Social Distribution of Crime SH - 2

A level Sociology

Paper 3: The Social Distribution of Crime

Name: ________________________________________

Teacher: _________________________ Class code: ________________________

1. Crime Statistics and Measuring crime

What purpose do crime statistics have?

What are crime statistics?

What are the different sources of crime statistics?

1. Police Recorded Crime

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

3. 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

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.

Reported but unrecorded

AO2- dispatches

(AO3- analysis) The media also influence crime statistics

problems with the CSEW

pilkington- questions the objectivity of CSEW because they argue that the aim of the survey is to reassure the public that they are very unlikely to be a victim of crime . ignores homeless people and their experiences of crime, furthermore they ignores possession of drugs and prostitution as figures for these crimes are unreliable

AO3- evaluating each way of measuring crime

(AO2/3) Theoretical views of Statistics

• Functionalist/ subcultural:

• Positivist

• support their theories with objective, accurate statistics, reliable

• merton's strain theory , cohen’s status frustration

• representative of all crimes

• Realist:

-stats accurately reflect the crime atmosphere and therefore they are useful to create policy

- eg broken windows theory leading to zero tolerance policy.

- China have a crime index of 30.4, Saudi Arabia 25.2 , UK 46, USA 47.8

China and Saudi Arabia have harsher punishments which show zero tolerance policing work

• informs policy on relative deprivation

• Interactionists:

they would argue not reflective of society, not reliable and representative

dispatches, circoucel- typifications

• institutional racism

social construction of crime and therefore crime statistics

• Marxist/ neo-Marxist:

evades statistics on corporate and white collar crime so therefore not reflective of crime in society

-stats part of the ideological state apparatus which puts capitalism in a good light and arguably hiding the failings of capitalism

- marxists generally like statistics

- box - official crime stats are used to criminalise the action of the working class and make the powerless e.g working class and ethnic minorities look like social problems that need to be controlled.

hall- myth of the black mugger, selectively published crime stats to underplay white crime

• Feminist:

• lib fems: stats used to inform public policy, they do however acknowledge that it ignores the experiences of women and needs to take the feminist lens to tackle gender blind policy

• rad fems: data science reflect patriarchy as its seen through the lens of an overwhelmingly white , male and techno-heroic point view. Data D’ignazio and klein- taking a view of meaning, experiences and understanding view to data science will help reduce the power imbalance in data

^{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:

1. Unfair legal system (CJS is institutionally racist)

2. Ethnic minorities do commit more crimes

3. The criminal justice system is unfair/institutionally racist

AO1: Stuart Hall (1978):

Crisis of hegemony

• winter of discontent - workers refused to work such as gravediggers, crisis of capitalism and so the media created scapegoats by creating folk devils, moral panic- by sending more police out to respond more to black crime and deviance amplification- media label group as deviant and

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

What does this mean?

• crime is socially constructed as people have differing powers to label. moral entrepreneurs marginalises people and calls them deviant, explaining ethnic differences in crime

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

• power to create and enforce their own rules

• impose their own definitions of deviance

• -

AO2- Cicourel (1968)-

• typification to find typical delinquents such as young , em , w/c and parking spaces reserved for police on council estates

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.

• definition for the the riots are constructed by the police and

How can we apply this to the UK?

• acceptable : teacher strikes

• unacceptable: black protests

• therefore the power has the power to decide the acceptability of crime

• In the 1970s there was a culture of resistance developing within ethnic minorities which has been born out of oppression- remnants of British colonialism and police abusing power. demonstrations developing into riots due to this oppression.

AO2: London Riots (2011)

• death of Mark Duggan sparks up riots which is a demonstration of a culture of resistance as a response to the police abusing their power and tensions boiling over.

Holdaway (Qualitative research):

Found evidence of racist language and attitudes amongst police officers.

• covert

• found that the police used racist language and had racist attitudes in the forces and this was part of the occupational culture. part of the job to be racist.

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

• evidence of this was the black men are 5-8 times more likely to be stopped and searched and the consequences of this is that we have higher arrest rates and prison rates which leads to the unfair criminalization of Ethnic minorities

• sees the self- fulfilling prophecy being enacted as a master status is being developed.

