Crime And Deviance

Front 1

Crime:

Back 1

1) Crime is behaviour which breaks laws and is punished by the legal system.

Front 2

Deviance:

Back 2

1) Deviance is behaviour which goes against the norms, values and expectations of a social group or society.

Front 3

Link Between Crime and Deviance:

Back 3

1) Crime is mostly deviant, but not all deviance is criminal.
2) Downes and Rock gave this definition of deviance - 'Deviance may be considered as banned or controlled behaviour which is likely to attract punishment or disapproval.

Front 4

Social Construction of Crime and Deviance:

Back 4

1) Both crime and deviance are culturally determined. What is considered criminal varies less than what's considered deviant.
2) Michel Foucault wrote about how definitions of criminal deviance, sexual deviance and madness have changed throughout history. Deviance changes with time and place as values, norms and social expectations change - it's relative.

Front 5

Plummer - Situational Deviance:

Back 5

1) Some acts can be seen as both deviant and non-deviant depending on the situation.
2) For example, being naked is ok at home, but is deviant on the high street. Similarly, killing someone is accepted at war, but it is otherwise highly deviant.

Front 6

Value Consensus:

Back 6

1) Most behaviour in society is neither deviant nor criminal. Social order and social control maintain the status quo and create a value consensus of how to behave. People are socialised to follow social norms.
2) Some norms become second nature, but other norms are followed because we're consciously aware that they're a norm.
3) Sanctions are rewards and punishments that reinforce social norms.

Front 7

Physiological Theories of Crime:

Back 7

1) 19th century doctor Lombroso became famous for his theory that criminals were genetically different. He stated there were outward signs of criminality such as a large jaw or extra fingers or toes.
2) Moir and Jessel (1995) argue that hormonal and chemical imbalances make individuals more likely to be criminal. They say these imbalances affect men more than women, explaining why statistics show most crime is committed by men.

Front 8

Psychological Theories of Crime:

Back 8

1) Others argue criminals are psychologically different from the rest of the population. These theories emerged in the 19th century but travelled through the 20th century.
2) Bowlby argued that individuals who are deprived of maternal love in the first years of life are likely to develop personality traits which lead them to crime.
3) Eysenck concluded from his psychological research that individuals who commit crime have inherited psychological characteristics which predispose them to crime.

Front 9

Non-Sociological Theories of Crime:

Back 9

1) The 21st century versions of physiological and psychological theories argue there are genes which make some people more likely to commit crimes - some individuals inherit these genes and other don't.
2) Some theories say that people with hormonal, chemical, psychological or brain abnormalities are more likely to commit crimes.
3) For the non-sociological theories, the cause of crime lies within the individual. For sociology, the cause of crime lies in society.

Front 10

Functionalists - Crime is Necessary:

Back 10

1) Crime and deviance has a function in society, reinforcing the consensus of values, norms and behaviour of the majority non-deviant population.
2) Durkheim said deviancy allows for social change to occur. Durkheim and the functionalists who came after him argue that all societies need some change to remain healthy and stable.
3) Durkheim said crime moves from functional to dysfunctional when the level of crime is either too high or too low. Too high and it threatens social order, but too low and there's no social change.

Front 11

Cohen - Social Order:

Back 11

1) Cohen argued forms of deviance such as prostitution provide a safety valve for releasing tension without threatening social stability.
2) Secondly, he argued deviant behaviour is used as a warning device by society to identify emerging social problems, which can then be dealt with, e.g. civil disobedience, protests and truancy.

Front 12

Merton - Crime as a Response to Failing to Achieve Society's Cultural Goals:

Back 12

1) Merton concluded that the vast majority of individuals share the same goals but don't have access to the means of achieving these goals.
2) He identified the main cultural goals in American society as success as wealth, and when individuals failed to obtain these, it created anomie.
3) Merton argues that individuals who fail at the standard route to success innovate to find alternative and deviant means of reaching success and wealth.
4) They may also rebel against society, and engage in protest and revolution, or retreat from society altogether.

Front 13

Cohen - Alternative Values:

Back 13

1) Cohen said that working class boys suffered from a lack of opportunities to succeed in mainstream society, largely due to cultural deprivation, leading to dissatisfaction with their position in society - status frustration.
2) This tension is released by joining or creating groups with alternative values for achieving status, which tend to be the reverse of mainstream values.
3) Behaviour that is considered deviant in society becomes normal and valued in the subcultural group.

