Crime and Deviance Flashcards
What is meant by crime?
A crime is an illegal act that is punishable by law.
What is deviance?
Deviance is behaviour which the majority of people disagree with, or which goes against the rules and norms and society. Deviant acts are not always illegal.
When is an act seen as deviant?
Deviance is defined according to the social setting in which it takes place. Behaviour classed as ‘deviant’ can vary according to who performs the act and where they go. What is classified as deviant also varies between culture and the time period.
What is the difference between formal and informal rules?
Rules may be formal, that is written down as laws or codes of conduct. Alternatively, they may be informal, that is unwritten and taken for granted.
What are social order and social control?
Social order is necessary for society to run smoothly. Much of our behaviour is socially controlled by groups and society.
What is the difference between formal and informal social control?
Formal social control is based on written rules and laws. Informal social control is based on informal social processes and is enforced through social pressure.
What non-sociological explanations are there for criminal and deviant behaviour?
The cause of criminal and deviant behaviour have been explained in terms of psychological, biological and social factors. Psychological explanations focus on the psychological traits of individual offenders, such as being impulsive. Biological explanations focus on the genetic basis of criminals and antisocial behaviour.
How do sociologists explain criminal and deviant behaviour?
Sociologists focus on social factors. Their explanation of crime and deviance include socialisation patterns, opportunity structures and relative deprivation.
What other sociological explanations of criminal and deviant behaviour are there?
Sub-culture theories explain crime and delinquency in terms of the values of a particular subculture and the influence of the peer group. Marxist theories explain crime as resulting from the way capitalist society is structured.
How does labelling theory explain criminal and deviant behaviour?
Labelling theory explores how and why certain people such as working class boys come to labelled as deviant or criminal.
What are the main sources of statistical data on the extent of crime?
Official statistics can police and recorded crime are published in the UK by the home office. Victim surveys and self-report studies also provide statistical data on the extent of crime. British crime surveys estimates of crime and higher than the figures on crimes recorded by the police.
How far do official statics on recorded crime measure the extent of crime?
Not all crime is discovered, witnessed, reported or recorded, so official statistics on police recorded crime do not tell the whole story.
What is meant by the ‘social construction’ of official crime statistics?
Official statistics on police recorded crime are based on a series of decisions made by, for example, victims and police officers, as such; they do not provide a true picture of crime levels.
What is the relationship between involvement in crime and age?
Official statistics on police recorded crime suggest that criminal activity is more commonly found in particular social groups such as young males. Possible explanations for this include group peer pressure.
What is the relationship between crime and gender?
Official statistics on police record crime suggest that more men commit crime than women. Possible explanations for this include gender socialisation and the chivalry effect.
How do we explain women’s increasing involvement in crime?
Recent statistics suggest that the number of female offenders in the UK is increasing. Possible explanations for this include changing social position of women and changing attitudes to gender and crime.
What is the relationship between involvement in crime and ethnicity?
Members of some ethnic groups are over-represented while others are under-represented in the prison population relative to their proportion in the general population.
How do we explain the patterns in statistics on crime and ethnicity?
Crime statistics are seen as reflecting policing methods and bias within the criminal justice system.
What is the relationship between involvement in crime social class and locality?
Official statistics suggest that criminal activity is more common in particular social groups or localities. However, studies of white collar and corporate crime paint a more complex picture.
What is the significance of criminal behaviour for communities and society?
Crime impacts on neighbourhoods, communities and on society generally.
Why is youth crime seen as a social problem?
Crime is a major focus of concern and debate among politicians, the media and the public. Teenage crime in particular is seen as a social problem.
What are the links between racism and crime?
Racism and racially aggravated crime are examples of social problems that governments have tried to tackle in recent years.
Agents/agencies of social control
Agents of social control are individuals or groups that are responsible for ensuring members of society conform to socially acceptable behaviour. Different examples of these individuals and people are: family, work, schools, peer groups, legal system and religion.
Anomie
Anomie is a social condition in which there is a lack of cohesion and order, especially in relation to norms and values.
Antisocial behaviour
Crime and Disorder Act (1998): Acting in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as (the defendant).
