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Sociology > Crime and Deviance > Flashcards

Crime and Deviance Flashcards

1
Q

How do functionalists see society?

A
  • Functionalist perspective of crime
  • Based on a value consensus, people share a common culture of norms, values, beliefs and goals promoting social solidarity
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2
Q

How do functionalists believe social solidarity is achieved in society?

A
  • Socialisation, instils shared culture internalising the same norms and values
  • Social control, institutions reward good actions and punish bad ones instilling a shared moral compass
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3
Q

Why did functionalist Durkheim believe crime was inevitable in every society?

A
  • Not everyone receives the same degree of socialisation so some are not socialised into the same norms and values
  • Diversity of lifestyles and values, some subcultures may view some behaviour as normal and another may see it as deviant
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4
Q

In the eyes of functionalists, how do more complex societies face a higher risk of anomie?

A
  • Rules governing behaviour are less clear due to more complex divisions of labour making people increasingly different from one another weakening the collective conscience resulting in higher levels of deviance
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5
Q

In the eyes of functionalists, what are the positive functions of crime?

A
  • Boundary maintenance, unites people in condemnation of wrongdoing reinforcing collective conscience and social solidarity such as a courtroom dramatising wrongdoing
  • Adaptation and change, social change begins with an act of deviance such as the legalisation of homosexuality
  • Safety valve, a way for people to relieve stress to prevent greater bad such as men soliciting prostitution to prevent domestic abuse
  • Diagnosing society’s problems, E.G high truancy rates means the education system may need reforming
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6
Q

According to functionalists, what levels of crime in society are undesirable?

A
  • Too much crime leads to anomie and the destruction of society
  • Too little crime means society is too repressive preventing change and individual freedom
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7
Q

What are the criticisms of the functionalist belief that crime is inevitable and positive to society?

A
  • Durkheim never specifies which amount of crime is the right amount in society
  • Ignores the negative effects of crime, such as prostitution sustaining the nuclear family but negatively impacting the women who are illegally trafficked
  • Deviance does not always promote solidarity, E.G women having to stay isolated for fear of being attacked when outside and alone
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8
Q

What is Merton’s functionalist strain theory?

A
  • The theory that people commit acts of deviance when they are unable to commit mainstream goals through socially acceptable means

Caused by a combination of
- Structural factors, societies unequal opportunities

  • Cultural factors, emphasis on success, less focus on how to achieve it
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9
Q

How does the American dream perpetuate Merton’s functionalist strain theory?

A
  • American culture values material success achieved meritocratically
  • The reality is different with opportunities being unequal due to things like discrimination, poverty etc.
  • This creates a pressure to succeed making people resort to illegitimate means like crime and deviance
  • America perpetuates this by placing more focus on success and not the measures to succeed

-

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10
Q

Why are there different reactions to Merton’s functionalist strain theory and what are they?

A
  • An individuals position in social structure affects their access to legitimate measures of success forcing some to source illegitimate means where others wouldn’t
  • Conformists, achieve mainstream goals in legitimate ways (middle class)
  • Innovators, achieve mainstream goals in illegitimate ways such as theft or fraud (working class)
  • Ritualists, internalised legitimate means but no desire to succeed (lower middle class in dead end jobs)
  • Retreatists, reject mainstream success and legitimate means (mentally ill, addicts, homeless etc.)
  • Rebels, Reject mainstream goals by replacing them with new ones (political radicals and counter cultures such as anarchists) `
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11
Q

What are the strengths of Merton’s functionalist strain theory?

A
  • Most crime in America is property crime due to material wealth being valued so highly
  • Lower class crime rates are higher due to their lack of opportunity to achieve mainstream means legitimately
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12
Q

What are the weaknesses of Merton’s functionalist strain theory?

A
  • Takes crime statistics at face value which overrepresent working class crime and is too deterministic in saying that working class people all deviate
  • Marxists argue it ignores the power of the ruling class to criminalise the proletariat
  • Assumes there is a value consensus of money success that people do not deviate from
  • Does not explain non-utilitarian crime
  • Ignores roles of group deviance such as delinquent subcultures
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13
Q

What is a functionalist subcultural strain theory and how does it criticise Merton’s strain theory?

A
  • See deviance as the result of a delinquent subculture deviating from mainstream goals and replacing them with their own obtained through alternative status

Criticises Merton’s theory for two reasons:

  • Merton ignores that most deviance is committed in groups especially amongst the youth
  • Merton ignores non-utilitarian crime such as assault and vandalism
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14
Q

What is A.K Cohen’s functionalist status frustration?

