Social Class Flashcards
Omelade
Statistics on 2171 prisoners
67% unemployed
60% benefits
43% no qualifications
Evaluation of Omelade
-not comprehensive, not the full picture
-middle class crime like fraud and white collar crime are less likely to be convicted than street crime
-corporate crime is from people of senior positions therefore low recordings
The offending, crime and justice survey 2003
social class not associated with the likelihood of offending instead was individual circumstance
-single parents
-inconsistent parent discipline
-bad school or have friends or siblings who misbehave
Walter Miller
lower classes in America develop distinctive culture, response to low pay and working class jobs.
-toughness, smartness and excitement
Evaluation of Walter Miller
-focal concerns can lead to trouble with the law
-his work is outdated
Hall
traditional working class culture has been replaced by values based on consumerism and w/c crime is usually based on these values
Self report studies
Criminalisation
-no significant difference in w/c and middle class aged from 10 to 25
However, w/c youths are more likely to b prosecuted and convicted
Chambliss
Study two juvenile gangs
Saints and the Roughnecks- support the idea of criminalisation
Saints: middle class, parents were pillars of the community and they got away with serious offences
Rough: working class, minor assaults, labelled and stereotyped
Newburn and Reiner
police discretion is very important in deciding which lawbreakers are arrested, therefore they chose based on stereotype
Croall
-Offences by high status offenders are less easy to be detected
-Opportunity for white collar crime under policing
Marxism states this reflects boarder power structure
Tombs and Whyte
-argues that corporations have enormous economic, political and social power making them immune from prosecution
