Class

Question 1

Evaluations - strengths

Answer 1

Official statistics show most crime is committed by w/c on other w/c individuals
Focus on social class allows concentration of resources on most deviant areas
Could help develop social policies to deal with the problem

Question 2

Statistics

Answer 2

Study of prisoners in 2014:
43% had no educational qualifications
Only 6% had degree
60% had been claiming benefits
36% had been unemployed

In 1994 only 8% of convicted criminal activity was from non manual backgrounds

Question 3

Miller

Answer 3

Believed lower classes in America passed on a certain way of life/culture
Due to low paid, tedious jobs creates sense of ‘toughness and ‘excitement’
Often leads to deviant behaviour, fights, drinking and anti-social behaviour

Question 4

Material and Cultural Explanations

Answer 4

Marx - material deprivation and lumpenproletariat w/c not in work/lowest paid jobs - alienation
Merton - strain theory
Cohen - subcultures and status frustration

Question 5

Newburn and Reiner

Answer 5

Argue police discretion is important in influencing which law-breakers are likely to be arrested
They chose to focus on stereotype of criminals (w/c males)
W/c street crime consists of visible offences occupying most of police attention
M/c crime is more hidden

Question 6

Class bias

Answer 6

Lower classes force class bias in the way their behaviour is criminalised. W/c are more likely to be convicted.

Chambliss - studied two youth gangs ‘the Saints’ from m/c and ‘Roughnecks’ w/c. ‘Saints’ got away with crimes such as drink driving and road accidents. ‘Roughnecks’ more likely to be involved in petty street crime. ‘Roughnecks’ given deviant labels. ‘Saints’ had ability to negotiate out of trouble.

Question 7

Criminalisation of higher classes

Answer 7

Less easy to detect
Have more opportunity to commit white collar crime with low conviction rates - environmental and state crime - under policed crime
Shows how power is distributed in society

Tombs and Whyte - argue large corporations have economic, social and political power the leaders avoid prosecution even if causing harm eg fraud, 150 workers killed a year at work

Question 8

Evaluation - weaknesses

Answer 8

Marxists would argue focus on w/c allows people to turn blind-eye to m/c crime
Bigger correlation between gender and crime
Several of explanations come close to victim blaming
Majority of w/c are law-abiding
State, corporation crime is more damaging to economy than street crime and it goes unnoticed

Question 9

Farrington

Answer 9

Poor parental supervision
Harsh disciplines
Parental disharmony
Rejection of children
Low parental involvement with children
Large family size 
Criminal parents/siblings present (your associated to delinquency)

All related to socio-economic factors and strong relationships found between delinquency and:
Low income
Large families
Residence in run down housing estates

Question 10

Murray

Answer 10

Welfare policies
Keep deprived people outside labour force
Create welfare state dependency
Women knowingly becomes pregnant to secure welfare
Underclass responsible for majority of crime
Violence only form of expression for young men

Question 11

Unemployment and Crime -

Rusche and Kircheimer - Marxists

Answer 11

‘Prisons help to control labour supply by jettisoning inmates when labour is scarce and filling up when labour is abundant’.

Reserve army labour

Question 12

Unemployment and Crime

Answer 12

Economists refer to 2 theories:

Opportunity theory - periods of growth in the economy - crime rises - income rises - more goods in circulation - more opportunity for crime

Motivational theory - during recession the unemployed turn to crime as their legitimate income decreases - increased motivation

Question 13

Cloward and Ohlin

Answer 13

Retained much of Merton’s theory on strain and unequal distribution

Position discontentment
Competition for higher status
Pressure for deviant behaviour
Emergence of delinquent subcultures