Front 14

Cloward and Ohlin - Opportunity Structure:

Back 14

1) Cloward and Ohlin believed there was a legitimate opportunity structure, and an illegitimate opportunity structure.
2) They also argued that access to the illegitimate opportunity structure is no more equal than access to the legitimate system. In some areas, there are criminal gangs, and in some areas there aren't, explaining why not all frustrated working class boys turn to crime.
3) Adolescents who have failed in both the legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure retreat from society and turn to drink or drugs.

Front 15

Miller - Crime From Working Class Cultural Values:

Back 15

1) Miller said that general lower working class culture was what encouraged lawbreaking behaviour. Values passed through the generations encourage working class men to break the law, and that delinquents are simply conforming to the focal concerns of their culture.
2) Bordua criticised the idea as the working class don't live isolated from the rest of society.
3) Murray believed that there's an underclass in both British and American society with a distinct culture and value system which encourages deviance.

Front 16

Marxists - Crime as an Inevitability of Capitalism:

Back 16

1) Traditional Marxist criminology says that the bourgeoisie decide what is considered deviant and criminal in society to suit their own interests.
2) Crime such as robbery and property theft is seen as an inevitable response to the extremes of wealth and poverty in capitalist society. The individual is 'forced' into crime by the structure of society.

Front 17

Heidensohn - Feminist Theories of Crime:

Back 17

1) Heidensohn has argued that 'malestream' sociology is gender blind. She says most studies of crime have been researched by men who have focused on male crime and ignored the role of women.
2) She argues that in a patriarchal, male-dominated society, women have less opportunity to commit some types of crimes. Crimes like financial fraud cannot be committed unless you're in control of large sums of money, and more men are found in powerful positions in the workplace as opposed to women.

Front 18

Feminist Theories of Crime:

Back 18

1) Official statistics suggest women commit fewer crimes than men, and commit different types of crime.
2) Sex-role theory suggests that women are brought up to be passive and conformist, so are less likely to commit crimes.

Front 19

Westwood - Feminist Theories of Crime:

Back 19

1) Westwood suggests female identities are changing and women are adopting more typically male behaviour patterns.
2) This could be linked to an increase in female crime.

Front 20

Interpretivists on Deviant Folk:

Back 20

1) Interpretivists suggest that deviants are not characteristically different from the rest of the population. They are deviant because their chosen behaviour is labelled deviant by others in society.
2) They therefore think that there aren't any universal causes of deviance or crime to be 'discovered' by sociologists, stressing the view that deviance is relative.

Front 21

Becker - Deviant Labelling:

Back 21

1) The same behaviour gets different reactions depending on the social situation. Becker thought there's therefore nothing intrinsically deviant about the act itself.
2) The reaction of those around you is what makes you recognise your behaviour is deviant. Becker said that 'Deviance is not a quality that lies in the behaviour itself but in the interaction between the person who commits an act, and those who respond to it'.

Front 22

Becker - Self Concepts:

Back 22

1) A label can have a positive or negative effect on the individual and it helps to define them in their own eyes as well as in others' eyes - a 'self concept'.
2) Becker argued that a self concept of being deviant can increase deviant behaviour, as they feel ostracised from society and continue to behave deviantly. Becker called this process the 'deviant career'. The label of criminal is not easily removed by society, and it becomes their master status.

Front 23

Jock Young - Process of Becoming Deviant:

Back 23

1) Marijuana users developed a deviant self concept because their drug of choice was illegal.
2) The deviant element became their main identity in society. They were hippies first and foremost.
3) The negative response of those around them and the police made the drug-taking more significant to their lives.
4) Their drug taking increased.

Front 24

Goffman - Negative Labelling:

Back 24

1) Goffman wrote about a deviant career in mental illness.
2) He said the negative label of being mad is imposed on the patient by society and psychiatry, and the patient must eventually conform.
3) This can be described as a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'.

Front 25

Lemert - Primary and Secondary Deviance:

Back 25

1) Primary deviance is the initial deviant act.
2) Secondary deviance is deviant acts committed after the individual has accepted the deviant labelling.
3) Lemert argued that most people commit some acts of primary deviance in their lives, but that it was of little significant. If they are then labelled a deviant, however, this may weigh upon the individual, causing them to become more deviant.

