Sociology Paper 2: Crime & Deviance

Question 1

defining crime and deviance

Answer 1

• crime: illegal actions eg robbery, murder.
• deviance: behaviour that does not conform to society’s norms, eg piercings, tattoos, eavesdropping
• deviant behaviour includes legal and illegal activities
• some illegal acts are not always deviant to everyone

Question 2

deviance as socially defined behaviour

Answer 2

• crime involves legally defined behaviour
• deviancy based off of society’s currents norms and values and can change over time
• varies between cultures and places eg homosexuality is considered deviant some cultures, but accepted in others

Question 3

social order

Answer 3

• functionalist: society is based off of a consensus among people regarding norms and values
• this consensus comes from socialisation
• marxist: capitalist society based on conflicting interests between social classes.
• class conflict due to opposing interests

Question 4

formal social control

Answer 4

• based on laws/written rules

- agencies of formal social control: parliament, police, judiciary, magistrates, prison service, probation service

Question 5

informal social control

Answer 5

• based on unwritten rules like approval of others
• enforced through social pressure and reactions of others
• these reactions could be negative/positive sanctions

Question 6

DURKHEIM’S functions of crime

Answer 6

• re-affirming boundaries of society (reminds society that crime is bad when a person gets taken to court)
• changing values (some sympathy for a criminal can occur and the public outcry can signal change)
• social cohesion (community closer together after horrific crimes)
• safety valve (blows of steam eg prostitution)

Question 7

MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY

Answer 7

• people’s aspirations are determined by their cultures
• people are socialised to believe in the American Dream
• different types of responses to the American dream: CONFORMITY (accept goals and means of achieving them), RITUALISM (accept means of achieving goals but hold the view they cannot be achieved), RETREATISM (isolating from the goals and the means of achieving them), REBELLION (attempt to replace goals and means with other values), INNOVATION (accept goals but reject means, can turn to crime to achieve these goals as a result of anomie)

Question 8

criticisms of merton

Answer 8

• juvenile deliquency eg vandalism is not motivated by the goal of achieving the American dream
• it is not clear while some people faced with anomie conform while others turn to crime
• Marxists say that merton fails to consider who makes the laws and who benefits from them

Question 9

BECKER (interactionist)

Answer 9

• deviance is created by society through the making of rules and calling certain people outsiders
• whether an act is deviant or not depends on other people’s reactions
• people develop DEVIANT CAREERS over time (once someone is known to have committed a crime, that is all people see them as)
• this can become a MASTER STATUS when it is seen as more important than their other titles e.g wife or lawyer)
• this person will now move into a deviant group and see themselves as a deviant
• SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY

Question 10

marxist perspective on crime and deviance

Answer 10

• competition to achieve materialism creates need for crime
• not everyone can afford products of capitalism
• crime is a by-product of a broken system

Question 11

marxist view on law enforcement

Answer 11

• laws are made in order to benefit the ruling class
• agencies of social control protect the bourgeoisie
• blue collar crime more likely to be targeted that white collar crime
• black people/working class people more likey to be targeted when looking for crime

Question 12

criticisms of marxism

Answer 12

• not every law supports the interests of the ruling class
• functionalists say that society is based on consensus not conflict
• feminists say Marxists ignore gender based targeting

Question 13

feminist perspectives on crime and deviance

Answer 13

• double deviance thesis

- gender non conforming women treated more harshly as they have broken the norms about gender as well as the law

Question 14

HEIDENSOHN - female conformity

Answer 14

• women have lower rate of recorded crime
• control theory: patriarchal control means that women cannot commit crime, sexual violence, don’t have time
• female conformity - women controlled at wok, home and in public

Question 15

police statistics on crime

Answer 15

• innacurate
• unreported crime cannot be recorded, more crime than statistics suggest
• victims may be too embarrassed to report a crime or not realise it is criminal
• employers may fire employees who commit crime at work rather than involving the police
• do not record all reported crime (too trivial to record)

