Introduction of Crime and deviance

Question 1

Definition of crime

Answer 1

– Legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceeding, which may result in punishment; an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. For instance: first degree murder, smoking weed, burglary, sexual assault etc.

Question 2

Definition of deviance

Answer 2

– behaviour which is disapproved of by most people in a society or group, which does not conform to shared norms and values. For instance: smoking, excluded from school, detentions, speeding etc.

Question 3

Definition of socially constructed

Answer 3

• created and defined by society.

Question 4

Definition of social order

Answer 4

– general conformity to the shared norms and values, so that society is peaceful and predictable.

Question 5

Definition of social control

Answer 5

– people are persuaded to obey the rules and conform.

Question 6

Formal social control

Answer 6

– carried out by the government the armed forces and the Criminal Justice System including the police, the courts and the prison service.

Question 7

Informal social control

Answer 7

• carried out by agencies such as the education system, the family, media and religion. It is arguably more important and effective than formal social control.

Question 8

What does OCS stand for?

Answer 8

Official Crime Statistics, includes statistics produced from police, courts and prison records.

Question 9

What does CSEW stand for?

Answer 9

Crime Survey of England and Wales, collected and published by the Office of National Statistics.

Question 10

Limitations of CSEW

Answer 10

*Victimless crimes will not appear.
*Only people over the age of 16 have been asked in the past so crimes with child victims were not picked up through.
* Only surveys a sample, so overall trends and estimates which may not be representative.

Question 11

Advantages of Official Crime Statistics

Answer 11

• They are easy to access and already been compiled.
  *Up to date and standardized.
  *They cover the whole population and go back many years, so trends and patterns can be identified.
• They provide whole counts rather than estimates that are subject to sampling variations – the whole nation included.

Question 12

Disadvantages of Official Crime Statistics

Answer 12

*They do not include undetected or unreported crimes – many victims ma not report crimes to the police, or the crime may go undiscovered.
*They do not provide a complete picture about each crime – some information is collected.
*They do not include unrecorded crime – the police have a certain amount of discretion over whether to record a crime which has been reported, and how to record it.

Question 13

What is Dark figure crime?
Give a example.

Answer 13

all unrecorded crime.
Example - Lindsay Armstrong 2002, a rape victim was put in a second ordeal by the defence lawyer in a court case, where they held up the underwear she had been wearing at the time of the attack. The accused who was 14 was found guilty but the following morning Lindsay was found dead due to overdose.

Question 14

What is Police discretion?

Answer 14

the problem with police recorded crime figures is that it will be affected by the discretion and decisions made by the police. Some police may be corrupt or have their own reasons for mis recording individual crime

Question 15

What are the 4 Manipulation techniques?

Answer 15

• Coughing – an offender might be encouraged to admit a number of offences in return for being charged for less serious offences which would result in reduced sentence.
• Cuffing – crimes which have been reported and initially recorded, being removed from the statistic at a later date known as “no criming”

*Skewing – forces putting recourses into those areas measured by performance indicators, to the detriment of other areas.

*Stereotyping – the police could stereotype of the typical criminal leading to more stops and searches and more arrests for some types of people creating misleading figures.

Question 16

What is Victim surveys?

Answer 16

• surveying people about crimes they have been victims of in a given period. May include: crimes which have not been reported to the police.

Question 17

Limitations of Victim surveys

Answer 17

Young 1988, presented a comprehensive evaluation of victim surveys. He argues that a dark figure is also present in victim surveys. The accuracy of victim survey relies on memory and honesty if the victims. People may get the timescale wrong and people may not tell the truth for various of reasons including shame or guilt.

Question 18

What is Self report studies?

Answer 18

Self-report studies - asking people which crimes themselves have committed. Often carried out by young people and tend to focus on certain types of crime and deviance, often quite minor.

*Self-report studies are qualitative. For example: The Jack roller involved a series of unstructured interviews to build up a life history of criminals. Rather than measuring the crime, this method gives an insight into criminality, so it is favoured by Interpretivists.

• Self-report studies are quantitative – usually involves a list of offences requiring the respondents to tick the ones they have committed. Campbell found that levels of crime and deviance admitted to the females and males were much closer than the police recorded figures tend to suggest. Statistics overemphasise working class male involvement in crime.
• Self-report studies are often longitudinal in nature. This means they follow the same group of participants over a number of years to get an overview on criminality. Measure several different variables such as: family background, peers, education, area, gender and ethnicity.

Question 19

Issues affecting the usefulness of self-report studies

Answer 19

*Validity – Assessed by comparing them against recorded arrest or convictions. Self-reports can also be compared with more direct measures of offending.
*Attrition – refers to participation and drop out rates in studies. Important because partipants who are most difficult to find and interview tend to commit the most offences according to evidence from Farrington Et al. This suggest that a survey with high attrition rate is likely to miss out a number of frequent offenders and to under estimate the true number of offences committed.
* Ethics – are important when research in criminality. Key issues to consider to relate to informed consent, confidentiality, and the right to withdraw.