Key Terms-Crime Flashcards
What is the American Dream?
The belief that anyone can achieve success through hard work regardless of their background
What is anomie?
The concept of normelessness in society, a breakdown of social norms values and expectations within society.
What is boundary maintenance ?
Crime and deviance is useful in shoeing people what to do and what not to do.
What is delinquency?
Poor behaviour -often by younger members of society
What are focal concerns?
Emphasise the roles of social networks by explaining how lower class people influence other lower class people.
What is illegitimate opportunity structure?
Where communities lack resources that would allow young people to grow .
What is social solidarity ?
Interdependence between individuals in society , which allows individuals to feel that they can enhance the lives of others.
What is status frustration?
When people are unable to gain status through legitimate means so turn to criminal behaviour to achieve illegitimately .
What is strain theory?
Pressure from social factors like lack of income or lack of quality of education drives individuals to commit crime .
What is utilitarian crime ?
Crime committed for material gain , money and property.
2.what is a control agency?
Institutions which have control over individuals such as the police, courts ,prison e.t.c
What is deviance amplification?
The way levels of deviance or crime can be increased by the societal reaction to deviance itself.
What is a deviant career?
Any professional choice that defies social norms.
What is interactionism?
Individuals learn about society through interactions with people .and that society as a whole is created by a multitude of individual interactions .
What is labelling ?
Describing someone or something in a word or short phrase.
What is a master status ?
The defining social position a person holds,meaning the title the person most relates to when expressing themselves to others.
What is a moral entrepreneur?
Powerful groups ,individuals or organisations who crusade to change laws or social norms.
What is primary deviance?
Deviant behaviour that people don’t get labelled for (low level,common)
What is secondary deviance?
Higher level crimes that occur when someone is labelled public ally and it starts to become a significant part of someone’s identity.
What is reintegrative shaming?
Crime and criminal are separated
They can be rehabilitated and put back into society.
What is self fulfilling prophecy?
Living up to a label given.
What is social construction?
A subjective view decided by society.
What are typifications?
Police have stereotypes of what they suspect as a criminal.
What are folk devils?
Groups who are targets of moral panic and are a perceived threat.
3.what is corporate crime?
Crimes committed by companies rather tan individuals?
What is Criminogenic capitalism?
The idea that capitalism causes crime by its nature.
What is critical criminology?
Sees crime as a product of oppression of workers , in particular, those in greatest poverty and those in disadvantaged groups within society.
What is economic determinism?
The social and economic idea that all parts of a society or culture are created as a result of economic processes and systems.
What is false consciousness?
The idea that people in a capitalist society unknowingly participate in a system that promotes inequality.
What is ruling class ideology ?
The ideas ,attitudes,values ,beliefs and culture of the ruling class in a society.
What is selective enforcement
The criminal justice system applies the law to different social groups in different ways.
What is voluntarism?
The concept that human inactions and societal development are driven by individual will,choice and agency.
What is white collar crime?
a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status during his occupation
4.what is community /consensus policing?
A policing style which involves community input and support for the police .
What is meant by left wing ?
What is meant by right wing ?
What is marginalisation?
Groups are ignored ,small minority are overlooked
Often aren’t politically represented.
What is a multi-agency approach?
The coordinated response of the public sector agencies to address crime,social disorder and community safety.
What is the rational choice theory ?
Assumes people have free will and the power of reason . Presumes if reward is higher than the consequence people will choose to commit crime.
What is relative deprivation?
The idea that people are deprived in comparison to others (materially or in other ways).
What is a subculture?
Groups that are perceived to deviate from the normative standards of the dominant culture.
What is target hardening ?
The process of increasing the security of a property to make it more difficult to burgle ,thereby increasing the effort needed by the offender to gain entry to a property.
What is the underclass?
The segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in class hierarchy , below the core body of the working class.
What is meant by zero-tolerance?
The idea that not even low-level crime should be tolerated and severe penalties should be in place for anti-social behaviour .
What is military policing?
A policing style in which policing takes place without the consent of the local community.
5.what is chivalry thesis?
The idea that men are socialised to act in a chivalrous way towards women .
What is the gender deal?
The concept that women should do domestic labour and give love and give love and companionship to their husbands, in exchange for love and financial support.
What is malestream sociology ?
Term used by feminists who argue that early sociology was dominated by men and thus produced a biased male-centered account of the social world.
What is liberation thesis?
The increased opportunities for women to participate in the labour force and thus the increased opportunities to commit certain types of crime.
What is patriarchal control theory?
The belief that men should hold power in the family and society ,leading to the acceptance of violence against women as a means of maintaining male control.
What is the functionalist sex role theory?
A theory that assumes that women are socialised into an expressive role and are expected to be gentle and nurturing.
What is hegemonic masculinity?
Work in the paid -labour market , the subordination of women,heterosexism and the driven uncontrollable sexuality of men .
What is bodily capital?
The value attached to peoples appearances, attractiveness or physical abilities that may be exchanged for other forms of economic, social or cultural capital.
What is masculinity?
Possession of the quality is traditionally associated with men (such a strength, muscularity toughness).
6.What is consensus/community policing?
Where the police worked closely with members of the community to tackle and reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.
What is institutional racism?
Discrimination or unequal treatment on the basis of membership of a reticular ethnic group arising from system, structures or expectations that have become established within an institution or organisation.
What is occupational culture?
A distinctive pattern of thought and behaviour shared by members of the same occupation and reflected in their language, values, attitudes, beliefs, and customs.
What is racist victimisation?
What is self-report study?
A self report is today is a way of measuring custody in crime where people asked to talk about the crimes that they have committed.
What is victim study?
A victim survey is wrong, which questions people about what crimes are gonna victim of (like the crime survey of England and Wales).
7.What is age fallacy?
The concept that the victims of crime in media are predominantly older, middle-class women, when in reality, most victims are young working class men.
What is a commodification of crime?
The process by which criminal activity and various representations, become commercialised are marketed as commodities for consumption.
What is cybercrime?
Criminal activities carried out by means of computers and the Internet.
What is dramatic fallacy?
The dramatic fallacy states, the most publicised offences are very distant from real life.
What is a moral panic?
An exaggerated media response to a perceived threat.
What are news values?
New values are criteria the influence of selection and presentation of events of published news.
8.what are human rights?
Rights inheritent to all human beings, regardless of race is sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.
What is the spiral of state denial?
This is where the governments use denial, justification of neutralisation to justify their actions.
What are neutralisation techniques?
These are the rationales used by individuals to justify behaviour viewed as unacceptable by society for example, denial of victims: Cohen says that people blame and exaggerate victims (terrorist /violent)
What are crimes of obedience?
Crimes that occur when the subordinate in a system of legal authority, preece, incapable of challenging the legitimacy of an order by a superior. (Kerman and Hamilton 1989)
What is an authoritarian personality?
A person who has extreme respect for authority, and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power.