Front 26

Deviance as a Choice:

Back 26

1) Akers criticises both Becker and Lemert for presenting individuals as powerless to make decisions or take control of their own identity.
2) Other critics argue that many forms of behaviour are widely viewed as deviant, so deviants know they are breaking the law or social rules, yet they still do it.

Front 27

Hirschi - Why People Don't Commit Crime:

Back 27

Hirschi suggested that there are four social bonds which hold society together:
1) Attachment to society.
2) Involvement in society.
3) Commitment to society.
4) Belief that society's rules must be obeyed.
The more strongly an individual feels these bonds, the less likely they are to commit a crime.

Front 28

Wilson and Kelling - 'Broken Windows' Thesis:

Back 28

1) They argued that people who live in well-maintained areas with low crime rates feel like they are part of society and are less likely to commit crime. 2) When crimes, even minor crimes like breaking windows, go uncorrected and unpunished, people start to feel there is no social control and lose their sense of belonging.
3) This sense of detachment leads to increasing crime rates and a downwards spiral of decay.

Front 29

Etzioni - Community Regulation:

Back 29

1) Etzioni suggests that in the past, poor communities policed themselves. In some communities, this system has broken down and a criminal underclass has taken over.
2) The way to correct this is to create a greater sense of social integration and social responsibility, e.g. by setting up neighbourhood watch schemes.

Front 30

Postmodernists - Sense of Identity:

Back 30

1) Postmodernists argue that society is becoming increasingly fragmented.
2) In modern society people's sense of identity has more to do with what they see in the media and the brands they buy, and less to do with their family, religion or local area. People tend to think of themselves as individuals rather than part of society.
3) Foucault called this trend the process of individualism. As this trend continues, people feel less attached to society and are more likely to commit crime.

Front 31

Functionalist Social Control:

Back 31

1) Functionalists argue that deviance must be kept to a low level. They say that a small amount of deviant activity can help maintain social order because it unites the rest of society in disapproval of the deviant behaviour.
2) Functionalists say social control benefits everyone in society.

Front 32

Marxist Social Control:

Back 32

1) Marxists agree social control is essential to keep order. They say capitalism is an exploitative system which requires systems of social control over the population to prevent rebellion and revolution.
2) Marxists say social control benefits the ruling class and works against the interests of the majority working class.

Front 33

Social Control Through Hegemony:

Back 33

1) Informal social control is achieved through socialisation where individuals are taught to accept ideas and norms which support the status quo in society through institutions of the state.
2) This ideology is presented as common sense and alternative ideas are overwhelmed by the dominance of this ruling class ideology.
3) The ability to informally control ideas and values in this way is hegemony.

Front 34

Capitalist Laws Benefiting the Ruling Class:

Back 34

1) According to Marxists, laws aren't the will of the people, but a reflection of ruling class interests.
2) The vast majority of the population have no power or say in the creation of laws and punishments.
3) The lack of legislation in some areas of life also demonstrates the law as an instrument of the ruling class.

Front 35

Snider - Ruling Class Legislation:

Back 35

1) Snider argues legislation regulating large companies is restricted in capitalist societies because it could threaten ruling class interests.
2) For example, health and safety legislation such as pollution and fair trade are passed to a minimum level and often weakly enforced as the rich are able to put huge pressures on governments.

Front 36

Ruling Class Face Less Punishment:

Back 36

1) Snider argues that working class crimes such as burglary don't cause as much harm as corporate crimes such as breaking health and safety laws.
2) Marxists suggest that ruling class ideology presents burglars as the 'real criminals' and a threat to society, largely through the media. Meanwhile, the public are unaware of the corporate crime.
3) Company bosses also have access to the best legal advice if and when they are charged.

Front 37

Gordon - Selective Enforcement:

Back 37

1) Gordon argues selective enforcement of the law and selective reporting in the media gives the impression that criminals are largely working class.
2) This not only diverts attention from ruling class crime, but also divides the working class when the working class criminal becomes the target of anger rather than the system itself.

