Social Class and Crime Flashcards
Statistics for Social Class and Crime:
Most people imprisoned are from lower-class backgrounds.
The Prison Reform = 43% of inmates had no educational qualifications and 67% were unemployed.
Strain Theory:
Working-class are more likely to adapt to the strain between societies’ goals and means by innovation.
Subcultural Theories:
Cohen = status frustration, more likely to turn to deviant activities in which they can achieve status.
Cloward and Ohlin = greater access to the ‘illegitimate opportunity structure.’
Labelling Theory:
Becker suggests that agents of social control operate with stereotypes, working-classes more likely to be labelled as deviant.
- Class may influence the decision whether to stop, arrest and charge an individual (Cicourel).
- WC more likely to have a criminal master status and engage in secondary deviance. Leads to moral panics and deviancy amplification. E.g: benefits ‘scroungers’, ‘feral youth’, etc.
Traditional Marxism:
Gordon suggests crime occurs in all social groups and is a rational response to capitalism. RC creates laws, selectively enforces them. The WC are caught and criminalised rather than the RC for white-collar crimes.
Neo-Marxism/New Criminology:
Hall’s work on mugging suggests that the WC may be targeted by police, seen as the ‘scapegoat’ (as folk devils) to direct attention away from the crisis in capitalism. More likely to be stopped and searched, hostility may lead to military policing and therefore deviancy amplification.
Left Realism:
Lea and Young = WC more likely to face marginalisation or relative deprivation which may lead to more crime and subcultures. WC are more likely to be victims of crime. To solve crime, we need to reduce inequalities and improve policing.
Right Realism:
Underclass seeks immediate gratification, lack of respect due to inadequate socialisation and a lack of role models. (Murray, Dennis and Erdos).
‘Broken windows thesis’ = WC neighbourhoods leads to further damage and anti-social behaviour.
More detectable offenses:
- Those in the working-class are more likely to commit detectable offences due to education, therefore are more likely to get caught.
- The main offences committed by working-class people are more likely to be reported to the police and result in the prosecution of offenders.
Class and Victimology:
Those living in the poorest areas are most subjected to crime, and these people are also less likely to be able to afford insurance.
