or by appeals to higher loyalties such as the need to stop ruthless terrorists from massacring innocent ppl, or as necessary steps to protect national security in the war on terror. 3) states prov the necessary excuses & justifications to explain their human rights breaches to themselves, to those who actually carry out the acts, and to other countries in the rest of the world who might seek to condemn them for it. So far we have concentrated on the debate surrounding the definition of state crime and various examples as well as the ways in which states attempt to deny their actions. However, sociologists also provide a number of explanations with regards the causes of state crime. Integrated Theory - Green and Ward (2012) They suggest that state crimes arise from similar circumstances to those of other crimes, like street crimes, and involves integrating the three elements of the motivations of offenders, opportunities to commit crimes, and failures of control and how these interact to break rules and generate state crimes. This therefore suggests that the causes of state crime are no different than for any other type of crime. Crimes of Obedience: Kelman and Hamilton (1989) argued that violent states encourage obedience by those who actually carry out state-backed systematic human rights abuses, like torture, murder, genocide, even when they may personally regard them as deviant and immoral acts, in three ways: 1) Authorization: saying it's in line w policy. 2) Dehumanization: creating sub-humans & marginalizing the victims by stripping their identity 3) Routinization: this involves creating a routine of violence & destruction. In support of Kelman and Hamilton, Social psychologists have explained crimes of 'obedience' such as the holocaust or My Lai (where 400 were massacred by American soldiers in Vietnam) as a result of socialisation and social processes where such behaviour becomes acceptable. Bauman (1989): Bauman argues that the social conditions which produced holocaust included many of the features of modern society- such as science and technology and the division of labour. He says that to understand the holocaust one must understand the ability of modern society to turn mass murder into a routine administrative task. Evaluation of state crime: 1)There is not enough agreement on what constitutes human rights therefore using human rights violation as an indicator of state crime is problematic 2) It is difficult to find out the true extent of state crime as governments either deny or attempt to justify their actions 3) Some people argue that it is necessary to go beyond the limits of the law in fighting terrorism, claiming that assassination and torture are 'necessary evils' 4) It is very hard to research state crime as perpetrators will be hard to access. As a result our knowledge of the topic is based on media coverage and secondary documents which may contain bias. There is a huge 'dark figure' of state crime The problem of researching state crime: Tombs and Whyte (2003) point out that researchers are likely to face strong official resistance, and states can use their power to prevent or hinder sociologists doing research - by threats, by refusals to provide funding, and by denying access to state officials and to official documents. There is also a significant 'dark figure' of hidden state crime and no official statistics or victim surveys in relation to state crime are ever published. Researchers may have to rely on secondary data such as media reports, but even these tend to focus on state crimes in developing countries, and largely ignore state crimes committed in Western democracies.
Globalisation
Globalisation refers to the shrinking of the world in a social, cultural and an economic sense. McGrew (1992) defines globalisation as the process whereby events, decisions and activities in one part of the world have significant consequences for people in quite distant parts of the globe. Hobbes and Dunningham - Glocal They use the concept 'glocal' to explain how crime has developed. This means it is still locally based but has increasing global connections. Locally based criminals supply local markets with drugs, prostitutes, counterfeit or smuggled goods which they buy from national 'chains' who themselves deal with global 'businesses'. The driving force is economics with poorer nations supplying richer nations with illegal goods Ian Taylor (1997):crimes have moved production to cheaper countries, this has caused GB to become de-industrailised. Unemployment, temporary and pt working and job insecurity have increased deprivation which fuels criminal behav. Uses a Marxist perspective to explain the impact globalisation has had on crime. T.N.C.'s have moved production to cheaper countries which has caused Britain to become de-industrialised. Unemployment, temporary and part-time working and job insecurity have increased deprivation which fuels criminal behaviour. Also those with no job prospects and little hope often descend into alcoholism and/or drug dependency. Graham Taylor: Another Marxist approach who concentrates not on global criminal gangs but on crimes of T.N.C.'s. Some of these are 'green' (environmental) crimes such as dumping toxic waste in developing countries. Also many firms choose to locate where laws are either softer or not enforced or where they can bribe officials. This has led to some sociologists saying that crime is not just breaking laws but actions which cause harm to others and the environment (zeminology) Ulrich Beck (1992): Global Risk Consciousness Adopts a postmodernist view which states there has been an a rise in global risk consciousness. The threat to people used to come from locally based crime and criminals but this has changed to include global threats such as terrorism. Because of this increased awareness of global threats individuals feel less secure. Also governments seek to control borders and immigration which can increase tensions between different racial/ethnic groups. This in turn can increase hate or racially motivated crime Drug trafficking:the global drugs market is worth over $322 billion- this is higher than the GDP ( gross domestic gross and services produced each year) in 88% of countries around the world. This also contribute to local crime rates as people need to raise the money to buy these drugs once they are exported to the UK. People Trafficking:This is the illegal movement of smuggling people for a variety of reasons from sexual exploitation to forced labour. This also includes the illegal removal of organs for transplants. This is also related to illegal immigration Money laundering - this is concerned with making money that was obtained illegally look legit. This is necessary for drug dealers etc. that deal in large amounts of cash they need to clean their money to avoid detection. This is done through technology and makes it difficult for law enforces to track. Cyber crime - Refers to crimes using new media usually the internet. Cyber crime is the fastest growing of criminal activities in the world. Both web based crimes and the use of the web to make contacts e.g. make a terrorist network. Offences consist of illegal pornography, hacking, identity theft, fraud etc. and the UK have many offenders from outside the UK. Cybercrime: Cybercrime refers to a wide range of criminal acts committed with the help of ICT, predominantly the internet. Cybercrime as DISPLACEMENT:Displacement theory suggests that those who do not commit crime in real life may commit crime over the internet. This makes criminal profiling an issue. 1) Globalization has introduced new types of crime, in particular cybercrime 2) Globalization has seen older crimes take on new forms, for example people trafficking is merely an updated version of the slave trade 3) Globalization has changed the nature of crime with many crimes now being impersonal, for example people are able to defraud banks online rather than using old fashioned bank robbery 4) Globalization has greatly increased the value of crime, for example the international drugs trade 5) Globalization has made crime harder to combat, for example the immense flow of people across borders and the relatively unregulated internet have made it harder for law enforcement agencies to catch certain criminals 6) Globalization has provided opportunities to act globally to fight crime, for example Interpol (the trans-national policing intelligence organisation) fight crime across national boundaries 7) It is not clear how far globalization has created more crime, for example 'traditional criminals' may have abandoned their old activities and taken up cybercrime, trafficking etc. In this sense a form of DISPLACEMENT has occurred. Held and McGrew (2007) define globalisation as 'the widening, depending and speeding up of the worldwide interconnectedness' Globalisation involves a process of deterritorialisation this means that social, political and economic activities are no longer attached to one country but are transnational and stretched across the globe. Karofi and Mwanza (2006) argue that globalisation has led to a growing criminal economy and new types of crime have emerged. Glenny (2009) Uses the term McMafia to describe how transnational crime mirrors the activities of legal corperations such as McDonalds, who seek to provide the same goods and service all over the world. In a sense, they, like McDonalds, are operating as purely self-interested economic organisations which instead of fast food provide sex, drugs, guns, body organs, porn etc. Castells argues that globalisation has created transnational networks of organised crime, which operates in many countries. These employ millions of people and often work in conjunction with the state and legitimate businesses. Farr (2005) argues there are 2 main forms of global criminal networks. Established Mafia - like the Italian American mafia, the Chinese Triads etc. These are long standing groups based around tradition and family and take advantage of globalisation. Newer organised crime groups - which have emerged since globalisation and the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe. GLOBALIZATION AND CRIME • Globalisation: ' the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of life from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual' (Held et al 1999) • The global criminal economy: as societies become more interconnected, crime increases across national borders. There are new opportunities for crime, new means for committing crime and new offences, such as various cyber-crimes. Make a note of some of the forms that global crime takes. • Globalisation- supply and demand: Part of the reason for transnational crime is the economy of demand and supply. The rich west demands products eg. drugs, sex workers. The poor third world countries supply these services. For example in Columbia 20% of the population is dependent on the cocaine trade for their livelihood. • Global risk consciousness: Globalisation has bought with it an increase in insecurities surrounding the movement of people such as asylum seekers, economic migrants etc. This in turn had led to increasing border patrols to protect countries from this perceived threat. Much of this is whipped up by media 'moral panics' about terrorists and 'scroungers', 'flooding' the country. This has also bought about attempts at international cooperation eg. The 'wars' on terror, drugs etc. • Globalisation, capitalism and crime Taylor (1997): suggests that globalization, by giving free rein to capitalism has led to greater inequality and thus to increased crime. This works on the level of transnational companies who switch production to low wage countries with little thought for health and safety etc. These countries have difficulty controlling their own economies. • Also individualism created by marketization has led to people making decisions based on personal gain rather than community benefits or social cohesion. At the other end of the social scale the poor in developed countries experience more relative deprivation because of unemployment and turn to crime. For example L.A. drugs gangs. • Also Taylor points out that grand scale crime by elite groups is created by globalisation, such as banking fraud and insider trading. Taylor is good for linking global trends to changes in the patterns of crime but it doesn't explain why some people don't turn to crime! • Patterns of criminal organizations Hobbs and Dunningham: looked at the way local crime is organised and how this is linked to economic changes created by globalisation. Task: Describe and evaluate Hobbs and Dunningham's work. • McMafia - Misha Glenny (2008): Glenny refers to the organisations which emerged in the old Soviet block countries after the fall of communism as McMafia. The fall of communism in 1989 co-incided with the deregulation of global markets. Under communism the govt regulated the price of everything. After the fall they deregulated prices except for natural resources which stayed at the old price - a fortieth of the world market price. • This meant that those with any means to buy oil, diamonds etc could sell them on at a massive profit on the world market. This created many rich capitalists. The fall of communism also meant increasing disorder and these wealthy capitalists hired 'mafias' to protect their interests. These were ruthless and violent and unlike traditional mafia had no family hierarchy but purely pursued self-interest. • The Chechen mafia were one such organisation who quickly spread their operations to non-Chechen groups and made global criminal links.
Ecological theories & social class
It is obvious that since the beginning of history, people have realised that certain places and times (particularly night time) are dangerous, hence have avoided them. Sociologists are interested in exploring the links between where people live, work and have their leisure, and crime patterns. Explaining offenders: CHICAGO SOCIOLOGY The pattern: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, one of the fasted growing cities in the USA was Chicago. The city also possessed one of the new University departments of sociology, and two of its researchers, Shaw and McKay (1931) began plotting the location of the addresses of those who committed crimes in the city. The results showed that, if they divided the city into CONCENTRIC ZONES, each of the five zones they identified had different levels of offenders, with zone two (which was nearest the city centre) showing the highest rates. However RAPID SOCIAL CHANGE meant: the pop in zone 2 was changing regularly so that although the various zones maintained their diff levels of offenders, over time they were diff offenders. This meant there was something about the zones that was linked to crime rates rather than the individ's who lived there. immigs to arrive in the city were moved into the cheapest & least desirable zones-zones of transition. over time some were successful and moved out to + affluent suburbs while the - successful remained. The explanation: SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION: the high rates of pop turnover prevented the formation of stable commun's & weakened the hold of estab'd v's and isc's over individ's e.g. pressure & supervision, from the commun, neighbours and fam which is + stabled & estab'd communs discourage c & dev. created a state of soc'l disorganization. CULTURAL TRANSMISSION: in areas of soc'l disorganization, diff delinq v's develop a subc of delinq'y-to which children living in such communs are exposed, and through which young boys(and it's mainly boys) learn from older ones criminal trads estab'd & accepted in the area. criminal behav e.g. shoplifting, theft from cars &joyriding become a norm' part of everyday life, & these delinq v's are passed on (transmitted) from 1 gen to the next. DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION: One criticism of Shaw and McKay and other members of the Chicago school was that their theories were too vague and difficult to prove. In response Sutherland (1966) introduced the concept of differential association. Differential Association ppl's behav is conditioned by reference to the behav of others around them. if ppl associate w others who + commonly support c over conformity, and live in a situation where it seems 'everyone' is involved in c/dev behav. Then they're + likely to commit c themselves. + likely to occur in zones of transition bc of soc'l disorganization & cult'l transmission. -frequency (-) no. of times the association occurs -duration (-) over what length of time -priority (-) at what stage in your life (childhood socialization being + imp) -intensity (-) status of the person you associate w e.g. fam members rather than strangers. Most British research failed to reproduce the clear pattern of concentric circles that the Chicago School had identified. Crime rates certainly varied by areas, but in more complex patterns. Housing Policies in the UK: Morris (1957) found no evidence that people in areas of high delinquency held a coherent set of values that was any different from that of mainstream society: Croydon- the local council's policy of housing prob- fams together led to these areas becoming high crime rates. conc of delinq's in certain areas- linked to council housing probs. Baldwin et al (1976): TIPPING: In comparing two similar local authority housing estates, separated by a dual carriageway it was found that one estate had a 300% higher number of offenders and 350% higher level of crimes than the other. Baldwin believed the process of TIPPING could explain this: most estates consist of a mixture of ppl from diff backgrounds; if an area is tipped as a problem 1, those who can move out of it; the anti-social minority grows in size (relatives of the AS fams move in). crime rates grow. Skogan (1990) supports the above idea by suggesting that social control breaks down when a combination of physical deterioration in local buildings and parks, and social disorder in the form of public alcohol and drug use increase. It causes increased worry, an undermining of the police and forces those who can afford to, to leave. Explaining offences: Other sociologists have focused on WHERE crime takes place rather than WHERE offenders live. Wilkstrom (1991): the type of activities/ the geography of land use (residential & non-residential)/the composition of the pop (residents and visitors) --> criminologically relevant interactions (routine activities: the day to day activities of potential victims; the day to day activities of likely offenders (e.g. theft)/ "encounters and environments likely to promote friction" e.g. assaults./ absence of " capable guardians" --> the types of crime; their rates; their georgraphy. Cognitive Maps: Brantingham (1991) argue that we hold cognitive maps of towns and cities where we live, so some parts of our local town are familiar to us and others parts much less known. E.g. we know the routes from our homes to where we work, study or where we go for entertainment. Therefore offenders are most likely to commit offences in 'cognitively' known areas. Within these 'known' areas we need to apply an OPPORTUNITY THEORY, looking at how attractive a target is, and how accessible it is. Social Class - The core studies On the exam, if an essay on social class comes up then you will need to use your prior knowledge of studies from this module. These studies should be coupled with the ones on this hand-out: 1) Merton - Strain Theory 2) A.Cohen - Status Frustration 3) Hirschi - Bonds of Attachment 4) Matza - Subterranean Values/ Techniques of Neutralization 5) Cloward and Ohlin - Illegitimate Opportunity Structures 6) Miller - Focal Concerns 7) Murray - Underclass Theory 8) Cicourel - Negotiation of Justice 9) Young - Relative Deprivation/ Marginalization 10) Snider - Corporate Crime 11) Chambliss - Saints and Roughnecks 12) Graham and Bowling - Self Report Studies Obviously it is important to address the issue of crime across the social classes. The majority of sociological studies focus on working class deviants and the reasons for their behaviour, however you must also look at studies of middle class crime, such as corporate, white-collar and state crime.
