Social Distribution of Crime Booklet 2

Victim Surveys e.g. CSEW (Crime Survey for England and Wales

Self-report Surveys

These are anonymous questionnaires in which people are asked to own up to committing crimes, whether or not they have been discovered. An example of this was the Home Office’s Offending, Crime and Justice Survey which was carried out annually between 2003 and 2006

1. Court and Prison Records, and Police Caution Records

Reveals some data on the criminals who have been caught committing a crime. May reveal statistics such as types of crime, gender, ethnicity, nature of the crime etc.

Crime rates

• Statistics show that crime such as theft, criminal damages and violence are the most commonly recorded crime.

• Certain age groups, ethnicities, social classes and gender are more ‘typical’ criminals. (We look into this in massive detail later on!)

• 1930s to the 1950s- there a gradual increase

• 1950s to the 1980s there was a steeper rise

• Mid 1980s to mid 1990s there was a rapid increase

• Mid 1990s to present day there has been a gradual decline

The Social Construction of Crime Statistics

Unreported crime

Maguire (2002)- Argues that only 3% of crimes reported to the police end in conviction

AO2- dispatches

Categorisation of rape as petty rape or domestic rape

(AO3- analysis) The media also influence crime statistics

Jimmy Saville was only revealed to be a pedophile of hundreds of children after his death in 2011

Hillsborough Disaster: Only charged in 2017 though the event happened in 1989

AO3- evaluating each way of measuring crime

Problems with the CSEW:

• Pilkington- Objectivity of CSEW can be questioned because it is deployed to reduce fear about being a victim of crime and is done on behalf of the government

(AO2/3) Theoretical views of Statistics

• Functionalist/ subcultural: Support their theories with objective, reliable stats

• Realist: Inform policy and solutions to crime

• Interactionists: Not reflective of all of society due to heavy focus on verstehen

• Marxist/ neo-Marxist: Positivists and not representative of all crime

• Feminist: CS are male stream

Item B

Many sociologists argue that official crime statistics are socially constructed and lack validity due to what is known as the dark figure of crime. It can also be argued that they are created and used by powerful groups in society for their own benefit.

However, others argue that they are useful in uncovering patterns and trends which can then in turn be used to tackle crime as a social problem.

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate the view that official crime statistics are inaccurate and should not be considered when tackling crime (30 marks)

Ethnicity

What are the sources used to show relationships between ethnicity and crime?

What do the statistics show regarding crime and ethnicity?

2019 – 12.3% of prison population were Black people and 8.1% were Asian. They make up 3.4% and 6.8% of the population respectively.

• “Members of the Black community are seven times more likely than their white counterparts to be stopped and searched and three and a half times more likely to be arrested and five times more likely to be in prison” Ministry of Justice (2008)

• During 2010-14, police deployed Tasers over 38,000 times. For Asian’s, the chance of involvement in Taser was 3 in 10,000 and for White’s it was 6 in 10,000 and for Black’s it was 18 in 10,000 (Hoyle 2015)

• The Home office has conducted nine self-report studies since the 1990’s and from that has found that 27% males from mixed race said they used drugs in the last year compared to 16% both Black and White males and 5% Asian males. (Sharpe and Budd, 2005)

• Graham and Bowling (1995) conducted self-report studies on their own dishonest and violent behaviour and found that out of the sample of 2,500 people Blacks (43%) and Whites (44%) had similar rates of offending compared to Indians (30%), Pakistanis (28%) and Bangladeshis (13%) had much lower.

Two approaches to why ethnic minorities appear to commit more crimes:

Unfair legal system (CJS is institutionally racist)

Ethnic minorities do commit more crimes

The criminal justice system is unfair/institutionally racist

AO1: Stuart Hall (1978):

• Crisis of hegemony

• Myth of the Black Mugger

• Media creates scapegoats and folk devils to divert attention away from the problem of capitalism

• The police incorrectly respond to the Media’s position and begin over policing Black crime and thus find more black crime

AO2: Becker- Labelling theory: “social groups create deviance by creating rules whose infraction (breaking) constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as ‘outsiders”.

