Class and Offending Flashcards
The working class, unskilled and unemployed are overrepresented in the penal system. What are the two dispositional theories used to explain this?
Merton- Strain theory (Can’t obtain assets legitimately so turn to illegitimate means) and Cohen’s- Subcultural theories (Create own deviant subcultures as cant fit into middle class ones).
The working class, unskilled and unemployed are overrepresented in the penal system. What are the critical theories to explain this?
Marxism- Law serves interests of upper class therefore lower class get it disproportionately applied to them. Hall and Scraton 1981- over-policing and penalising of the 'dangerous classes'.
How do LSE conceptualise class?
Economic status- earnings/savings
Social status- people you associate with
Cultural status- cultural activities you take part in
What are Williams 1988 3 categories to conceptualise class?
Group- it’s an objective, social or economic category
Rank- It’s defined by your relative social position by birth or mobility. (Born into it)
Formation- It is formed by a perceived economic relationship. Shared social political and cultural beliefs.
Post modernist/ structuralist view of class?
It is dead. Other categories or diversity strands are more important/ bigger predictors.
Econmetrics: Field 1990
Consumer expenditure is good predictor of crime levels. Drift in and out of criminal activity depending on economic status.
Econometrics: Box 1987
In times of economic recession crime gets worse. (Depends on length of economic strife and how bad it was).
Econometrics: Hale 1999
Crime and the changing labour market:
- shift from factory jobs to service sector
- Increase of part time employment and temporary jobs
- Dual labour market- less jobs for men and less supervision at home
Ecological link: Zone in transition
Socially disorganised. Durkheim 1993- when rules breakdown people feel in a state of anomie or a meaningless in life, therefore more crime occurs.
Ecological link: Hirschi 1969 Social Bond theory
If there is a chaotic socially disorganised area then social bonds/ attachments to that community are harder to form= crime.
Home Office National Prison Survey 1991
18% of prison population compared to 45% of general population has non manual jobs.
41% of prison population and 19% of general population had semi and unskilled jobs.
Bottoms and McClean 1976
only 5% of D’s in criminal courts had professional and managerial occupations.
Criminalise the lower classes? Pilivan and Brior 1964
Found evidence of class bias at police stage as police decided to arrest based on persons demenor.
Criminalise the lower classes? Smith 1983/ Kisney 1984
Unemployed more likely to be stopped by police/ S+S
Criminalise the lower classes? Bennet 1979
Middle class offenders are more likely to receive caution or warning than arrest.
Criminalise the lower classes? Crow 1989
unemployed more likely to receive a custodial sentence
Criminalise the lower classes? Cook at al 1989
HM Revenue and customs More likely pursue benefits scam than tax fraud offence
Tooms and White 2008
Agencies that oversee health and safety in the workplace are more likely to warn/ fine than prosecute.
Radical Approach
Criminalisation eg. marxism (Hall and Scraton 1981)
Right realism
Underclass, a criminogenic culture (Murray 1990)
Left realism
they commit more crime because they are socially excluded- crime as a reality for them
The political economy
The types of crime committed is linked to the type of society we are in (Reiner 2007)
Individualised risk
Irrelevance of class or any other group effect on offending (Wikstram 2006)