Front 38

Criticism of Traditional Marxists' Views on Crime:

Back 38

1) Traditional Marxists believe the cause of crime to lie within the nature of the capitalist system. Their assumption that if you end capitalism you end crime is rejected by many. There is crime in socialist societies like Cuba, and some capitalist societies like Switzerland have very low crime rates.
2) Traditional Marxists are also criticised for focusing too much on corporate crime.

Front 39

The New Criminology - Crime is a Choice:

Back 39

1) The New Criminology was an attempt to present a Marxist analysis of crime, and to move sociology of crime on from the idea that society should be trying to remove deviant behaviour to a need to understand and accept it.
2) Taylor, Walton and Young argued criminals were not passive, but instead crime was a conscious, meaningful and deliberate choice individuals made to try and change society.
3) Much crime is a deliberate fight against capitalism, and they pointed to political action groups such as the Black Panther Movement. Robbery is also seen as a redistribution of wealth.

Front 40

Seven Aspects of a Full Social Theory of Deviance:

Back 40

1) How wealth and power are distributed.
2) The unique circumstances of each deviant act.
3) The nature of the deviant act itself.
4) Reactions of the rest of society to the deviant act.
5) Who has the power to make rules about the treatment of deviance or response to deviance.
6) The effect being labelled deviant has on the individual.
7) How all these factors interlink.

Front 41

Lea and Young - Left Realists:

Back 41

1) Lea and Young launched their new theory of crime and how to reduce it in 1984, criticising other left-wing writers (especially Marxists) for overlooking the reality of crime in Britain.
2) They said left-wing sociological debate and social policy on crime must start accepting that crimes other than white-collar crime are a problem, that there has been a rise in crime in Britain since WW2, that being a victim of crime is a very significant event in an individual's life, and that the fear of crime is a real factor in shaping modern urban lifestyles, especially for women.

Front 42

Lea and Young - Policing Policy:

Back 42

1) Lea and Young say that British policing policy needs to be centred on creating and maintaining good communication between the police and local communities, and that the public should have a key role in deciding policing policy, creating consensus policing where the policing are acting on the instructions of the local community.
2) They say the key role of the police should then be 'full and proper investigation of crime', and that the police need to improve their detection and clear-up rates.

Front 43

Left Realists - Relative Deprivation:

Back 43

1) Lea and Young argue that a sense of relative deprivation is a major factor leading to crime.
2) They say that these feelings of deprivation are compounded by the consumer culture of modern Britain, and that a rising standard of living can lead to a rising crime rate.

Front 44

Left Realists Fighting Social Inequality:

Back 44

1) Left realists identify deprivation and marginalisation as causes of crime. In the long term, they believe order will come from a fair and just society. They stress the need for all social agencies to have a direct aim of removing inequality.
2) Left realist work has influenced Labour government social policy since 1997.

Front 45

Critics of Left Realism:

Back 45

1) Hughes says the left realists haven't explained why some people who experience relative deprivation see crime as a solution and others don't. He argues there would be a lot more crime if relative deprivation was the main cause.
2) Critics also say that Lea and Young didn't collect enough data to develop a full theory of crime. Their theory only focuses on property crime.

Front 46

Wilson - Right Realism:

Back 46

1) Wilson believes individuals commit crimes because the gains outweigh the chances of being caught and punished. In order to reduce crime therefore, it's necessary to issue harsh punishments for the smallest crimes so as to act as a deterrent.
2) This is the social policy of Zero Tolerance.

Front 47

Wilson and Kelling - Right Realism:

Back 47

1) Wilson and Kelling advocate taking resources and police supervision away from areas where law and order has broken down.
2) Wilson says that once social order has gone, it's almost impossible to regain it, so it's not worth wasting resources on trying, recommending that instead police be diverted to areas which aren't too far gone, to prevent breakdown of social order.

Front 48

Murray - Right Realism:

Back 48

1) Murray claims that the higher the risk of going to prison, the less likely people are to commit a crime.

Front 49

Criticisms of Right Realism:

Back 49

1) Jones questions the assertion that resources put into run-down areas are wasted. Investments in these areas can make a positive difference to communities who live there.
2) Critics also say that Zero Tolerance policies have led to a big rise in the US prison population - e.g. the 'three strikes and you're out' policy which means three serious offences automatically result in life imprisonment.

