Patterns & Trends in Crime Flashcards
Social class: Sutherland (1949)
Pointed out that criminal statistics show that crime is higher in the lower class than in the upper class. The research showed that 67% of the prison population had been unemployed before imprisonment, and 32% had been homeless, compared to 0.9% of the general population
Social class: Williams (2012)
Found that other factors found more frequently in prison included:
- Having run away from home
- Experienced violence and/ or drug and alcohol misuse from school
- Being excluded from school
- Having no qualifications
Social class: What did data from self-report studies show?
Data from self-report studies show that the difference between offending rates for working- and middle-class people is not as high as figures suggest
Gender: What did the Ministry of Justice show?
Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that females accounted for only 18% of arrests and 25% of convictions in 2013
Gender: What were female offenders more likely to do in 2010-2011?
In 2010-2011, female offenders were more likely than male offenders to be on benefits before and after their caution, conviction, or prison sentence, whereas in the general population, males were more likely than females to be on benefits
Age: What gender differences can be seen in youth offending?
Gender differences can be seen in youth offending: males aged 10-17 were found to be responsible for 20% of all police recorded crime in 2009-2010 and young women responsible for only 4%
Age: What are juvenile offenders more likely to receive than adult offenders?
Juvenile offenders are more likely than adult offenders to receive a caution rather than a conviction for their first offence, with females (83%) more likely to receive a youth caution than males (75%) in 2013
Age: McVie (2004)
Argued that in reality, the data is often grouped into age-bands, which may hide more precise trends
Age: What does Home Office data do?
Home Office data often groups everyone over 21 together, making it impossible to identify trends in adult offending, and the age groupings for teenagers often differ, making comparisons difficult
Age: Soothill (2004)
Found that the peak age of conviction for crimes, such as burglary to be around 16, whereas motoring and drug offences peaked between 21-25 before declining
Ethnicity: What did the Ministry of Justice?
According to Ministry of Justice data, black people were stopped and searched seven times more than white people in 2009-2010
Ethnicity: What happened to the overall number of arrests?
The overall number of arrests decreased by 3% in the five years to 2010, but arrests of black people rose by 5% and arrests of Asian people by 13
Ethnicity: Bowling and Phillips (2006):
Point out that the Crown Prosecution Service is more likely to drop cases put forward by the police involving black suspects, suggesting that the police charge black people more frequently based on inadequate evidence
Ethnicity: What did the Association of Chief Police Officers say in 2008?
A report found that, offending rates among mainly Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian communities were in line with the rate of offending in the general population