Who is it that has the power to label? ‘Moral entrepreneurs’-

• Key part in maintaining the ideological state apparatus e.g. media

• Power to create their own rules and laws

• Impose their own definitions of deviance

AO2- Cicourel (1968)- Typifications and policing stereotypes lead to over policing of a specific type of crime e.g. utilitarian crimes and the W/C

AO1: Gilroy (1982)

• Most Black and Asians in the UK originate from former British colonies, where anti-colonial struggles taught them how to resist oppression, e.g. through riots and demonstrations. Thus violence is deployed as a means of political action

How can we apply this to the UK?

• Teacher strikes are seen as acceptable

• BLM Protests 2020 seen as unacceptable

AO2: London Riots (2011)

• Born out of Black oppression in an outrage to police brutality

Holdaway (Qualitative research):

• Found evidence of racist language and attitudes amongst police officers.- occupational culture of racism

AO1: Phillips and Bowing (2012): The CJS is institutionally racist

• Black men are 5-8 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police

• Higher arrest rate and prison population of black men

• Unfair criminalisation of EMs

AO2: The murder of Stephen Lawrence (1993)

• Police were slow to act on evidence

• Assumed it was gang related

• Dwayne Brooks witness and friend was treated as a suspect

The MacPherson Inquiry: - “the collective failure of an organisation to provide appropriate and professional service to people because of their skin colour, culture or ethnic group. It can be detected in attitudes and behaviours which amount to discrimination, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping”

Baroness Casey Report (2023):

• Despite efforts to change the police it remains institutionally racist

Reiner (2000) ‘Canteen Culture’ in the police: “a distinct set of values amongst police officers which include a thirst for action, cynicism, suspicion, isolation from the public and racism.”

• Black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searches than whites.

• Asian people are over three times more likely to be stopped and searched than others under the Terrorism Act 2000

• Only a small number of stop and searches result in arrests

AO2: Stop and search (Waddington et al 2004)

• Using CCTV footage and interviews with police about stop and search practices, they found:

• The main reason Ethnic minorities were more likely to be stopped and searched than white people as;

• They are young most common age of EMs in the UK= 18-24 yrs

• Live in urban areas

• Live in areas with larger police presence

Fitzgerald and Hough (2001)- The Policing for London Survey:

• Dissatisfaction with the police was highest among:

  • Young people

  • Black people

  • Deprived areas

Evaluation for the views that CJS is institutionally racist:

Winter of discontent is an outdated concept as capitalism hasn’t been overthrown and it evolved into post-industrial globalisation

Lacks empirical evidence to support his claims

Most crimes are reported by the police and not uncovered by the police, 90% of crimes are reported by the public

Ethnic minorities do commit more crimes:

Lea and Young: Even if the police are racist, it is unlikely for it to account for the statistical differences in crime and ethnicity.

Young black men commit the most crime

Toney Sewell (2010) Triple Quandary Theory:

• He acknowledges that African Caribbean boys commit a lot of crime within society. He blames this on 'black' culture and their family structures. 57% come from single parent families and therefore struggle to develop masculinity, resulting in them turning to their peers as a role model. His theory goes as follows:

• Black boys feel rejected by society- Cashmore: Black males are 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched- leading to crimes as trust for white society is gone

• Black boys’ peers have also been rejected by society- resistance and sanctuary against racism causes them to form subcultures

• Black boys use the media as a source of role models- MTV culture and the desire for bling overrides all else

He also argues that there are three risk factors for high levels of crime for African and Caribbean boys:

• Mainstream culture- constant symbolic violence with all agents of society

• Influence of media- crime is constantly glorified in the media they consume

• Family structure- 60% of Afro-Caribbean children live in single parent households, usually a mother. The fatherlessness leads to inadequate socialisation and a proclivity to crime

