Control, Punishment and Victims

Question 1

What are the 3 crime prevention strategies?

Answer 1

• reducing the likelihood of being a target
• tackling perpetrators harshly
• social and cultural crime prevention
• community policing

Question 2

What are the 5 surveillance theories?

Answer 2

• surveillance
• synoptic surveillance
• surveillant assemblages
• actuarial risk
• surveillance and labelling

Question 3

What was Foucault (1979), interested in? (surveillance theory)

Answer 3

Interested in the way controlling human behaviour has changed over time. In the preindsutrial era, people were controlled by sovereign rule (monarchy), punishment included torture. From the 1800s, society moved towards disciplinary rule whereby behaviour was regulated by the law. For example, people are placed under surveillance

Question 4

According to Foucault (1979), what was the panopticon prison? (surveillance theory)

Answer 4

Circular prisons whereby every cell was visible at all times by a singular guard tower. The watch tower would be 360degrees. Foucault claimed that prisoners were less likely to participate in deviant behaviour because they know they are under constant surveillance. Furthermore, inmates more likely to be rehabilitated because offenders were use to the constant fear of being watched which they brought into wider society.

Question 5

According to Foucault (1979), what is the dispersal of discipline? (surveillance theory)

Answer 5

Where society is under the impression it is always being watched, so we are encouraged to self regulate our actions

Question 6

Evaluation of Foucault’s surveillance theory?

Answer 6

Extent to which surveillance monitors behaviour is exagerated.

Question 7

According to Mathiesen (1997), what is synoptic surveillance?

Answer 7

Proposes that surveillance is no longer about authority figures watching over society. Instead, society polices each others actions. A synopticon is when everyone watches everyone else’s actions. For example, the use of mobile phones to video events.

Question 8

According to Mathiesen (1997), how has the media changed surveillance? (synoptic surveillance)

Answer 8

Can be shared easily, and can also police the behaviour of those in power. This creates a constant fear of being publicly shamed by others, which is a significant form of social control

Question 9

Evaluation of synoptic surveillance?

Answer 9

Exaggerates extent to which this can control crimes of the powerful

Question 10

According to Haggerty and Ericson (2000), what is surveillant assemblages?

Answer 10

Proposes that in the past, surveillance was carried out by stand alone technologies or individuals. Now, technologies can be combined meaning they work more intensively. For example, CCTV footage can be analysed by facial recognition

Question 11

Evaluation of surveillant assemblages?

Answer 11

Abuse of human rights

Question 12

According to Feely and Simon (1994), what is actuarial risk?

Answer 12

Reject the view that all members of society are under equal surveillance. They propose 3 alternative arguments for how surveillance works

Question 13

According to Feely and Simon (1994), what are the 3 alternative ways surveillance works? (actuarial risk)

Answer 13

1. certain groups are more likely to be watched
2. surveillance is about preventing crimes within “high risk” groups
3. surveillance is based on actuarial risk, meaning how statistically likely certain groups are to engage in crime

Question 14

According to Feely and Simon (1994), what is categorical suspicion?

Answer 14

Whereby people are suspected of committing a crime because they are part of a particular social group. For example, surveillance in airports

Question 15

Evaluation of actuarial risk?

Answer 15

Abuse of power

Question 16

According to Ditton et al (1999), what is surveillance and labelling?

Answer 16

Surveillance technology is simply an extension of human labelling. Security staff use typifications to determine who to focus on. This is a view of what a typical offender might look like. As a consequence, certain groups are more likely to be caught and end up on OCS. For example, black people are 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police.
Leading to disproportioantely represented on OCS, leading to a dark figure of crime

Question 17

Evaluation of surveillance and labelling?

Answer 17

Create negative SFPs

Question 18

According to sociologists, what are the three roles prison plays in society?

Answer 18

• deterrence
• rehabilitation
• incapacite (remove criminals from society)

Question 19

What are the two perspectives on the punishment of crime?

Answer 19

• functionalism

- marxism

Question 20

According to Durkheim (1893), what is the role of prison within society?

Answer 20

Necessary institution which helps to maintain social order in society.

Question 21

According to Durkheim (1893), what was the purpose of prison in the preindustrial era?

Answer 21

Prison was to provide retributive justice meaning it was a holding centre for criminals before their punishment was delivered, for example public hanging

Question 22

According to Durkheim (1893), what is the role of prison in a modern society?