Chivalry thesis
This is the process by which women who commit crime are treated more favorably by the police or courts compared to men. This leads to a lower crime rate for women.
Community Service
Unpaid work, intended to be of social use, that an offender is required to do instead of going to prison.
Computer Crime
Computer crime is illegal activity that is committed on the internet or through networks.
Conformity
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. Norms are implicit, unsaid rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others.
Corporate Crime
Corporate crime means crimes committed either by a business entity or corporation, or by individuals that may be identified with a corporation or other business entity.
Crime rate
An offense rate, or crime rate, defined as the number of offenses per 100,000 population, is derived by first dividing a jurisdiction’s population by 100,000 and then dividing the number of offenses by the resulting figure.
Dark figure
The dark (or hidden) figure of crime is a term employed by criminologists and sociologists to describe the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime.
Data protection
The Data Protection Act controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government. Everyone responsible for using data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is: used fairly and lawfully.
Deviance
Rule-breaking behaviour of some kind, which fails to conform to the norms and expectations of a particular society or social group.
Identity theft
the fraudulent practice of using another person’s name and personal information in order to obtain credit, loans, etc.
Indictable offence
Indictable offences are generally the more serious crimes, and penalties are generally greater than for other offences. Major indictable matters can only be dealt with, whatever the defendant is pleading, in the District or Supreme court.
Judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system or court system) is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes.
Labelling theory
The labelling theory was thought of by Howard Becker. Labelling theorists argue that social agencies tend to label certain groups as criminals which encourages them to continue committing crimes because they start living up to their label as they feel that they are expected to behave that way.
Master status
Master status is the social position that is the primary identifying characteristic of an individual. It is defined as: a status that has exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.
Official crime statistics
Existing sources of quantitative data compiled by government agencies such as the Home Office.
Probation
The release of an offender from detention, subject to a period of good behaviour under supervision.
Recorded crime
Crime that is recorded by the police
Relative deprivation
The measure of poverty in which a person’s wealth or lack of is compared to the rest of society, If they do not meet the general standard of living then they are classified as living in relative poverty.
Scapegoat
A scapegoat is person or group that is forced to take the blame for happenings that are not their fault.
Self-report studies
Self report studies question people about their offending. It measures the extent of self-reporting of crimes such as drug use and anti-social behaviour particularly among young people.
Social control/sanctions
the enforcement of conformity by society upon its members, either by law or by social pressure
Social construct
Sociologists argue that police recorded crime stats are ‘socially constructed’. This means
that the stats are the outcome of the decisions and choices made by the people, such as
witnesses, victims or police officers, who are involved in their construction.
Socially defined behaviour
Deviance is socially defined. Whether an act is considered deviant or not depends on how people view and label the act. This means that deviance is judged according to the social setting or the context in which it takes place.
Social order
it refers to a particular set or system of linked social structures, institutions, relations, customs, values and practices, which conserve, maintain and enforce certain patterns of relating and behaving.
Stereotype
A stereotype is a rigid, oversimplified, often exaggerated belief that is applied both to an entire social category of people and to each individual within it. Stereotypes form the basis for prejudice, which in turn is used to justify discrimination and attitudes. They can be positive as well as negative.
Sub-culture
a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
Surveillance
Close observation of a person or group, especially one under suspicion
Victim Surveys
Victim surveys ask people about their experiences of crime. The British Crime Survey (BCS), for example, measures crime via surveys with large samples of
households in England and Wales. It interviews people about whether they have been a victim of particular offences during the last year, and if so, whether they reported the crimes to the police.
White collar crime
This term refers broadly to crimes committed by people in relatively high status positions, such as accountants, doctors or solicitors, during their
work. Examples include tax evasion and fiddling expense accounts at work
Historial Evidence
Historical evidence suggests that what is considered as deviant can change over time. E.g. attitudes to smoking and to homosexuality have changed in Britain post World War II.
Cross cultural Evidence
Cross-cultural evidence suggests that what is seen as deviant can vary across cultures. E.g. differing attitudes as to what is acceptable for women to wear and what is seen as appropriate within their group or society.
