Social Class And Crime

Question 1

Statistics on social class and crime

Answer 1

• range of data sources = those imprisoned for indictable offences = lower social classes
• omolade - 43% of prison study had no educational qualifications 6% had a degree or equlivant, 36% had been brought up in care when sentenced and 60% had been claiming benefits
• earlier study looked at the whole of the prison population and found that 67% were unemployed prior to imprisonment
• limitations - only include those who have been convicted and imprisoned. Crimes committed by the m/c are less likely to lead to convictions

Question 2

Self report studies

Answer 2

• help us to work out if there really is more crime committed by w/c but the data is very limited
• individual circumstances not class seemed more important

Question 3

Material and cultural explanations: opportunity, inequality and subcultures

Answer 3

• Marx - saw crime as a product of class inequality.
  -w/c who were not in work, relied unpon income for survival works is essential for human dignity and therefore had been dehumanises by a lack of work
• Merton strain theory explains w/c crime but there is no upper limit on achievement it can also mean m/c crime as some people always want more
• cohen - status frustration
• cloward and ohlin - illegitimate opportunity structures

Question 4

Evaluation of material and cultural explanations

Answer 4

Critics have argued there is no straightforward statistical relationship between factors such as poverty, unemployment, the state of the economy and crime rates. Crime rates continued to rise in the later half of 20th century whether the county was in recession or not and whether unemployment was high or low

Question 5

Cultural explanations for w/c criminality

Answer 5

• miller - lower classes in America developed a distinctive culture passed down from generation to generation. Focal concerns include ‘toughness’, ‘smartness’ and ‘excitement’. Some of these can lead to trouble with the law
• Murray - the underclass

Question 6

Evaluation of cultural explanations

Answer 6

• neither provides a convicting explanation for w/c crime
• dated
• new values based on consumerism rather than ‘new ideas’
• Murray’s ideas lack empirical evidence.

Question 7

Class bias, street crime and criminal justice

Answer 7

• chambliss - labelling and crime, study of ‘the saints’ and the ‘roughnecks’
• Newbury and Reiner - police discretion on arrest figures. Focus on those who fit the stereotype of a criminal. Focus on street crime = more likely to be w/c
• corall - areas with high concerntrations of w/c homes are subject to more intense policing. Lower classes seen as being more at risk of reoffending

Question 8

Criminalisation and the crimes of higher classes

Answer 8

• offences by high status offenders are often harder to detect - white collar crime and corporate crimes
• Marxists argue this reflect wider power structures. No accident that the crimes of the powerful are less likely to lead to prosecution and conviction and those of the lower classes
• offenders do not fit the stereotype