Answer 22

Provider of restitutive justice, meaning prison should restore the person back to their original state. Prison should therefore rehabilitate offenders

Question 23

Evaluation of the functionalist view of the role of prison?

Answer 23

Restitutive justice is not “new” for a modern society.

Question 24

According to marxists, what are the 3 ways punishment affects different social groups?

Answer 24

• repressive state apparatus
• punishes people different depending on their socio economic status
• prison mimics capitalism

Question 25

According to Marxists, what is the repressive state apparatus (views on punishment)

Answer 25

Application of punishment works similar to that of a capitalist society. 
Repressive state apparatus, designed to keep the proletariat in place through force. For example, working class people were threatened with death for crimes such as theft in a preindsutrial era.

Question 26

According to Marxists, how is punishment different depending on social class? (views on punishment)

Answer 26

Working class are more likely to have their freedom taken off them whereas middle class crime is passed through the civil courts

Question 27

According to Marxists, how does prison mimic capitalism? (views on punishment)

Answer 27

Proletariat are subject to the same conditions they would face at work. For example, the workplace dictates the time of day, as does prison

Question 28

Evaluation of the marxist views of punishment?

Answer 28

Working class people are more likely to engage in more serious crime meaning they should be subject to stricter rules

Question 29

What are the two reasons as to why prison is failing?

Answer 29

• mass incarceration

- transcarceration

Question 30

According to Garland (2001), what is mass incarceration? (why prison is failing)

Answer 30

Prison is an institution used to prison “un desirable” people to society. 40% of unemployed people will end up in prison making unemployment figures look better

Question 31

What is transcarceration? (why prison is failing)

Answer 31

Whereby people are placed under control by various institutions throughout their life. Problematical for younger people, who find themselves sifted from hospital, to prison, to a mental health ward

Question 32

What are the 3 alternatives to prison?

Answer 32

• community service
• localised justice
• informal justice

Question 33

Explain localised justice (alternatives to prison)

Answer 33

Elected Police and Crime Commissioners hold the role of having responsibility of each area improving relations

Question 34

Explain informal localised justice (alternatives to prison)

Answer 34

Some Muslim communities within the UK host Sharia courts and punish people their own way

Question 35

What are the 5 impacts of victimisation?

Answer 35

• physical
• psychologically
• fear
• indirect victimisation
• secondary victimisation

Question 36

What is indirect victimisation? (impacts of victimisation)

Answer 36

This is where others associated with a victim of crime are also affected. For example, a murder impacts on the victims family

Question 37

What is secondary victiminsation? (impacts of victimisation)

Answer 37

Where the victim of a crime is forced to re-live their experience through an interview e.c.t.

Question 38

What are the two explanations for the patterns in victimisation?

Answer 38

• positivist victimology

- critical victimology

Question 39

According to Von Hentig (1948), what is victim proneness (positivist victimology)

Answer 39

Von Hentig claims that certain types of people are more likely than others to become a victim of crime. This is because they possess characteristics which makes them vulnerable, for example their age, gender or mental capacity. He compared victims of crime to predators and their prey - if humans are vulnerable it will increase their chances of being targeted.

Question 40

According to Wolfgang (1965), what is victim precipitation? (positivist victimology)

Answer 40

He studied 588 murder cases and found that in a 1/4 of the cases, the victim provoked the murderer. This suggests victims are not always innocent.

Question 41

Evaluation of the positivist view on victimology?

Answer 41

Blames victim for crime

Question 42

According to critical sociologists, what is victimology?

Answer 42

Marxists and feminists look into the fact that the most vulnerable members in society tend to be victims of the most serious crime. They look into the structural factors that cause this, for example capitalism and the patriarchal nature of society.

Question 43

According to Walklate (1994), what is the relationship between the state and the victim? (critical victimology)

Answer 43

State has the power to deny people a full victim status, this is known as structural powerlessness. For example 1/3 of rape cases reported are referred to the CPS and health and safety offences at work are dealt with through the civil courts.

Question 44

According to Tombs and Whyte (2007), what is the hierarchy of victimisation? (critical victimology)

Answer 44

Many victims of crime have their victim status delabelled by the justice system. If the state denies an individual report, then the state is denying justice for the victim. This is known as the hierachy of victimisation whereby powerless people are more likely to be victims of crime but are less likely to have this acknowledged by the state.

Question 45

Evaluation of critical victimology?

Answer 45

Creates assumption that all victims are powerless.