Front 50

Police Crime Figures:

Back 50

1) Police crime figures are official statistics that have been recorded and published annually in Britain since 1857.
2) They're useful because they're easy to access, can be used to identify trends and show the social background of criminals.
3)For 100 years, they were largely taken as an accurate record of all time, but recently their reliability has been questioned.

Front 51

Issues with Police Crime Figures:

Back 51

1) Official police records only report crime known to the police. Not all crime is reported to the police, due to factors such as intimidation, embarrassment, triviality, or people not having faith in the police.
2) The police don't record all crime that's reported to them, using their own discretion to decide whether an incident is worth reporting.
3) Not all offences count as crimes to be recorded by the police, as official rules and definitions change, and new guidelines are put into place.

Front 52

Victim Surveys:

Back 52

1) Victim surveys are anonymous surveys of individuals asking for details of crimes committed against them within a set period of time, usually year.
2) Because they include figures for reported and unreported crimes, they're more representative than police crime figures.
3) They also use a large sample size and have a high response rate.

Front 53

The British Crime Survey:

Back 53

1) The British Crime Survey (BCS) interviews a sample of the population (approx 14000), and asks them about their experiences of being a victim of crime over the past year. Answers are confidential.
2) In the past the BCS has indicated a significant level of unrecorded crime. In recent years BCS and police figures have been much closer, showing the same broad trends.

Front 54

Problems with Victim Surveys:

Back 54

1) Even the largest victim surveys only interview a small sample of the population.
2) The BCS doesn't survey all crime (corporate crimes?)
3) No under-16s are interviewed for the BCS.
4) Young questioned the validity by pointing out each respondent's definition of what's criminal is different. Also, some people are more willing to reveal their experiences than others.

Front 55

Self-Report Studies:

Back 55

1) Self-report studies ask respondents to reveal crime they've committed. They're less widely used than victim surveys.
2) They are anonymous and representative of the population.
3) They have been important in researching who commits crime.
4) However, respondents may not believe that their crimes won't be reported to others, including the police.

Front 56

Box - Analysis of Self-Report Studies:

Back 56

1) Box indicated that juvenile crime was not a working class problem as had been widely argued. Middle class juveniles committed crime too, but were less likely to be caught.
2) Similar results were found with adults. Maguire concluded most respondents admitted committing some crime at some point in their life.

Front 57

Official Statistics on Public Fear:

Back 57

1) Statistics show that public fear of being a victim of crime is rising, with the public consistently overestimating the actual amount of crime in Britain.
2) This has been attributed to the way crime is reported in the media, through alarmist headlines and exaggerations.
3) The Home Office Statistical Bulletin revealed that individuals who read tabloid newspapers were twice as likely to be worried about crime.

Front 58

Pantazis and Gordon - The Poor Fear Crime More:

Back 58

1) Pantazis and Gordon analysed household surveys and found households with the lowest incomes were most likely to fear crime, but households with the highest incomes were actually the most likely to become victims of crime.
2) This is due to the consequences of crime being more severe for people who are too poor to insure their property or buy replacements.

Front 59

Young People and Crime:

Back 59

1) Most crime is committed by teenagers - the peak age for men is 18, and 15 for women.
2) Young people are most likely to be victims as well.
3) It is unclear whether young people commit more crime, or if they get caught more doing obvious crimes like theft as opposed to corporate crimes.
4) Social stereotypes cause police to suspect and monitor young people far more.
5) Young people are more likely to be convicted in court, partly because they can't afford lawyers' fees.

Front 60

Men and Crime:

Back 60

1) Men make up 94% of the prison population.
2) 58% of male prisoners are reconvicted within 2 years.
3) Men are suspected, charged and convicted of crime of all types more than women, crossing all other social factors like age, class, ethnicity and region.
4) Miller and Merton argue that the culture and lifestyles of young men encourage and lead to crime.

Front 61

Heidensohn - Gender Socialisation on Crime:

Back 61

1) Heidensohn says gender socialisation prompts men to be more aggressive, making them more likely to commit violent crimes.
2) Women are socialised into not being criminal as they are watched more closely and given less freedom outside the home, reducing their criminal opportunity

Front 62

Underestimation of Female Crime:

Back 62

1) There may be an underestimation of female crime and police and courts are less likely to suspect women. The stereotypes of men as criminal work as a form of sexism against men, allowing female criminality to go unchecked.
2) Campbell did a self-report survey and found a lot more female crime than the official statistics.

