Key Concepts Flashcards
Deviance
Non-conformity to a given norm /set of norms which are accepted by a significant number of people in a community/ S
Crime
Activities that break the law
+ therefore = subjected to official punishment
Social Order
Stability based on shared values and consensus (everyone is behaving themselves)
British Crime Survey
Now called the Crime Survey of England and Wales
= annual victimisation survey
Carried out by the Home Office
Home Office
G department responsible for criminal justice matters
Islington Crime Survey
Famous local victimisation studies focusing on one area of North London
Official Statistics
Statistics released by the G agencies
Plea Bargaining
= an informal (sometimes unspoken) agreement that if the D pleads guilty to a lesser crime then that of which (s)he is accused, the prosecution will agree
Repeat victimisation
Where people = Vs of the same crime more than once
Responsibilisation
Garland suggests this is a shift towards blaming people for becoming victims of crime, by suggesting they have not taken adequate precautions
Risk management
The process whereby governments stop trying to prevent all crime and instead see it as their job to limit the risk of crime for the population.
Self-report studies
A sample of the population are selected and asked what offences they have committed /been the victim of.
Sensitising
Refers to the extent of disorder or minor criminal activity that people will accept. // e.g. speeding, littering
Victimisation surveys (Victim surveys)
A sample of the population are selected and asked what offences they have been the victim of.
Police recorded statistics
Crime statistics that are drawn from the records that are kept by the police and the official agencies. They are published every 6 months by the Home Office.
Dark figure of crime
The amount of crime that go unreported to the police.
Focal Concerns
The term used by Merton to describe key values.
Gang
The term that is applied to a wide variety of youth groups that regularly engage in offending.
Illegitimate Opportunity Structure
An alternative, illegal way of life that certain groups in society have access to - it is a term used by Cloward and Ohlin
Anomie
The term was first used by Durkheim to describe the breakdown of social expectations and behaviour. // people experiencing moral uncertainty and cohesion.
Delinquency
Criminal or antisocial acts committed be young people.
Social Cohesion
The feeling of belonging to a larger entity e.g. a society
Status Frustration
According to AK Cohen, this occurs when young men feel that they are looked down upon by society.
Techniques of Neutralisation
Justifications for our deviant/ criminal behaviour.
Subculture
A distinctive set of values that provide an alternative to those of the mainstream culture.
Subterranean Values
A set of deviant values that exist alongside the socially approved values, but are usually kept hidden or under control. They may emerge in certain social situations such as parties or drinking alcohol.
Strain
A term used by Merton to explain reactions to situations where socially approved goals were impossible for the majority of the population to reach by legitimate means; this produces a lack of balance and adjustment in society.
Subcultural Theories
Explanations of crime and deviance focusing on the idea that those who deviate hold different values to the majority.
Value Consensus
When everyone within a society shares the same norms and values.
Latent Functions
They refer to the unintended functions of crime such as the resulting in anomie or the breakdown of society.
Manifest Functions
They refer to the open, intended functions.
Homogenous
The belief that everyone is the same.
Culture
Refers to the shared way of life of a particular society such as language, diet,dress, norms, values, religion.
Subculture
Refers to the group within/ beneath the ‘dominant culture’ which is different in certain respects. While sharing many of the characteristics of the main culture it can be identified as a distinct and different group e.g. class, ethnicity, sexuality etc.
Selective law creation + enforcement
Laws are created by the rc in their interests. CJS is used to protect the power and wealth of the ruling class and control the wc
Capitalism
Economic system in which investment + ownership of means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth is made + maintained chiefly by private individuals/ corporations, whose primary aim is to make £
Corporate crimes
Offences committed by large companies, or by individuals on behalf of large companies, which directly profit the company rather than individuals
Dominant ideology
Set of ideas which justify the social advantages of wealthy, powerful + influential groups in S + justifies the disadvantages of those who lack the qualities
Criminogenic
Idea that capitalism causes crime
Moral panic
A wave of public concern about some imaginary threat to S, stirred up by exaggerated + sensationalised reporting of the mass media
The New Criminology
Approach to crime which merges Marxism with Interactionism to produce a ‘fully social theroy’
White collar crimes
Sutherland defines these as: crimes committed by persons of his social status + respectability in the course of their occupation
2 types
False consciousness
The failure by members of a social class to recognise their ideal interests
Crisis in capitalism
When the economy fails, living standards fall and workers protest
Occupational crime
When people steal from companies via their job
Malestream
Sociology that concentrates on men, mostly carried out by men and then assumed that the findings apply to women (or ignore them completely)
Double deviance
Describes the way in which women who break the law are also seen to have broken their traditional gender role
Chivalry thesis
Idea that women are treated more leniently by a sexist and paternalistic CJS which is influenced by stereotyped ‘feminimity’
Feminist criminology
Approach to c+d which focuses on gender and is critical of criminology which ignores women as Vs + criminals
Gender role socialisation
The idea that socialisation contributes to the gendered patterns of crime
Labelling
Attach meaning to a behaviour
Deviancy amplification
The response of the police and the media to a deviant act that actually leads to an increase in deviance
Deviant career
Idea that someone doesn’t simply become a criminal but it is a process, takes time for a person to become labelled and see themselves as deviant
Folk devils
Individuals who are labelled by the media as being the case of wider social problems
Master status
When a person’s major characteristics become their criminal status
Moral entrepreneurs
Groups who have power + resources to create/ enforce rules + impose definitions of deviance
e.g. media/ police
Moral panic
Disproportionate reaction to a problem relating to deviant behaviour, often caused by the media
Primary deviance
Deviance that hasn’t yet been labelled as deviant
Has few consequences for the individual
Secondary deviance
Deviance that has been labelled as such + = punishable
SFP
Where someone begins to act out + internalise the label they have been given
Stigmatised
Something = frowned upon by S as it has had -ve labels attached to it
Concentric zones
5 different zones that Shaw + McKay ÷ a city into
Most c+d = said to occur in zone 2
Nocturnal economy
Refers to way the leisure activity has developed at night
Provides the location of many offences
Opportunity theory
Crime can occur when = an opportunity
- stop the opportunity, less crime = likely to occur
Social disorganisation
Area that doesn’t have a shared culture/ strong mechanics of informal social control
- no sense of community
Situational Crime Prevention
Approach to crime which ignores the motivation for offending + instead concentrates on making it more difficult to commit crime
Zone of transition
Cheapest, least desirable zones of the city in which immigrants are moved + most crime happens
Cultural transmission
Process by which values are passed from 1 generation to the next
- part of socialisations
Relative derivation
Idea that it isn’t deprivation that causes people to commit crime, but whether they see themselves as deprived in comparison with others
Displacement theory
Critique of situational crime prevention
Argues that SCP doesn’t prevent crimes, merely shifts it around