AO2: Statistics show EM leave with lowest qualification, 2020-only 40% of black boys achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE (49.9% was average)

AO2: Sewell’s Generating Genius programme:

• Research Method: Experiment

• 25 black boys from failing schools

• STEM students

• Spent 3 weeks at russell group universities

• High GCSE attainment 3 got into Oxbridge

Evaluate Sewell’s study:

Nightingale: Paradox of Inclusion: Consumerist society has goals and values to achieve and gain more material things

Afro-Caribbean boys find innovative ways to resist strain

This primary deviance of drug dealing is eventually caught leading to the criminal career of drug dealer

AO2: Merton’s Strain Theory-

• Black boys are the most likely to experience strain

• Respond with innovative means

AO2: Supporting Nightingale- Sharp and Budd (2005)

• Black men are more likely to be arrested

• More likely to commit crimes where the victim can identify them

• More likely to be excluded from school

AO1: Crime among other minority ethnic groups:

Crime has risen for Asian people due to declining importance of religion

Desai- Young Asian men were taking a more aggressive stance to defend their community from outside threats

Bowling and Phillips- Bengali Bad Boy Image

Evaluation for the views that ethnic minorities do commit more crimes:

Alexander- Media representation of growing asian gangs is a myth

Bhatti- Bad boy image can lead to excommunication from the family

3. Gender and crime

How many men’s prisons are there in the U.K.?

117

How many women’s prisons are there in the U.K.?

12

Stats on gender and crime:

This tells us that men commit more than 6x more crime than women

AO2- Official Crime Statistics (ONS)

• 80% of crime is committed by men.

• 96% of the prison population is men.

• 5% of domestic violence victims are men.

• 20% of cases of domestic violence are reported to the police.

• 90% of rape victims know the attacker.

• 5% of women are victims of incest.

• 1 child a week is killed by their parents in the UK

• Hood (1992) studied over 3000 court cases in which males and females were found guilty of similar types of crimes, but found that a third of women were less likely to be sent to prison.

Problems with the statistics:

(AO1) Chivalry thesis

The chivalry thesis suggests that a male dominated criminal justice system means women are treated more leniently than men.

(AO2) Evidence for the chivalry thesis:

The Home Office, women are treated more leniently by the Law with the 1st sentence

• Speed and Burrows- Shoplifting 30% men received as a custodial sentence compared to 15% of women

• Carlen- Women’s role as a mother is taken into account by the CJS more than fatherhood for men.

(AO2 and AO3) Evidence against the chivalry thesis

• Klein- Chivalry Thesis is racist and classist

• Farrington and Morris- Mitigating circumstances are taken into account, the difference in sentencing between men and women are minimal

• Heidensohn- Double deviance- deviant from social norms twice

Why do females commit less crime than males?

(AO3) Non- sociological explanations

Biological: There is a general acceptance that women tend to be less violent and aggressive than men.

Lombroso- In the 19th Century he suggested that women deviants were ‘evolutionary throwbacks’

Scott PMS has been used as a defence in court cases

Pollak 1950’s– Women are more adept at hiding crimes. They are biologically predisposed to deceiving men– faking orgasms etc.

AO3

If we accept that women can be affected by PMS in crime then it can be used to justify denying women areas of responsibility at work

Parlee (1982) says PMS can be a social creation and a self-fulfilling prophecy

Psychological explanations:

• Eysenck 1970- Unmarried mothers are more likely to be deviant than married mothers

Such ‘extroverts’ were more likely to be promiscuous and deviant

However ‘ introverts’ are more associated with serial killers

AO2- New Right

Sociological explanations

Functionalist- Sex Role theory

(AO1) Parsons (1955)- Instrumental and expressive role

(AO1) Sutherland (1949)- Focuses on gender differences in socialisation

• Girls= passive and quiet

Feminist- Control theory

(AO1) Heidensohn (1996) argues that male-dominated patriarchal societies control women more effectively than men, making it difficult for women to break the law.