Question 16

trends in police recorded crime

Answer 16

• overall volume of crime is falling

- may target specific groups of people/types of crime affecting the statistics

Question 17

perspectives on police crime statistics

Answer 17

• labelling theory, behaviour is only deviant once the police label it as such, statistics reflect police labelling
• marxist perspective: reflect classist nature of society, white collar crime is not represented as much as visible crime yet affects more people
• feminist: under record instances of violence against women, including domestic violence

Question 18

victim surveys

Answer 18

• ask people about their experiences with crime

- CSEW interviews people about whether they have experienced crime in the past 12 months

Question 19

advantages of the CSEW

Answer 19

• provides data on crime not in police records
• trends in certain crimes can be found
• results help policy makers make policies to tackle crime

Question 20

disadvantages of CSEW

Answer 20

• does not cover all police recorded crimes eg murder as the victim is dead/victimless crimes
• respondents may forget/lie about crimes experienced
• household survey so doesn’t question homeless people or prisoners

Question 21

self report studies

Answer 21

• people could lie/exaggerate crimes committed for comedic purposes

Question 22

social class and crime

Answer 22

• majority of prisoners are working class
• material deprivation may lead to crime in order to survive
• functionalist: merton says anomie causes crime (everyone shares American dream and can commit crime to achieve it)
• working class people more likely to be targeted by police so it’s easy to find crime within those categories

Question 23

white collar crime

Answer 23

• financial crime/crime in the workplace
• usually middle class criminals
• less visible than other types of crime but affects many people
• likely to be undiscovered

Question 24

corporate crime

Answer 24

• form of white collar crime
• white collar crime on behalf of the company rather than for personal gain
• difficult to prosecute as they can afford skilled lawyers

Question 25

young people and inadequate socialisation affecting

Answer 25

• criminal activity commonly found in groups of young men
• functionalist theories say crime is a result of poor socialistion (Murray claims that lone parent families more likely to poorly socialise children, resulting in more criminals stemming from lone parent families)

Question 26

COHEN - subculture theory/delinquent subcultures

Answer 26

• cohen sats juvenile deliquency and adult crime stem from the values of belonging to a particular subculture
• young working class males may not have educational status so gain it from their peers within subcultures
• this is fulfilled through committing crimes
• working class boys experience status frustration (trying and failing to meet middle class values and taking these frustrations out by committing crime)

Question 27

criticisms of COHEN

Answer 27

• middle class bias - assumes that working class individuals accept middle class values
• focuses on delinquent boys in gangs, does not focus on girls

Question 28

women’s lesser involvement in crime

Answer 28

• girls socialised to be more agreeable
• bedroom culture, boys encouraged to go out and explore while young girls stay at home
• different opportunities, girls have fewer opportunities to commit crime bc of male control
• chivalry thesis, male police officers less likely to arrest women for petty crimes out of chivalry

Question 29

increasing involvement of women in crime

Answer 29

• number of female offenders increasing in england and wales
• more female police officers, chivalry thesis decreasing
• changing position of women, less family/household duties, more time for crime
• women more likely to suffer from poverty due to leading more single parent families, living longer and working lower paid jobs

Question 30

CARLEN on women, crime/poverty

Answer 30

• working class women expected to make class and gender deals
• class deal offers them material rewards if they work for a wage
• gender deal offers material and emotional rewards if they live with a male breadwinner
• when this is not available, women must often resort to crime

Question 31

ethnicity and crime

Answer 31

• members of some ethnic groups are overrepresented in prisons/crime stats
• linked to unemployment, poverty and deprivation
• ethnic minorities more likely to be stopped and searched
• statistics may reflected police targeting
• racial discrimination

Question 32

media’s role in amplifying deviance

Answer 32

• media help create moral panics (exaggerating significance and extent of events)
• cast folk devils (scapegoats in the public eye)
• COHEN - case study of mods and rockers
• mods and rockers cast as folk devils, caused stereotypes
• false image of young people, deviancy amplification