A
  • Working class boys experience culture clash with middle class school system due to cultural deprivation leaving them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy
  • The boys then form groups seeking alternative status through deviance such as truancy and vandalism replacing official status through value inversion
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15
Q

What are the evaluations of A.K Cohen’s functionalist status frustration theory?

A

Strengths
- Offers an explanation of non-utilitarian crime unlike Merton

Weaknesses
- Like Merton, assumes there is a value consensus of middle class goals ignoring the possibility of the boys not sharing the goals in the first place

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16
Q

What is Cloward and Ohlin’s functionalist three subcultures strain theory?

A
  • The key reason different subcultures react in different ways is not only unequal access to legitimate means but unequal opportunities to illegitimate means as well resulting in three different types of subcultures
  • For example, drug dealers have to obtain suppliers and if one isn’t accessible then neither is the opportunity
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17
Q

What are the three different types of subcultures according to Cloward and Ohlin’s functionalist three subculture theory?

A
  • Criminal subcultures, provide youths with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime due to long standing criminal organisation being local
  • Conflict subcultures, areas of high population causing social disorganisation disabling formation of stable criminal culture, loose gangs form providing a release for young men’s status frustration
  • Retreatist subcultures, double failures who fail legitimately and illegitimately instead engaging in drug abuse
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18
Q

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Cloward and Ohlin’s functionalist three subculture theory?

A

Strengths
- Provide explanation for non and utilitarian crime

Weaknesses
- Ignores the crimes of the wealthy
- Over-predicts amount of working class crime
- Ignores wider power structure that create and enforce laws
- Assumes criminals can’t be part of multiple subcultures
- Assumes the working class share middle glass goals and have to experience status frustration to change

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19
Q

What is Cicourels interactionist negotiation of justice theory?

A
  • Police constrict criminal typifications based on classist and racist stereotypes, leading them to patrol certain areas more leading to more arrests and confirming stereotypes
  • Other agents of social control reinforce this, E.G probation officers not supporting non-custodial sentences for the working class
  • This shows that justice is negotiable as middle class people can use their socially accepted background to improve their chances of avoiding punishment
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20
Q

What does Cicourel’s interactionist negotiation of justice theory suggest about official crime statistics?

A
  • Do not give a valid picture of crime and cannot be used as a resource
  • Should be used as a topic for sociologists to research investigating the processes that created them
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21
Q

How do interactionists believe crime statistics are socially constructed, what is the effect of this and what other sources can we use?

A
  • At each stage of the CJS agents of social control choose whether or not to continue with the case meaning statistics show behaviour of social control agents not criminals
  • This produces the dark figure of crime, the difference between the recorded socially constructed rates of crime and the actual unknown rates of crime
  • To get a better idea of the real rate of crime other sources such as self report studies or the crime victim survey of England and Wales can be used
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22
Q

What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance according to interactionist Lemert?

A
  • Primary deviance, committed every day by normal people and impossible to source. E.G fare dodging or pushing in line
  • Secondary deviance, result of negative labels by society and excluded, their master status is replaced by ‘criminal’ starting an identity crisis only solved by accepting the label starting a self fulfilling prophecy and the further deviance after this is labelled secondary deviance
  • Secondary deviance provokes more negative reactions from society reinforcing the label beginning a career of deviance such as convictions leading to a criminal record leading to unemployment calling the need to commit crime
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23
Q

In the eyes of interactionists, what is the deviance amplification spiral and what is an example of one?

A
  • An exponential increase in levels of crime caused by attempts to control it
  • Stanley Cohen’s mods and rockers demonised by moral entrepreneurs who began moral panics. The moral panic was confirmed by the bigger crackdown on the group resulting in the moral audience further marginalising the group as folk devils causing them to commit further deviance
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24
Q

According to interactionist Braithwaite, what are the two types of labelling and how can one be positive?

A
  • Disintergrative shaming, the crime and the criminal is seen as bad
  • Intergrative shaming, the crime but not the criminal is seen as bad
  • Intergrative shaming makes the person aware of their wrongdoing while also allowing others to feel empathy for them allowing them to change before committing secondary deviance
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25
Q

According to interactionist Douglas, how are suicide statistics socially constructed?