Official statistics
Many theories of deviance are based on official statistics provided by government organizations such as the police and courts. These statistics usually show the following two trends: 1) Some social groups appear to be more involved in crime than others. They are: -young ppl -men -wc/unc -EMs (some) for some crimes These groups appear to be more likely to commit crimes than the middle class, the elderly, females and whites. Merton and Miller (who we have already studied) took these statistics at face value (they saw them as being reliable/accurate) and went on to explain why these groups appear to commit a disproportionate amount of crime. Crime Rates: Crime rates rose rapidly between the 1950s and 1990s but then fell slightly. Since the start of the recession in 2008 there is evidence that rates (in particular for property offences) have started to rise again. Maguire (2002): estimates only about 3% of all crime in England and Wales ends w a conviction. OCS don't inc all c's. Many c's are dealt w by other agencies e.g. the British Transport Police, tax evasion and frauds aren't included. Recording Policies: Incident reporting & recording(have to do an incident report for every 1)--> deciding if a crime should be recorded (police have to accept what the victim says unless there's 'credible evidence to the contrary')--> Closing incident records ( any further info recorded on force crime sys instead)--> recording a crime (determine how many c's to record & what offences have been committed)--> closing c records (when c has been solved-cautioned, charged or summoned to appear at court/ c never happened)--> check c records are correct Unrecorded Crime: Not all crimes that take place are recorded by the police. For a crime to be recorded at least three things must happen: 1)the circumstances as reported amount to a c defined by law 2)there's no credible evidence to the contrary 3) for offences against the state the points to prove to evidence the offence must clearly be made out, before a c is recorded. Some crimes, such as tax evasion, do not have an obvious victim, and it is these that are least likely to be reported. However, attempts have been made to estimate the amount of crime that victims are aware of but which is not reported to the police or not recorded as a crime by them (BCS). This is the 'dark figure/number' of crime. Victimization studies: The British Crime Survey (BCS) The BCS measures the amount of c in England & Wales (started in 1983) by asking ppl about c's they've experienced in the last yr. The BCS inc's c's which aren't reported to the police, so it's an imp alt to the ocr. Victims don't report c for various reasons. w/o the bcs, the govt would have no info on these unreported c's. Key findings of the 2006/7 BCS: -drug misuse declared. vandalism increased by 10% from 2005/6. compared to 2005/6= 1% decline in viol against the person, 7% decline in sexual offences & a 3% increase in robbery. -risk of being a victim of crime=24%=1% more than 2005/6. still lower than the peak of 40% in 1995 -since 1995, BCS c has reduced by 42% rep'ing 8m+ fewer c's w domestic burglary & all vehicle thefts falling by over a 1/2 (59% & 61%) & viol c falling by 41% Criticisms of the BCS: Asking people to recall crimes has many obvious pitfalls, four of which are outlined by Croall (1998): 1) c's can only be reported if victims are aware of them. 2) the results are limited to the memory & the definition of the event. 3) the survey only looks at households and neglects businesses. 4) the sample doesn't inc those under the age of 16. Self-Report studies (Not Official Statistics): Another way of uncovering hidden crime is to actually ask people whether or not they have broken the law. Self-report studies use questionnaires and interviews and ask people to admit to the number and types of crime they have committed. This data is then compared with official conviction rates in order to see what type of offender is more likely to be convicted. Some findings from Self-report studies include: Box (1981): rejected the impression created by os's that the wc youths are + likely to take part in delinq'y than mc youths. he suggested that class had no influence over whether a person admits to committing a c. Graham and Bowling (1995): study of 14-25 yr olds found that the self-reported offending rates were +/ - the same for the wh, bl & as respondents. so it challenges the view that the rate of offending of bl ethnic grps is higher than wh ethnic grps. Evaluation of self-report studies: 1) Individuals may wish to conceal their criminal acts. However, it is estimated that around 80% of those who reply tell the truth. 2) It is likely that self-report studies identify more offenders than official statistics. Bias in official statistics: Self-report studies indicate that there may be police bias against working-class delinquents. This view is supported by Chambliss's (1972) study of two American delinquent gangs: 1)'saints'-wh, mc suburban teens-teachers saw them as good guys, gave them extra chances despite them ditching sch, drinking & pulling pranks. leniency from teachers & police. went on to college and got good jobs. 2) 'roughnecks'-not very rich, came from small neighbourhood, committed similar c's to the 'saints'. teachers & police - lenient w them. most didn't go to college or get a good job. Chambliss claims that the police do not take middle-class delinquency seriously - such activities are often dismissed at harmless pranks. This can be linked to Cicourel's phenomenological approach whereby law enforcement agencies are influenced by stereotypes of the typical offender. Victims of Crime: Statistics on crime from the police and victim studies indicate that the chances of being a victim are not equally distributed: - The most likely victims of violent crime are young males who live in poorer areas and go out three or four times a week drinking - Victims of violence are most likely to be attacked by someone they know, and in the case of women especially by partners or ex-partners - 79% of rapes are committed by men known to the female victim and over half of rapes are repeat rapes by the same offender - People from minority ethnic groups are most at risk from personal crimes such as street robbery, partly because they are more likely to live in inner-city areas, be poor and be single parents. under-reported: -ppl may be implicating themselves in c -might not trust the police--> lack of faith. -fear of reprisals (scared of what will happen when reported) - embarrassment e.g. men domestically abused (challenges their hegemonic masculinity) -ppl deal w the c themselves e.g. petty crimes. -think the crime is too trivial. -lack of victim/awareness e.g. tax evasion. under-recorded: -not worth the paperwork e.g. grey figures. -target pressure etc (govt, police) -too trivial-insufficient evidence -nobody wants to proceed w the charges -lack of ability to investigate wh-collar c. -grping of c's -manipulating the stats. WHY ARE CRIME RATES FALLING? record prison populations- if in prison can't commit crime --> reduction in c. high no.s of police officers. greater use of CCTV global fall in c in developed cou's Changes in reporting, counting and recording of crime Mass media - crimes are now brought to the attention of the police by the public - this can now be through face book and twitter with GMP having an account. Changing police attitudes - A strong desire from the police to prosecute certain offenders- such as a crack down on knife crime etc. This leads to the allocation of more resources when policing this issue. Lack of tolerance for ASB - There is more reporting of vandalism and ASB in communities. Macguire (2007) suggests that growing privatization and the break down of community life means that people are no longer may be reporting incidents they once would have dealt with themselves. Changing social norms and attitudes - changing attitudes and greater information on crimes such as rape and child abuse leads to an increase in reporting. Community policing - This leads to more crimes being reported and recorded. Changing counting rules - changing the rules on how crimes are counted and recorded may lead to more stats but not necessarily more crime. Changes in the law - for example in 2012 292 new criminal offences were created and 188 abolished. Easier communication - social networking has led to an increase in crime. Theoretical approaches to the use of stats Functionalism, New right, Right realism -Accept stats as accurate and representative of most crime and useful for establishing patterns and developing hypothesis. Interactionism/ Labelling theory- Stats are a social construction and useful only to reveal stereotypes, labels and issues of racism, sexism etc. in the CJS. Marxism/ Neo Marxism- Statistics provide a biased view of crime as they under-represent the crimes of the powerful Feminism - Stats neglect women as victims and offenders Left Realism - Stats are broadly correct yet the under-represent the extent of white collar crime and over represent the extent of working class crime. reasons for increase in c: -+state action= as policing gets better + c's are detected. - +laws- bc of + legislation there are + possible c's. -+ sensitivity-ppl are + sensitive to reporting c's, physical & sexual violence to the police. -+ victims bc of increased affluence there are + things to steal; as opports have risen, so have c's. BBC-Police fail to record one in five of all crimes reported to them, says report- More than 800,000 - or one in five - of all crimes reported to the police each year are not being recorded by officers, a report suggests. The audit reviewed reports of crime between November 2012 and October 2013 across all 43 forces in England and Wales. It found that: Among the sample, 37 rape allegations were not recorded as a crime For 3,842 reported crimes, offenders were given a caution or a penalty notice - but inspectors believe 500 of those should have been charged or given a heavier penalty 3,246 of those offences that were recorded were then deemed to be "no crimes" - but inspectors believe 20% of those decisions were wrong and a crime had been committed The incidents recorded as "no-crimes" included 200 reports of rape and 250 of violent crime More than 800 of the victims were not told of the decision to "no-crime" their report Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor told the BBC that the under-recording of sexual offences was of particular concern and more sex crimes would be reported if victims felt they could trust the police. "The police need to institutionalise a culture of believing the victim. Every time," he said.
Marxism
Marxist theories of crime are conflict approaches, as opposed to the consensus approaches of the functionalist based theories of Merton and the subcultural theorists. However, Marxists do believe that people's behaviour is moulded by the social structure, but this structure is based on conflict between the social classes, with social inequality being the driving force behind crime. 1) Gordon (1971) - Criminogenic capitalism: For Marxists crime is inevitable because capitalism is criminogenic and by its very nature it causes crime. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the WC for profit. This is damaging to the WC and may lead to crime: Poverty may mean this is the only way to survive Crime may be the only way to obtain the consumer goods advertised by capitalism Alienation and a lack of control may lead to frustration leading to non-utilitarian crimes such as violence and vandalism. However crime is not confined to the working class. Capitalism is 'dog eat dog' based on ruthless competition between capitalists. The need to stay on top and make profit may lead to white collar crime such as tax evasion and breach of health and safety laws. Gordon (1976) argues that crime is a rational response to capitalism and therefore it is found in all social classes. A02: Crime is still found more among the working classes which would suggests it is not a rational response. This does not explain opportunists and individuals who turn to crime as a last resort. This also does not explain why not all individuals commit crime if it is a rational response to capitalism. 2) Chambliss (1975) - The law reflects ruling class ideology: Laws are not and expression of value consensus, as functionalists contend, but instruments of the ruling class, and they reflect the values and beliefs found in ruling class ideology: acts are defined as criminal only when it's in the interest of the rc to define them as such. this means c & dev is constructed by the rc when they q the exploitation made by those who rule (think of strikes). Therefore, c only exists bc it's created by those in soc whose interests are served by its presence. Box (1983) - The ideological definition of crime: definitions of c are only ideological constructs. they don't refer to those behav's which objectively cause us the most harm, injury and suffering (low pay). instead they refer to only a sub-section of those behav's committed by young, poorly educ'd males who are often unemployed, livie in wc impoverished neighbourhoods & freq'ly belong to an EM. e.g. property c & viol. committed by wc rather than the harm caused by govt & corps e.g. tax evasion, slave labour, environmental damage caused by oil spills. The agencies of social control protect ruling class interests and power, criminalize those who oppose them, and are used to control the workforce. Snider (1991) - Regulation of private businesses: will only happen if govt is forced to bc of a crisis. e.g. health & safety & pollution laws. The capitalist state is reluctant to pass laws that regulate the activities of businesses. The idea of linking between the law & interests of capitalism puts labeling theory into a wider struc context, laws are made, breaking of which constitutes dev, & dev is avoided to make capitalism go on. capitalist states often use vast sums to attract investment from big corps. they offer new investors tax concessions, cheap loans and grants. e.g. corp tax kept low in the UK to try to enc investment. Laws that appear to benefit everyone, or the occasional prosecution of members of the ruling class, have an ideological, manipulative function of providing a smokescreen suggesting that the law is impartial and even-handed, and that even ruling class offenders are properly handled, when the opposite is more often the case. 3) Selective law enforcement: The impression given by official statistics that crime is mainly a working class phenomenon is largely due to the selective enforcement of the law: Chambliss suggests there's 1 law for the rich and another for the poor, w c control focused on the wc, who are those most likely to be prosecuted for c. those of higher social classes are - likely to be prosecuted for offences, and, if they are generally get treated + leniently. This lenient treatment of higher social classes can be linked to Cicourel's concepts of TYPIFICATIONS and NEGOTIATED JUSTICE. Pearce (1976) - The crimes of the powerful: The biggest crimes of all are those committed by the ruling class - what Pearce called 'the crimes of the powerful' - in the form of white-collar crime, like fraud, tax evasion, corporate manslaughter and breaches of health and safety regulations: such crimes are rarely prosec'd, even if they're discovered. SLE gives the false impression that most c is committed by disturbed wc individ's & this diverts the wc's attention away from the exploitation they experience & the c's of the capital;ist class, and directs it toward other members of their own class. Individ's, not the system of ineq, are blamed for crime. Tax Avoidance: the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. Snider estimates that street crime in the USA costs $4bn per year; however corporate crime is estimated to cost roughly $80bn. Criticisms of the traditional Marxist approach: 1) They over-emphasise property crime, and don't have much to say about non-property offences like rape, domestic violence and murder (often referred to as non-utilitarian crimes). 2) They fail to develop any possible solutions to crime, apart from destroying the capitalist system and reducing social inequality. Even if this were to happen, evidence from former communist countries would suggest that crime still occurs under such a regime. Likewise, not all capitalist countries have high rates of crime, such as Switzerland. 3) They pay little attention to the victims of crime, in particular the fact that the majority of low-level offences (such as burglary, street violence, anti-social behaviour etc) are committed by working class people on other working class people. In general, the poor do not commit crimes against the rich. By painting criminals as 'modern day Robin Hoods' they can be accused of ROMANTICIZING working class crime. 4) They fail to realise that there are a wide range of laws that are in everyone's interests, such as those on health and safety (although this itself can be criticised), consumer protection and traffic laws. The police try to protect ALL the public from victimization and they are not simply ruling class agents who repress the working class. 5) Marxists focus too heavily on class inequality in relation to crime, whilst neglecting other factors such as ethnicity and gender Neo-Marxist approaches and the New Criminology: Traditional Marxists are concerned with how the ruling class are able to use the police (and army if necessary) to maintain their dominance and support the status quo. Basically the ruling class are in possession of the main means of SOCIAL CONTROL and they can be used as REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUS. Neo-Marxists however appreciate that IDEOLOGY can be used to control the masses (and can be just as effective). Hall has outlined how a HEGEMONIC CURTAIN can be drawn to hide a crisis of capitalism or other embarrassments that the ruling class wish to remain hidden. Stuart Hall (1978) - Policing the crisis (Hegemonic curtains) believed that the economic crisis of the late 1970's was covered up by the ruling elite shifting our attention towards moral panics, in particular the panic regarding immigrants and the so-called crime of 'mugging' Hall believed that the major economic problems and the substantial industrial and social unrest were a threat to the ruling class HEGEMONY, therefore a moral panic was created to divert the publics attention. Moral Panic: The black mugger symbolised the disintegration of the social order- British life coming apart at the seams. By presenting black youth as a threat the moral panic served the purpose of divide and rule by separating the working class based on skin colour. This also allowed for more authoritarian rules to be implemented. AO2:They can be criticised for not examining how capitalism led to a moral panic nor do they provide evidence that the public where fearful at this time. The moral panic over 'mugging' helped capitalism (the ruling-class) in the following ways: 1)re-estab's rc hegemony in soc-persuade that soc's probs were caused by immig's rather than the faults of thr capit sys. 2) cracks down on all opp to the rc. Working class crime as political resistance: The 'Robin Hood' theory of crime: Neo-Marxists often argue that working class crime is a form of resistance to the ruling class - a challenge to its property and power and as such, is reminiscent of Robin Hood who famously 'stole from the rich, to give to the poor'. However, this idea is heavily criticised by Left Realists (and official crime statistics) that show how it is the working class themselves who are more likely to be victims of crime. Gilroy (1982) - Anti-colonial struggles: the idea of bl criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes of AC's & As's. In reality these grps are no + criminal than any other grp. EMs are criminalized & therefore appear in greater no.s in the offic c stats. EM c is a form of politic'l resistance against a racist soc, this resistance has its roots in earlier struggles against GB imperialism. Most bl's & As's in the UK originated in former GB colonies, where their anti-colonial struggles taught them how to resist oppression e.g. riots & demonstrations. when they found themselves facing racism in GB they adopted the same forms of struggle to defend themselves but their political struggle was criminalized by the GB state. Criticisms of Neo-Marxism: 1) In our contemporary, media saturated society; it becomes increasingly harder to create hegemonic curtains as anti-establishment views are now freely available over the internet. The whole idea of hegemonic curtains assumes that we passively accept media content and that we are blind to the real problems of society. 2) Hall provided no evidence that newspaper editors, politicians and members of the criminal justice system, actively worked together to create a hegemonic curtain to divert attention away from ruling class failures.
Moors murders--Longford
Myra-fooled & disillusioned by love. Lord Longford-visited prisoners regularly. Myra asked to see him. Lord believed no1 was beyond forgiveness. Ppl disgusted by him talking to Myra Hindley. Myra-'dominated and corrupted accomplice' Lord lost pos as Leader of Lords in govt. Lord was invited by Brady for a prison visit. Myra mocked Lord behind his back ,writing to Brady (still). Brady said that Myra was the one who egged him on. Myra tried to become Catholic again. Lord didn't approve of pornography but most of soc didn't agree w him--> conventionality vs morality. Brady called Myra 'a sadist.' Some psychologists argue that when women are looking for a husband they look for someone like their father. Myra was abused by her father & later found Brady!! Myra tried to escape to London away from Brady but returned because she loved him-->similar murders had happened before but bc committed by men= not a story and they got parole. sexism-Myra doesn't get parole bc of her sex!! Up to now Lord only aware of 3 bodies. Myra tells Lord that she's going to admit to the 5 murders--> shows no remorse when tells him= his career is ruined!!
