Patterns and trends in offending

Question 1

Age crime curve data

Age

Answer 1

• Peak age for offending is 24 years
• Rates rise from 10-18 years

Question 2

What does McVie say about offending?

Age

Answer 2

Focus on patterns of offending, particularly in relation to prevelance and frequency
- Age and prevalence= offending is relatively common amonsgt youths. Most prevelant between ages of 14-16
- Age and frequency= amongst offenders, frequency is highest during teen years
- Offending is common among adolescents, but the majority of youths engage in occassional/minor offences

Question 3

What are some reasons why official stats lack validity in the case of youth?

Age

Answer 3

• Becker- labelling theory- target youth
• Youth hang around in large groups
• High visibility of crime
• Nature of /’hidden’ adult crime
• Moral panics (media)
• Self-report studies skew data
• Not ‘good enough’ at hiding crime

Question 4

What have stats found about youth and crime?

Age

Answer 4

• Profile of offending has not majorly changed over time (curve= similar)
• It appears as though crime has increased over time, but this may be due to an increase in detection or reporting of crime
• Youth are more likely to be caught and convicted
• People aged 15-20 experience approx 1,000 arrests for violent crime per 100,000

Question 5

Stats to show patterns and trends in offending and gender

Gender

Answer 5

• 84% of all arrests are men
• In 2014, 74% of defenders prosecuted are male
• Trends show falling crime rates for both genders, with female crime rates declining faster

Question 6

Stats for serious crimes

Gender

Answer 6

• 34% of males received prison sentences
• 20% of females received prison sentences

Question 7

Stats for prison population and murder

Gender

Answer 7

• 95% of the prison population is male
• 90% of convicted murderers are male
• Heidensohn found that men are more likely to reoffend
• Women tend to be prosecuted for minor offences

Question 8

Stats for female offences

Gender

Answer 8

• 30% of all female prosecution are for TV license evasion
• 38% of female prosecution are for shoplifting
• 72% of parents prosecuted for truancy of their children are female

Question 9

What is the intersection of gender and age?

Gender

Answer 9

• 1/3 of men were convicted for a criminal offence before the age of 35 vs 8% of women
• Peak female offending age= 15 (drops shortly after)
• Peak male offending age= 18 (doesn’t decline until mid 20s)

Question 10

What is the intersection of gender and class?

Gender

Answer 10

• Poutney said female offenders are more likely to be claiming benefits
• Deprivation shapes women’s criminality more than men

Question 11

What did Campbell and Box/Roe and Asche say about offending?

Gender

Answer 11

• Campbell- females admitted to almost as many crimes as the previous male sample
• Box/Roe and Asche- males commit far more crime than females

Question 12

What are some reasons for potentially inaccurate data?

Gender

Answer 12

• Labelling- women may escaoe detection as police do not label than as potential offenders, as they do males
• Chivalry thesis- patriarchial assumption that women are weak and need protecting
• Officials in criminal justice system treat females more leniently, so they are less likely to be arrested (more likely to be let off with caution)

Question 13

What does Klein say about offending rates?

Gender

Answer 13

• Black and working class women are seldom treated with chivalry
• Ministry of justice data 2017= prosecution rate for black women is 2x as high than for white women

Question 14

What do Headerman and Barnes say about offending?

Gender

Answer 14

• Women’s imprisonment rates have been rising since 1992

Question 15

What does Heidensohn say about offending and women?

Gender

Answer 15

• Women/girls who deviate from traditional feminine standards are treated more harshly

Question 16

What is malestream criminology?

Gender

Answer 16

• Traditional criminology focuses mainly on men
• Heidensohn suggests 4 reasons for this:
  1) Male dominance of offenders
  2) Male dominance of sociology
  3) Vicarious identification (male criminologists identify with male offenders)
  4) Sociological theorising (theories consructed around male behaviour)

Question 17

Ethnicity stats Shankley and Williams

Ethnicity

Answer 17

• Black people targetted consistently (across 5 police forces) for stop and searches
• Proportion of black, mixed and asian children in custody is rising, but number of white children has decreased by 19% across 10 years
• Proportion of white youth cautions is highest but declining, whereas all other ethnic cautions rising

Question 18

Ethnicity stats (MoJ and BBC)

Ethnicity

Answer 18

• BBC: black people over 5X likely to be stopped and searched than white people
• White people= largest proportion of arrests in England and Wales
• % of arrests increased for white people but decreased for black people from 2019-22/23
• Black defendants 6-10% more likely to receive a caution than other ethnic groups

Question 19

What are the differentiating offences by class?

Social class

Answer 19

• State crime- senior roles in gov (upper)
• Corporate crime (upper/middle)
• White collar crime (middle)
• Burglary and street crime (working)

Question 20

What do stats show about crime and class?

Social class

Answer 20

• Social exclusion unity: National unemployment rate= 5% vs 67% of prison population had been unemployed
• 0.5% of UK is ‘homeless’ vs 32% of prison population at some point
• Omolade- 43% of prisoners had no academic qualifications vs 18% nationally
• Williams- prisoners more likely to have run away from home, drug/alcohol misuse in family, regular truanting, school exclusion

Question 21

What do self-report studies suggest about crime and class?

Social class

Answer 21

• Differences in offending rates between w/c and middle class are not as high as prison population suggests

Question 22

What did Cavadino and Dignan say about crime and class?

Social class

Answer 22

• ‘Somehow between the commission of offences and the official responses of prosecution and punishment, the difference between the classes gets vastly magnified’

Question 23

Why is the difference between classes vastly magnified?

Social class

Answer 23

• Police stereotypes/labelling of w/c
• Target resources to w/c crime
• Middle class access to lawyers
• w/c crime is more visible
• w/c areas are stereotyped so greater level of policing

Question 24

What is the intersection of crime between social class and gender/ethnicity?

Social class

Answer 24

• Female offenders more likely to be on benefits (Poutney)
• Labelling of w/c black youths
• Stop and searhc of black youths

Question 25

What does Sutherland say about white collar crime?

Social class

Answer 25

• Defined as: crimes committed by people of high social status ad respectability in the course of their occupations

(State/corporate crime can only be committedby people of higher social class)

Question 26

Evaluation of class and crime

Social class

Answer 26

• Cannot be sure that the w/c commit more crime or whether they are more likely to be convicted
• We should not assume crime is a w/c phenomenon- could be that police pay more attention to w/c OR middle class crime does not come to police attention