A
  • Tell us about the activities of the coroners rather than suicide victims
  • Declarations of suicide depend on interactions between coroners, friends, doctors etc.
  • E.G a religious coroner may be reluctant to claim a death as suicide as it is seen as a sin
  • Douglas believes we should use quantitative methods such as analysis of suicide notes or unstructured interviews with friends and relatives
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26
Q

According to interactionist lemert, how are mental ilness diagnosis socially constructed?

A
  • Some people don’t fit into groups and are excluded due to primary deviance
  • The person responds with secondary deviance giving the social audience another reason to exclude them and members begin to agree on the persons odd behaviour confirming the suspicions of being conspired against.
  • –The reaction to the confirmation confirms the suspicions of family members leading a psychiatric intervention with the person being labelled as mentally ill replacing their master status
  • This is confirmed by Rosenhan’s pseudo patient experiment where researchers entered themselves as hearing voices and were labelled as schizophrenic despite acting normal
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27
Q

What is interactionist Goffman’s theory of institutionalisation?

A
  • Old master status is symbolically killed and replaced by inmate after undergoing a mortification of self
  • This is aided by degradation rituals such as handing in personal belongings happening in other institutions such as prison or the military
  • Goffman also notes that not all are susceptible to institutionalisation as some develop ways of maintaining their old master status
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28
Q

What are the criticisms of interactionist labelling theory?

A
  • Assumes a deviant career is inevitable once a label is applied
  • Focuses on effects of labelling on the labelled rather than the victim of the crime
  • Focuses on less serious crimes such as drug taking
  • Fails to explain why primary deviance is committed in the first place
  • People may actually choose secondary deviance instead of being forced into it
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29
Q

According to marxists, what is criminogenic capitalism and how does it lead to crime?

A

Capitalism is criminogenic due to its nature relying on the exploitation of the proletariat causing factors such as:

  • Poverty may mean the working class have to commit crime to survive
  • Poverty may mean the working class have to commit crime to obtain consumerist goods advertised by capitalism
  • Alienation may lead to lack of control resulting frustration and therefore non-utilitarian crime
  • Profit hunger causes people to commit white collar crime such as tax evasion
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30
Q

According to marxist, William Chambliss how does law enforcement serve the needs of capitalism?

A
  • Introduction of English law into British East African colonies
  • The British needed a plentiful supply of labour in order to farm tea, coffee, sugar etc.
  • Introducing tax laws that were illegal to not pay meant the native people had to work to pay them therefore providing a steady stream of labour
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31
Q

According to Marxists what is selective enforcement?

A
  • All classes commit crime but ethnic minorities and the working class are criminalised but the crimes of the powerful such as white collar crime are ignored as they benefit capitalistic, profit hungry interests
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32
Q

According to marxists, how do laws that support the working class on the surface actually benefit capitalism?

A
  • Laws that seem to benefit the working class include workplace health and safety laws
  • In reality this keeps workers fit to work serving the needs of capitalism
  • Even then they serve the needs of workers they are not enforced. E.G corporate homicide law in 2007 has only been enforced once in 8 years despite high amounts of negligence caused deaths at work
  • Criminologists, psychologists etc. portray criminals as disturbed hiding the criminal face of capitalism
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33
Q

What are the evaluations of marxist theory on crime?

A
  • Ignores the relationship between non-class inequalities and crime
  • Deterministic, not all people in poverty commit crime
  • Not all capitalistic societies are high in crime such as Japan and Switzerland etc.
  • Marxists ignore intra-class crime causing harm to victims
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34
Q

According to neo-marxist, Taylor et al, how is marxism too deterministic?

A
  • Neo Marxists believe that saying crime is committed by the working class due to poverty is too deterministic
  • Neo Marxists say crime is voluntaristic saying crime is a meaningful political action such as attempt to distribute wealth from the rich to the poor and are not puppets of capitalism
35
Q

What are the evaluations of critical criminologist and neo-marxist taylor et al?

A
  • Romanticises criminals as political activists ignoring the negative impact of the crime
36
Q

According to Marxists what is white collar crime?

A
  • Sutherland made the term white collar crime but didn’t distinguish between occupational and white collar crime and most of the harm committed by companies isn’t illegal and are only administrative offences
  • Pearson and Tomb widened the definition to include breaches of civil and administrative law due to the fact those in power create what is criminal
37
Q

According to marxists, Which types of crimes constitute corporate crime?