Women are controlled in three ways:

1. The Home

• Private sphere and childcare and expressive role and childcare

2. In public

• Fear of sexual assault

• Fear of avoiding certain places

• Fear of being alone at night

3. At Work

• Glass ceiling

(AO1) Smart (1976)-

Girls face stricter socialisation in the family than boys e.g. not being out at night

(AO2) Lees (1989)

Girls are more likely to be labelled as a ‘slag’ if they deviate from their gender norms

(AO2) McRobbie (1976)- Bedroom culture

Controlled- go to bedroom

Isolated

(AO3) analysis: is this changing?

Aqsa Mahmood became radicalised from her bedroom and then became a terrorist despite being in higher education and having ‘proper socialisation’. She was exposed to other agents of socialisation like the media and internet. She WASN’T controlled in the home as she had tight restrictions and controls.

(AO1/3) Carlen (1988) Why do women in poverty turn to crime?

Women do face stricter controls than men in the home.

‘Women are guardians of domestic morality’- less opportunity to commit crime.

W/C women commit more crime as the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

The class deal

The work one does in the public sphere in exchange for money to be able to live comfortably and enjoy life.

When broken utilitarian crimes are often committed e.g. theft.

The gender deal

Love, companionship & the work done in the private sphere in exchange for a partner and provisions i.e. a breadwinner.

When broken violent crimes or retreatist crimes are committed e.g. drug abuse

However, the rewards available from the class deal and gender are not available for all women due poverty, unemployment, being brought up in care or having abusive partners. So they make the rational decision to commit crime because the opportunities outweigh the costs.

A large number of victims of crime don’t even bother to report it – for example, crime survey CSEW suggests around 60% of crime they heard about was not reported.

(AO2) The CSEW state three main reasons why people choose not to report a crime to the police:

• It was too trivial, or involved no loss, the police wouldn’t have been interested or couldn’t have done anything anyways.

• It was a private matter that they dealt with themselves.

• It was inconvenient to report.

(AO3) analysis: is this changing?

• Aqsa Mahmood became radicalised from her bedroom and then became a terrorist despite being in higher education and having ‘proper socialisation’. She was exposed to other agents of socialisation like the media and internet. She WASN’T controlled in the home as she had tight restrictions and controls.

(AO1/3) Carlen (1988) Why do women in poverty turn to crime?

• Women do face stricter controls than men in the home.

• ‘Women are guardians of domestic morality’- less opportunity to commit crime.

• W/C women commit more crime as the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

The class deal

• The work one does in the public sphere in exchange for money to be able to live comfortably and enjoy life.

• When broken utilitarian crimes are often committed e.g. theft.

The gender deal

• Love, companionship & the work done in the private sphere in exchange for a partner and provisions i.e. a breadwinner.

• When broken violent crimes or retreatist crimes are committed e.g. drug abuse

• However, the rewards available from the class deal and gender are not available for all women due poverty, unemployment, being brought up in care or having abusive partners. So they make the rational decision to commit crime because the opportunities outweigh the costs.

(AO3) Analysis

• Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that there has been an increase in poverty= ⅓ children are raised in poverty. - rise in female criminality.

(AO3) Evaluation

• sample size of only 39 women living in poverty only.

• Many had been victims of domestic abuse/ had links with drug and alcohol abuse.

• Their partners had problems with drug and alcohol abuse too niche a sample.

(AO3/1) Growing Female Criminality

Liberation thesis- Adler (1975)

• Argues that this has meant that women are ‘playing catch up’ with men and are more likely to commit crime. E..g women can get divorced= DDS Act 2021, sex discrimination act 1975.

AO2 Heidensohn and Silvestri (2012)- Ladette culture

• Binge drinking

• Fighting

• Little change in statistics on male and female crime ratios

AO3 analysis- Geordie Shore, TOWIE

• Sexual deviance and promiscuity is practised by both men and women

• Women aren't judged or chasisted for hyper sexuality.