AO2: The murder of Stephen Lawrence

• 1993

• wasnt alone and was with Dwayne Brooks in which the police viewed him as a suspect in Lawrence’s death was a reuslt of gang warfare

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”.

-found that the police were institutionally racist

found that the police were slow to act on evidence and that there was enough evidence to make an arrest at the time

• baroness casey reports 2023 - despite efforts to change the met police there was still institutional racism

Explaining stop and search patterns:

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.”

• ‘occupational culture’- holloway

The Secret Policeman documentary notes:

Statistics on stop and searches

• 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:

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

-agreed that ethnic minorities were more likely to be stopped and searched by white people , but argued that this was not due to racism but EM tend to be young, living in cities, and be in areas with larger police presence

AO3: Analysis

Which aspects of CAGE can we apply to give reason as to why EM are more likely to commit crime?

most EM are most likely to be young, male, inner city, w/c

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

-dissatisfaction with the police was the highest among young people, black suspects and those living in poor areas

- most likely to be stopped by police- single people

- therefore they are institutionally racist

Evaluation for the views that CJS is institutionally racist:

1. winter of discontent is not as accurate today as we dont live in the era of industrialization however we do now live in new crisis of hegemony with strikes and inflations increasisng

2. Gilroy is imposing his own interpretation on the meaning of black crime as its subjective

1. most crime are reported by the public, not uncovered by the police as 90% of crime is reported by the police.

2. 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 are commiting mroe crime due to relative deprivation, marginalisation, subcutures and the bulimic society

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:

1. Black boys feel rejected by society

• cashmore - black males are 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched

• this leads to crime and rebel against white society as trust is gone

1. Black boys’ peers have also been rejected by society

• after being rejected they form s/c which he views as gangs and the gang leaders therefore become role models so they can develop their masculinity

1. Black boys use the media as a source of role models

• MTV culture which degraded women and promoted consumerist culture and mistreatment of women and they are valuing consumerism and this has put an emphasis on bling and they will commit crimes as they put the media first. status frustration as they want to achieve this individual success . promotes an attitude of bling

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

triple quandary:

1. Mainstream culture

• They feel rejected by mainstream culture and cannot relate to white society, they dont respond positively to teachers or police as they feel they are racist.

1. Influence of media

The media, particularly rappers, means that black men view these music artists as role models despite it showing a culture of violence, guns, bling and poor treatment of women.

• Just because you listen to rap music does not mean you commit crime

1. Family structure

• African- carribean boys 60% live with one parent. Normally mother so there is no father figure -therefore gang leaders become their role models. Especially as there is deprivation compared to nuclear families

• Mooney: there is not a scrap of evidence that there is a link between lone parent families and 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

• Took up 25 BLACK boys from failing schools

• -in 2006 the boys spent three or more weeks working alongside scientists at university like Imperial

• - Boys achieved amazing GCSE results and 3 got into Obridge

Evaluate Sewell’s study:

• Does not show cause and effect

• Small sample size and therefore not representative or generalisable

• They were already interested in the subjects

• Picked the smart lot

Nightingale (subcultural theorist) : 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

AO2: Merton’s Strain Theory-

AO2: Supporting Nightingale- Sharp and Budd (2005)

• Black people were more likely to be arrested by police

• EMs commit crimes where victims can identify them e.g theft and drug dealings not white collar crimes

• -more likely to be excluded from schools

• - more likely to be associated to criminal factors - therefore be known to the police

AO1: Crime among other minority ethnic groups:

Desai- young Asian men were taking a more aggressive stance to defend their community from outside threats. Some were cultivating a ‘bengali bad boy image’ - Bowling and Phillips

• Crime has risen for asian people ( 3 times more likely to be stopped and searched)

• Declining importance of religion among young asian boys

• Izzat has pressure to behave correctly and therefore the stop and searches break the family’s izzat which leads to isolation and therefore commit crime( hirschi’s control theory)

• Claire Alexander - media representation of growing asian gangs is a myth

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

• Labelling theory : moral entrepeneurs

• Black on black crime

Using item A and your own knowledge analyse two reasons for differences in offending rates between ethnicities (10 marks)

• If there is no item there is no eval

• Do not use the 3rd sentence as a hook

• Point - explain the point

• Pvidence

• Evidence- applying sociological theory depth

• Link back to why it links to your question

• Analyse

• Evaluate

• L- link back

No intro and conclusion

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

1. What are official statistics telling us?

They are telling us that men commit more crimes than women

1. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using these in measuring gender differences and crime?