A
  • Financial crimes, tax evasion, bribery, money laundering etc.
  • Crimes against consumers, false labelling, selling unfit goods etc.
  • Crimes against employees, sexual and racial discrimination, wage violations etc.
  • Crimes against the environment, illegal pollution of air, water and land etc.
  • State-corporate crime, when companies associated with the state commit crime
38
Q

According to marxists, what are some examples of corporate crime?

A
  • Crime against consumers, Poly implant prothese had used breast implants containing cheaper, faulty chemicals in 300,000 women across 65 countries
  • Crime against employees, Palmer estimates 50,000 yearly UK deaths are a result of occupational diseases and 1100 work deaths are caused by employers breaking the law
  • Crimes against the environment, Volkswagen admitted to building engines that detected when they’re being tested hiding emissions 40x the legal limit
39
Q

According to marxists, what factor contribute to the invisibility of corporate crime?

A
  • The media giving little coverage and when they do they use polished language such as work deaths being ‘accidents’
  • Lack of political will. politicians focus on street crime rather than corporate
  • Complexity of corporate crime, law enforcers cannot understand them so they can be punished
  • De-labelling, crimes are often civil not criminal and punishments are mostly fines.
  • Under-reporting, people may feel powerless against a large organisation and the victim may be the environment or society and therefore not know its being exploited
40
Q

According to marxists, what event exposed corporate crime?

A
  • There are many factors hiding corporate crime but the financial crash of 2008
  • Campaigns against corporate crime arised such as UK uncut and Occupy
41
Q

What is marxist Sutherland’s differential association theory?

A
  • Crime is the product of learning criminal behaviour, the more deviants we associate with the more likely we are to commit deviance
  • Therefore, a company with criminal values is more likely to socialise new hires into criminal values
42
Q

What are some examples of the disproportionate gendered crime rates?

A
  • 3/4 people convicted are male in England and Wales
  • By the age of 40, 9% of women have criminal records compared to 32% of males
  • More males commit sexual offences and more women commit property crimes
  • Men are more likely to be repeat offenders and 15x more likely to be convicted of murder
43
Q

How could gendered crime rates not represent the reality of gendered crime committed?

A
  • ‘female crimes’ such as shoplifting or prostitution are less likely to be reported compared to ‘male’ crimes such as murder
  • Women are less likely to be punished heavily due to traditional gender stereotypes painting out women as empathetic and vulnerable
44
Q

What is Otto Pollack’s chivalry thesis?

A
  • Criminal justice agents act in chivalrous ways due to traditional gendered roles giving them more lenient punishments which is reflected in the official statistics
  • This is reflected in self report studies, 1700 14-25 found males were more likely to offend but the gap was smaller than official statistics
  • Men were 2,3x more likely to offend in the past year compared to 4x more likely according to official statistics
45
Q

What is some evidence to support Otto Pollack’s chivalry thesis?

A
  • Females are more likely to be released on bail and not on remand
  • Women are more likely to be punished with fines, community service or given shorter sentences than men
  • 1/5 males receive a sentence after shoplifting compared to 1/9 women
46
Q

What evidence is there against Otto Pollack’s chivalry thesis?

A
  • Men are more likely to commit offences, especially violent ones, the gender gap increases the more violent the offences
  • Undereported crime against women, 2012, 8% of female rape victims reported it and women suffer 35 assaults before reporting domestic abuse
47
Q

According to feminist Heidonsohn, how does the criminal justice system treat women harshly when they deviate from gender norms?

A
  • Double standards, Women are punished for premature sexual activity but not men, 55 youth record found that 7/11 girls were referred for sexual activity but 0/55 boys
  • Women who deviate from motherhood are punished more harshly due to the criminal justice system punishes women based on stereotypical gender roles
48
Q

How does feminist Carlen’s beliefs support feminist Heidonsohn’s bias against women theory?

A
  • Women are jailed based on their ability to be a traditional woman rather than the seriousness of their crimes. E.G Scottish women were more likely to be jailed in Scotland if their children were in care
49
Q

What is functionalist Talcott Parsons’ sex role theory?

A
  • Crime patterns surface from traditional gender roles of the nuclear family
  • Men act as breadwinners acting outside of the home with women acting as childcare operating inside the home
  • This gives girls an adult role model but it also leads to boys rejecting feminine role models and emotions such as tenderness engaging in deviant behaviour known as compensatory compulsory masculinity
  • A.K Cohen agrees stating that the lack of male socialisation is made up for in delinquent subcultures through violence and other crime
50
Q

What are some criticisms of functionalist Talcott Parsons’ sex role theory?

