Topic 1: Crime, Deviance, Social Order & Social Control

Question 1

Social Control

Answer 1

The methods used to persuade or force individuals to conform to the dominant social norms and values of a society or group. May be formal or informal.

Question 2

Deviance

Answer 2

Behaviour which fails to follow the norms and expectations of a society or social group and often faces negative reactions /disapproval

Question 3

Societal Deviance

Answer 3

Acts which are seen by most members of a society as deviant.

Question 4

Crime

Answer 4

The term used to describe behaviour which is against the law – law breaking

Question 5

Situational Deviance

Answer 5

Acts which are only defined as deviant in certain contexts or situations.

Question 6

Social Solidarity

Answer 6

The integration of people into society through shared values, a common culture and social ties that bind them together.

Question 7

Value Consensus

Answer 7

Widespread agreement about the main values of society.

Question 8

Anomie

Answer 8

A sense of normlessness – confusion and uncertainty over society’s norms.

Question 9

Utilitarian Crime

Answer 9

Crime that is carried out for financial gain.

Question 10

Non-utilitarian Crime

Answer 10

Crime that is not carried out for financial gain.

Question 11

Relative Deprivation

Answer 11

The idea that people feel that they are lacking something (materially or in other ways) compared with others in society with which they identify.

Question 12

Subculture

Answer 12

A group of people in society who share norms, values, beliefs and attitudes that are in some ways different from the mainstream culture of that society.

Question 13

Value Inversion

Answer 13

Reversing society’s values, so that those things that are considered important by society are rejected and vice versa.

Question 14

Status Frustration

Answer 14

The anger and resentment felt by those who have a low status in society.

Question 15

Criminogenic

Answer 15

The idea that crime in a capitalist society is inevitable; the exploitation necessary to capitalism causes crime.

Question 16

Alienation

Answer 16

The idea that people feel isolated and disconnected from the things that they produce at work. A lack of power and control.

Question 17

Selective Law Enforcement

Answer 17

The idea that the law is not equally or fairly applied to all, instead some in society are treated more leniently, others more harshly.

Question 18

Moral Entrepeneur

Answer 18

A person, group or organisation with the power to create or enforce rules and impose their definitions of deviance on others.

Question 19

Primary Deviance

Answer 19

Deviance that has not been publically labelled as deviant.

Question 20

Secondary Deviance

Answer 20

Deviance that follows once a person has been publicly labelled as deviant.

Question 21

Master Status

Answer 21

A status which displaces all other aspects of a person’s identity, and a person is judged on that one defining characteristic only.

Question 22

Deviant Career

Answer 22

This occurs when people have been labelled as deviant find conventional opportunities blocked, so have to commit further deviant acts.

Question 23

Typifications

Answer 23

The common sense theories or stereotypes of what a typical deliquent is like.

Question 24

The Dark Figure of Crime

Answer 24

The difference between the official statistics and the real rate of crime.

Question 25

Deviancy Amplification

Answer 25

The process whereby attempts to control deviance actually produces an increase in deviance, leading to greater attempts at control and even more deviance. Links to moral panic.

Question 26

Moral Panic

Answer 26

A wave of public concern about an exaggerated or imaginary threat to society, stirred up by sensationalised media reports.

Question 27

Disintegrative Shaming

Answer 27

Where not only the crime, but also the criminal is labelled as bad and the offender is excluded from society.

Question 28

Reintegrative Shaming

Answer 28

The deviant act is labelled as bad, but not the individual that committed it e.g. ‘he has done a bad thing’ rather than ‘he is a bad person.’

Question 29

Social Cohesion

Answer 29

The idea that people are bound together by shared values

Question 30

Underclass (Murray)

Answer 30

A dysfunctional class of unemployed, welfare-dependent, inadequately socialised people.

Question 31

Welfare Dependency

Answer 31

Individuals relying on welfare state benefits for a long period of time rather than seeking employment

Question 32

Target Hardening

Answer 32

Measures that focus on making it harder to commit crimes in the first place.

Question 33

Zero Tollerance Approach

Answer 33

An approach which deals with all criminal, deviant or anti-social behaviour immediately.

Question 34

Individualism

Answer 34

Prioritising the concerns and interest of oneself rather than the group or community to which you belong.

Question 35

Marginalisation

Answer 35

The process whereby some people are pushed to the edges of society by poverty, lack of education, disability, discrimination etc and face social exclusion