Gender
Official statistics show that males in most countries of the world commit far more crime than females. By their 40th birthday, about one in three males have a conviction of some kind, compared to fewer than one in ten females. Men are responsible for about four known offences for every one committed by women, they are more likely to be repeat offenders, and in general they commit more serious offences. Men are many times more likely to be found guilty or cautioned than women. Sociologists provide a variety of explanations as to why females appear to commit less crime than men: 1) Sex-role theory and gender socialization: from infancy, children are socialized that the 2 sexes are diff. female roles contain such elements as caring, passivity & domesticity. male roles, on the other hand, stress elements of toughness, aggressiveness & sexual conquest. it is argued that females generally lack the v's that are typically associated w delinquency. However, laddette behav challenges this. 2) Control theory and rational choice: Carlen (1988) and Heidensohn (1996) build on control and rational choice theories to explain why women generally commit less crime than men. Heidensohn believes that differences in social circumstances, opportunity, the socialization process and the different impacts of informal and formal social control. Following a study of a small number of working class women who had a criminal conviction, Carlen suggested that women are encouraged to conform by what she calls the CLASS DEAL and the GENDER DEAL: The CLASS deal: the material rewards that arise from working in paid employment, enabling women to purchase things like consumer goods & enjoy a respectable life & house. The GENDER deal: the rewards that arise from fulfilling their roles in the fam and home, w material & economical support from a male breadwinner. Most women accept and achieve these deals and the rewards and security arising from them, and therefore conform. However the rewards from these 'deals' are not available to all women: employment was hard to find due to poor educ'l qualific's & most of the women had either been raised in care or in abusive fams, essentially, in turning to c these women had little to lose and everything to gain! Heidensohn suggests that women have more to lose than men if they get involved in crime and deviance, because they face a greater risk of stigma or shame. Carlen argues that women are socialized into performing a central role as 'guardians of domestic morality', and they risk disapproval when they fail to do so. Heidensohn -Social Control of women in private and public: Men often dominate public spheres, like work, pubs and clubs, and the streets at night, in which most crime is committed, whereas women remain in the private sphere at home: - Women in the private domestic sphere: of the home, part control through the allocation to women of responsibilities for domestic labour & childcare prov's time & opport for c, and women face + serious conseq's if they do become involved. teen girls are likely to be + closely supervised by their parents than boys, reducing their chances of getting into trouble. - Women in the public sphere: outside the home, women are faced w part controls arising from fear of physical/ sexual viol if they go out alone at night, and at work they're often subject to sexual harassment & supervision by male bosses(e.g. Bridget Jones Diary) which restricts their opports to deviate. Women are also likely to face a 'glass ceiling' at work. This is an invisible barrier of discrimination which makes it difficult for women to reach the same top levels in their chosen careers as similarly qualified men, and this restricts their opports to engage in wh collar c like fraud. Women risk losing their reputation of being 'respectable' if they engage in deviance (e.g. they may receive labels like 'slag' or slapper' from men). All of this puts greater pressure on women to conform. 3) The CHIVALRY THESIS: The chivalry thesis suggests that more paternalism or sexism on the part of the criminal justice system, such as the male-dominated police and courts, means that women are treated more leniently than men Evidence for the chivalry thesis: -evidence for these crimes from the Home Office who found that women are 1/2 as likely to get a custodial sentence as their male counterparts. -female offenders are also seen as less serious by the police and therefore may be given a lesser sentence by the police such as a warning. Evidence against the chivalry thesis: -As females are far - likely to commit viol offences when they do the punishments are + severe. - Carlen (1997) suggests that the CJS hands out sentences to women based on if they've stuck to the n's & v's of what it means to be a woman in soc & the maintenance of roles such as a housewife and mother. -women are + likely to be kept in remand but then when the trial ends they are - likely to get a custodial sentence. -women are 2x as likely to be denied bail when it comes to serious offences AO2:Fred West after molesting a girl wasn't given a custodial sentence due to his epileptic fits. In conclusion it appears that women might commit less crime, and less serious offences than men, but they appear to suffer more severe consequences than men when they do commit serious offences. It can also be argued that police stereotyping (which views women as less likely to be criminal than men) leads to deviant female behaviour being overlooked by the police and so fewer female criminals are caught. Otto Pollak (1950) - the 'masked' female offender Pollak argued that official statistics on gender and crime seriously underestimated female criminality. He argued that many crimes committed by females went unreported and unrecorded, such as shoplifting and prostitution. He gives the following reasons: -seen as 'less guilty' as they're + vulnerable & in need of protection. -female offenders are generally regarded by the police as a less serious threat than men Growing Female Criminality Freda Adler (1975) - Sisters in Crime: Adler argued that the female crime rate was increasing for the following reasons: - Women's liberation - Women were beginning to compete with men for jobs and becoming more like men in other ways too, such as increased smoking, drinking and sexual activity. - As a result of the above (and the bridging of the gender gap) women were no longer afraid of being deviant. - Women now have more opportunity to commit crimes as they were in the public domain (no longer occupying the traditional housewife role) Denscombe (2001) argued that more recently; a masculinized 'ladette' culture had been adopted by many young women whereby they assert their identity through binge drinking, gang culture and risk taking. There is evidence that the police are starting to take these offences more seriously. Masculinities and crime Connell (1987) - HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: leads to criminality. as males try to reaffirm their masculine status by showing qualities such as aggression, control & power which often lead the subordination of women and criminality. Messerschmidt (1993) - In order to achieve success white middle-class boys have to be subservient to schoolteachers. Outside of school they demonstrate some of the characteristics they repress in school. This may involve pranks, vandalism, minor thefts and excessive drinking. This is called an ACCOMMODATING masculinity. -White working-class boys have less chance of academic success and tend to construct masculinity around the importance of physical aggression. They tend to be tough and oppose the authority of teachers. This is OPPOSITIONAL masculinity. -Lower working-class ethnic minority boys do not expect to be able to hold down a steady job and support a family. They use violence to express their masculinity and may become involved in more serious property crime. This offers them some prospect of material success. Lyng (1990) - EDGEWORK 'thrills and spills'- a motivating factor for some males to get involved in c as a means of expressing their masculinity + likely to occur among those for whom legit means of asserting masculinity are blocked/ missing but the nature of hegemonic masculinity might also explain why mc men try to assert masculinity through ruthlessness, ambition & thrill-seeking in business, leading to wh-collar & corporate c's e.g. computer hacking, embezzlement and fraud and illegal stock market/ money market trading. In the exam you may be asked to explain the different offences committed by men and women. Bea Campbell- young men seek compensation for lack of breadwinner status through 'aggressive masculinity' e.g. control over technology (stolen cars), over public space (the streets), violence against the 'other' (As shopkeepers and women). Susan Brownmiller-rape is part of a sys of male intimidation keeping women in fear.
Postmodernism
Once again Postmodernists are critical of 'BIG' theories of crime and deviance, preferring to focus on the unique nature of individual criminal acts. Basically this is another way of deconstructing an aspect of society. Postmodernists view the category 'crime' as simply a social construction, based on a narrow legal definition, reflecting an outdated metanarrative of the law which does not reflect the diversity of postmodern society. In postmodern society, people are increasingly freed from the constraints arising from social norms and social bonds to others, yet crime as presently defined is simply an expression of a particular view among those with power of how people should conduct themselves, and denies people's freedom, self-identity and difference. In response, Postmodernists argue that it is necessary to develop a transgressive approach, which goes beyond the usual boundaries of defining crime as simply law-breaking, and develop a conception of crime based on respect for people's chosen identities and lifestyles. A transgressive approach: crime as social harm: Henry and Milovanovic (1996) adopt such a transgressive approach to crime. They suggest that crime should be reconceptualised as people using power to show disrespect for, and causing harm of some sort to, others, whether or not it is illegal, embracing all threats and risks to people pursuing increasingly diverse lifestyles and identities: 1) Harms of reduction: Power is used to cause a victim to experience some immediate loss or injury. 2) Harms of repression: Power is used to restrict future human development. This conception of harm brings a wider range of actions into the criminal net, which are either not illegal or not traditionally taken seriously or perceived as part of the current crime 'problem'. These include harms threatening human dignity and respect, such as sexual harassment, and hate crimes, in which people are attacked or abused because of some characteristics which mark them out as different, such as their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. Smart (1995) argues that traditional approaches to crime all adopt a version of positivism in the following ways: - They try to find the causes of criminality. - They try to find ways of eradicating crime. - They assume that scientific methods are the best way of discovering the truth about crime. - They believe that it is possible to find an overall theory to explain crime. Postmodernists reject these traditional approaches to crime. - They do not believe that crimes can be linked together and that common factors that cause them can be identified. They regard each criminal act as unique. - They do not believe that it is possible to engineer reforms to improve society (changes in the law/ the way we police etc). Effective ways of dealing with crime must be LOCAL and INDIVIDUAL. The causes of crime according to Postmodernists: Individualism is a key feature of postmodernity as the metanarratives of social class, work and family, which once shaped our identities, have broken down and have been replaced by uncertainty and individual choice of identity. Therefore, rather than seeing crime as being caused by wider structural factors (like Functionalists and Marxists do), postmodernists look at how individual people may be motivated to commit crime for an infinite number of reasons such as: 1) Low individual self-esteem may be overcome by criminal activities designed to earn respect from others by harming them. Anti-social behaviour, bullying at school and hate crimes fall into this category 2) Levin and McDevitt (2008) suggest perpetrators of some hate crimes derive thrills, joys, excitement and pleasure and an escape from everyday routines by inflicting suffering on those they perceive to be different from themselves. 3) Katz (1988) looks at the pleasures and seductions of crime for individuals and Lyng (2005) examines crime as 'edgework', committed for the risk taking, between legal and criminal behaviour. In conclusion, this postmodernist approach argues that crime may be committed just 'for the kicks' and therefore the causes of crime lie in the individual and not in society. Evaluation of postmodern approaches: STRENGTHS 1) It recognises that there are other dimensions to the causes of crime beyond the more structural theories which have dominated in the sociology of crime and deviance. 2) It offers explanations for non-utilitarian crime, with no material benefit, like hate crimes and anti-social behaviour. 3) It provides a fuller picture of the pattern of crime than that traditionally provided, as the transgressive conception of crime as 'harm' encompasses a range of behaviour that has been largely neglected in the law and in sociological theories. 4) Lea (1998) believes that postmodernism has made a useful contribution to the study of the control of crime. In the postmodern world INFORMAL CONTROL MECHANISMS (ICM's) come to dominate at the expense of the central state (police/ government). Examples of ICM's are: - Private security firms watch over shopping malls. - Closed-circuit television (CCTV) follows our movements around city and town centres. - Security firms prevent undesirables from entering some estates. - People are treated differently in different areas and seen increasingly as customers and consumers. LIMITATIONS 1) It doesn't explain why most people don't use power to harm others, and why particular individuals or groups find it necessary to actively engage in acts of harm as a means of asserting their identity. Lea (1998) suggests traditional theories like marginality, relative deprivation and subculture still provide a useful starting point for explaining why certain groups have been denied access to less harm-causing sources of identity. 2) It fails to recognise that the consumer society, in which personal identity and fulfilment are tied up with the purchase of consumer goods, can lead to resentment among those who can't afford to participate. 3) It fails to recognise that many people still have strong conceptions of right and wrong behaviour, which underpin the law and much sociological theory of crime. 4) Lea points out that postmodernist theories are not much more than a re-discovery of labelling theory or radical criminology, which concluded long ago that crime was simply a social construction, and that power was a crucial element in that construction. 5) However, Lea also believes that postmodernism is regressive (avoids major questions) since it denies the possibility of being able to do anything to change unequal and unjust societies.
Moors murders-See No Evil
Pauline Reade-police said ran off w a guy but supposedly wasn't that type of girl. John Kilbride (killed day before JFK assassination)-happy boy wouldn't run away-obvs abducted. Angela-Maureen's baby-rushed to hospital, wasn't breathing properly--> died-windpipe hadn't developed properly. Brady took Dave to the moors for a stroll at night-Myra & Maureen stayed in car. Myra had images of dead drowned friend in her mind for years. yet still killed kids despite experiencing her sisters loss, knew how the parents would feel but still did it. police thought Lesley was killed by stepdad-wouldn't admit it. Myra used to be Catholic. No longer believed in sin/redemption/forgiveness when w Brady (perhaps desensitized). Myra joined gun club-Brady got Dave interested as well. Brady & Myra regularly took Maureen and Dave to countryside e.g. moors-Dave aware of Brady's obsession w green areas. A lot of Gorton knocked down and people rehoused so difficult to find culprits. Brady tries to get Dave to do an armed robbery. potential dislike for kids-Myra said that her sister should've had an abortion. Brady admitted to Dave that he'd killed ppl-Dave didn't believe him despite Dave standing on their graves.
Left Realism
Realist theories differ from previous approaches as they focus on the reality of crime: what's actually happening, the impact of crime on victims and local communities, and the development of practical policies to reduce crime. Left Realism is associated with Lea and Young (1984) and was developed in the 1980s in response to Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches to crime which they criticise for: Romanticizing working class crime: Robin Hood was a criminal anti-hero who stole from the rich to give to the poor. Some Marxists view wc c as justified bc the sys makes them victims of soc. They say that wc ppl aren't criminsl, they're victims of the legal sys and are to be admired bc they're justified in their actions. Young- it's not good enough to gloss over wc c as being a response to oppression. His reason= much c is viol directed against the person, thus DV is areal threat & shouldn't be dismissed as an act of frustration at the economy AND the victims of wc c's are often the least powerful in a neighbourhood, so young men will target the old, the poor, immig's & the vulnertable, who are even + deprived & poor than themselves. AO2:- failing to take victimization seriously -no practical policies to reduce crime. Through victim surveys, such as the Islington crime surveys, Left Realists found crime to be a serious problem, particularly in more deprived inner-city areas, and needed policies to tackle it. The crimes people fear: street crime like mugging, viol, car c and burglary which is mainly carried out by young wc men. The working class as victims: the deprived wh & EM residents living in inner-city areas are those at the greatest risk of becoming victims of these offences. Left Realist causes of crime: Like Marxists, Left Realists accept that structural inequalities, social conditions and perceptions of injustice are the major causes of crime. Lea and Young attempt to explain why people turn to crime using three key concepts: 1) Relative Deprivation: It isn't depriv' as such which causes ppl to commit c, as most depriv'd ppl don't turn to c, but whether they see themselves as depriv'd rel to others they compare themselves w. This can generate discontent & resentment as their expec's aren't met. 2) Marginalization: some grps find themselves polit'ly & econ'ly 'on the edge' of mainstr soc & face soc'l exclusion through things like poor educ achievemtn, unemployment & lack of involvement in commun orgs. along w rel dep it can lead to ASB, c, viol & rioting. 3) Subculture: wc dev subc's emerge as grp solutions to the probs of rel dep & marg'ity arising from soc'l ineq, though they take diff forms over time & in diff contexts, such as street gangs or various youth subc's. these can act as motivators for c, as some wc subs see offending as acceptable behav. Applying Left Realist concepts to ethnic minority crime: Left Realists argue that the high rate of offending amongst the black community in the UK (and USA) is not down to police racism and 'typifications' (like Marxists and Interactionists would argue), rather the official statistics accurately reflect a higher rate of black crime because the black community are marginalized from mainstream society and find themselves in poverty. Marginalization includes: -wh & bl wc youth often feel alienated by sch's, unemployment, low wages, the police etc. -young bl men face marginalization through prejudice & harassment e.g. 'military policing' (stop and search) -they argue that this may be the 'straw that breaks the camel's back'-economic marginalization is transferred into c. However, this view of black offending is heavily criticised by Paul Gilroy (1983) who argues that, not only are the police racist but black people are engaged in 'colonial struggles' - in other words, they are motivated to commit crime in response to their treatment in the slave trade. Late modernity and the bulimic society: Young (2003) argues that late-modern societies are media saturated, and everyone, even the poorest, is included in consumer culture through constant exposure to advertising of consumer goods, which raises everyone's expectations of what the good life is like. Young argues that this increases relative deprivation and has created a 'bulimic society'. Bulimic Society: where ppl gorge themselves on m images of an expensive consumer lifestyle but then are forced by their econ circumstance to vomit out their raised expecs. Lewis et al. (2011) found the desire to consume by looting what was otherwise denied them in a bulimic society was a significant factor motivating the participants in the 2011 London riots. Young argues that this sense of relative deprivation is made worse by three further features of late modernity: 1) Growing individualism: there's a growing focus on self-seeking, individ freedom & - commun spirit & concern for others. 2) The weakening of informal controls: trad fam strucs & communs are breaking down therefore there's a lack of informal support on the behav of those within a commun'. 3) Growing economic inequality & economic change: Globalisation has meant that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has grown massively. The factors of late modernity considered above combine in a toxic mix that generates crime among young people in the most deprived communities. In such communities, the life of young people is marked by greater risk, more uncertainty and less informal control over their behaviour than ever before. The anger and frustration that this generates often motivates 'risk taking' behaviour which Lyng (2005) referred to as EDGEWORK. Left Realist solutions to the problem of crime: As Left Realists view the causes of crime as being rooted in social inequalities they argue that significant changes must be made to society in order to reduce marginalization, relative deprivation and individualism. Also, stronger communities need to be created in order to increase informal social control. Their solutions include: 1) Improving policing: the public should have + say in shaping police policy, & officers should spend + time investigating c rather than simply being 'on the beat', which antagonizes the public. Young argues that certain areas of crime are over-policed (underage drinking & juvenile status crimes), whereas others are under-policed (racial assault). The police need to 'get their priorities right' & address these under-policed areas. 2) Reducing inequality: LR's call for major struc changes to tackle discrimination, ineq of opport & unfairness of rewards, and prov decent jobs & housing for all. 3) Improving communities: self-help grps, neighbourhood networks, tenant participation, victim support schemes & victim-offender mediation. The above solutions have been criticised for being too costly and Right Realists argue that lack of socialization rather than poverty is the main cause of crime. The Square of Crime: To understand and tackle crime, Lea and Young suggest it is necessary to examine the inter-relationships between four elements of what they call 'the square of crime': 1) Social structural factors and formal social control by the state: these influence the context of crime, how it's defined its social causes & how the law is enforced? 2) The public and the extent of informal social control: How do ppl react to c in their local area? 3) The role of victims: Why do ppl become victims & how do they react to this? Victims are often of the same E & C & commun as the offenders. Do victims report offenders? 4) The offenders: What meaning does the act have to offenders? Is it because they feel marginalized? Or because they are in a subc? What extent is it a choice & what extent is it a necessity? Have they been motivated to offend by marginalization, relative deprivation & subcultures? Strengths of Left Realism: impact on social policy: One of the strengths of Left Realism is that it has influenced government policy in recent years (more so than other theories). Examples include: 1) The police now employ civilians to do routine tasks freeing up officers to investigate crime. 2) The police now put much more emphasis on domestic violence and racially motivated crimes 3) Neighbourhood policing is now a requirement of all UK police forces. The police have to engage with the public via community meetings. 4) Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) now provide low level community policing 5) New Labour's 'Communities that Care' policy invested heavily in deprived neighbourhoods. Criticisms of Left Realism: 1) Left Realists fail to explain why some people who experience relative deprivation and marginalization turn to crime, while others do not. For example, the elderly suffer from marginalization but have an extremely low crime rate and the so called 'toxic mix' of factors in late-modernity cannot explain why most deprived working class youths do not turn to crime. Also, Left Realists neglect other responses to relative deprivation and marginality, such as Merton's retreatism and ritualism. 2) By using victimisation studies based on urban samples (such as Islington in London), Left Realists exaggerate the amount of street crime and therefore their work is not representative of all areas in the UK. 3) Many of the solutions offered by Left Realists are expensive and to an extent, unrealistic (this can be linked to social policy in T+M) 4) Left Realists rely too heavily on victims accounts of crime and therefore fail to investigate the 'subjective' motives of offenders. Therefore they fail to truly explain the causes of crime. 5) Left Realists have neglected to investigate corporate and organised crime, despite such crimes as fraud, neglect of health and safety and pollution controls and the sale of unsafe products having the greatest impact on the most deprived communities. 6) They neglect gender as a significant issue, and particularly those crimes of which females are the more likely victims, such as domestic violence and rape. Left Realism tends to be part of the 'malestream criminology' which feminists are critical of.