Front 63

Crime in Urban Areas:

Back 63

1) Metropolitan police forces recorded 43% of all crime. In 2002, less than 2% of people living in rural areas became victims of burglary. And in 2003, 60% of all robbery took place in three urban areas (London, Manchester, and West Midlands).
2) There's more crime in cities. This may be because there are more opportunities for crime, and most young people live in urban areas. It's also hard for criminals to remain anonymous in rural communities.

Front 64

Crime in the Working Class:

Back 64

1) There are more working class people in prison than any other social class. Home Office figures also show that the majority of people who appear in court are working class, regardless of being guilty or not.
2) Miller argues this reflects the working class subcultures, which often accept or reward criminality.
3) Marxists argue the system of law and order is run by the ruling class, against the interests of the working class, and they are criminalised by a biased system.
4) Middle class crime is also treated more leniently.

Front 65

Ethnicity on Crime:

Back 65

1) The Macpherson Report (1999) concluded that the police were institutionally racist.
2) Hall et al argued that young black people have been labelled criminal by modern British society, and have become a scapegoat for social problems.
3) High levels of unemployment among young black men may lead them to turn to crime.
4) Ethnic minority households are more at risk of crime than other households, as well as being more worried about crime than white respondents.

Front 66

Positivist Victimology:

Back 66

1) Positivist victimology is interested in how some people are more likely to become victims than others, either through their actions leading them to becoming a victim, or because of their lifestyle.
2) This approach has been criticised for blaming the victim.
3) Positivist victimologists have tended to focus on 'visible' crime and have been criticised for ignoring issues such as state crimes.

Front 67

Radical Victimology:

Back 67

1) Radical victimology is more left wing. It argues that in a structurally unequal capitalist society, poor people are more likely to be victims of crime, as part of a wider pattern of inequality and disadvantage.
2) They have used the concept of 'human rights' as a more universal yardstick for measuring victimisation rather than official statistics. This has allowed them to focus on state and corporate crimes that often go unrecorded.

Front 68

Facts and Figures about Victims:

Back 68

1) Men are almost twice as likely to become victims of violence than women, yet more women are afraid of becoming victims of crime.
2) Young men (16-24) experience the most violence.
3) Women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.
4) Mixed raced adults are much more likely to be victims of crime.

Front 69

Feminists on Victimology:

Back 69

1) Feminists argue domestic violence is due to an unequal power relationship in favour of men.
2) Fear of crime may be used to constrain women.
3) Many feminists believe the law is biased towards men and crimes against women have been ignored.
4) Feminists have campaigned to widen the definition of what behaviour is criminal, e.g. sexual harassment in the workplace.

Front 70

Structuralist Crime Prevention:

Back 70

1) Structuralists argue that crime is caused by inequalities in wealth and income.
2) In order to reduce crime, these inequalities must be addressed
3) Subcultural, Marxist and left realism theorists are structuralists.

Front 71

Interventionist Crime Prevention:

Back 71

1) Interventionist approaches argue that some groups of people are more likely to commit crime than others. 2) To reduce crime, these 'criminal types' must behave differently, e.g. by targeting children early on.
3) Prison and community sentences can also be seen as interventionist approaches, discouraging people from committing crime.

Front 72

Situational Crime Prevention:

Back 72

1) The situational approach says society can use changes to the physical environment to make it harder for people to commit crimes, like more surveillance cameras and improved lighting etc.
2) Zero tolerance policing is another situational approach, and Right Realist theorists favour the situational approach.
3) Situational approaches can be effective, but evidence suggests they may just move it to a less well-protected area.

Front 73

Formal Social Control:

Back 73

1) The police are a formal agent of social control, responsible for enforcing the law.
2) Other formal agents include Parliament, which passes laws to say what behaviour is criminal, the Crown Prosecution Service, which decides who should be taken to court, the courts, which determine punishments, and the Prison Service, which imposes any punishment.

Front 74

Informal Social Control:

Back 74

1) There are also agents of informal social control.
2) These include the family unit, the education system, religion and the media.
3) All these channels help to reinforce a general sense of what behaviour is considered acceptable.