• Advantages:

• diadvantages ; typifications are male oriented. Underplays women crime

1. How could you use these stats in the exam?

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:

• According to the home office, women are consistently treated more leniently by the law

• With a first offence, women are half as likely to receive a sentence compared to men

• Speed and burrows - shoplifting

• 30% men received a custodial sentence compared to 15% of women

• Carlen - women's role as a mother is taken into account by courts/judges/ jury’s more than father

(AO2 and AO3) Evidence against the chivalry thesis

• Klein- Applies to white m/c women so therefore its classist and racist

• Farrington and morris- when mitigating circumstance are taken into acocunt the differences in sentencing between men and women are minimal such as stealing out of necessity

• Hendensohn- this is known as double deviance , women are going against both the norms and values of society but the norms and values of being a woman and mother

• - myra hindley- most evil woman alive, Lucy letby- ‘doesnt look like a baby killer’- double decviance

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 19^th Century he suggested that women deviants were ‘evolutionary throwbacks’-evidence of women commit crime as failing evolution

• Scott PMS - premenstrual syndrome has been used as a defence in court cases- suggests that womens biology is the reason as to why they commit crime

• 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: analysis for new rights

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

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

• However ‘ introverts’ are more associated with serial killers

AO2- New Right

• Leads to a breakdown in society and poor socialisation

Sociological explanations

Functionalist- Sex Role theory

(AO1) Parsons (1955)

• Isntrumental and expressive role. This can result in ‘status anxiety’. Young boys never see their dad which leads to status anxiety and exaggerated masculinity. Boys overcompensate for father figure

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

How they are raised:

• girls -passive and quiet

• Boys- risk takers, thereby they commit more crime

AO3

• Deterministic- channel into crime

• outdated , we get influenced by the media rather than the family

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.

• Feminist control theory

• Why women dont commit crime

Women are controlled in three ways

1. The Home

• childcare / nurturing/ expressive , ‘good mother

2. In public

-fear of sexual assault

- walking by yourself late at night, avoiding places like pubs/ clubs on your own, Elianne Andan

3. At Work

• Men are more likely to the be bosses. 9 of FISE 100 CEOs are female

• Women who are booses are seen as bossy or pushy and thereby stigmatised

(AO1) Smart (1976)

• Girls face stricter socialisation in the family than boys. E.g not being out at night alone, what they wear

(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

• Girls are controlled and reduced to staying in their bedroom which means that they are less likely

(AO3) analysis: is this changing?

• Asqa mahmood became radicalised from her bedroom and then became a terrorist despite being in higher education and had ‘proper socialisation’. She was exposed to other agents of socialisation like the media and the internet

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

• Adopts and challenges heidensohn idea of control theory as women face stricter controls than men

• Argues that women are ‘guardians of domestic morality’ - they therefore have less opportunity to commit crime

• However w/c women i or in poverty are more likely to commit crime and deviance as the advantages outweigh the disadvantages

The class deal

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

The gender deal

• Love, companionship and the work done in the home in exchange for a partner and someone to provide for you

• Therefore w/c or women in poverty, the class deal breaks such as unemployment and they turn to crime

• If the gender deal breaks like if they have an abusive partner they therefore commit crimes

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 rountree foundation finds that there is an increase in poverty in which 1 in 3 children raised in poverty

• Rise of female criminality especially among women in poverty

(AO3) Evaluation

• Sample size was only 39 women and they were all living in poverty.

