Teacher Resource 6

Explanations of crime and deviance - application activity

Answers for teachers

  1. In no more than 100 words describe how Britain’s largest bank is reported to have helped its wealthiest customers avoid paying taxes.
  1. Explain how this is an example of corporate crime.
  1. Give three other examples of corporate crime.

Version 11© OCR 2016

Crime and deviance

  1. Next, using the table below, discuss how each theoretical perspective would explain HSBC’s reported avoidance of paying tax. Make brief notes.

  1. Concepts are essential in explaining and understanding theoretical perspectives of crime and deviance. In the table below develop your application by using the concepts provided to write a more full and detailed description of each theoretical explanation.

Functionalism
Functionalists argue that a certain amount of crime, or dysfunction, is necessary as it strengthens the value consensus and acts as a ‘safety valve’. In other words, crime highlights where there are problems in society so that laws, which are socially constructed, can be changed or created. Functionalists would argue that a certain amount of corporate crime is inevitable but in fact, necessary to a functioning society. Too much corporate crime however, might be an indicator of a loss of norms, known as anomie.
value consensus, anomie, dysfunction, social solidarity, crime as a social construct, crime as a ‘safety valve’
Marxism
Marxists would argue that corporate crime is inevitable within the structure of a capitalist society, where the ruling class control the working class. Through making the laws, the ruling class police the working class heavily and often avoid creating laws to punish the ruling class. Tax avoidance is a good example of this. There are laws about avoiding tax however it still often goes undetected and there are many loopholes in the law which mean that the powerful can avoid paying taxes in perfectly legal ways. In some cases non-decision making – not making laws about particular forms of tax avoidance - enables the wealthy to continue to get richer and more powerful. This is a classic example of ruling class crime or a crime of the powerful.
corporate crime, ruling class crime, crime of the powerful, non-decision making, law making
Interactionism
Interactionists are interested in the ways that certain forms of behaviour become seen as deviant and then become labelled as criminal. Interactionists would argue that individuals have come to define the actions of the bankers as unacceptable. In many cases, tax avoidance has gone undetected (and still does) which is an example of a primary form of deviance. Once labelled as a crime, the act of tax avoidance can be seen as secondary deviance which is punishable or seen as deviant (as seen in the negative outcry about bankers avoiding taxes). This leads to those committing the crime (the bankers) internalising the crime and it becoming what defines them, their master status. Interactionists would argue that the labelling process involves those committing the act living up to their label, in other words, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs.
labelling theory, social action, primary and secondary, self-fulfilling prophecy, master status
Feminism
Feminists would point out that the world of banking and law creation are similarly patriarchal and male dominated, reflecting their own network of male dominance. There are very few powerful women bankers and as a result they would argue that law creators would seek to write laws which benefit male bankers. They would argue that the underrepresentation of women in both law creation and banking is highly problematic.
They would also claim that the masculine, malestream culture of banking leads to rampant sexism and the exclusion of women from powerful positions, thus reinforcing the patriarchal ideology in society.
double deviance, malestream, patriarchal ideology, ladette culture, sexism

Extension activity

Discuss in small groups how useful the following theories might be in interpreting the banking issue discussed above:

  • Functionalist subcultural theories

Cohen might point out that crime is collective and reflects a group of individuals sharing a particular set of norms and values. In this case, Cohen would argue that it is the culture of denial that led to the widespread tax evasion. Cloward and Ohlin argue that crime generally exists where there is an illegitimate opportunity structure. However these explanations were based on the crimes of the working class and as such may not apply to the bankers who predominantly come from middle class backgrounds.

  • Marxist subcultural theories

Marxists tend to focus on the working class committing crime, rather than the ruling class.

  • Realist theories

Left and right realists would acknowledge that a certain amount of crime exists, their focus, however, remains on working class crime which they see as being the most common type of crime. Left realists see crime as a response to structural inequalities whereas right realists argue that crime is the result of a rational decision made by the criminal who is aware of the potential consequences. Therefore these theories tend to ignore the crimes of the wealthy and powerful, suggesting a lack of appropriate theoretical explanations in contemporary social theory.

Version 11© OCR 2016

Crime and deviance