social class and crime

Question 1

Sociologist ideas (newburn, tinimer and eitzen, nelken)

Answer 1

• Newburn: crimes of the powerless not cirmes of the powerful
• Tinimer and Eitzen: crimes of the suites/ crimes of the streets
• Nelken: best way to rob a bank is to own one

Question 2

CSEW 1981-2023 excluding fraud until 2017

Answer 2

• majority of crime is fraud- big problem
• technology role in this
• march of progress theory- more m/c people
• better policing
• not counting other crimes as much anymore

Question 3

white collar crime/ occpuational crime

Answer 3

committed by m/c people who abuse their work positions for personal gain

Question 4

corporate crime (Slapper and Thomas)

Answer 4

organisational crime are offences committed by large companies which benefit the organisation rather than the individual, which is also hard to punish

Question 5

examples of corporate crime

Answer 5

1. paperwork and non compliance-> VW
2. environmental crime -> VW forged emission certificates
3. manufacturing offences -> safety checks and issues with products such as non fire retardant buildings or thalidomide, which created birth defects but the company knew this and still produced it
4. labour law violations -> no protection against asbestos, working hours and pay eg shein and temu
5. unfair trade policies -> untrue claims like price locking
6. financial offences -> failing to pay taxes, amazon and starbucks

Question 6

Croall (2001)

Answer 6

• crimes against NHS committed by doctors, dentists and pharmacists who falsify perscriptions and patient records to claim millions of pounds more than what they’re entitled to

Question 7

Sutherland (1983)- differential association

Answer 7

• if you associate with people who accept illegality, you are more likely to accept. condone/ engage in it yourself
• this is true for all classes

Question 8

tutor2u video info on corp crime

Answer 8

• corporate crime is more impactful but there is little punishment
• organisational cultures (Tombs and Snider)= cultrue of corporations lead to excessive competition and risk taking which prioritises profits over people
• most competetive usually in positions to influence culture of orgnisations but removed from doing actual criminal acts
• Capitalism has a dog eat dog nature, meaning that people use illegitimate methods to get ahead (Gordon). cut costs to boost profits= health and safety legislation decline, employment, law or environment
• Strain theory: businesses innovate to get the success of the american dream, using illegitimate means to get profits and appease shareholders. can be legal but always has human consequences
• punishment: deregulation of laws governing it had led to an increase, less risk in breaking regulations. Tombs and Whyte (2013) note a decrease over 1/3 in health and safety inspections since 2000
• when caughts and punished they are fined but the fine is inconsequential compared to their profits/turnover
• globalisation- big corporations move 2 countries with less regulations, their economic power gives them more power than the governments of these countries and they gain political power by supporting such corps
• delabelling- PR allows criminals on behalf of corporations to escape labelling, corp criminals often continue to successfully trade despite temporary negative publicity for their actions