Front 75

Institutional Racism and Sexism:

Back 75

1) In theory, the police should be impartial, but they have sometimes been accused of institutional racism and sexism.
2) The Macpherson Report (1999) said the way the police handled the case showed clear signs of racism.
3) Graef said the police have a 'canteen culture'. He thought the majority of police officers, who tend to be white males, adopt racist and sexist attitudes to fit in.

Front 76

Reasons for Punishing Crime:

Back 76

1) Functionalists argue punishment keeps society going. Without punishment, anarchy would result and society would collapse. Durkheim said the public punishment of criminals creates unity and consensus.
2) Marxists say punishment serves the need of capitalism by keeping the workers under control.
3) Interventionists see prison as a deterrent, putting people off of the idea of committing crime.

Front 77

The Labour Party on Crime:

Back 77

1) The Labour Party used to favour the structuralist approach to crime. Their main policy was to reduce inequalities in society.

Front 78

The Conservative Party on Crime:

Back 78

1) The Conservative Party has tended to favour individual and situational approaches. During the most recent period that the conservatives were in government they put more police on the streets, and more criminals were sent to prison.

Front 79

New Labour on Crime:

Back 79

1) When New Labour came to power in 1997, Tony Blair promised to be 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime'. The party continued to focus on reducing inequalities of opportunity (by tackling unemployment and poverty etc), while giving more emphasis to punishment.

Front 80

Trading in Illegal Drugs:

Back 80

1) In 2005, the global trade in illegal drugs was worth around $320 billion, supplying around 200 million drug users worldwide. (About one eighth of all world trade.) This has consequences for health, changes in social behaviour and the funding of terrorism and war
2) It has been reported that the majority of armed conflicts across the globe are funded or part funded by the illegal drugs trade.

Front 81

Trading in Illegal Arms:

Back 81

1) Global communications and relatively unregulated financial markets have made the illegal trade in arms easier to carry out and harder to trace, destabilising societies and making existing conflicts worse.
2) The trade in small arms is particularly problematic, causing an estimated 80% of conflict deaths each year. They also have a large and deadly impact in the developing world.

Front 82

Human Trafficking:

Back 82

1) Human trafficking is the illegal movement of people for exploitation. Victims are taken either with force or deception.
2) The illegal global trafficking of people is an industry worth between $5-7 billion a year. It is one of the fastest growing global crimes.
3) An estimated 2.5 million people are in forced labour as a result of trafficking. This is a global problem, involving criminal groups from across the globe and has a devastating effect on its victims.

Front 83

Cybercrime:

Back 83

1) Globalisation has seen a massive increase in computer use and internet use, giving rise to 'cybercrimes' such as data theft, fraud, scamming, and illegal pornography. Because it breaches national borders, existing criminal law is often powerless to tackle it.
2) The extent of cybercrime is difficult to accurately assess, but it has been suggested that it will soon rival the drugs trade in terms of profit.

Front 84

Globalisation of Communication:

Back 84

1) The globalisation of communications and the media has aided the growth of international terrorism. Terrorists can now access a global audience for their propaganda, and are able to create online networks for their organisations.

Front 85

Green Crimes:

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1) Green crime ranges from fly-tipping to the illegal trade in environmentally sensitive substances or the illegal trade of protected animals.
2) The environmental impact of green crimes can be huge - e.g. illegally traded CFCs significantly contribute to ozone depletion. There are also severe financial costs - the World Bank estimated that illegal logging costs timber-producing countries around 10-15 billion euros per year in lost revenue.

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State Crimes:

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1) State crimes are where governments break national or international criminal law.
2) State crimes include the funding of terrorism, war crimes, genocide, links with organised crime, corruption, use of torture, and other crimes against human rights.
3) State crime is often a controversial topic as it's states themselves that define what is 'justifiable' and what is illegal.

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Cohen - The Amplification of Deviance:

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1) The media presents a distorted view of the level of crime, creating public concern.
2) Related incidents of crime and deviance are over-reported and given more prominence, keeping the issue or problem high on the public agenda.
3) The public want something done about the problem, and the police are more aware or sensitive to the problem, so they discover more crime.
4) The police records then reinforce the idea that there is more crime and deviance.

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Cohen - Moral Panic:

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1) The perceived risk of being a victim is amplified by over-reporting by the media, creating a public response of panic or outrage - a moral panic.
2) Cohen developed his idea from a study of conflicts between Mods and Rockers in 1964, but more recent examples include gun crime and benefit fraud.
3) The state response to a moral panic in society is often to introduce stricter forms of social control.