• Many had been victims of domestic abuse or had links with drug and alcohol abuse with either themselves or their partner

• Therefore it's not generalisable to women in poverty

(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

• Women can get divorced- DDS 2020

AO2 Heidensohn and Silvestri (2012)

Says that this is evidenced by the widespread media portrayal of the ‘ladette’ culture such as binge drinking, fighting and going out

AO3 analysis- Geordie Shore

• Normalises binge drinking which leads to fighting and thereby crime

AO3 evaluation

• sharpe : female crime seen as a growing problem by CJS- they are getting caught more as prosecutions are more likely

• Heidensohn and Silvestri- there has been little change in statistics on male and female crime ratios.

• Young - female gang members make up just 5% of total gang members- there are less likely to be female s/c

Why do men commit crime? Masculinity and crime

(AO1) Messerschmidt (1993)

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

Hegemonic Masculinity= dominant set of norms and values, working in the paid labour market. Subordination of women , heterosexual , differs from the sexual desires of women. promiscuity .

• Argues that this is impossible to attain for all men

For some men, this would be hard to obtain!

• Gay men

White middle class youths

• Have to be subordinate to teachers to achieve m/c status and m/c jobs

• Which he calls ‘accommodating masculinity’

• Outside of school m/c overcompensate through drinking and vandalism

White working class youths

• They have less opportunities to be successful in school and therefore they have oppositional masculinity, this means that they are showing their masculinity both in school and outside of school. This means that they are tough, sexist, and opposing authority.

Black working class youths

• Less opportunities in school and the job market and therefore they join gangs to express their masculinity to the gang

• They are therefore committing crimes like theft to gain economic status instead of seeking it through a job

• Sewell - triple quandary

• Lea and young - subcultures

A03- eval

• Gay men commit less crime than heterosexual men however they are still left out of conversations

• Does Not explain why these groups of men do not commit crimes

• It does explain why m/c kids commit 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 jobs and so they found new ways to express their masculinity through fighting, drug dealing and binge drinking. Filling the void of deindustrialization

• Bodily capital- men now need to use thor appearance to demonstrate their masculinity

AO3

–

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

• m/c crimes- trafficking, green crimes, state crimes ,tax avoidance,money laundering

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 stats suggest that the working population who live in poverty are most likely to end up in prison

• w/c are seemingly discriminated due to their class and receive harsher punishments for their deviance

AO3: Evaluation for the statistics?

• It doesn't take into account white collar crimes so it's a myopic view of the nature of crime

• Based on relative poverty and potential sensationalise

1. Working class do commit more crimes

AO1: Functionalism:

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

• Strain theory and responses to strain to achieve the american dream e.g innovation, retreatism, rebellion,

• w/c are most likely to experience this strain as there is an unequal opportunity structure in society and winning is more important than the rules

• - too much strain in society as if there are too much individualistic goals this may lead to anomie

AO3: Evaluation:

• Too american ethnocentric

• Marxist feminists would argue that women experience strain too

• Does Not explain why people join each subgroup

• Doesnt explain non utilitarian and white collar crime

AO1: Subcultural Theory:

• Individuals who are unemployed because of the fewer unskilled oro manual jobs available joining a gang is the ‘solution’ as they can hang out with similar types. Inevitable that crime will occur with this happening

• Status frustration - cohen

• 3 types of subcultures- cloward and ohlin

• Creates a criminal lifestyle for economic gain

AO2: Cloward and Ohlin ‘illegitimate opportunity structure’:

Criminal subcultures- hierarchical system which mirrors a business e.g Mafia

Conflict subcultures- social status - postcode gangs and blood and crips

Retreatist subcultures- no access to legitimate or illegitimate subcultures - double failures- so they therefore retreat to drugs and substance abuse

AO2: Hobbs ‘Bad Business(1998)

• Interviewed professional criminals and found that it was possible to live an entire life through the crime structure.

• All that was needed was opportunities and the right qualities.

AO3: Evaluation:

Miller’s focal points- which argues that the 3 criminal responses are too neat . Most subcultures do not fall in the guidelines. Also argues that this is not a reaction to achieve society’s goals but rather their emotional attachment.