• ‘21st Century girl’

AO3 evaluation

• Sharpe- female crime is seen as a problem by the CJS.

• Women are caught more and there are more prosecutions

• Young- female gang members make up just 5% of total gang members.

Why do men commit crime? Masculinity and crime

(AO1) Messerschmidt (1993)

• Masculinity is a social construct ‘accomplishment’ which men have to constantly work at presenting.

• Hegemonic Masculinity= dominant set of norms and values/ culture, working in paid labour market, subordination of women, heterosexuality, promiscuity, uncontrollable libido.

For some men, this would be hard to obtain!

• White middle class youths

• They have to be subordinate to teachers in order to achieve middle-class status and work

• Accommodating Masculinity- adapted masculinity to maintain social status.

• Outside of school M/C overcompensate e.g. drinking and vandalism.

• White working class youths

• oppositional masculinity- showing their masculinity both inside and outside of school.

• Tough, sexist, opposing authority- Link to Archer, Willis, Ward

• Black working class youths

• Less opportunities in school or job market.

• gang membership- express their masculinity in the gang- leading to higher status

• Commit crimes such as theft to gain economic capital that could be gained in the workplace.- link to Lea& Young, Sewell.

AO3: Evaluation:

• homosexual men are excluded from the study

• Homosexual men commit more crime than heterosexual men.

• Doesn’t explain why men don’t commit crime

• Provides an explanation for middle-class crime.

AO1 Winlow- Masculinity in Postmodernity (2001)

Study carried out on bouncers in Sunderland after the decline of the mining industry. The decline in manual labour has affected masculinity: deindustrialisation and unemployment.

• Low status job- led to new ways to show masculinity- fighting, drug dealing, binge drinking. -filling the void deindustrialisation has created.

• Used their bodily capital

1. Social Class

There are different explanations for the seemingly high level of W/C crime shown by statistics:

1. Working class people do commit more crimes

2. Unfair criminal justice system

Middle-class crimes: Trafficking, tax avoidance, money laundering, state crime, green crime, political crimes, war crimes e.g.

AO2: What do the statistics show regarding crime and social class?

• Houchin (2005) found that there was a strong relationship between living in the most deprived wards of Scotland and being in prison.

• The imprisonment rate of the 27 most deprived wards was around quadruple of what it was in Scotland as a whole.

• In Glasgow, no less than 60% of prisoners come from the most deprived council estates.

• Omolade carried out a study on 2171 adult prisoners imprisoned in England and Wales in 2006 and 2007 and found that 43% had no educational qualifications and only 6% had a degree or equivalent, 36% had been unemployed and 60% were claiming benefits.

• Study carried out by Prison reform Working Group (PRWG) which looked at the prison population in England and Wales and found 67% of prisoners were unemployed prior to imprisonment compared to 5% in the whole of the population being unemployed, 32% were homeless (compared to 0.9% of the whole population) and 27% had been raised in care (compared to 2% of the whole population).

• Reiner (2007)- 74% of the prison population are drawn from the poorest 20% of the population.

What do the statistics suggest?

• The statistics suggest that the working-class and impoverished are most likely to end up in prison.

• Therefore, the working-class are discriminated against due to their class and receive harsher punishments for their deviance.

• The underclass are the most susceptible to prison sentences.

AO3: Evaluation for the statistics?

• The most prosecuted crimes are blue collar crime therefore, there is an unfair reflection of the nature and true amount of crime committed.

• Dark figure of crime

• Working-class is overpoliced- typifications

• Based on relative poverty and potential sensationalise data to push anti-capitalist agenda

1. Working class do commit more crimes

AO1: Functionalism:

Merton (1968) deviance a result of structure and culture of society

• Strain Theory and criminal responses to strain e.g. innovation, rebellion, retreatism

• Working-class people are most likely to experience the strain.

• Unequal opportunity structure in society, meritocracy- winning is more important than the rules.