A
  • It’s too reliant on biological theories that aren’t tested, the theory assumes women are best suited to raise children due to their ability to give birth
51
Q

What is heidonsohn’s theory of patriarchal control?

A
  • Women commit less crime than men because they are more greatly controlled reducing opportunities to offend

Control at home

  • Women can be controlled financially restricting leisure time and therefore time outside
  • Women’s time is greatly reduced due to their house chores which they are likely to be abused for by male partners for not completing properly
  • Women develop a bedroom culture socialising at home due to amount of housework such as childcare

Control in public

  • Fear of sexual violence, Islington crime survey found 54% of women feared crime after dark compared to 14% of men
  • Societal pressure to impress, women feel the need to act and look a certain way due to patriarchal pressure
  • Women controlled in school’s through the male gaze and sexual labelling such as ‘slag’

Control at work
- Glass ceiling prevents female controlled work places and therefore female corporate crime
- Sexual assault widespread in male dominated industries

52
Q

What is feminist Carlen’s class and gender deals theory?

A

Women are offered 2 deals where they rewards are offered for conforming to social norms
- Class deal, working women earn a good standard of living
- Gender deal, women earn material and emotional rewards for conforming to traditional gender roles

When the reward is less than the effort chance of crime increases due to either deal not providing the means of living

53
Q

Who did Carlen study and how did they contribute to her class and gender deal theory?

A
  • Unstructured interview of 15-46 convicts who committed a range of crimes with the worst offenders being working class

Class deal
- 32/46 had always been poor
- Qualifications earned in jail did not help to get a job
- Humiliation to claim benefits

Due to losing the class deal they felt they had to turn to crime to get out of poverty

Gender deal
- They were subject to physical and sexual abuse from male family members. Over half were in care breaking family bonds. Running away from care left them poor and homeless

The trauma from the gender deal was not worth the rewards

54
Q

What are the evaluations of Carlen and Heidonsohn’s gendered crime theories?

A
  • Both control and gender deal theories attribute most of women’s ability to commit crime to external forces, This underplays the extent of free will of women in changing their situations
  • Carlen’s study is small and only studied working class serious offenders so it may not be representative
55
Q

What is feminist Adler’s liberation theory and evidence to support it?

A
  • Increasing freedom of women leads to more opportunity to commit the same type and level of crime as men
  • Increasing freedom in societal institutions has led to women adopting traditional male roles leading them away from traditional female crimes like shoplifting

Evidence to support the theory includes
- 1950’s-90’s female offences rose from 1 in 7 to 1 in 6
- Growth of girl gangs in the midlands during the 2000’s with girls adopting male behaviour types

56
Q

What are some criticisms of Adler’s liberation theory?

A
  • Female crime rates rose in the 1950’s before the liberation movement in the 1960’s
  • Liberation movement is the least likely to help working class women where most of the crime happens
  • Links with male dominated crime come from the relationship with prostitution
57
Q

What is Steffensmeier and Schwartz’s theory of net widening?

A
  • There has been no increase of women’s crime but there has been an increase of punishing women for lesser crime
  • Policies such as mandatory arrests for domestic violence result in the couple both being arrested even when the woman may clearly be the victim
  • Previously female crime was seen as a welfare issue but has been relabelled as criminality
  • Women are being increasingly convicted of trivial offences such as low level altercations which is known as defining deviance up
58
Q

What trends are there between gendered crimes and victims?

A
  • 70% of victims are male which are most likely killed by a friend or acquaintance
  • 60% of cases where the female knew the victims it was an ex-partner
  • 1/4 women will experience domestic violence
  • women are 5x more likely than men to report sexual abuse
59
Q

According to James Messerschmidt, how does masculinity contribute to male crime?

A
  • Masculinity is an accomplishment that needs to be constructed and presented with some men having more resources to work on it (like high wage and subordination of women) than others, this is known as hegemonic control

Various groups have various tools to construct their masculinity affecting them differently:

  • White middle class youths, achieve oppositional masculinity outside of school through alcoholism and pranks but are subordinate to teachers to achieve middle class status
  • White working class youth, oppositional masculinity in and out of school through sexism, being tough and opposing school values
  • Black lower class youths, may use violence and gang membership to express masculinity due to less chance of achieving hegemonic masculinity due to lower position in job market
60
Q

What are some criticisms of Messerschmidt?