Right Realism
Right realists offer a different approach than Young and the left realists. They claim that trying to get rid of poverty will not lead to reductions in crime instead arguing that some people are born with a predisposition to commit crime. This predisposition is realised if they are not socialized properly. This approach can be linked to Charles Murray's 'underclass' theory and Hirschi's bonds of attachment. However, like Left Realists they argue that strong communities are an effective way of reducing crime rates. Value consensus and shared morality: This is reflected in the law, and criminals are immoral because they breach this consensus. Social order is crucial, and individuals should be able to live their lives without fear of crime. People are naturally SELFISH: The natural desire to commit crime by taking short cuts needs to be regulated by agencies of socialization and social control, including the law. Community control: The most effective form of crime control is through strengthening the bonds of community - the types of bond suggested by Hirschi's control theory. Stricter socialization through the family and community pressure, and re-establishing social cohesion and a sense of individual responsibility are all likely to be more effective than police action. It is poor socialization and lack of community controls that lie behind crime and anti-social behaviour. Rational choice and opportunity: People are rational, and make choices over any course of action they take after weighing up the costs of doing so against the benefits gained. Cornish and Clarke (1986): applied this to crime using rational choice theory, suggesting that people choose to commit crime because they decide that the benefits gained are greater than the potential costs, the opportunities for crime are available and the risk is worth it. Broken Windows Thesis - Wilson and Kelling (1982) W + K developed Broken Windows thesis whereby they argue that if 'incivilities' such as anti-social behaviour are not kept to a minimum (or if broken windows are not fixed) then there will be a gradual deterioration of a neighbourhood: Where this happens the crime rate increases with a sense of 'anything goes' as vandalism, litter, noise and graffiti become prevalent. This growing disorder weakens the SOCIAL BONDS of the community and should therefore be dealt with by a ZERO TOLERANCE policy by the police and TARGET HARDENING In response to the problem of deteriorating neighbourhoods Right Realists put forward two key solutions: 1) Situational Crime Prevention and Target Hardening: Target hardening is sometimes referred to as 'situational crime prevention'. Examples include: CCTV Anti-vandal paint Gated communities Anti-climb paint Mosquito devices Central locking (on cars). It doesn't try to change instit's or anything about the soc but just reduce opports for ppl to commit c. Ron Clarke describes scp as a 'pre-emptive approach that relies not on improving soc, but simply on reducing opports for c.' Clarke identifies 3 methods of scp: -directed at specifc c's - involve managing/ altering the immediate environment -aim to increase effort & reduce benefits of c. 2) Zero Tolerance Policing: The role of the police should be to focus on controlling the streets and clamp down on undesirable behaviour such as prostitution, begging and drunkenness, ensuring that law abiding citizens feel safe. Right realists also argue that policies should reduce the rewards and increase the costs of crime by using rapid prison sentences as an effective deterrent. Evaluation of Right Realism: Zero tolerance policing has been criticised for a number of reasons: - Displacement: targeting certain areas with 0 tolerance policing merely displaces c to another area. It also diverts police attention away from + serious c's. -There is little evidence to suggest that increasing police foot patrols actually reduces crime - although it may help to achieve a reduction in the fear of crime. -Zero tolerance attitudes to trivial offences can lead to a widespread anti-police attitude in communities and the increased labelling of individuals -Zero tolerance policies often discriminate against ethnic minority youths and the homeless Other criticisms of Right Realism: 1) Left Realists argue that it is a lack of investment in areas rather than 'incivilities' that causes neighbourhoods to decline. Poverty as a cause of criminality is also ignored by Right Realists. 2) Right realists pay no attention to white collar crime and other 'hidden crimes' like domestic violence or child abuse. 3) Right realism assumes that offenders act rationally, weighing up costs and benefits, but some crimes are impulsive and do not have any obvious gain, like vandalism or violence: Katz (1988) and Lyng (1990): Edgework and the 'seductions' of crime: Katz-the causes of crime are constructed by the offenders themselves, but the causes they construct are lures & pressures that they experience as independently moving them towards c. Edgework-the notion that voluntary risk-taking activities are about exploring the edges that exist along cult bound's. These bound's might inc those between sanity & insanity, consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death. The strengths of Right Realism: Impact on social policy: Despite the many criticisms of Right Realist views, their thinking has directly influenced government crime policy: ASBOs (Anti-social behaviour orders): ASBOs are civil orders to protect the public from behaviour that causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. An order contains conditions prohibiting an individual from carrying out specific anti-social acts or (for example) from entering defined areas. However, ASBOs (which have now been replaced by criminal behaviour orders) can be criticised from a labelling point of view: Newburn (2007): ASBOs were v quick to label individ's as dev's even if they'd not actually broken any specific laws. Also, ASBOs were often seen as a 'badge of honour' by many young delinquents and breaches of the orders were frequent and almost impossible to prevent.
Subcultural theories
STRUCTURAL theories of deviance such as Functionalism explain the origins of deviance in terms of the position of the individual in society. SUBCULTURAL theories of deviance explain deviance in terms of the subculture of a particular social group (rather than just the individual). Certain groups develop norms and values that are different from those held by other members of society. Albert Cohen (1955) The delinquent subculture: Cohen's work updated Merton's position and combined both structural and subcultural theories of deviance. Cohen criticizes two aspects of Merton's theory of working-class deviance: 1) Cohen argues that deviance is a COLLECTIVE rather than an individual response 2) He also believed that Merton ignored NON-UTILITARIAN crimes (ones which have no financial reward) such as vandalism and joyriding. Lower working-class boys want success but cannot achieve their goals because CULTURAL DEPRIVATION leads to educational failure and dead-end jobs. They suffer from STATUS FRUSTRATION and turn to criminal paths to achieve success. An alternative set of norms and values is adopted - a DELINQUENT SUBCULTURE - which reverses mainstream culture by valuing activities such as stealing, vandalism and truancy. Evaluation of Albert Cohen: Box (1981) argues that Cohen's theory only applies to a minority of delinquents. The rest accept mainstream standards of success but resent being seen as failures and turn against those who they feel look down on them. Cloward and Ohlin (1962) Delinquency and Opportunity: C+O accept Merton's explanation of deviance in terms of the legitimate opportunity structure, but they argue that he failed to consider the ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE. This is where the opportunity to succeed by illegitimate means also varies. For example, in one area there may be a thriving criminal subculture, while in another area this subculture may not exist. Thus, in the first area the adolescent has more opportunity to become a successful criminal. Like Merton, Cloward and Ohlin believe that there is greater pressure on the working classes to deviate because they have less opportunity to succeed by legitimate means. They identified three possible responses to the situation 1) CRIMINAL SUBCULTURES: These emerge in areas of established organised crime where young people are exposed to deviant norms and values and role models. There will be opportunity to rise within a CRIMINAL HIERARCHY. e.g. Mafia & vandalism 2) CONFLICT SUBCULTURES: This will usually be GANG VIOLENCE when there is little opportunity or access to either the legitimate or illegitimate opportunity structures. The activities of the subculture acts as a release from anger and frustration. e.g. run down estates. 3) RETREATIST SUBCULTURES: Organised around illegal drug use and occur because members have failed to succeed in both types of opportunity structure-hippies (mc) e.g. 'double failures'--> failed to succeed both in mainstr soc & in c & gang cults. Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin: 1) Taylor, Walton and Young (1973) criticize Merton, Cloward and Ohlin for assuming that everybody is committed to the success goal of achieving wealth. They point out the existence of other possible goals and note that certain groups, such as 'hippies', make a conscious choice to reject conventional goals. 2) However, South (1997) believes that the British Drug trade, which is largely based around 'disorganized crime', can be compared to Cloward and Ohlin's conflict subcultures. Also many of the drug users themselves form part of a Retreatist subculture. Miller (1962) Lower class subculture: Miller believed that the lower classes had their own distinctive values which were passed on from generation to generation and which actively encouraged lower-class men to break the law. He identified various 'focal concerns' of the 'lower class', which included: Toughness: a respect for courage Smartness: the capacity to outsmart others especially those who are seen to be cleaver e.g. Police, teachers Excitement: the search for thrills with major risk taking Miller believed that delinquency was the result of an exaggerated conformity to these 'focal concerns'. Evaluation of Miller 1) Many sociologists would reject Miller's picture of an isolated lower class whose values bear no relation to the mainstream culture. 2) Gill (1997) in a study of a working class area found that residents did not see it as wrong to commit some crimes such as stealing from an unoccupied house (this supports Miller) 3) Braithwaite (1989): crimes that involve direct harm to the victim are seen as wrong in all classes in Western societies. The underclass and crime: You should be familiar with Charles Murray from last year, the rather opinionated New Right sociologist. Charles Murray (1989) Welfare, culture and criminality: Murray believed that the underclass share different values to mainstream society and are responsible for a large proportion of crime. He blames welfare benefits which have made it possible to become a single parent. He also feels that young men are rejecting the idea that it is important to hold down a job. Inequality, the underclass and crime: Taylor (1997): Rejects Murray's New Right views but accepts that an underclass does exist. He believes that young, unskilled w-class males have been affected by increasing inequality and declining job prospects. Underclass criminal activity is a result of material deprivation rather than unacceptable culture. Evaluation of underclass theories of crime: Many sociologists have questioned the existence of an underclass culture: 1) Tham (1998):compared welfare policies and crime rates in Britain and Sweden. Sweden in the 1990s had a more generous benefit system however crime increased more rapidly in Britain. Tham believed that crime rates are more closely linked to inequality. 2) Mooney (1998): argues that there is no link between single parenthood and criminality. Single parents are more likely to be the VICTIMS of crime. can't afford protection e.g. stronger windows and better locks. In contrast to many structural and subcultural theories, David Matza (1964) argues that delinquents are, to a considerable extent, committed to the same values as other members of society. Deviance becomes possible when 'TECHNIQUES OF NEUTRALIZATION' are used which temporarily release them from the hold society has over them. Techniques of neutralisation include: - Denial of responsibility for a deviant act - blaming parents or the area they live in, for example. - Denial of injury resulting from the act - they claim that no harm was done, that it was just a bit of 'mischief'. - Denial that the act was basically wrong - an assault on a homosexual or a robbery from an expensive shop, for instance may be seen as 'rough justice'. - Condemnation of those who enforce the rules - the police may be seen as corrupt or teachers as unjust. - Appeal to higher loyalties - the law may be broken to help family or friends. Matza argues that the use of techniques of neutralization throws serious doubt on the idea of deviant subcultures: - Their existence is evidence of guilt and shame, which suggests at least partial acceptance of mainstream values. - One set of mainstream values is sometimes used to justify breaking another. Thus, assaulting homosexuals is justified since it supports mainstream sexual behaviour. Subterranean Values: Once potential delinquents have freed themselves from social constraints, they are in a state of DRIFT and may go on to commit deviant acts. Matza explains the attraction of deviance in terms of SUBTERRANEAN VALUES. These values encourage enjoying yourself, acting on the spur of the moment, being aggressive and seeking excitement. Respectable members of society only express these values at carefully controlled moments, but delinquents express them at inappropriate times - for example, seeking excitement at school or being aggressive while at work. Nayak (2003) -NE of England-identified 3 youth cult'l grps-'Real Geordies', 'White Wannabes' and 'Charvers': 1) The 'Real Geordies'- wh wc young men-'the salt of the earth natives' 2) The 'White Wannabes'- were wh young ppl who 'wanted to be black' & who thus adopted many of the stylistic attributes of urban black (youth) cult. 3) The 'Charvers'-'making different transitions in the post-industrial economy that involved forging different pathways into 'gang' and neighbourhood networks.'
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The murders are so named because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, more than 20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966. The body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered. The police were initially aware of only three killings, those of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride. The investigation was reopened in 1985, after Brady was reported in the press as having confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist the police in their search for the graves, both by then having confessed to the additional murders. Characterised by the press as "the most evil woman in Britain",[1] Hindley made several appeals against her life sentence, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but she was never released. She died in 2002, aged 60. Brady was declared criminally insane in 1985, since when he has been confined in the high-security Ashworth Hospital. He has made it clear that he wishes never to be released, and has repeatedly asked that he be allowed to die. The trial judge, Mr Justice Fenton Atkinson, described Brady and Hindley in his closing remarks as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity".[4] The full extent of Brady and Hindley's crimes did not come to light until their confessions in 1985, as both had until then maintained their innocence.[5] Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a neighbour of Hindley's who disappeared on her way to a dance at the British Railways Club in Gorton, Manchester, on 12 July 1963.[6] That evening, Brady told Hindley that he wanted to "commit his perfect murder". He told her to drive her van around the local area while he followed behind on his motorcycle; when he spotted a likely victim he would flash his headlight, and Hindley was to stop and offer that person a lift. Both Brady and Hindley provided different accounts of the murder.[5] Driving down Gorton Lane, Brady saw a young girl walking towards them, and signalled Hindley to stop, which she did not do until she had passed the girl. Brady drew up alongside on his motorbike, demanding to know why she had not offered the girl a lift, to which Hindley replied that she recognised her as Marie Ruck, a near neighbour of her mother. Shortly after 8:00 pm, continuing down Froxmer Street,[7] Brady spotted a girl wearing a pale blue coat and white high-heeled shoes walking away from them, and once again signalled for the van to stop.[5] Hindley recognised the girl as Pauline Reade, a friend of her younger sister, Maureen.[8] Reade got into the van with Hindley, who then asked if she would mind helping to search for an expensive glove she had lost on Saddleworth Moor. Reade said she was in no great hurry, and agreed. At 16, Pauline Reade was older than Marie Ruck, and Hindley realised that there would be less of a hue and cry over the disappearance of a teenager than there would over a child of seven or eight. When the van reached the moor, Hindley stopped and Brady arrived shortly afterwards on his motorcycle. She introduced him to Reade as her boyfriend, and said that he had also come to help find the missing glove. Hindley claimed Brady took Reade onto the moor while Hindley waited in the van. After about 30 minutes Brady returned alone, and took Hindley to the spot where Reade lay dying. Her throat had been cut twice with a large knife. The larger of these wounds was a four-inch incision across her voice box, and the collar of Reade's coat had been deliberately pushed into this wound.[9] He told her to stay with Reade while he fetched a spade he had hidden nearby on a previous visit to the moor, to bury the body. Hindley noticed that "Pauline's coat was undone and her clothes were in disarray ... She had guessed from the time he had taken that Brady had sexually assaulted her."[5] Brady's account differed from Hindley's. He claimed that Hindley was not only there at the scene, but that she assisted him with the sexual assault on Pauline.[10] Returning home from the moor in the van—they had loaded the motorcycle into the back—Brady and Hindley passed Reade's mother, Joan, accompanied by her son, Paul, searching the streets for Pauline.[11] Accompanied by Brady, Hindley approached 12-year-old John Kilbride in the early evening of 23 November 1963 at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, and offered him a lift home on the pretext that his parents would be worried about him being out so late. With the added inducement of a bottle of sherry, Kilbride readily agreed to get into the Ford Anglia car that Hindley had hired. Brady told Kilbride that the sherry was at their home, and they would have to make a detour to collect it. On the way he suggested that they take another detour, to search for a glove he said that Hindley had lost on the moor.[12] When they reached the moor Brady took the child with him while Hindley waited in the car. Brady sexually assaulted Kilbride and attempted to slit his throat with a six-inch serrated blade before fatally strangling him with a piece of string, possibly a shoelace.[13] Twelve-year-old Keith Bennett vanished on his way to his grandmother's house in Longsight (Manchester) during the early evening of 16 June 1964,[14] four days after his birthday. Hindley lured him into her Mini pick-up—which Brady was sitting in the back of—by asking for the boy's help in loading some boxes, after which she said she would drive him home. She drove to a lay-by on Saddleworth Moor as she and Brady had previously arranged, and Brady went off with Bennett, supposedly looking for a lost glove. Hindley kept watch, and after about 30 minutes or so Brady reappeared, alone and carrying a spade that he had hidden there earlier. When Hindley asked how he had killed Bennett, Brady said that he had sexually assaulted the boy and strangled him with a piece of string.[15] Brady and Hindley visited a fairground on 26 December 1964 in search of another victim, and noticed 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey standing beside one of the rides. When it became apparent that she was on her own, they approached her and deliberately dropped some of the shopping they were carrying close to her, before asking for the girl's help to carry some of the packages to their car, and then to their home. Once inside the house Downey was undressed, gagged and forced to pose for photographs before being raped and killed, perhaps strangled with a piece of string. Hindley maintained that she went to fill a bath for the child and found the girl dead (presumably killed by Brady) when she returned. In Dr. Chris Cowley's book Face to Face with Evil: Conversations with Ian Brady, Brady states that it was Hindley who killed Lesley Ann Downey. The following morning Brady and Hindley drove with Downey's body to Saddleworth Moor,[16] where she was buried, naked with her clothes at her feet, in a shallow grave.[17] On 6 October 1965 Brady met 17-year-old apprentice engineer Edward Evans at Manchester Central railway station (now Manchester Central) and invited him to his home at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley, Cheshire, where Brady beat him to death with an axe.[18] Initial report A roadside view of several 20th-century British houses. The houses are set high above the roadside. A grass slope is visible to the lower left of the image, and a tall brick wall to the lower right. A gap in the centre of the image indicates the absence of a single house The empty plot where 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley, once stood. Manchester City Council decided in 1987 to demolish the house. The attack on Edward Evans was witnessed by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith, the husband of her younger sister Maureen. The Hindley family had not approved of Maureen's marriage to Smith, who had several criminal convictions, including actual bodily harm and housebreaking, the first of which, wounding with intent, occurred when he was aged eleven.[19] Throughout the previous year Brady had been cultivating a friendship with Smith, who had become "in awe" of the older man, something that increasingly worried Hindley, as she felt it compromised their safety.[20] On the evening of 6 October 1965 Hindley drove Brady to Manchester Central railway station, where she waited outside in the car while he selected their victim; after a few minutes Brady reappeared in the company of Edward Evans, to whom he introduced Hindley as his sister. After they had driven back home and relaxed over a bottle of wine, Brady sent Hindley to fetch her brother-in-law. When they got back to the house Hindley told Smith to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. When the signal came Smith knocked on the door and was met by Brady, who asked if he had come for "the miniature wine bottles".[18] Brady led Smith into the kitchen and left him there, saying that he was going to collect the wine. A few minutes later Smith heard a scream, followed by Hindley shouting loudly for him to come and help.[21] Smith entered the living room to find Brady repeatedly striking Evans with the flat of an axe, and watched as he then throttled Evans with a length of electrical cord.[22] Evans's body was too heavy for Smith to carry to the car on his own—Brady had sprained his ankle in the struggle—so they wrapped it in plastic sheeting and put it in the spare bedroom.[23] Smith agreed to meet Brady the following evening to dispose of Evans's body,[23] but after returning home he woke his wife and told her what he had seen. Maureen told him that he must call the police. Three hours later the couple cautiously made their way to a public phone box in the street below their flat, Smith taking the precaution of arming himself with a screwdriver and a kitchen knife to defend them in the event that Brady suddenly appeared and confronted them. At 6:07 am Smith made an emergency services call to the police station in nearby Hyde, Cheshire, and told his story to the officer on duty.[24] In his statement to the police Smith claimed that: [Brady] opened the door and he said in a very loud voice for him ..."Do you want those miniatures?" I nodded my head to say yes and he led me into the kitchen ... and he gave me three miniature bottles of spirits and said: "Do you want the rest?" When I first walked into the house, the door to the living room ... was closed. ... Ian went into the living room and I waited in the kitchen. I waited about a minute or two then suddenly I heard a hell of a scream; it sounded like a woman, really high-pitched. Then the screams carried on, one after another really loud. Then I heard Myra shout, "Dave, help him," very loud. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. He was lying with his head and shoulders on the couch and his legs were on the floor. He was facing upwards. Ian was standing over him, facing him, with his legs on either side of the young lad's legs. The lad was still screaming ... Ian had a hatchet in his hand ... he was holding it above his head and he hit the lad on the left side of his head with the hatchet. I heard the blow, it was a terrible hard blow, it sounded horrible.[25] Arrest Early on the morning of 7 October, shortly after Smith's call, Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Cheshire Police arrived at the back door of 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, wearing a borrowed baker's overall to cover his uniform. Talbot identified himself to Hindley as a police officer when she opened the door, and told her that he wanted to speak to her boyfriend. Hindley led him into the living room, where Brady was sitting up in a divan writing a note to his employer explaining that he would not be able to get into work because of his ankle injury. Talbot explained that he was investigating "an act of violence involving guns" that was reported to have taken place the previous evening.[26] Hindley denied that there had been any violence, and allowed police to look around the house. When they came to the upstairs room in which Evans's body was stored the police found the door locked, and asked Brady for the key. Hindley claimed that the key was at work, but after the police offered to drive her to her employer's premises to retrieve it, Brady told her to hand the key over. When they returned to the living room the police told Brady that they had discovered a trussed up body, and that he was being arrested on suspicion of murder.[27] As Brady was getting dressed, he said "Eddie and I had a row and the situation got out of hand."[28] Hindley was not arrested with Brady, but she demanded to go with him to the police station, accompanied by her dog Puppet, to which the police agreed.[29] Hindley was questioned about the events surrounding Evans's death, but she refused to make any statement beyond claiming that it had been an accident. As the police had no evidence that Hindley was involved in Evans's murder she was allowed to go home, on condition that she return the next day for further questioning. Hindley was at liberty for four days following Brady's arrest, during which time she went to her employer's premises and asked to be dismissed, so that she would be eligible for unemployment benefits. While in the office where Brady worked she found some papers belonging to him in an envelope that she claimed she did not open, which she burned in an ashtray. She believed that they were plans for bank robberies, nothing to do with the murders. On 11 October Hindley was charged as an accessory to the murder of Edward Evans and was remanded at Risley.[30] Initial investigation Brady admitted under police questioning that he and Evans had fought, but insisted that he and Smith had murdered Evans between them; Hindley, he said, had "only done what she had been told".[31] Smith told police that Brady had asked him to return anything incriminating, such as "dodgy books", which Brady then packed into suitcases. Smith had no idea what else the suitcases contained or where they might be, but he mentioned in passing that Brady "had a thing about railway stations". The police consequently requested a search of all Manchester's left-luggage offices for any suitcases belonging to Brady, and on 15 October British Transport Police found what they were looking for at Manchester Central railway station[32]—the left-luggage ticket was found several days later in the back of Hindley's prayer book.[33] Inside one of the suitcases were nine pornographic photographs taken of a young girl, naked and with a scarf tied across her mouth, and a 13-minute tape recording of her screaming and pleading for help.[34] Ann Downey, Lesley Ann Downey's mother, later listened to the tape after police had discovered the body of her missing 10-year-old daughter, and confirmed that it was a recording of her daughter's voice.[35] Police searching the house at Wardle Brook Avenue also found an old exercise book in which the name "John Kilbride" had been scribbled, which made them suspicious that Brady and Hindley might have been involved in the unsolved disappearances of other youngsters.[36] A large collection of photographs was discovered in the house, many of which seemed to have been taken on Saddleworth Moor. One hundred and fifty officers were drafted to search the moor, looking for locations that matched the photographs. Initially the search was concentrated along the A628 road near Woodhead, but a close neighbour, 11-year-old Pat Hodges, had on several occasions been taken to the moor by Brady and Hindley and she was able to point out their favourite sites along the A635 road.[37] On 16 October police found an arm bone sticking out of the peat; officers presumed that they'd found the body of John Kilbride, but soon discovered that the body was that of Lesley Ann Downey. Her mother (now named Ann West after her marriage to Alan West) had been on the moor watching as the police conducted their search, but was not present when the body was found.[38] She was shown clothing recovered from the grave, and identified it as belonging to her missing daughter.[39] Detectives were able to locate another site on the opposite side of the A635 from where Downey's body was discovered, and five days later they found the "badly decomposed" body of John Kilbride, whom they identified by his clothing.[40] That same day, already being held for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrates' Court charged with Lesley Ann Downey's murder. Each was brought before the court separately and remanded into custody for a week.[41] They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody.[42] The search for bodies continued, but with winter setting in it was called off in November.[40] Presented with the evidence of the tape recording Brady admitted to taking the photographs of Lesley Ann Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. Brady was further charged with the murder of John Kilbride, and Hindley with the murder of Edward Evans, on 2 December.[43] At the committal hearing on 6 December Brady was charged with the murders of Edward Evans, John Kilbride, and Lesley Ann Downey, and Hindley with the murders of Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey, as well as with harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had killed John Kilbride. The prosecution's opening statement was held in camera,[44] and the defence asked for a similar stipulation, but was refused.[45] The proceedings continued in front of three magistrates in Hyde over an 11-day period during December, at the end of which the pair were committed for trial at Chester Assizes.[46] Many of the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley on the moor featured Hindley's dog Puppet, sometimes as a puppy. Detectives arranged for the animal to be examined by a veterinary surgeon to determine its age, from which they could date when the pictures were taken. The examination involved an analysis of the dog's teeth, which required a general anaesthetic from which Puppet did not recover, as he suffered from an undiagnosed kidney complaint. On hearing the news of her dog's death Hindley became furious, and accused the police of murdering Puppet, one of the few occasions detectives witnessed any emotional response from her.[40] In a letter to her mother shortly afterwards Hindley wrote: I feel as though my heart's been torn to pieces. I don't think anything could hurt me more than this has. The only consolation is that some moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him.[47] Trial[edit] The trial was held over 14 days beginning on 19 April 1966, in front of Mr Justice Fenton Atkinson.[46] Such was the public interest that the courtroom was fitted with security screens to protect Brady and Hindley.[48] The pair were each charged with three murders, those of Evans, Downey and Kilbride, as it was considered that there was by then sufficient evidence to implicate Hindley in Kilbride's death. The prosecution was led by the Attorney General, Frederick Elwyn Jones.[46] Brady was defended by the Liberal Member of Parliament Emlyn Hooson,[49] and Hindley was defended by Godfrey Heilpern, recorder of Salford from 1964—both experienced QCs.[50][51] David Smith was the chief prosecution witness, but during the trial it was revealed that he had entered into an agreement with a newspaper that he initially refused to name—even under intense questioning—guaranteeing him £1,000 (equivalent to about £20,000 in 2016) for the syndication rights to his story if Brady and Hindley were convicted, something the trial judge described as a "gross interference with the course of justice".[52][53] Smith finally admitted in court that the newspaper was the News of the World,[54] which had already paid for a holiday in France for him and his wife and was paying him a regular income of £20 per week, as well as accommodating him in a five-star hotel for the duration of the trial.[55] Brady and Hindley pleaded not guilty to the charges against them; both were called to give evidence, Brady for over eight hours and Hindley for six.[56] Although Brady admitted to hitting Evans with an axe, he did not admit to killing him, arguing that the pathologist in his report had stated that Evans's death was "accelerated by strangulation". Under cross-examination by the prosecuting counsel, all Brady would admit was that "I hit Evans with the axe. If he died from axe blows, I killed him."[57] Hindley denied any knowledge that the photographs of Saddleworth Moor found by police had been taken near the graves of their victims.[58] The tape recording of Lesley Anne Downey, on which the voices of Brady and Hindley were clearly audible, was played in open court. Hindley admitted that her attitude towards the child was "brusque and cruel", but claimed that was only because she was afraid that someone might hear Downey screaming. Hindley claimed that when Downey was being undressed she herself was "downstairs"; when the pornographic photographs were taken she was "looking out the window"; and that when the child was being strangled she "was running a bath".[58] On 6 May, after having deliberated for a little over two hours,[59] the jury found Brady guilty of all three murders and Hindley guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans. As the death penalty for murder had been abolished while Brady and Hindley were held on remand, the judge passed the only sentence that the law allowed: life imprisonment. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and Hindley was given two, plus a concurrent seven-year term for harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had murdered John Kilbride.[46] Brady was taken to Durham Prison and Hindley was sent to Holloway Prison.[58] In his closing remarks Mr Justice Atkinson described the murders as a "truly horrible case" and condemned the accused as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity".[4] He recommended that both Brady and Hindley spend "a very long time" in prison before being considered for parole but did not stipulate a tariff. He stated that Brady was "wicked beyond belief" and that he saw no reasonable possibility of reform. He did not consider that the same was necessarily true of Hindley, "once she is removed from [Brady's] influence".[60] Throughout the trial Brady and Hindley "stuck rigidly to their strategy of lying",[61] and Hindley was later described as "a quiet, controlled, impassive witness who lied remorselessly".[46] Later investigation Keith Bennett In 1985 Brady allegedly confessed to Fred Harrison, a journalist working for The Sunday People, that he had also been responsible for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett,[62] something that the police already suspected, as both children lived in the same area as Brady and Hindley and had disappeared at about the same time as their other victims. The subsequent newspaper reports prompted the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to reopen the case, in an investigation headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, who had been appointed head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the previous year.[63] On 3 July 1985 Topping visited Brady, then being held at Gartree Prison, Leicestershire, but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders".[64] Police nevertheless decided to resume their search of Saddleworth Moor, once more using the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley to help them identify possible burial sites. Meanwhile, in November 1986 Winnie Johnson, Keith Bennett's mother, wrote a letter to Hindley begging to know what had happened to her son, a letter that Hindley seemed to be "genuinely moved" by.[65] It ended: I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. It has taken me five weeks labour to write this letter because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help. Please, Miss Hindley, help me.[66] Police visited Hindley, then being held in Cookham Wood, Kent, a few days after she had received the letter, and although she refused to admit any involvement in the killings, she agreed to help by looking at photographs and maps to try to identify spots that she had visited with Brady.[67] She showed particular interest in photographs of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said that it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the moor.[68] The security considerations for such a visit were significant; there were threats made against her should she visit the moors, but Home Secretary Douglas Hurd agreed with Topping that it would be worth the risk.[69] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. Although the letter from Winnie Johnson may have played a part, he believed that Hindley's real concern was that, knowing of Brady's "precarious" mental state, she was afraid that he might decide to co-operate with the police, and wanted to make certain that she, and not Brady, was the one to gain whatever benefit there may have been in terms of public approval.[70] Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of Saddleworth Moor on 16 December 1986.[71] Four police cars left Cookham Wood at 4:30 am. At about the same time, police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, 40 of them armed. Hindley and her solicitor arrived by helicopter from an airfield near Maidstone, touching down at 8:30 am. Wearing a donkey jacket and balaclava, she was driven, and walked around the area. It was difficult for Hindley to make a connection between her memories of the area and what she saw on the day, and she was apparently nervous of the helicopters flying overhead. At 3:00 pm she was returned to the helicopter, and taken back to Cookham Wood.[69] Topping was criticised by the press, who described the visit as a "fiasco", a "publicity stunt", and a "mindless waste of money".[72] He was forced to defend the visit, pointing out its benefits: We had taken the view that we needed a thorough systematic search of the moor ... It would never have been possible to carry out such a search in private.[72] On 19 December David Smith, then aged 38, also returned to the moor. He spent about four hours helping police pinpoint areas where he thought more bodies might be buried.[73] Topping continued to visit Hindley in prison, along with her solicitor Michael Fisher and her spiritual counsellor, the Reverend Peter Timms, who had been a prison governor before resigning to become a minister in the Methodist Church.[72] She made a formal confession to police on 10 February 1987, admitting her involvement in all five murders,[74] but news of her confession was not made public for more than a month.[75] The tape recording of her statement was over 17 hours long; Topping described it as a "very well worked out performance in which, I believe, she told me just as much as she wanted me to know, and no more".[76] He also commented that he "was struck by the fact that she was never there when the killings took place. She was in the car, over the brow of the hill, in the bathroom and even, in the case of the Evans murder, in the kitchen."[77] Topping concluded that he felt he "had witnessed a great performance rather than a genuine confession".[78] During the 1987 search for Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, Hindley recalled that she had seen the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky. Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. Once presented with some of the details that Hindley had provided of Pauline Reade's abduction, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess, but on one condition: that immediately afterwards he be given the means to commit suicide, a request with which it was impossible for the authorities to comply.[79] At about the same time, Winnie Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley, who had not replied to the first letter, responded by thanking Johnson for both letters, explaining that her decision not to reply to the first resulted from the negative publicity that surrounded it. She claimed that, had Johnson written to her 14 years earlier, she would have confessed and helped the police. She also paid tribute to Topping, and thanked Johnson for her sincerity.[80] Hindley made her second visit to the moor in March 1987. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at Sedgley Park, Prestwich, and visited the moor twice.[80] She confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their search—Hollin Brown Knoll and Hoe Grain—were correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves.[81] She later remembered that as Pauline Reade was being buried she had been sitting next to her on a patch of grass and could see the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky.[82] In April 1987 news of Hindley's confession became public. Amidst strong media interest Lord Longford pleaded for her release, writing that her continuing detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Fisher persuaded Hindley to release a public statement, in which she explained her reasons for denying her complicity in the murders, her religious experiences in prison, the letter from Johnson, and that she saw no possibility of release. She also exonerated David Smith from any part in the murders, except that of Edward Evans.[83] Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had directed the police to focus their efforts on a specific area. On the afternoon of 1 July 1987, after more than 100 days of searching, they found a body buried 3 feet (0.9 m) below the surface, only 100 yards (90 m) from the place where Lesley Ann Downey had been found.[84] Brady had been co-operating with the police for some time, and when news reached him that Reade's body had been discovered he made a formal confession to Topping.[85] He also issued a statement to the press, through his solicitor, saying that he too was prepared to help the police in their search. Brady was taken to the moor on 3 July, but he seemed to lose his bearings, blaming changes that had taken place in the intervening years, and the search was called off at 3:00 pm, by which time a large crowd of press and television reporters had gathered on the moor.[86] Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moors,[85] and a few days after his visit Brady wrote a letter to BBC television reporter Peter Gould, giving some sketchy details of five additional murders that he claimed to have carried out.[87] Brady refused to identify his alleged victims, and the police failed to discover any unsolved crimes matching the few details that he supplied.[88] Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings.[85] A small valley cuts through desolate moorland, under a blue sky Hoe Grain leading to Shiny Brook, the area in which police believe Bennett's undiscovered body is buried[89] On 24 August 1987 police called off their search of Saddleworth Moor, despite not having found Keith Bennett's body.[90] Brady was taken to the moor for a second time on 1 December, but he was once again unable to locate the burial site. Keith Bennett's body remains undiscovered as of 2016, although his family continues to search the moor.[91] Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided that nothing would be gained by a further trial; as both were already serving life sentences no further punishment could be inflicted, and a second trial might even have helped Hindley's case for parole by giving her a platform from which to make a public confession.[92] In 2003 the police launched Operation Maida, and again searched the moor for the body of Keith Bennett. They read statements from Brady and Hindley, and also studied photographs taken by the pair. Their search was aided by the use of sophisticated modern equipment, including a US satellite used to look for evidence of soil movement.[93] The BBC reported on 1 July 2009 that Greater Manchester Police had officially given up the search for Keith Bennett, saying that "only a major scientific breakthrough or fresh evidence would see the hunt for his body restart".[94] Detectives were also reported as saying that they would never again give Brady the attention or the thrill of leading another fruitless search on the moor where they believe Keith Bennett's remains are buried.[95] Donations from members of the public funded a search of the moor for Bennett's body by volunteers from a Welsh search and rescue team that began in March 2010.[96] In August 2012 it was claimed that Brady may have given details of the location of Keith Bennett's body to one of his visitors. A woman was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful excuse, but a few months later the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there was insufficient evidence to press charges.[97] Perpetrators' backgrounds Ian Brady[ Ian Brady was born in Glasgow as Ian Duncan Stewart on 2 January 1938 to Maggie Stewart, an unmarried 28-year-old tea room waitress. The identity of Brady's father has never been reliably ascertained, although his mother claimed he was a reporter working for a Glasgow newspaper, who died three months before Brady was born. Stewart had little support, and after a few months was forced to give her son into the care of Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own. Brady took their name, and became known as Ian Sloan. His mother continued to visit him throughout his childhood.[98] Various authors have claimed that he tortured animals, although Brady objects to such accusations.[99] Aged nine, he visited Loch Lomond with his family, where he reportedly discovered an affinity for the outdoors, and a few months later the family moved to a new council house on an overspill estate at Pollok. He was accepted for Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils.[100] At Shawlands his behaviour worsened; as a teenager he twice appeared before a juvenile court for housebreaking. He left the academy aged 15, and took a job as a tea boy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. Nine months later he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. He had a girlfriend, Evelyn Grant, but their relationship ended when he threatened her with a flick knife after she visited a dance with another boy. He again appeared before the court, this time with nine charges against him,[101] and shortly before his 17th birthday he was placed on probation, on condition that he live with his mother.[102] By then she had moved to Manchester and married an Irish fruit merchant named Patrick Brady, and it was the latter who got Brady a job as a fruit porter at Smithfield Market.[103] Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught with a sack full of lead seals he had stolen and was trying to smuggle out of the market. He was sent to Strangeways for three months.[104] Because he was still under 18, he was sentenced to two years in borstal for "training".[105] He was sent to Latchmere House in London,[104] and then Hatfield borstal in the West Riding of Yorkshire. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed he was moved to the much tougher unit at Hull.[92] Released on 14 November 1957, Brady returned to Manchester, where he took a labouring job, which he hated, and was dismissed from another job in a brewery. Deciding to "better himself", he obtained a set of instruction manuals on book-keeping from a local public library, with which he "astonished" his parents by studying alone in his room for hours.