Crime and Deviance

Question 1

Crime

Answer 1

An act of behaviour that breaks the formal, written laws of a given society and attracts some form of punishment​

Question 2

Deviance

Answer 2

Behaviour that does not conform to the dominant norms of a specific society​.
Socially defined and involves breaking social rules rather than written laws

Question 3

Deviance is socially defined…

Answer 3

• Social situation
• Culture
• Time
• Place

Question 4

Sociologists use 3 ways of building up a picture of crime patterns:​

Answer 4

• Police recorded statistics
• Victim studies
• Self report studies

Question 5

Why might people not report crimes to the police?

Answer 5

Trivial nature of crime​

Embarrassment​

Fear of not being believed​

Family or personal reasons​

Fear of reprisal​

Lack of faith in police to take-action

Question 6

Police suggested that as many as 1 in 5 crimes that are reported to the police are not included in their statistics​

Why?​

Answer 6

Seriousness of offence​

Classification of offence​

Social status of person reporting crime

Question 7

Problems with Victim surveys

Answer 7

Lacks validity because people may lie.

Sample size tend to be small (2000) not particularly representative. ​

Demand characteristics feel pressure to answer in certain way

Question 8

Problems with self-report studies​

Answer 8

People lie and may not own up to the crimes that they have done. ​

Not particularly representative. ​

Low response rates. ​

Question 9

do lesson notes