A
  • Doesn’t explain why not all men use crime to achieve masculinity
  • Uses masculinity to explain every crime from murder to joy riding to embezzlement
  • Circular argument, they are male crimes because they are committed by males
61
Q

How does Winlows study show the relationship between globalisation and gendered crime?

A
  • Studied bouncers in Sunderland, an area of unemployment due to de-industrialisation resulting in the loss of masculine jobs but the rise of the night sector
  • Work as bouncer provided men with unemployment and the ability to commit crime such as selling drugs and protection rackets as well as masculinity through violence
62
Q

What are some examples of black and Asian people being overrepresented in crime statistics?

A
  • Black people are 3% of the prison population but 13 of the prison population
  • Asian people make up 6.9% of the population but 8% of the prison population
63
Q

What is an example of a victim survey, how do they help and what are the limitations?

A
  • Crime survey of England and Wales, asks people if they’ve been a victim of a crime in the past year
  • Can gain information about ethnic offending rates by asking the victim to identify the offender

Weaknesses
- Rely on the victims memory and may identify the victim as black even when they’re not sure
- Only cover personal crimes which make up 20% of all crimes
- Exclude under 10s, meaning some groups are excluded with lower average age
- Exclude crimes against and by organisations

64
Q

What is an example of a Self report, how do they help and what are the limitations?

A
  • Graham and Bowling, 2500 people, found offending rates were very similar for whites and black people 44/43% but desi rates being up to 30% lower
  • This challenges the stereotype that black people are more likely to offend and supports the stereotype that Asian people are less likely to offend
65
Q

What are some other explanations for ethnic differences in offending rates?

A
  • Fitzgerald, neighbourhood, white and black offending rates were the same where very deprived areas came into contact with affluent ones
  • Sharp and Budd, getting caught, black people more likely to commit crimes where a victim can identify them and more likely to engage in prior deviance such as expulsion attracting more attention
66
Q

According to left realists, what do crime statistics represent?

A
  • Lea and Young
  • Crime statistics represent real ethnic crime differences and is the product of relative deprivation, subcultures and marginalisation
  • This is accelerated by the media promoting consumerist goals creating relative deprivation as people of colour aren’t able to achieve these goals through legitimate means
  • This leads to the formation of Black and Asian delinquent subcultures to achieve goals leading to an increase of utilitarian crime and the anger created by marginalisation Is shown through an increase of non-utilitarian crime
67
Q

According to left realists, why does police racism not explain ethnic differences in crime?

A
  • Lea and Young
  • They acknowledge police racism and that it causes the unjustified marginalisation of some ethnic groups but due to 90% of crimes known to the police are reported by the public, police racism can’t be influential in ethnic differences in crime
  • Also, police racism cannot explain the differences of ethnic crime due to the relatively far worse criminalisation of Black people compared to Asian people meaning police would have to be selective with their racism
68
Q

What are the criticisms of left realist theory about ethnic differences in crime statistics?

A
  • The reason Black people are more criminalized than Asian people is not because they are more likely to offend but because the groups have different stereotypes
  • Police see Black people as dangerous and Asian people as passive.
  • Also, stereotype can change. E.G 911 resulted in the criminalisation of Muslims as terrorists explaining increased criminalisation
69
Q

According to Neo-Marxists, what explains the ethnic differences in crime?

A
  • They do reflect real differences in ethnic crime rates but are a result of racist socially constructed stereotypes that criminalise ethnic minorities
70
Q

According to Neo Marxist, Paul Gilroy, what explains the high rates of ethnic offences?

A
  • Black and Asian criminality is a myth created by racist stereotypes which the criminal justice system acts on criminalising people of colour
  • Gilroy believes that ethnic minority crime is a political act of rebellion against a racist society beginning in the British empire
  • Most Ethnic minority residents originate in former colonies and used their anti-imperialistic behaviour to resist oppression but British institution have criminalized these rebellious actions
71
Q

According to Left realists, Lea and Young, how can be, Neo Marxist, Paul Gilroy be criticized?