[106] In January 1959 Brady applied for and was offered a clerical job at Millward's Merchandising, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton. He was regarded by his colleagues as a quiet, punctual, but short-tempered young man. He read books such as Teach Yourself German and Mein Kampf, as well as works on Nazi atrocities. He rode a Tiger Cub motorcycle, which he used to visit the Pennines.[107] Myra Hindley Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942[108][109] and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester. Her parents, Nellie and Bob Hindley (the latter an alcoholic), beat her regularly as a young child. The small house the family lived in was in such poor condition that Hindley and her parents had to sleep in the only available bedroom, she in a single bed next to her parents' double. The family's living conditions deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946. About a year after the birth, Hindley, then aged five, was sent by her parents to live with her grandmother, who lived nearby.[110] Hindley's father had fought in North Africa, Cyprus, and Italy during the Second World War, and had served with the Parachute Regiment.[111] He had been known in the army as a "hard man" and he expected his daughter to be equally tough; he taught her how to fight, and insisted that she "stick up for herself". When Hindley was aged 8, a local boy approached her in the street and scratched both of her cheeks with his fingernails, drawing blood. She burst into tears and ran into her parents' house, to be met by her father, who demanded that she "Go and punch him [the boy], because if you don't I'll leather you!" Hindley found the boy and succeeded in knocking him down with a sequence of punches, as her father had taught her. As she wrote later, "at eight years old I'd scored my first victory".[112] Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has suggested that the fight, and the part that Hindley's father played in it, may be "key pieces of evidence" in trying to understand Hindley's role in the Moors murders: The relationship with her father brutalised her ... She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. When this happens at a young age it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life.[113] One of her closest friends was 13-year-old Michael Higgins, who lived in a nearby street. In June 1957 he invited her to go swimming with friends at a local disused reservoir. Although she was a good swimmer, Hindley chose not to go and instead went out with a friend, Pat Jepson. Higgins drowned in the reservoir, and upon learning of his fate Hindley was deeply upset, and blamed herself for his death. She collected for a funeral wreath, and his funeral at St Francis's Monastery in Gorton Lane—the church where Hindley had been baptised a Catholic on 16 August 1942—had a lasting effect on her.[114] Hindley's mother had only agreed to her father's insistence that she be baptised a Catholic on the condition that she was not sent to a Catholic school, as her mother believed that "all the monks taught was the catechism".[115] Hindley was increasingly drawn to the Catholic Church after she started at Ryder Brow Secondary Modern, and began taking instruction for formal reception into the Church soon after Higgins's funeral. She took the confirmation name of Veronica, and received her first communion in November 1958. She also became a godparent to Michael's nephew, Anthony John.[116][117] It was also at about this time that Hindley first began bleaching her hair.[118] Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. She ran errands, made tea, and typed. She was well liked at the firm, enough so that when she lost her first week's wage packet, the other girls had a collection to replace it.[119] She had a short relationship with Ronnie Sinclair from Christmas 1958, and became engaged aged 17. The engagement was called off several months later; Hindley apparently thought Sinclair immature, and unable to provide her with the life she envisaged for herself.[120] Shortly after her 17th birthday she changed her hair colour, with a pink rinse. She took judo lessons once a week at a local school, but found partners reluctant to train with her, as she was often slow to release her grip. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months.[121] As a couple In 1961 the 18-year-old Myra Hindley joined Millwards as a typist. She soon became infatuated with Brady, despite learning that he had a criminal record.[122] She began a diary and, although she had dates with other men, some of the entries detail her fascination with Brady, whom she eventually spoke to for the first time on 27 July 1961.[123] Over the next few months she continued to make entries, and grew increasingly disillusioned with him, until 22 December when Brady asked her on a date to the cinema,[124] where they watched the biblical epic King of Kings.[125][a] Their dates together followed a regular pattern; a trip to the cinema, usually to watch an X-rated film, and then back to Hindley's house to drink German wine.[126] Brady then gave her reading material, and the pair spent their work lunch breaks reading aloud to one another from accounts of Nazi atrocities. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick.[46] She expressed concern at some aspects of Brady's character; in a letter to a childhood friend, she mentioned an incident where she had been drugged by Brady, but also wrote of her obsession with him. A few months later she asked her friend to destroy the letter.[127] In her 30,000-word plea for parole, written in 1978 and 1979 and submitted to Home Secretary Merlyn Rees, Hindley said: Within months he [Brady] had convinced me that there was no God at all: he could have told me that the earth was flat, the moon was made of green cheese and the sun rose in the west, I would have believed him, such was his power of persuasion.[128] Hindley began to change her appearance further, wearing clothing considered risqué such as high boots, short skirts and leather jackets, and the two became less sociable to their colleagues.[129] The couple were regulars at the library, borrowing books on philosophy, as well as crime and torture. They also read works by the Marquis de Sade, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.[46][130] Although she was not a qualified driver (she passed her test on the third attempt, late in 1963), Hindley often hired a van, in which the two planned bank robberies. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. Clitheroe, although puzzled by her interest, arranged for her to buy a .22 rifle from a gun merchant in Manchester. She also asked to join a pistol club, but she was a poor shot and allegedly often bad-tempered, so Clitheroe told her that she was unsuitable; she did though manage to purchase a Webley .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 from other members of the club.[131] Brady and Hindley's plans for robbery came to nothing, but they became interested in photography. Brady already owned a Box Brownie, which he used to take photographs of Hindley and her dog, Puppet, but he upgraded to a more sophisticated model, and also purchased lights and darkroom equipment. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the time, would have been considered explicit. For Hindley, this demonstrated a marked change from her earlier, more shy and prudish nature.[132] As murderers What they were doing was out of the scope of most people's understanding, beyond the comprehension of the workaday neighbours who were more interested in how they were going to pay the gas bill or what might happen in the next episode of Coronation Street or Doctor Who. In 1960s Britain, people did not kidnap and murder children for fun. It was simply beyond the realms of most people's comprehension, and this is why they managed to get away with it for so long. Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963,[134] and often spoke to her about Meyer Levin's Compulsion, published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the cinema in 1959. The story tells a fictionalised account of the Leopold and Loeb case, two young men from well-to-do families who attempt to commit the perfect murder of a 12-year-old boy, and escape the death penalty because of their age.[135] By June 1963 Brady had moved in with Hindley at her grandmother's house in Bannock Street, and on 12 July 1963 the two murdered their first victim, 16-year-old Pauline Reade. Reade had attended school with Hindley's younger sister, Maureen, and had also been in a short relationship with David Smith, a local boy with three criminal convictions for minor crimes. Police could find nobody who had seen Reade before her disappearance, and although the 15-year-old Smith was questioned by police he was cleared of any involvement in her death.[136] Their next victim, John Kilbride, was killed on 23 November 1963. A huge search was undertaken, with over 700 statements taken, and 500 "missing" posters printed. Eight days after he failed to return home, 2,000 volunteers scoured waste ground and derelict buildings.[137] Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December 1963, apparently to make sure the burial sites had not been disturbed. In February 1964 she bought a second-hand Austin Traveller, but soon after traded it for a Mini van. Twelve-year-old Keith Bennett disappeared on 16 June 1964. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the Johnsons' house, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street.[138] Maureen Hindley married David Smith on 15 August 1964. The marriage was hastily arranged and performed at a register office. None of Hindley's relatives attended; Myra did not approve of the marriage, and her mother was too embarrassed—Maureen was seven months pregnant. The newlyweds moved into Smith's father's house. The next day, Brady suggested that the four take a day-trip to Windermere. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. The two talked about society, the distribution of wealth, and the possibility of robbing a bank. The young Smith was similarly impressed by Brady, who throughout the day had paid for his food and wine. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. Hindley was apparently jealous of their relationship, but became closer to her sister.[139] In 1964 Hindley, her grandmother, and Brady were rehoused as part of the post-war slum clearances in Manchester, to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in the new overspill estate of Hattersley. Brady and Hindley became friendly with Patricia Hodges, an 11-year-old girl who lived at 12 Wardle Brook Avenue. Hodges accompanied the two on their trips to Saddleworth Moor to collect peat, something that many householders on the new estate did to improve the soil in their gardens, which were full of clay and builder's rubble.[140] She remained unharmed; living only a few doors away, her disappearance would have been easily solved.[141] Early on Boxing Day 1964, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative's house and refused to allow her back to Wardle Brook Avenue that night.[142] On the same day, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a funfair in Ancoats.[143] Despite a huge search she was not found. The following day Hindley brought her grandmother back home.[144] By February 1965 Patricia Hodges had stopped visiting 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, but David Smith was still a regular visitor. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder.[145] On Hindley's 23rd birthday, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.[146][147] During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she took part in the killings only because Brady had drugged her, was blackmailing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her, and had threatened to kill her younger sister, Maureen.[122] In a 2008 television documentary series on female serial killers broadcast on ITV3, Hindley's solicitor, Andrew McCooey, reported that she had said to him: I ought to have been hanged. I deserved it. My crime was worse than Brady's because I enticed the children and they would never have entered the car without my role ... I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady.[148] Incarceration Brady Following his conviction Brady was moved to Durham Prison, where he asked to live in solitary confinement.[149] He spent 19 years in mainstream prisons before being diagnosed as a psychopath in November 1985 and sent to the high-security Park Lane Hospital, now Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital, in Sefton;[150] he has since made it clear that he never wants to be released.[151] The trial judge recommended that his life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision. In 1982 the Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane said of Brady: "this is the case if ever there is to be one when a man should stay in prison till he dies".[152] The death, in November 2007, of John Straffen, who had spent 55 years in prison for murdering three children meant that Brady became the longest serving prisoner in England and Wales.[153] Although he refuses to work with Ashworth's psychiatrists, Brady has occasionally corresponded with people outside the hospital,[b] including the late Lord Longford, criminologist Colin Wilson and various journalists.[155] In one letter, written in 2005, he claimed that the murders were "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964". By then, he went on to claim, he and Hindley had turned their attention to armed robbery, for which they had begun to prepare by acquiring guns and vehicles.[c][157] During several years of interactions with forensic psychologist Chris Cowley, including face-to-face meetings,[158] Brady told him of an "aesthetic fascination [he had] with guns",[159] despite his never having used one to kill. He complained bitterly about conditions at Ashworth, which he hates.[160] In 1999 his right wrist was broken in what he claimed was an "hour-long, unprovoked attack" by staff.[161] Brady subsequently went on hunger strike, but while English law allows patients to refuse treatment, those being treated for mental disorders under the Mental Health Act 1983 have no such right if the treatment is for their mental disorder.[162][163] He was therefore force-fed and transferred to another hospital for tests, after he fell ill.[164] He recovered and in March 2000 asked for a judicial review of the legality of the decision to force-feed him, but was refused permission.[162][165] Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. I have had enough. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin.[165] While at Ashworth, in 2001 Brady wrote The Gates of Janus, which was published by Feral House, an underground US publisher. The book, Brady's analysis of serial murder and specific serial killers, sparked outrage when announced in Britain.[166] According to Chris Cowley, Brady regrets Hindley's imprisonment and the consequences of their actions, but not necessarily the crimes themselves. He sees no point in making any kind of public apology; instead, he "expresses remorse through actions".[167] Twenty years of transcribing classical texts into Braille came to an end when the authorities confiscated his translation machine, for fear it might be used as a weapon. He once offered to donate one of his kidneys to "someone, anyone who needed one",[168] but was blocked from doing so. According to Colin Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide."[163] He might have achieved this in 2006, when a female friend sent him 50 paracetamol pills, stored in two Smarties tubes hidden inside a hollowed-out crime novel. The potentially lethal dose of tablets was intercepted.[163][169] Winnie Johnson, the mother of undiscovered victim, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 in which, she said, he claimed that he could take police to within 20 yards (18 m) of her son's body but the authorities would not allow it. Brady did not refer directly to Keith by name and did not claim he could take investigators directly to the grave, but spoke of the "clarity" of his recollections.[170] In 2012 Brady applied to be returned to prison, reiterating his desire to starve himself to death.[171] At a subsequent mental health tribunal, held in June the following year, Brady claimed that he suffered not from paranoid schizophrenia, as his doctors at Ashworth maintained, but rather, a personality disorder. His application was rejected, with the judge stating that Brady "continues to suffer from a mental disorder which is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for him to continue to receive medical treatment".[172] Hindley Hindley lodged an unsuccessful appeal against her conviction immediately after the trial.[173] Brady and Hindley corresponded by letter until 1971, when she ended their relationship. The two remained in sporadic contact for several months,[174] but Hindley had fallen in love with one of her prison officers, Patricia Cairns. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were gay, and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates".[175] Hindley successfully petitioned to have her status as a category A prisoner changed to category B, which enabled Governor Dorothy Wing to take her on a walk round Hampstead Heath, part of her unofficial policy of reintroducing her charges to the outside world when she felt they were ready. The excursion caused a furore in the national press and earned Wing an official rebuke from the then Home Secretary Robert Carr.[176] With Cairns's assistance and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot.[177] Hindley was told that she should spend 25 years in prison before being considered for parole. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased her tariff to 30 years.[152] By that time Hindley claimed to be a reformed Catholic. Ann West, the mother of Lesley Ann Downey, was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until West's death in February 1999, she regularly gave television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured.[178] In 1987 Hindley admitted that the plea for parole she had submitted to the Home Secretary eight years earlier was "on the whole ... a pack of lies",[179] and to some reporters her co-operation in the searches on Saddleworth Moor "appeared a cynical gesture aimed at ingratiating herself to the parole authorities".[180] Then Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley in July 1990, after she confessed to having been more involved in the murders than she had admitted.[152] Hindley was not informed of the decision until 1994, when a Law Lords ruling obliged the Prison Service to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period they must serve in prison before being considered for parole.[181] In 1997 the Parole Board ruled that Hindley was low risk and should be moved to an open prison.[152] She rejected the idea and was moved to a medium-security prison; the House of Lords ruling left open the possibility of later freedom. Between December 1997 and March 2000 Hindley made three separate appeals against her life tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but each was rejected by the courts.[182][183] When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others, whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released from prison.[184] Hindley's release seemed imminent and plans were made by supporters for her to be given a new identity.[185] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered Greater Manchester Police to find new charges against her, to prevent her release from prison. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken 15 years earlier, a new trial would probably be considered an abuse of process.[186] On 25 November 2002 the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and thus stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences.[187] The news came too late for Hindley; on 15 November 2002, aged 60, she had died from bronchial pneumonia caused by heart disease. She was a 40-a-day smoker who in 1999 had been diagnosed with angina and hospitalised after suffering a brain aneurysm.[188] Camera crews "stood rank and file behind steel barriers" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the congregation of eight or ten who attended a short service at Cambridge crematorium.[189] Such was the strength of feeling more than 35 years after the murders that a reported 20 local undertakers refused to handle her cremation.[190] Four months later, her ashes were scattered by her ex-partner, Patricia Cairns, less than 10 miles (16 km) from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park.[191][192] Fears were expressed that the news might result in visitors choosing to avoid the park, a local beauty spot, or even that the park might be vandalised.[193] Aftermath David Smith became "reviled by the people of Manchester", despite having been instrumental in bringing Brady and Hindley to justice.[194] While her sister was on trial, Maureen—eight months pregnant—was attacked in the lift of the building in which she and David lived. Their home was vandalised, and hate mail was regularly posted through their letterbox. Maureen feared for her children: "I couldn't let my children out of my sight when they were little. They were too young to tell them why they had to stay in, to explain why they couldn't go out to play like all the other children."[195] After knifing another man during a fight, in an attack he claimed was triggered by the abuse he had suffered since the trial, Smith was sentenced to three years in prison in 1969.[194] That same year his children were taken into the care of the local authority. His wife Maureen moved from Underwood Court to a single-bedroom property, and found work in a department store. Subjected to whispering campaigns and petitions to remove her from the estate where she lived, she received no support from her family—her mother had supported Myra during the trial. On his release from prison, David Smith moved in with the girl who became his second wife and won custody of his three sons. Maureen managed to repair the relationship with her mother, and moved into a council property in Gorton. She divorced Smith in 1973,[196] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter.[197] Maureen and her immediate family made regular visits to see Hindley, who reportedly adored her niece. In 1980 Maureen suffered a brain haemorrhage; Hindley was granted permission to visit her sister in hospital, but she arrived an hour after Maureen's death.[198] Sheila and Patrick Kilbride, who were by then divorced,[199] were present at Maureen's funeral, believing that Hindley might make an appearance. Patrick Kilbride mistook Bill Scott's daughter from a previous relationship, Ann Wallace, for Hindley and tried to attack her before being knocked to the ground by another mourner; the police were called to restore order.[200] Shortly before her death at the age of 70 Sheila Kilbride said: "If she [Hindley] ever comes out of jail I'll kill her."[201] It was a threat repeated by her son Danny, and Ann West.[202][203] In 1972 David Smith was acquitted of the murder of his father, who had been suffering from an incurable cancer. Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two days' detention.[204] He remarried and moved to Lincolnshire with his three sons,[194][205] and was exonerated of any participation in the Moors murders by Hindley's confession in 1987. He died in Ireland in 2012.[206][207] A 1977 BBC television debate discussed arguments for and against Myra Hindley's release, with Lord Longford being on the side who argued that Hindley should be released and Ann West (the mother of Lesley Ann Downey) being on the side arguing against any suggestion of Hindley being released and threatening to kill her if she ever got out of prison.[208] Joan Reade, Pauline Reade's mother, was admitted to Springfield Mental Hospital in Manchester. She was present, under heavy sedation, at the funeral of her daughter on 7 August 1987.[209] Five years after their son was murdered, Sheila and Patrick Kilbride divorced.[199] Ann West, mother of Lesley Ann Downey, died in 1999 from cancer of the liver. Since her daughter's death, she had campaigned to ensure that Hindley remained in prison, and doctors said that the stress had contributed to the severity of her illness.[210] Winnie Johnson, mother of Keith Bennett, continued to visit Saddleworth Moor, where it is believed that the body of her son is buried.[211][212][213] She died in August 2012.[214] Manchester City Council decided in 1987 to demolish the house in which Brady and Hindley had lived on Wardle Brook Avenue, and where Lesley Anne Downey and Edward Evans were murdered, citing "excessive media interest [in the property] creating unpleasantness for residents".[215] The case has been dramatised on television twice: in See No Evil: The Moors Murders and Longford (both 2006).