• 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:

• Chambliss - capitalism is based on competition, greed and selfishness,

• w/c are therefore being exploited by the bourgeoisie as seen through 0 hour contracts , agency work

• In stats w/c commit more crime which distracts us from the m/c crime that is happening such as corporate crime, state crime and green crime

AO2: Chambliss (1975)

‘ capitalism is criminogenic’

• w/c 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 political protest

• colonies - generational oppression, colonisation

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

• Cccs- w/c join s/c as a resistance to capitalism. Spectacular subcultures, young, working class boys who were the weakest links of capitalism which meant that they were the most free to protest.

• Can be used to criticise cohen’s status frustration as there is no status frustration here but rather crime acts and joining the s/c as a form of protest against capitalism to resist capitalism

AO3: Evaluation:

• Its gender blind: carlen

• Too romanticised - Rock and young 1988

• Carlen 1988-women continue to be left out from discussions regarding crime

AO1: Labelling Theory: Becker

AO2: Jock Young ‘Marijuana in Notting Hill’.

• Hippies in notting hill

• Smoking weed in 1960s and after being heavily policed they were marginalised and seen as criminal and so they adopted that master status which led to them smoking more weed.

• They are given the label of hippies and criminals and Junkies and they go through all the steps of label which leads to a deviant career.

AO3: Evaluation:

• Does Not explain initial deviance

• Determinisatic

AO1: Left Realist:

3 reasons for crime :

• Marginalisation

• Relative deprivation

• subculture - as a result of marginalisation and relative deprivation

AO2: Lea and Young:

• Late modernism

1. Growing individualism- weakening the link between community and individual

2. Weakening informal social control - family, religion, education except the media which promotes a consumerist society which therefore leads to a bulimic society . ‘throw up raised expectations’

3. Globalisation leads to a widening gap between the rich and the poor

AO2: Lewis at el (2011) London riots

• Riots could be a reaction to a consumerist society and the desire to consume as seen through looting and stealing

AO3: Evaluation:

• Does Not explain white collar crime as they are not marginalised or relatively deprived and so they may be committing crime for ‘edgework’ katz and lyng

• Trust official crime stats and so they ignore things like typifications and over policing.

AO1: Right Realist:

-murray - underclass pass on criminal norms and values as they are characterised by low moral character

- wilson kelling broken window theory: zero tolerance policing to stop the second window theory

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 - ‘not a single scrap of evidence’ between lone parent family and crime

• No empirical evidence

• Too much of a ‘common sense appeal’- too simplistic and not necessarily going to work

AO1: Control theory:

Looks at why people dont commit crimes

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 such as work, family and education

2. Attachment - to the people around you e.g family friends etc

3. Belief - belief in the moral code of law , belief in respecting the rights of others

4. Involvement - involvement in the community such as clubs and groups

A03

• Assumes that we all have the same rights and values- shamima begum, aqsa mahmood , Harold shipman , lucy letby, 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

E.g 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.

E.g starbuscks $1.2 billion turnover but paid no corporation tax

(Slapper and Tombs, 1999)

AO2: Pearce (1976)

• ‘Crimes of the powerful’

• The money in theses crimes are collasal

AO2: Reiman (2009):

• Rich get richer and the poor get prisons, the capitalist society is shaped to benefit the rich

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

AO1: Snider (1999):

Laws that threaten the profits of capitalists rarely get passed or are enforce

• . The rich shape the laws

• Often the aim of the government is to attract inward investments from companies. The government is therefore forced to regulate workers rights and politicians and workers health rights due to things like trade unions. The rules rarely get enforced, there is a complicated legal process that support the companies over the individuals

• They are therefore able to exploit the taxpayer.

-argues that white collar crime is more deviant than blue collar crime as street crime cost $4 billion but white collar crime costs 20 times more

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

AO1: Sayer (2015):

• The rich shape the law and the government create loopholes such as tax havens

• Tax havens like ireland and dubai

• Panama papers leaked david cameron’s father

• Paradise papers- queen elizabeth and king charles

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)

• Wasnt seen as breaking the law and found a loophole to which they could just pay out their victims

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.