A
  • First generation immigrants were law abiding and it is unlikely they passed rebellious tendencies to their children
  • Most crime is intra ethnic so it cant be seen as political struggle against a racist society and that Gilroy romanticizes street crime
  • Asian crime rates are similar or lower than whites meaning the police are only racist towards Black people and not Asian people which is unlikely
72
Q

According to Neo Marxist, Hall et al, explain the ethnic differences in crime statistcics?

A
  • The ruling class subordinate the working class through consent usually but in times of crisis a scapegoat is needed
  • E.G the 1970’s high inflation and unemployment cause industrial unset and strikes and the conflict in Northern Ireland intensifying meaning capitalism was threatened
  • The moral panic of mugging was the scapegoat and was associated with black youth by the media, police and politicians despite no noticeable increase
  • This caused the racial divide of the working class reducing their threat to capitalism and the further marginalisation forced black youth into utilitarian crime to survive
73
Q

What are the criticisms of ,neo Marxist, Hall et all’s theory about ethnic differences in crime?

A
  • The theory is inconsistent as it claims black Street crime was not rising but was rising due to marginalisation
  • They don’t provide evidence for public fear of Black muggers
  • Left realists argue inner city worries about muggers are realistic not socially constructed
74
Q

What are some other more recent theories explaining ethnic differences in crime statistics?

A
  • Fitzgerald, the neighbourhood was the deciding factor, if it was very poor, which black people are more likely to live in, and was in the vicinity of affluent people street crime is encouraged as a way of survival
  • Sharpe and Budd, people are more likely to be caught as they are more likely to commit crimes where they can be identified (such as street robbery), more likely to associate with criminals and more likely to be known by police due to expulsion from school etc.
75
Q

What is racist victimisation and what brought it into focus?

A
  • When someone is selected to be a target because of their race, ethnicity or religion
  • The murder of Stephen Lawrence 1993 was seen as racist victimisation after the release of the Macpherson report
76
Q

What stats show the extent of racial victimisation in the UK?

A
  • 76000 race and 6800 faith hate crimes in 2019/20
  • 60000 racially aggravated annual crimes
77
Q

What are the ethnic differences of victimisation and what could be the reasons for this?

A
  • 2019-2020 CSEW, mixed ethnic backgrounds 20%, black 14%, white 13% and Asian 13%
  • This may be due to non-ethnic reasons. E.G the chance of being a victim of street crime is increased when you’re young, male and unemployed meaning ethnic groups with higher rates of these factors are more likely to be victimized
  • However, factors such as unemployment may be due to discrimination
78
Q

What is the criticism of victimisation statistics?

A
  • They show the instances of victimisation but not the differing experiences of it such as minor interwoven instances of abuse in-between periodic incidents of physical violence
79
Q

What are some examples of how ethnic minority groups respond to victimisation?

A
  • Situational crime prevention measures such as fireproof doors and
  • Unofficial self defence campaigns to protect neighbourhoods against racist attacks
  • Such responses are consequences of underprotection from the police. E.G the Macpherson report concluded the unconvicted murder of Stephen Lawrence was due to institutional racism of professional incompetence
80
Q

What percentage of media does crime make up?

A
  • Ericson’s study of Toronto found 45-71% of press and news control was about deviance
  • Williams and Dickonson found British Newspapers use 30% of their space for crime
81
Q

In which ways do the media represent a distorted image of crime?

A
  • Over representation of sexual and violent crime, violent crime was 36 times more likely to be reported than property crime despite property crime being the most common in America
  • Portrayal of criminals and victims as old and middle class, known as age fallacy
  • Exaggeration of police success, media over represents violent crime which is more likely to be solved
  • Exaggeration of victimisation to women, white and high status people
  • Crime is provided without context such as poverty or mental health
  • Media overplay extraordinary crimes and underplay more normal ones, known as dramatic fallacy
82
Q

How has media covering crime changed over time?

A
  • Sclesinger and Tumber, 1960’s focused on murders and petty crime but these became less of a focus for media due to the abolition of the death making justice less interesting and rising crime rates normalising pretty crime
  • 1990’s The media became more focused on football hooliganism, drugs, child abuse, terrorism and ‘mugging’
83
Q

What is an example of the distortion of a crime by the media?

A
  • Sex crimes, newspaper reports of rape cases increased from under a quarter to over a third between 1951-85
  • Labelling of the aggressor as a ‘sex fiend’ led to the spread of the idea that rapists are serial offenders who will attack strangers rather than ex partners or acquaintances

Sociology (6 decks)

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