Page 7 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 5: Situational Action Theory

SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE

Although we’ll develop the (empirical) relationship between crime and
social in more detail later, it’s useful to understand two things to complete
this section:

Firstly, although we’ve been at pains
to point-out social disadvantage
doesn’t directly cause crime, that’s
not to say it doesn’t have an
important role to play in our
understanding of those causes. We
know that concepts like personal
morality, self-control and peer-group
relationships are significantly
influenced by social advantages and DISADVANTAGE
disadvantages.
In terms of personal relationships we
know social class – a proxy for
different types of advantage and
disadvantage – plays an important,
probably determining, role in the
relationships we form: the socially
advantaged tend to mix with those of
a similar status and vice versa.
The implication here is that the
socially disadvantaged have a much
greater chance of forming personal
relationships with those involved in
crime than the socially advantaged:
the circles in which young working-
class move, for example, have a high
probability of bringing them into
contact with people for whom crime
is, if not necessarily a way of life, an
important aspect of that life.

This isn’t to say socially
disadvantaged teens inevitably
become offenders because it’s
perfectly possible to form non-
criminal relationships with similar-
minded peers. Compared to their
socially advantaged peers, however,
there’s a much greater probability
that at least some peer relationships
will involve criminal offending.

07