• Too much individualistic strain causes anomie.

AO3: Evaluation:

• Marxist feminists would argue that women experience strain too

• Too ethnocentric- Americanised

• Doesn’t provide reasoning for the responses to strain

• Taylor et Al- The theory doesn’t account for the reasons behind non-utilitarian crime e.g. violence and vandalism

AO1: Subcultural Theory:

• inevitable for crime to occur in gangs when everyone involved has deviant norms like fatalism

• Cohen- ‘status frustration’, joining gangs to gain status in the world

• Create a criminal lifestyle for economic gain

AO2: Cloward and Ohlin ‘illegitimate opportunity structure’:

• Criminal subcultures- Mafia, Yakuza

• Conflict subcultures- Crips and Bloods, postcode gangs

• Retreatist subcultures- Hippies

AO2: Hobbs ‘Bad Business(1998)

• Interviewed professional criminals

• Added weight to cloward and Ohlin’s point and found it’s possible to live an entire life though the crime structure all you need is opportunities and the right personality

AO3: Evaluation:

• Miller focal concerns: not a product of status frustration but a reflection of their emotional attachment to other ‘working class culture’

• Masculinity, fatalism- the working class are resigned to the fact they will always be working class

• The categorisations are too niche and most subcultures have cross-over between each of cloward and ohlin’s previous ideas about clear subcultures.

AO1: Marxist:

• capitalism is criminogenic

AO2: Chambliss (1975)

• Capitalism is based on competition, greed and selfishness

• This leads to bourgeois exploitation, leads to precarious employment AO3, analysis: 0 hour contract, agency work.

• Working-class crime primarily appears in crime statistics, distracting from middle-class crime i.e. white-collar crime.

• Working-class crime becomes a natural response to an individual’s exploitation

• ‘Dog eat dog society’

AO3: Evaluation:

AO1: Neo Marxist:

• People have dual class consciousness

AO2: Gilroy

• Crime as a form of protest:

• People from colonies have experienced generational oppression due to colonisation

• Still face symbolic violence and repression by moral entrepreneurs in the UK e.g. the police

• CCCS- working-class boys form subcultures e.g. spectacular subcultures as a form of resistance against capitalism e.g. the Teddyboys

• As they were young, they were at the weakest link of capitalism- thus they were the most free to protest. - AO3: Cohen’s status frustration

AO3: Evaluation:

• Gender blind- Carlen, Heidonsohn

• Too romanticised- Rock and Young

• Carlen- Women continue to be left out of discussions regarding crime.

AO1: Labelling Theory:

AO2: Jock Young ‘Marijuana in Notting Hill’.

• The Hippies were overly policed for their drug activities which wasn’t a main part of their identity.

• They became more marginalised due to over policing.

• Thus it became a bigger part of their identity and they smoked more and subsequently was their master status

• They then had a deviant career of drug abuse.

AO3: Evaluation:

• Very deterministic

• Doesn’t explain violent crime

• Doesn’t explain why the 1st act of deviancy occurred

AO1: Left Realist:

• Subcultures arise from:

• Marginalisation

• Relative deprivation

AO2: Lea and Young:

Late modernism:

• growing individualisation- people care more about themselves than their community

• Weakening of informal social controls e.g. the family, religion, education- except from the media

• Encouragement of consumerist lifestyle & bulimic society

• Globalisation promotes the widening gap between rich and poor

AO2: Lewis at el (2011) London riots

• Sparked by the anger at deprived status so they looted

• The desire to consume during the London riots was a. Main contributor to the start of the riots.

AO3: Evaluation:

• No explanation of White collar crime as they aren’t relatively deprived or marginalised.

