Functionalism
-sees the law as a reflection of societies shared values and crime as a product of inadequate or inappropriate socialisation into these values
-not everyone is equally well socialised into society’s shared culture
-miller argues that the lower class has developed an independent subculture with its own distinctive norms and values that clash with those of the mainstream culture. This explains why the lower class have a higher crime rate
Strain theory
-argues people engage in deviant behaviour when their opportunities to achieve in eglitimate ways are blocked
-Merton argued American’s society’s class structure denies working class people the opportunity to achieve the mone successes that American cultures value so highly
-as working class are more likely to be denied legitimate opportunities to achieve success, so they are more likely to seek illegitimate means of achieving it
-Merton calls this innovation, using crime to gain material wealth which shows why lower classes has a higher rate of utilitarian crime than the middle classes
Subcultural theories
-delinquent subculture formed as a result of status frustration
-by inverting mainstream values, w/c youths can gain status from their peers
-explains why w/c commit non-ultilitarian crime
-use the concept of illegitimate opportunity structures to explain why a range of different crimes are seemingly more prevalent within the working class
-identity a criminal subculture in stable w/c neighbourhoods that offer professional criminal careers, a conflict subculture and a retreatist subculture
Labelling theories
-they reject the view that ofs are a useful resource for sociologists that give a valid picture of which class committed the most crime
-they focus on how and why working class people become to be labelled as criminal
-they emphasise the stereotypes held by law enforcement genies that see the working class as typical criminals, and the power of these agencies to successfully label powerless groups such as the working class
