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TASSociologyQuick questions
Deviance, Crime and Social Order
Quick questions on Crime and Deviance - TCE Sociology (Tasmania) - Level 3
2short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is merton's strain theory?Show answer
Robert Merton adapted anomie to explain crime in unequal societies. Society sets universal success goals, such as wealth, but provides unequal access to legitimate means like good jobs. This strain pushes some people toward deviant adaptations, most importantly innovation, achieving the goals through illegitimate means such as theft. Strain theory neatly links crime to inequality, but it focuses on financial crime and struggles to explain non utilitarian deviance such as vandalism.
What is labelling theory?Show answer
Interactionist Howard Becker argued that deviance is not a quality of the act but of the reaction to it: an act is deviant only once it is successfully labelled so. The powerful decide which acts and which people get labelled, and the labelled person may experience a self fulfilling prophecy, taking on a deviant master status and being pushed into a deviant career. This explains why official statistics reflect who gets caught and labelled, not simply who offends.
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