Crime and Deviance

Question 1

What is crime

Answer 1

Actiosn or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. A legal wrong can be followed by criminal proceedings which may result in punishment. 2 types - consensus and conflict

Question 2

Consensus crime

Answer 2

Crimes about whose seriousness there is general agreement eg murder and theft

Question 3

Conflict crime

Answer 3

Crimes over which public opinion is divided eg drug abuse may be defined as a medical problem and therefore one where the drug user is in need of help rather punishment

Question 4

Deviance

Answer 4

Behaviour which is disapproved by most people in society or group behaviour which doesn’t conform to shared norms and values. 2 types culpable and non-culpable

Question 5

Culpable deviance

Answer 5

perpetrator knows they are committing a deviant act

Question 6

Non-culpable

Answer 6

Act for which the perpetrator cannot be he’d accountable eg children or mentally ill for acts such as swearing.

Question 7

Crime and deviance are argued as

Answer 7

Absolute - the same across all countries

Relative - can change cover time or place

Question 8

Examples of relativity over time

Answer 8

Alcohol consumption in 1920s.

Women in Saudi Arabia driving

Question 9

Examples of relativity over culture

Answer 9

Women exposing their legs in islamic societies, women wear short skirts in western societies

Question 10

Examples of relativity in circumstances

Answer 10

Killing a person, however it is okay for a soldier to kill an enemy in battle

Question 11

How do they measure crime

Answer 11

3 types, Police recorded crime, victim survey and offender survey

Question 12

Police recorded crime

Answer 12

all police recorded crime England and Wales - 43 territories

Question 13

Victim survey

Answer 13

Face to face structured interviews or questionnaires

may include unreported crime to police

Question 14

Offender survey

Answer 14

Questionnaire, asking people which crimes they have committed unstructured interviews, longitudinal

Question 15

Evaluation of police recorded crime

Answer 15

43 territories - representative and generalisable

Police bias, manipulation of stats, unreported crime

Question 16

Evaluation of victim survey

Answer 16

good to triangulate with police recorded crime. unreported crime, representative

Hawthorne effect, lack of rapport miss out on sensitive crimes issues about how people label crime

Question 17

Evaluation of offender survey

Answer 17

Longitudinal
Social desirability bias
Not done on those who haven’t been caught

Question 18

Patterns and trends of crime

Answer 18

young people, males ethnic minorities and working class are shown to be offenders of crime

Question 19

Age statistics

Answer 19

In 2010/11 young people age 10-17 responsible for 23% of crime

Question 20

Ethnic minorities statistics

Answer 20

Ministry of Justice black people were stopped and searched 7 times more than white people
Asians comprised of 6.4% of the population but 10.3% of all stop and searches

Question 21

Men statistics

Answer 21

In police recorded crime men account for 80% of all crime
Official crime data offending for girls drops remarkably after their teens wheres for men it doesn’t decline until well into their 20s

Question 22

Working class statistics

Answer 22

Sutherland - high incidence crime in lower-socio economic class 
67% of the prison population had been unemployed prior to imprisonment