• Over policing of inner city areas- due to trust for OCS they blame EMs and W/C for high rates of crime.- ignore typifications and labelling

AO1: Right Realist:

• Murray: underclass, low moral character, rife single parenthood, poverty=crime

• Wilson and Kelling: ‘Broken window theory’

• Target hardening

AO2: Clarke’s rational choice: Working class women commit crimes because they are more likely to suffer from the effects of poverty since they leave with low qualifications and weak attachments to family. This leads to women committing more utilitarian crimes because the rational conclusion for a decent living is to commit crimes.

AO3: Evaluation:

• Mooney: ‘there’s not a single scrap of evidence to suggest there is a link between single parent families and crime.’

• Murray didn’t conduct any empirical evidence

• Too much of a ‘common sense appeal’- too simplistic and unworkable

• Target hardening displaces crime

AO1: Control theory:

AO2: Hirschi: working class people have fewer social controls in their lives and consequently, the costs of them committing crimes are lower than middle class.

There are four bonds that pull people away from crime and towards conformity:

1. Commitment- commitment to conventional activities e.g. a job, family, education

2. Attachment- attachment to people around you e.g. friends, family

3. Belief- Belief in the moral code of law e.g. a belief in respecting the rights of others

4. Involvement- involvement in the community e.g. supporting a sports team, religious groups

AO3 Evaluation:

• Assumes that everyone has the same norms and values

• Example: Dr Harold Shipman- Dr Death killed over 200 patients, Lucy Letby, Dr Donald Cline

Unfair criminal justice system

AO1: White Collar and corporate crime:

Definition of white-collar crime:

committed by m/c who abuse work positions for personal gain, at the expense of employers and clients

Jordan Belfort: Wolf of Wall Street

Definition of corporate crime:

offences committed by large companies, or individuals acting on behalf of those companies, which directly benefit the company rather than individuals.

(Slapper and Tombs, 1999)

AO2: Pearce (1976)

• white collar crimes and corporate crimes are crimes of the powerful- due to mass amounts of money involved

AO2: Reiman (2009):

• rich get richer and the poor get prisons- as capitalist society is shaped to benefit the rich

So why do these individuals and companies keep getting away with committing these crimes?

AO1: Snider- Marxist (1999):

• The rich shape the laws and laws that threaten the profits of capitalists rarely get passed or enforced.

• They can work the criminal system

• They can exploit the tax payer and the government

• The aims of government is to attract inward investment from companies

• The government is forced to regulate minimum wage, workers rights etc because of trade unions- these rules rarely get enforced and there is a complicated legal process that supports the companies over the individual.

• White collar crime is more deviant than blue collar crime as white collar crime costs the government 20 times more than blue collar crime.

AO2: The credit crunch: 2008 banking crisis- Major several banks were responsible for the economic crisis and legalities of banks were questionable yet the American and British government spent billions on bailing the banks out with taxpayers’ money and no consequence for those responsible

• only person arrested was Kareem Serageldin in US and UK he was a PoC and Egyptian national

AO1: Sayer- Marxist (2015):

• The rich shape the law

• Governments create loopholes so that people can escape the consequences of their crimes e.g. tax havens- places where governments and large companies and rich individuals can store their money tax free.

• Offshore accounts in British Virgin Islands, Panama

• Panama Papers- David Cameron’s Father

• Paradise Papers- Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III

AO2: Ford

• Ford Pinto car advertised in the 1970s as the car ‘that gave you a warm feeling’

• Later found the car has a fault which meant it would erupt in flames in rear end collisions

• Continued to be produced for 8 years before fault was fixed

• 500-900 people died/burned

• Leaked memo showed it was cheaper to pay out to victims ($50 million) than to fix the problem ($121 million)- Wasn’t seen as Breaking the Law shows loopholes.

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of working-class crime. (30)

Item B

Some Marxist sociologists argue that capitalist society is criminogenic, that is, crime is an inbuilt and natural outgrowth of the capitalist Society. Crime is a rational response to the competitiveness and inequality of life in capitalist society, and the law reflects ruling class interests and ideology. However, critics argue that this view is reductionist, and that there are other reasons as to why individuals in society may commit crime that are not structural.