5. Statistics and Patterns of Crime - 3. Social Class and Crime

Question 1

Statistics aren’t routinely collected on class background of offenders. How are class statistics on crime made?

Answer 1

A range of data sources suggest that most people convicted of indictable (serious) offences tend to be from lower social-class backgrounds.
Measured using characteristics associated with w/c such as unemployment and benefits

Question 2

Statistics that suggest high w/c criminality

Answer 2

Study of over 2000 adult prisoners in UK in 2006/7: 43% had no qualifications and 60% had been claiming benefits
Study of entire UK prison population: 67% were unemployed

Question 3

Self report study conducted about social class and crime

Answer 3

The Offending, Crime and Justice Survey carried out annually between 2003 and 2006

Question 4

What did The Offending, Crime and Justice Survey find about social class and crime? And what did it base social class on?

Answer 4

Found that social class of the family (based on occupation of main breadwinner) was not significantly associated with likelihood of offending

Question 5

What was strongly linked to crime rather than social class in The Offending, Crime and Justice Survey?

Answer 5

Individual circumstances were more strongly associated with crime
Examples: inconsistent parental discipline, single-parent families and being in a school with low discipline

Question 6

Material explanations

Answer 6

Crime related to inequality of income and wealth

Question 7

Cultural explanations

Answer 7

Crime related to values, attitudes and lifestyle

Question 8

Marx’s material explanation for crime

Answer 8

Crime is associated with a group called the ‘Lumpenproletariat’ - unemployed w/c who relied on income through crime for survival.
This group had been dehumanised by a lack of work and had turned to crime as a result

Question 9

Marxist Gordon’s material explanation for crime

Answer 9

Capitalism’s ’dog-eat-dog’ mentality encourages selfishness and greed

Question 10

Other theorists that focus on material explanations

Answer 10

Merton, Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin and left realists

Question 11

2 people who focus on cultural explanations

Answer 11

Miller
Murray

Question 12

Miller’s cultural explanation for w/c criminality

Answer 12

American lower classes have a distinctive culture/way of life where focal concerns of toughness, street smartness and excitement are passed on down generations

Question 13

Murray’s cultural explanation for w/c criminality (simple)

Answer 13

The underclass

Question 14

Evaluation of material explanations for w/c criminality

Answer 14

Hall, Winlow and Ancrum argue that there isn’t a clear statistical relationship between factors such as poverty, unemployment and crime rate.
For the 2nd half of the 1900s crime increased whether or not there was a recession

Question 15

Evaluation for Miller’s cultural explanation

Answer 15

It may be outdated as there is now a w/c culture of consumerism of material goods which links more to a material explanation

Question 16

Evaluation for Murray’s cultural explanation

Answer 16

Is it lone-parent families that causes crime (cultural) or is it there lack of income (material)?