Guest Blogger: Janine Taylor
When you look at the picture on the right, what do you see? A plus-sized family of four? The girl from the X-Factor who had the awful dress? A dirty cott
on bud on the floor? A family, which was forced to live in a car after being evicted for all night karaoke sessions? While all of the former are indeed true, what you are actually looking at the Chawners - a family who weigh 83st between them, claim £22,000 a year in benefits and have chosen not to work for 11 years. They are the embodiment of the underclass, the “scum of the depraved elements of all classes” – Marx.
Before I delve in to the sociology behind the phenomenon of the underclass, I’m sure you are wondering about why they are “entitled” to all the money they receive. Mrs Chawner receives an extra £330 a month, because she has epilepsy and asthma – the latter being caused by her obesity. Mr Chawner receives £71 a month, as he developed type 2 diabetes because of this weight. Samantha – the girl on the right, receives £168 a month in jobseeker’s allowance and the wannabe pop star who has is so elegantly placed herself on the arm of the sofa receives £116 a month as a student, due to the “poverty” of her family.
The New Right seek to reduce the welfare state which have allowed families like these to thrive on benefits as they believe that individuals have a social responsibility, a moral obligation to provide and be responsible for themselves. Because of this, ‘scroungers’ along with young offenders and other ‘undesirable’ social groups, in the eyes of the New Right, are labelled the ‘enemy within’.
Control theory influences the New Right and even thought it is most commonly applied to criminal and deviant behaviour, it can also be applied to the study of the Chawners and the underclass (although I would argue that the behaviour of the Chawners is criminal):
1/The Reasoning Criminal
→ Actions are calculated and rational
o Chawners – We can make more money by staying at home, and watching Jeremy Kyle than if we get a job.
2/Society influences the individual
→ People are influences by those in their neighbourhood
o Chawners -3,924 people are on benefits in Blackburn, why should we have to work?
Lastly, although the Chawners are yet to realise it:
3/People have a moral duty to work
→ Dependence on others decreases happiness and freedom.
→ Marsland – “welfare hand outs create incentives for staying unemployed”
So how does this link to crime and deviance?
Murray, a New Right Realist blamed the welfare state for “sapping moral fibre, eroding Christian ethics and threatening family values” (link to religion - Weber – The protestant ethic – hard work, spending money wisely). He believed that England would be come a nanny state where there was an over dependency on welfare, which has become the case now more than ever due to the recent economic recession. Murray also believed that the result of a nanny state was ‘social sickness’ which is the reduction of the strength of moral values and mechanisms of social control – anomie, which in turn leads to crime.
The New Right believes that crime is not a cause of poverty, but by “selfish and wicked people” – Wilson. The choice to turn to crime is always linked to the ease of committing the act, the opportunities available, the risk involved in the crime and the possibility of being detected. Because of this Wilson concludes that people are less likely to commit crimes if there is surveillance e.g. CCTV and ‘target hardening e.g. marking goods, such as laptops. They also advocate a policy of Zero Tolerance (Wilson and Kelling – Broken Windows, train jumpers), which means that minor crimes should be punished harshly, to stop larger ones from being committed, as the attributed the rise in crime to the lack of fear the criminal had about being caught.
Although the picture I have portrayed of the New Right may lead you to think that they are heartless, they are not. They do believe that the benefit system should be kept in place to help those who genuinely cannot help themselves. Anyway, if your dreams of making it big don’t work, I know how you can make £22,000 a year with minimal effort…
When you look at the picture on the right, what do you see? A plus-sized family of four? The girl from the X-Factor who had the awful dress? A dirty cott
on bud on the floor? A family, which was forced to live in a car after being evicted for all night karaoke sessions? While all of the former are indeed true, what you are actually looking at the Chawners - a family who weigh 83st between them, claim £22,000 a year in benefits and have chosen not to work for 11 years. They are the embodiment of the underclass, the “scum of the depraved elements of all classes” – Marx.Before I delve in to the sociology behind the phenomenon of the underclass, I’m sure you are wondering about why they are “entitled” to all the money they receive. Mrs Chawner receives an extra £330 a month, because she has epilepsy and asthma – the latter being caused by her obesity. Mr Chawner receives £71 a month, as he developed type 2 diabetes because of this weight. Samantha – the girl on the right, receives £168 a month in jobseeker’s allowance and the wannabe pop star who has is so elegantly placed herself on the arm of the sofa receives £116 a month as a student, due to the “poverty” of her family.
The New Right seek to reduce the welfare state which have allowed families like these to thrive on benefits as they believe that individuals have a social responsibility, a moral obligation to provide and be responsible for themselves. Because of this, ‘scroungers’ along with young offenders and other ‘undesirable’ social groups, in the eyes of the New Right, are labelled the ‘enemy within’.
Control theory influences the New Right and even thought it is most commonly applied to criminal and deviant behaviour, it can also be applied to the study of the Chawners and the underclass (although I would argue that the behaviour of the Chawners is criminal):
1/The Reasoning Criminal
→ Actions are calculated and rational
o Chawners – We can make more money by staying at home, and watching Jeremy Kyle than if we get a job.
2/Society influences the individual
→ People are influences by those in their neighbourhood
o Chawners -3,924 people are on benefits in Blackburn, why should we have to work?
Lastly, although the Chawners are yet to realise it:
3/People have a moral duty to work
→ Dependence on others decreases happiness and freedom.
→ Marsland – “welfare hand outs create incentives for staying unemployed”
So how does this link to crime and deviance?
Murray, a New Right Realist blamed the welfare state for “sapping moral fibre, eroding Christian ethics and threatening family values” (link to religion - Weber – The protestant ethic – hard work, spending money wisely). He believed that England would be come a nanny state where there was an over dependency on welfare, which has become the case now more than ever due to the recent economic recession. Murray also believed that the result of a nanny state was ‘social sickness’ which is the reduction of the strength of moral values and mechanisms of social control – anomie, which in turn leads to crime.
The New Right believes that crime is not a cause of poverty, but by “selfish and wicked people” – Wilson. The choice to turn to crime is always linked to the ease of committing the act, the opportunities available, the risk involved in the crime and the possibility of being detected. Because of this Wilson concludes that people are less likely to commit crimes if there is surveillance e.g. CCTV and ‘target hardening e.g. marking goods, such as laptops. They also advocate a policy of Zero Tolerance (Wilson and Kelling – Broken Windows, train jumpers), which means that minor crimes should be punished harshly, to stop larger ones from being committed, as the attributed the rise in crime to the lack of fear the criminal had about being caught.
Although the picture I have portrayed of the New Right may lead you to think that they are heartless, they are not. They do believe that the benefit system should be kept in place to help those who genuinely cannot help themselves. Anyway, if your dreams of making it big don’t work, I know how you can make £22,000 a year with minimal effort…
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