MT2 - Social distribution of crime Flashcards
Ethnicity and Crime - Left realism - Lea and Young
OCS is accurate in relation to differences in offending by different ethnic groups.
E/m suffer relative deprivation as they can’t afford the consumer products promoted by the media.
CRITICISMS OF LEFT REALISM
It is possible that police stereotype black and Asian people differently.
Ethnicity and Crime - New Right
Educational underachievement – Afro-Caribbean boys are more likely to leave school with no or little qualifications. Crime is therefore a means to survive.
Influence of the mass media – rap music’s emphasis on bling, violence, guns, gangs, sex and drugs may lead to criminality.
Ethnicity and Crime - Phillips and Bowling
The UK criminal justice system is racist.
Arrests and cautions – e/m are more likely to be arrested and charged. e/m lack trust in the police and so deny the offence so get charged instead of cautioned.
Trial - ethnic minorities are more likely to be put to trial in the Crown Court than the Magistrates Court, but the Crown Court imposes more severe sentences.
Ethnicity and Crime - Neo-Marxism - Gilroy
The criminal justice system is racist which is why the OCS over-represent black people as criminals.
CRITICISMS OF GILROY
1st generation immigrants were law abiding, so they couldn’t have passed the resistance strategies to their children.
Gender and crime - OCS
Women commit fewer crimes
Women commit less serious, ‘victimless’, non-violent crimes.
CRITICISM OF OCS:
Women are more likely to be cautioned, rather than charged for a crime
Women are less criminal, OCS are accurate - Functionalist - A-Cohen
Fathers are much less involved in the upbringing of children thus the absence of a male role model at home leads boys to turn to all-male street gangs as a source of masculine identity. Such gangs promote toughness and risk taking which leads boys into crime.
CRITICISMS OF FUNCTIONALIST - Walklate
Criticises the sex role theory for basing its claims on biological differences
Women are less criminal, OCS are accurate - Functionalist - Henderson
Women are controlled in three ways:
At home – women’s domestic role restricts their time, reducing their opportunities to offend. Similarly, daughters are less likely to be allowed to come and go as they please or to stay out late
In public – women are controlled by the threat and fear of violence against them
At work – women’s behaviour is controlled by male managers through sexual harassment.
Women are as criminal as men, OCS are inaccurate - Pollack
Chivalry thesis – The criminal justice system treats women leniently when they break the law. This is because most criminal justice system agents are men.
Men are socialised to be chivalrous As a result, when dealing with female offenders, the police officers are more likely to issue cautions
CRITICISMS OF POLLAK - Heindensohn
Rather than being lenient towards female offenders, courts treat them more harshly if they are seen to have deviated from gender norms.
Women are as criminal as men, OCS are inaccurate - Adler
As women are increasingly becoming liberated from patriarchy, their crimes are becoming as frequent and as serious as that of men.
This is because, with greater equality, women have started to take on traditionally male roles in both legitimate and illegitimate activities.
CRITICISMS OF ADLER
W/c women are the least likely to have been affected by women’s liberation therefore liberation is not a valid explanation.
