Sociology
- Created by: danielladavidson
- Created on: 30-12-22 15:21
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- Crime and Deviance
- Official Statistics
- Self - report studies
- Criminals can anonymously report what crimes they've commited
- Not valid: People may lie about crimes committed
- Can uncover 'The Dark Figure of Crime'
- Police Recorded Crime (PRC)
- All crime reported and recorded by the Police
- Reliable: Can compare patterns and trends over time
- Lacks Validity: Doesn't account for the 'Dark figure of Crime'
- Victim surveys (CSEW)
- People can relay what crimes they have been a victim to in the last 12 months
- Not valid: People may forget crimes
- Can uncover the dark figure of crime
- 'The Dark Figure of Crime' is all crime not witnessed, reported and recorded
- Self - report studies
- Gender and Crime
- 94% of prison populations are male
- Pollack
- 'Chivalry Thesis'
- Men in the CJS tend to be lenient towards women
- Men are taught young to 'protect' women
- seen as 'sad not bad'
- This may be why there are low rate of female offending in statistics
- Criticisms: Unlikely that officers left women off significant crime.
- Female offending is rising
- Men in the CJS tend to be lenient towards women
- 'Chivalry Thesis'
- Carlen
- unstructured interviews with 39 women to find why some women offend
- She concludes that women made a class and gender deal that generally keeps them under control
- Class Deal: Women who work will have material rewards
- LImitations: unemployed women, (lack of £££)
- This givies them a good standard of living
- Gender deal: Women do domestic work and give love to their partners
- In exchange they receive love and financial support from their husband
- LImitations: (no family) divorced, raised in care
- Statistically, women do utilitarian (money) crime
- Class Deal: Women who work will have material rewards
- Criticisms: The sample is too small to be generalisbale
- When these deals break down they turn to crime as a rational choice
- working class women have less to lose
- Ethnicity and Crime
- Institutional racism - racial discrimination in institutions that is considered normal
- E.g there may be bias' against black people ingrained in the polices of a school
- William McPherson's
- 'The Macpherson Report' into the police investigation of Stephen Lawrence's murder.
- The report shows the police often label people of minority ethnic backround
- Police and courts more likely to target BAME individuals
- Anti- racism training + increased recruitment of BAME officers suggested the problems
- Made recommendations related to police reform
- Famously described the police as 'institutionally racsist'
- Racial stereotypes in the police force and promoted by the media
- May create bias' against people of specific ethnic backgrounds.
- This will obviously deteriorate relations between the police and the group
- The police may label black and Asian people as criminals more
- This is evident by the disappropriate amount of stop and searches against black people
- Black people are 9x more likely to be stopped and searched
- This is evident by the disappropriate amount of stop and searches against black people
- May create bias' against people of specific ethnic backgrounds.
- The media can focus on specific ethnic groups and make them look like a threat to society
- Institutional racism - racial discrimination in institutions that is considered normal
- Age and Crime
- 17 is the optimum age for crime
- Easily motivated by material factors. E.g Money
- Easily pressured by peers
- 15 - 24 more likely to appear in statistics
- After 25 people start to settle down with jobs and families.
- Reason for steep decline in crime?
- Police targets youth - crime easier to detect
- Stereotyped by CJS and the media
- Youth heavily featured in data - always targeted and checked
- Lyng
- 'Edgework' theory
- Argues that young people are looking for excitement
- Engage in deviant acts as it provides a thrill
- The 'buzz' is from an increase in adrenaline
- 'Edgework' theory
- Lack of p+s socialisation - impacts behaviour
- Wrong role models
- Socialised wrong - males told aggression is an important part of being a man
- Fighting and arguing seen as normal
- Fatalism
- Nothing can be changed
- 17 is the optimum age for crime
- Social construction of Crime
- Cross-cultural deviance
- Deviance varies on expectations of different cultures
- E.g Drinking is forbidden in Muslim countries
- However it's legal in the Uk
- Historical deviance
- Deviance varies based on time in history
- E.g Homophobia used to be illegal but now it's not
- Situational deviance
- Deviance depending on the situation
- E.g Nakedness in public is illegal,in the bath it socially acceptable
- A deviant is someone whose behavior falls far outside of society's norms
- Deviant behaviour in some circumstances is not a crime
- E.g Facial tattoos and piercings
- Deviant behaviour in some circumstances is not a crime
- A crime is a criminal act punishable by the law
- E.g Murder or Theft
- Cross-cultural deviance
- Social class and Crime
- Merton
- Anomie/Strain Theory
- This occurs when people have goals they cannot achieve due to lack of means
- This results in them trying to find other ways to do so which may be classed as criminal
- People act criminally due to lack of alternatives
- This leads them to commit monetary crimes like theft instead of crimes like murder
- Anomie is when societal norms break down
- Interactionist - labelling
- w/c are labelled as deviant, are stereotyped
- usually ppl from the lower end of the strata commit traceable crimes
- m/c crime is harder to detect so w/c are targeted
- E.g Tax evasion
- E.g Theft
- m/c crime is harder to detect so w/c are targeted
- Cohen
- 'Status Frustration'
- Cant achieve society's shared goals
- Leading to them joining subcultures with deviant goals
- Joining a subculture gives them a chance to gain status
- In education w/c typically perform worse than their m/c counterparts
- social class can affect a families income - w/c may suffer from material deprivation
- w/c are more likely to be convicted offenders
- Reasons: inadequate socialisation, material deprivation, Class Divide
- Merton
- Official Statistics
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