White collar crime
Sutherland (1949) was the first criminologist to show that crime was not simply a working class phenomenon, but was widespread through all sections of society. He introduced the idea of white-collar crime which he described as crimes committed by the more affluent in society, who abused their positions within their middle class occupations for personal benefit. What is white collar crime? White collar crime includes offences such as bribery and corruption in government and business, fiddling expenses, professional misconduct, fraud and embezzlement Croall (2001) gives two classic examples: - NHS doctors, dentists and pharmacists have been found to falsify prescriptions and patient records to claim more from the NHS than to which they are entitled (one GP stealing £700,000 over five years by writing fake subscriptions) - Former owner of the Daily Telegraph, Conrad Black was jailed in the US for six and a half years for defrauding shareholders of millions of dollars for personal gain. The under-representation of white collar crime: White collar crimes are substantially under-represented in official statistics, creating an overall impression that crime is a working class problem. The following reasons explain why white collar crimes often go unreported and undetected: 1) They are hard to detect 2) They are often without personal or individual victims 3) The crime may benefit both parties involved 4) They are hard to investigate 5) There is often a lack of awareness that a crime has been committed 6) Institutional protection means they are often not reported and prosecuted 7) Even if reported, offenders have a better chance of being found not guilty Explaining white collar crime: It is harder to explain why more affluent members of society turn to crimes that give them further (unnecessary) financial gain. However, many of the theories we have looked at so far can be applied: Relative deprivation: Even though middle class people appear to be well off, they may still want more in relation to others and hence may feel a sense of relative deprivation. This can happen when middle class people generate large debts by living a lifestyle beyond their means and they may innovate by turning to white collar crime to improve their financial situation. Control Theory: The moral controls on offending may be weakened as there is no personal victim of white collar crime, and this may weaken the perception that offenders are doing anything very wrong or harmful. Edgework: Katz (1988) and Lyng (1990) suggest that the pleasure, thrill seeking and risk taking may be motivations for crime rather than simply material gain. This could explain why already wealthy people commit crime Techniques of neutralization: Matza's argument that criminals attempt to justify their actions with various excuses can be applied here. White collar criminals who steal money from large companies may justify their behaviour by claiming that a few thousand pounds will not be missed by such a wealthy organisation. Marxists: Marxists argue that in a capitalist people of all social classes are motivated by greed.
Interactionism
The theories we have already covered have looked at factors that supposedly direct the behaviour of deviants. This emphasis on external forces moulding the individual is very similar to a Positivist position. Interactionists take a different approach, they examine: - How and why particular individuals and groups are defined as deviant. - The effects of such a definition on their future actions. Howard Becker (1963) Labelling Theory and the Definition of Deviance: Becker suggests that there is really no such thing as a deviant act. An act only becomes deviant when others perceive it as such. He gives an example of a brawl involving young people: in a low-income neighbourhood, it may be defined by the police as evidence of delinquency; in a wealthy area, the evidence of high spirits. The acts are the same but the meaning given to them by observers is different. If youngsters are defined as delinquent and convicted then they have become deviant. In other words they have been LABELLED as deviants. Becker calls groups, such as the mass media and the police , who have the power and resources to create or enforce rules and impose their definitions of deviance, MORAL ENTREPRENEURS. What are the possible effects of labelling? Once an individual or group is labelled as criminal, mentally ill or homosexual, others see them only in terms of that label. It becomes what Becker calls a MASTER STATUS. Labelling also causes the labelled group or individual to see themselves in terms of the label. This may produce a SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY in which the label actually makes itself become true. Becker identifies a number of stages in the process: 1) marginalization- moral entrepreneurs label individ's & their behave as dev. enc dev. 2)employers refuse to give them a job 3) ex convicts find it diffic to get jobs & may be forced to return to c. 4) the dev career is completed when individ's join an organized dev grp thus confirming & accepting their identity. 5)now a dev subc may develop which inc n's & v's which support their dev behave. Jock Young (1971) Labelling and marijuana users: Young used Becker's approach in his study of 'hippie' marijuana users in London. He found: 1) the hippy drug-takers were seen as the devs by the police who rep the establishment. the hippies drug-taking is initially low, media pressure leads the police to target them. 2)this gradually makes the hippies + secretive about their activities and drug-taking becomes a + imp part of their identity. Police action against marijuana users unites them-sense of solidarity (hippies). 3) The hippies and the police become increasingly distrustful of each other aar they retreat into small grps. 4) The hippies' dev becomes amplified until the stats become a 'crime wave.' Dev n's & v's develop in these closed grps as hair is grown longer, unconven clothes are worn and drug use becomes a central activity. Therefore, a sfp has been created. Lemert distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance: Primary deviance = insignificant acts that have not been publically labelled for example speeding or stealing stationary from work. There are no consequences as long as nobody finds out about it. Secondary deviance = This is the result of a societal reaction. Being caught and publically labelled as deviant and stigmatized by society. Trying to find the causes of primary deviance is not very helpful because: Samples of deviants are inevitably based only on those who have been labelled, and therefore are unrepresentative. Most deviant acts are so common that they can be, in statistical terms, normal. Most males may engage in delinquency at some point etc. Erving Goffman: Deviance and the Institution: Goffman examined the treatment of mental patients in institutions and his findings illustrate the idea of Lemert's secondary deviance. He found how deviance can actually be created by the societal reaction to it. When inmates arrive in the mental hospital, pressure is placed on them to accept the institution's definition of them as 'mentally ill'. The inmates' individuality is removed through what Goffman calls a MORTIFICATION PROCESS: 1)Clothes are removed and possessions stored away. 2)Patient may be washed, disinfected and their hair cut. 3)May be issued with a new identity in the form of regulation clothes and toiletries. 4)Every day is controlled under a strict regime. 5)Inmates have little freedom - their actions are continually watched and assessed. The effect of this is that it leaves inmates unprepared for life on the outside. They have become institutionalised because : -Some accept the label of helpless deviant (instit's definition of them) -Others believe they are unable to function on the outside -Even if they do leave they will be labelled as an ex- mental patient. re-entry into soc= diffic. Cicourel (1968) - The Negotiation of Justice Officers' decisions to arrest are influenced by their stereotypes about offenders. Cicourel found that officers TYPIFICATIONS - their common-sense theories or stereotypes of what the typical delinquent is like - led them to concentrate on certain 'types'. This resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias, in that working-class areas and people fitted the police typifications most closely. In turn, this led police to patrol working-class areas more intensively, resulting in more arrests and confirming their stereotypes. Cicourel also found that other agents of social control within the criminal justice system reinforced this bias. For example, probation officers held the common-sense theory that juvenile delinquency was caused by broken homes, poverty and lax parenting. Therefore they tended to see youths from such backgrounds as likely to offend in the future and were less likely to support non-custodial sentences for them. In Cicourel's view, justice is not fixed but negotiable. For example, when a middle class youth was arrested, he was less likely to be charged. This was partly because his background did not fit the idea of the police's 'typical delinquent', and partly because his parents were more likely to be able to NEGOTIATE successfully on his behalf, convincing the control agencies that he was sorry, that they would monitor him and ensure he stayed out of trouble in future, etc. As a result, typically, he was 'counselled, warned and released, rather than prosecuted. Labelling Theory and Social Policy: Stephen Jones (1998) identifies two main policy implications of labelling theory: 1) as many types of behave as possible should be decriminalized e.g. Holland-Cannabis has effectively been legalized. 2) when the law has to intervene, it should try to avoid giving people a self-concept in which they view themselves as criminals e.g. + warnings & cautions rather than prison sentences. However, these policies became less popular during the 1990's. Recently the emphasis has been on the 'naming and shaming' of offenders such as paedophiles and kerb-crawlers. Evaluation of the Interactionist approach: Labelling theory was very popular in the 1960's but received strong criticism in the 1970's. The key criticisms are: 1) :)- it challenges the idea that dev's are diff from 'normal' ppl. 2) :)- it reveals the imp of those w power in defining acts & ppl as dev. 3) :)-highlights the role of ME's like the media in defining & creating dev & generating mops. 4):(-tends to remove the blame for dev away from the dev & onto those who define him/her as dev; the dev becomes a victim too. 5):(-has nor eal policy solutions to crime, beyond making fewer rules & not 'naming and shaming' offenders. this isn't much consolation for the victims of c. 6) :(- doesn't explain why some individ's are labeled rather than others, and why some activities are against the law while others aren't. Social Reaction Theory - Deviance created by society Becker illustrates this through the example of the work of anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski who describes how a youth in the Trobriand Islands killed himself because he had been publicly accused of incest. Islanders expressed their disgust, yet upon further investigation Malinowski found incest was relatively widespread and not frowned upon providing it was discreet. The rule that was broken was that the youth had been indiscreet about his behaviour. This case study illustrates the basis of labelling theory; it is not the act that is significant but the social reaction. Where the societal reaction matters more than the deviant act - Supporting Lemert Steven Box (1981) accounts an example of serving on a jury to reinforce the idea that it is the social reaction rather than the act that matters. The trial consisted of a theft charge concerning a very small amount of money which the jury he was serving on found the defendant guilty. However, having finished their duty as citizens the members of the jury discussed amongst each other how they could fiddle their expenses, by claiming inflated amounts. Box points out that most people on the jury actually 'fiddled' more money than the woman they had just convicted of theft had stolen! But the citizens on the jury escaped the label of thief because there was no social reaction to what they had done. Therefore this example shows how the application of a label to someone has significant consequences for how that person is treated by others and perceives him/herself. Applying labelling theory - Usefulness? However, many feminists view labelling theory as potentially valuable for carrying out research on young people and understanding the significance of labels applied to young females. For example, Sue Lees (1986) in her study of teenage girls has argued that the ways in which young men and women label young women acts as a powerful mechanism of social control. She shows how the promiscuous label of 'slag' can be applied by boys and girls alike with major consequences resulting in it becoming a master status. Lees argues females tread a very fine line between labelled a 'slag' or a 'tight bitch' whereas boy's sexual behaviour is free from either of these labels.
Media & Crime
There are a number of links between the mass media and crime including: 1) Crime as a consumer spectacle 2) Agenda-setting 3) News Values 4) The exaggeration of crime 5) The hyperreality of crime 6) The media as moral entrepreneurs 7) Deviancy amplification, folk devils and moral panics 8) Do the media cause crime? 1)Crime and deviance have long been major themes in popular culture. Fictional and non-fictional crime stories have provided significant sources of spectacle and mass entertainment, and are staple parts of the mass media diet. Media news is full of stories of crime and deviance and programmes such as Crimewatch present crime in the form of dramatized reconstructions, while Police Camera Action uses real police footage as entertainment. Hayward and Young (2012) argue advertisers have turned images of crime and deviance into tools for selling products in the consumer market, such as in the videogame Grand Theft Auto which combines images of criminality, street gang culture and designer chic that represent crime as a style and fashion choice that is romantic and exciting. 2)The mass media clearly can't report every single criminal or deviant act that occurs, and media personnel are necessarily very SELECTIVE in the incidents they choose to report. People are only able to discuss and form opinions about the crime and deviance they have been informed about, and for most people this information is provided by the media rather than by personal experience. This means that people's perceptions of crime and deviance in society are influenced by what media personnel choose to include in or leave out of their newspapers, TV programmes, films or websites regardless of whether or not these representations are accurate. 3) Greer and Reiner (2012) point out that in news, documentaries and fiction, stories of sexual and violent crimes excites and captures the popular imagination. The media are always seeking out NEWSWORTHY stories of crime and deviance, and they exploit the possibilities for a 'good story' by dramatizing, exaggerating, over-reporting and sensationalizing some crimes out of all proportion in order to attract audiences. Greer (2005) suggests it is these news values that explain why all media, both fact and fiction, tend to exaggerate the extent of violent crime, and why practically any form of deviance by celebrities, no matter how trivial, receives massive coverage. 4)Surveys show that the majority of people base their knowledge of crime and the criminal justice system on the media, including crime fiction, rather than their own direct experience. Greer and Reiner (2012) suggest that the media presents a BACKWARDS LAW, misrepresenting the reality of crime in a number of ways: 1) By hugely over-representing and exaggerating sex, drug and serious violence-related crimes (such as sexual assault) while under-representing the risks of more common crimes such as burglary. 2) By over-exaggerating police effectiveness in clearing-up (solving) crimes 3) By exaggerating the risks of becoming victims faced by higher-status white people, older people, women and children 4) By emphasising individual incidents of crime, rather than providing any understanding or analysis of crime patterns or the causes of crime. Left Realists suggest media reporting of crime disguises the reality that both offenders and victims are mainly from the working class and the poor, and Marxists point to the concealment of the significance of white-collar and corporate crimes, such as widespread tax and other frauds, environmental pollution which rarely get reported. 5)The exaggeration of crime in the media combined with agenda-setting and news values means the media socially construct a distorted view of crime. This serves to exaggerate the risks of becoming a victim of crime and unnecessarily raises public fear of crime. Baudrillard (2001) suggests that the media do not reflect reality but actively create it, as most people's only knowledge of crime is through media-created images which have little connection with the real world. This 'irrational' view of crime is highlighted by recent research by Flatley (2010) that indicated that despite a fall in crime between 1995 and 2010, nearly two-thirds of the population thought it was rising. 6)Moral entrepreneurs are people, groups or organizations with the power to create or enforce rules which define deviance. The media act as moral entrepreneurs and establish themselves as the self-appointed guardians of national morality by labelling and stereotyping certain groups and activities as deviant and as social problems, often suggesting that such behaviour is a threat to society. Even if much of what is reported is exaggerated or untrue, media stories can demonize as FOLK DEVILS those involved in some activities, and sensitize the public to such an extent that it is encouraged to support action taken against them. 7)The creating of a moral panic will often sensitize the police, courts and other agencies of social control to the group or problem, and will lead to media lead campaigns to stamp down on such deviance. Heightened media coverage and harsher police action can often lead to an amplification of deviance in a number of ways: 1) More people are arrested (and thus are labelled as deviants) 2) Deviance is created as people a lured into the excitement of events. This was seen with the Mods and Rockers in Cohen's study as well as more recent moral panics over 'happy slapping' 3) The presence of TV cameras might encourage people to act up for the cameras and misbehave when they might not otherwise have done so. THE DEVIANCY AMPLIFICATION (SPIRAL) 1) A small group of people commit some act of deviance 2) The media's news values pick up on an interesting story: a problem group is identified 3) The media produces headlines, stories and photographs to interest readers and viewers 4) To maintain reader's interest, original deviance is amplified through exaggerated and sensationalized reporting 5) The group is labelled as folk devils and stereotyping occurs 6) More deviance occurs as people become more aware of it as a result of the media's interest, and seek it out for excitement 7) A MORAL PANIC develops. Public concern is aroused at the real or imaginary 'threat' to society; the media campaign for action to be taken against this perceived threat 8) More social control - politicians, police and magistrates respond to public demands as shown in the media, and law-and-order campaigns are begun to stamp down hard on the deviants. McRobbie and Thornton (1995) suggest the concept of moral panic is no longer useful due to new media technology. The growing sophistication of media audiences in a media saturated society, and intense competition between both different types of media - such as the internet, cable, print, broadcast and satellite - and media companies have changed the reporting of and reaction to events that might once have caused a moral panic. Pluralists and postmodernists argue there is nowadays such a huge diversity of media reports and interpretations of events, and of opinions and reactions to these events by the public, especially through CITIZEN JOURNALISM and social networks, that people are much more sceptical of mainstream media interpretations and less likely to believe them. 8)Greer and Reiner (2012) point out there has been a very long history of 'respectable people' fearing the link between the media and crime and deviance. They identify several ways that the media might do this: 1) Labelling, moral entrepreneurship and deviancy amplification: these all suggest that media reporting can create and/or make crime and deviance worse. 2) Motives for crime: The media's promotion of consumerist culture through images of affluent lifestyles creates crime by intensifying relative deprivation, or generating STRAIN that Merton identified. Also, people may be encouraged to commit 'copy-cat' violence or become DESENSISITIZED to violence (see SCLY3 notes) 3) Knowledge and learning of criminal techniques: Videogames such as Grand Theft Auto have encouraged people to act out the role of criminals. 4) New means of committing crimes: The new media and media technology, like the internet, provide new opportunities for cybercrimes and the organisation of transnational crime and terrorism. 5) The reduction of social controls over crime: The media can be seen to undermine the internal and external social controls that prevent people from turning to crime, for example by: (i) Broadcasting stories that mock the police and criminal justice system, and suggesting they are corrupt, ineffective and inefficient. This reduces public co-operation with the police and allows criminals to think they will not be caught (ii) By broadcasting stories and images which undermine internal controls by glamourizing crime or in a sympathetic nature. This could desensitize people to the use and effects of violence. 6) Providing targets for crime: media hardware and software provide new targets for property crime, such as smartphones, laptop and tablet computers, TVs, DVD recorders, and DVDs and CDs.
Crime prevention, victimology & punishment
There are three main approaches to crime prevention: 1) Structuralists 2) Individualist/ interventionist 3) Situational Each approach can be linked to some of the criminological theories we have already studied. Structuralists argue that crime is caused by inequalities in wealth and income. They say the only way to reduce or prevent crime is to address these inequalities. Subcultural, Marxist and Left Realists fall into this category. The interventionist approach argues that some groups of people are more likely to commit crime than others. They say the best way to prevent crime is to change the behaviour of these 'criminal types', e.g. by targeting children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Initiatives include: Prison sentences (which are seen has rehabilitating e.g. anger management courses and educational programmes) Community Service Both the above measures can be seen as a DETERRENT and could prevent other members of the community from committing crime. THE ROLE OF PRISONS 1) Protect the public - prisons lock away dangerous, violent, antisocial and generally undesirable people 2) Punish criminal behaviour - despite media depictions of prison being 'soft' the reality is more harsh. They are often overcrowded, violent, degrading and boring 3) Reform criminals - educational programmes in prison help prisoners to learn new skills so they can lead an honest life when they are released 4) Deter people from crime - the threat of being sent to prison should ensure most people never break the law DO PRISONS WORK? Prisons have a number of pros and cons: On a positive note they protect the public from dangerous criminals However, if such people are released early then they may reoffend The punishment aspect of a prison sentence depends on how strict the prison is Reoffending rates are roughly at 70% indicating that prisons fail to reform the majority of criminals The current prison numbers (approx 87,000) indicate that prison is not an effective deterrent and at a cost of £36,000 per prisoner per year, the penal system is very expensive! SITUATIONAL APPROACH The situational approach believes that changes to the physical environment can make it harder for people to commit crimes. For example: Creation of 'gated communities' Surveillance cameras/ CCTV Mosquito devices to prevent anti-social behaviour Anti-graffiti paint Improved lighting in streets and parks Zero-tolerance policing Speed cameras Community Support Officers (CSOs) Right Realists favour situational approaches calling for 'community minded' areas where there is a sense of social responsibility. One criticism of the situational approach is that it doesn't always reduce crime, rather it just moves crime to a less protected area FORMAL AND INFORMAL AGENTS Formal agents of social control include the police, Parliament, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts and the Prison Service. Informal social control is carried out by the family, the education system, religion and the media Both formal and informal control agencies help to reinforce a general sense of what behaviour is considered acceptable PUNISHMENT 1) Functionalists argue that punishment keeps society going. If crimes went unpunished the result would be anarchy and society would collapse. Durkheim said that public punishment of criminals was good for society. He thought it helped create unity and consensus as people came together to condemn the criminal - in other words, a public hanging was good for society. 2) Marxists say punishment serves the needs of capitalism by keeping the workers under control. They argue that the police are used to enforce social control in poorer areas whilst the rich get away with crime unchallenged. 3) The interventionist camp see prison as a deterrent - the very fact it exists should put people off committing crimes. The evidence suggests that this theory does not work in practice. POLICY AND CRIME The Labour Party used to favour the structuralist approach to crime. Their main policy was to reduce inequalities in society The Conservative Party has tended to favour individual and situational approaches. Between 1979-1997 the Conservatives put more police on the streets and more criminals were sent to prison - so many that Britain had the highest rate of imprisonment in Europe. When New Labour came to power in 1997, Tony Blair promised to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime". The party continued to focus on reducing inequalities of opportunity (by tackling unemployment, poverty and social exclusion), while giving more emphasis to punishment. NEW LABOUR IN FOCUS Since 1997 New Labour have introduced the following measures: ASBOs (1998): can be given for vandalism, theft, abusive behaviour, harassment and begging ABCs (Acceptable Behaviour Contracts): these are voluntary and aim to make people realise the effect their behaviour has on the community Parenting contracts and orders: these can force parents to attend good parenting classes (for up to 3 months) Curfew and dispersal orders: councils can seek a local child curfew order for up to 90 days at a time whereby all under-16s have to be home before 9 o'clock. Dispersal orders allow the police to break up groups of two or more people if they are being a nuisance. CRITICISMS OF ASBOS 1) It can be argued that ASBOs do not tackle the root causes of crime and are used to target the weakest and most vulnerable in society 2) Young people are at risk of being LABELLED as troublemakers when in the past they may have only received cautions 3) ASBOs are seen as being ineffective as they are easily breached 4) Some teenagers see ASBOs as 'badges of honour' that show just how deviant they are 5) Some people argue that ASBOs are another erosion of our CIVIL LIBERTIES placing more power in the hands of the police and courts. VICTIMOLOGY POSITIVIST VICTIMOLOGY Interested in how some people are more likely to become victims than others - either because their actions (e.g. leaving valuables on display in a car) lead them to becoming a victim of crime or because of their lifestyle. This approach has been criticised for blaming the victim. Positivist victimologists have tended to focus on visible crime such as reported robberies and assaults and as a result can be criticised for ignoring issues such as state crime. RADICAL VICTIMOLOGY Radical Victimology is more left wing. It argues that in a structurally unequal capitalist society, poor people are more likely to be the victims of crime, as part of a wider pattern of inequality and disadvantage. Radical victimologists have used the concept of HUMAN RIGHTS as a more universal yardstick for measuring victimisation rather than using official statistics. This allows them to focus on state and corporate crimes that go unrecorded. VICTIM STATISTICS Men are almost twice as likely to become victims of violence as women, however more women are afraid of becoming victims of crime Young men aged 16-24 experience the most violence - 13% in this survey Men are more likely to experience violence from strangers and acquaintances Women are more likely than men to be victims of domestic violence - 0.6% of women were affected but only 0.2% of men. People who suffer domestic violence are likely to experience repeat attacks. The 2002/03 report said that, of mixed race adults, 46% have been victims of crime - much higher than other groups. Just 30% of Asian and 27% of black, white and 'Chinese or other' adults experienced crime. WOMEN AS VICTIMS 1) Feminists argue that domestic violence is the result of an unequal power relationship between men and women. Radical feminists see domestic violence as a form of patriarchal power and control 2) Some feminists argue that the fear of crime is used to constrain women from taking a more active part in social life. Stanko (2000) suggests that women have to restrict their behaviour by taking care not to be too provocative in their behaviour and appearance 3) Marxist feminists say domestic violence can be explained by the frustration and lack of control that men experience in the capitalist workforce 4) Many feminists believe the law is biased against women and crimes against women have been ignored. Heidensohn (2002) says crimes by men against women often go unreported. She calls this type of crime 'gendered crime' 5) Feminists have campaigned to widen the definition of what behaviour is criminal, e.g. campaigning for legislation against sexual harassment in the workplace. Christie (1986) - argues that victims are soc'ly constructed-stereotype of a victim has been created by the media and the CJS as a weak, innocent & blameless individ.
Age
We have so far only looked at 'age' as a part of the theories we have analysed, for example the work of Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin, Merton and Young. However, it is important to look at 'age' as a determining factor in the same way we have focused on gender, ethnicity and social class. - Criminal and deviant activities are mainly carried out by the young, especially those between 14 and 24, and the majority of victims are also in the same age bracket. - The main interest of young people is self-gratification, which can lead to feelings of indifference to others, even those who are potential victims of their actions. - Not all young people are deviant or criminal and much depends on the strength of their personal networks, such as family, peers, school and community, which connect them to mainstream society. The stronger the bonds, the less likely that the young will be involved in criminal actions. - Those who do commit crime or deviant acts employ 'TECHNIQUES OF NEUTRALIZATION' (Matza) that allows them to suspend their normal commitment to obeying the law, through 'explaining away' their actions. - Being involved in criminal or deviant activity requires a calculation by the young that the material gain, or the excitement of feeling in control, outweighs the potential of discovery and capture by the agents of social control. - While most young criminals 'grow out' of their illegal activities, as they settle down to family responsibilities, they continue to demonstrate a lack of self-control in their lives, through heavy drinking, for example. - Young 'rebels' against the system form deviant subcultures that express their opposition to mainstream society through particular styles, often designed to shock or express difference. - The lifestyles of the young are likely to expose them to greater risk of VICTIMISATION, or offer greater opportunity for them to engage in deviant or criminal behaviour, e.g. they are more likely to be out at night, drinking. Why is it right to focus on the young when it comes to crime? 1) The focus on the young reflects the statistical and commonsensical views where crime and deviance are concentrated. 2) Explanations seek to establish both the opportunities for young people to engage in illegal activity and their motivations to do so, in the context of the social situation they find themselves in. 3) Changes over time are included as theorists seek to explain the transition of the young from being at the margins of society to adopting mainstream lifestyles. Why is it wrong to focus on the young when it comes to crime? 1) The focus on the young leads to a neglect of the criminality of other age groups. 2) Much illegal activity of the young is transitory, opportunistic and mundane. 3) 'Rebellion' is a 'natural' (not a deviant) condition for young people as they seek to establish their own identities. Synoptic Links: Young people, in various guises or subcultural styles, often form a FOLK DEVIL for older people (e.g. mods, rockers, hooligans or chavs). Their stigmatisation is based on nostalgia for a 'lost world' or 'golden age' of order and conformity (usually the 1950s), which has never actually existed. This yearning for a stable past is reinforced through MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS.
Ethnicity
Contemporary official statistics suggest what appear to be higher levels of criminality among some minority ethnic groups, particularly the black (African-Caribbean) population. For example, the Ministry of Justice in 2011, reported that, compared to white people, black people were: -over 2x as likely to be cautioned by the police -3& a 1/2x + likely to be arrested -if arrested, + likely to be charged, remanded in custody, & face court proceedings than to receive a caution. -+ likely, if found guilty, to receive a custodial (prison) sentence -5x + likely to be in prison Asians compared to white people were more likely to be: -+ likely to be charged & face court proceedings than to receive a caution -+ likely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty & for a longer term. The statistics indicate that a disproportionate number of ethnic minority people are committing crimes in the UK. However we must ask two questions: 1) If the statistics are a true reflection of the ethnic minority crime rate then what are the potential causes of ethnic minority crime? 2) Do the statistics merely reflect racist policing practices and therefore are they not a true reflection of ethnic minority crime? Neo-Marxism - Black crime as resistance: Paul Gilroy (1982) argued that crime by black people, particularly in the 1970s, was a form of political action, representing a CULTURE OF RESISTANCE to inequality and oppressors in the form of police racism and harassment:he denied that there was greater criminality among bl ppl than wh's, suggesting this was a myth-created by negative stereotyping by the police & the m, who saw minority ethnic grps as untrustworthy, w AC youth labeled as potential 'muggers' and Asians as potential illegal immigs. Neo-Marxism - Black people as scapegoats: Stuart Hall (1978) argued that in the 1970s Britain was facing an economic and political crisis which threatened the dominance of ruling-class ideology in society - a crisis of hegemony: At the same time there was growing conflict between the police and the AC commun.' -This was fuelled by selective publication of c stats showing bl youth involvement in partic offences, inc'ing street robbery (theft w actual/threatened use of force, now commonly called 'mugging') -the m picked up on this, as making good headlines, and promoted the idea that bl ppl were + prone to criminality than wh's, and the m image of the 'black mugger' was born. -a moral panic developed,d espite no real increase in street robbery-used to justify + represswive & aggressive policing against the bl commun. -All bl ppl were seen as athreat, even when they weren't doing anything wrong, generated growing distrust. Hall argued that there HAD NOT been a real increase in street robbery (mugging) but the moral panic was used to justify more repressive and aggressive policing against the black community, like repeated stop and search. All black youth were seen as a threat, even when they weren't doing anything wrong, and this generated growing distrust, and hostility and resistance to the police in the black community, which in many ways continues today. The media-exaggerated extent of black crime therefore became a means of reasserting the dominance of ruling class ideas, and re-establishing their hegemony in society generally, as the public shared their concerns over black criminality, and this diverted people's attention from the wider crisis in British society. Criticisms of Neo-Marxist approaches: 1)The conflicts between EM grps, the police & criminal justice agencies & - m stereotypes still exist, but the 'crisis of hegemony' of the 1970s doesn't, suggesting that the explanation is inadequate. 2) Gilroy seems to be imposing his own interpretation of the meaning of bl c when he describes it as a political act against oppressors. Bl c, inc'ing mugging is often committed against other bl ppl or poor ppl, so it's hard to see it as resistance to oppression. 3) Lea and Young- most c's are reported by the public, not uncovered by the police, so it's hard to explain bl c in terms of police racism. Left Realist explanations of ethnic minority crime: Lea and Young's Left Realist approach accepts that black crime, for some offences, is higher than for the white population. They suggest three factors contribute this: - Marginality:some EM grps are pushed to the edges of mainstr soc by underachievement in educ, lack of employment or low pay, and lack of legit opports to influence events. these create resentments & a sense of powerlessness, further fuelled by the experience of racism. - Relative Deprivation: this is most likely to be felt by those facing + deprived soc'l situations, as many of those in EM grps do. - Subculture: Marginality and relative deprivation can combine in contributing to the formation of subc's in depriv'd commun's which prov a form of peer grps support for young bl males and may involve gang culture, violence & street crime as a response to the resentments and status frustration that they feel. Poverty, social exclusion and the search for identity: Bowling and Phillips (2002) suggest higher levels of robbery by black people could be linked to poverty and social exclusion, which black communities are more likely to suffer from, and such activities can generate both peer-group status and a sense of powerful black identity otherwise denied: -pov & soc'l exclusion clearly affect As's as well , partic'ly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who are among the poorest grps in GB soc. -Hwvr, their lower cr may be bc As' cults offer a much clearer cult'l identity, and there are generally stronger controls within As fam's & commun's, limiting the opports & perhaps the desire to commit c. So far we have considered the various factors that might contribute towards an ACTUAL higher rate of crime amongst ethnic minorities. However, many sociologists argue that ethnic minority crime is exaggerated by various forms of racism in the criminal justice system. Stop and search: Phillips and Bowling (2002) claim that the criminalisation of ethnic minority groups starts with the 'over-policing of neighbourhoods where ethnic minorities, particularly Afro-Caribbeans, are heavily concentrated' The BCS in 2000 found that the incidence of stops and searches of African Caribbean people could be explained in terms of factors other than race, such as age, income and area of residence. Cicourel's concept of TYPIFICATIONS can be used to explain high rates of stop and search amongst minority ethnic groups. Newburn (2007) argues that the types of areas in which police decide to conduct stops and searches could reflect police racism Institutionalised Racism: The Macpherson Inquiry into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence concluded that the police were institutionally racist. Macpherson found that the police have 'procedures, practices and a culture that tend to exclude or disadvantage non-white people': Newburn 2004 - Strip searches in London police stations: Canteen Culture: Reiner (2000) argues the police have developed a 'canteen culture' that helps them to deal with the enormous pressures and danger of the job: -'Institutional racism' within the police, highlighted by the MacPherson Report (1999). new police were expected to hold and express certain attitudes which were sexist and racist. -Those who didn't conform were treated as outcasts. These attitudes spilled over into police work & made them target bl youths + freq'ly. Resentment of the police: Only 12% of stop and searches lead to an arrest which leads to resentment and lack of trust between minority ethnic groups and the police. Bowling and Phillips (2002) have reviewed a number of ethnographic studies of crime amongst British Asians for example, Early studies indicated that Asians committed less crime than other ethnic groups: Mawby and Batta (1980) found that most Asians in Bradford were relatively poor and living in inner city areas. However, the study found they committed few crimes because of the emphasis on family honour which encouraged conformism. They were afraid of dishonouring the family name. Later studies have indicated an increase in Asian crime: Desai (1999) found that young Asian men were taking a more aggressive stance in combating racist attacks. Some Bangladeshi boys were making a self-conscious attempt to counteract the image of themselves as weak and passive Alexander (2000) argues that the media image of a growing problem of Asian gangs is something of a myth. Although there was some violence in the area of south London covered by her study, it was greatly exaggerated by the media. Statistics: In 2004-5 black ethnic groups were five times more likely to be stopped and searched than the average for the population as a whole In 1999-2000 four times as many Afro-Caribbean people were arrested than would be expected in terms of their proportion of the population. In 2004-5 black ethnic groups made up 13.5% of the prison population despite only making up 2.8% of the actual population Hood (1992) found that black men were 5% more likely to be given a prison sentence than white men. Their sentences were also on average three months longer than those of whites who committed the same offences Victimization: There is clear evidence that most ethnic minorities are more likely to be victims of most crimes than whites are. Clancy (2001) argues that much of the difference in victimization can be explained in terms of social factors such as higher rates of unemployment among ethnic minorities and the younger age structure of those groups. Data from the BCS indicates that there is increased fear of crime among ethnic minorities. This is compounded by their lack of faith in the ability of the criminal justice system to deal with racially motivated crimes.
Online dating
Whitty 2013-Persuasive Techniques Model- Online dating romance scam. Stage 1- motivated to find the 'ideal' partner. stage 2-presented w the ideal profile. stage 3- grooming process-gain the victims trust & confidence -narrative of 'living abroad' justifies the criminal avoiding face to face meetings. stage 4- the sting- either through the 'foot-in-the-door' technique (initial requests for gifts or small amounts of money eventually leading to requests for larger amounts) or by creating a crisis in the narrative (e.g. the need for quick money to deal with impending probs). stage 5- continuation of the scam-if victims haven't complied w the requests to supply large amounts of money, the criminal might employ the 'door-in-the-face' technique, requesting a + modest amount-those presented w a crisis in stage 4 are now presented w a new crisis in stage 5-do it until either the victim runs out of money (& sometimes proceeds to stage 6) or exits the scam. stage 6- sexual abuse- in some cases after the victim reveals that they had no money left to give, the scammer might ask the victim to take their clothes off and perform sex acts in front of their clothes off and perform sex acts in front of a web cam. recorded material can then be used at a later stage, perhaps to blackmail the victim by threatening to send images to the victim's workplace or fam. stage 7- revictimisation-might go back to the scammer later admitting that they had indeed been scamming the victim, but that during the process they had genuinely fallen in love w the victim. This preceds, of course, further requests for money.