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Hall - Moral Panic:

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1) Hall claimed that the national concern about mugging in the early 1970s was a moral panic. The media claimed that mugging was a new kind of crime, but Hall pointed out that violent street robbery had been going on for a long time, and that it wasn't rising particularly fast during the moral panic.
2) Some have suggested the fear of global terrorism following 9/11 is another example of moral panic.

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Taylor - Economic Liberalisation:

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1) Taylor argued that economic deregulation had given some people more opportunity to commit crimes like fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
2) This made employment less secure and increased economic instability by reducing state control over their economies, leading to a rise in crime due to financial insecurity.

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Durkheim - Study of Suicide:

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1) Durkheim chose to study suicide because it was considered by most not to be a social phenomenon.
2) If sociology could identify social factors and causes of suicide, this would demonstrate the power and impact of society on individual behaviour.
3) Durkheim's methodology was rigorous, systematic, detailed and scientifically analysed. He believed that if this scientific methodology is followed, then social facts can be discovered in the same way as scientific research reveals laws or facts of the natural world.

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Durkheim - Analysis of Suicide Statistics:

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1) Durkheim's analysis of the official statistics revealed some social groups were more likely to commit suicide than others.
2) Suicide rates were higher in Protestant countries than in Catholic ones, and Jews had the lowest suicide rate.
3) Married people were less likely to commit suicide.
4) Low suicide rates were found in some countries after a national upheaval or crisis, potentially due to better social integration.
5) Those with more education had a higher suicide rate.

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Durkheim - Fours Forms of Suicide:

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1) Durkheim said different forms of suicide were related to how much integration and regulation there was in a society.
2) Social integration means socialisation into the norms, values and lifestyles of social groups.
3) Moral regulation means the control that society and social groups have over an individual's behaviour.
4) Durkheim's four suicide types relate to dysfunctional integration or regulation.
5) They are - Egoistic, Anomic, Altruistic, and Fatalistic.

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Durkheim - Egoistic Suicide:

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1) This is caused by a lack of integration. The individual isn't successfully integrated into groups or society.
2) For example, there is more suicide in Protestants compared to Catholics because Protestants had a looser social network/belief system.

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Durkheim - Anomic Suicide:

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1) This is caused by a lack of regulation. Society has insufficient control over individuals.
2) Often in periods of economic depression or very rapid expansion, the suicide rate rises. People find it very hard to adapt.

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Durkheim - Altruistic Suicide:

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1) This is caused by too much integration. An over-integrated individual sacrifices their life for the group.
2) For example, followers who commit suicide after the death of their leader. Terrorist suicide bombers are a modern example.

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Durkheim - Fatalistic Suicide:

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1) This is caused by too much regulation. The individual is too highly controlled in society.
2) For example, the suicides of prisoners or slaves.

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Criticism of Durkheim on Suicide:

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1) The impact of rural versus urban lifestyles on suicide rates hasn't been considered.
2) Gibbs and Martin argued that Durkheim hadn't used vigorous enough scientific methods even though he'd stressed how important they were. The key concepts of integration and regulation weren't defined closely enough to be statistically measured. How can anyone know what 'normal' levels of integration and regulation are?

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Interpretivists on Durkheim's Suicide:

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1) Interpretivists say social reality isn't a series of 'social facts' for sociologists to discover, but a series of different meanings and interpretations that each person brings to and takes from each situation.
2) Durkheim's work is flawed because he relies on official statistics, which to interpretivists are a social construction based on the definitions of people who compile them.

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Douglas on Suicide:

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Douglas said there was a need to categorise suicides according to their social meanings because the triggers and response to suicide are different in different cultures and he identified four social meanings for suicides in modern industrial societies:
1) Transformation of the soul (getting to heaven)
2) Transformation of the self (being viewed differently)
3) Achieving sympathy
4) Achieving revenge

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Baechler on Suicide:

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1) Baechler used case studies for his research into the meanings behind suicides.
2) He concluded suicide was an action chosen by individuals to solve a problem when all other solutions had failed. Suicide is one response to the social circumstances an individual is in.

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Atkinson - Suicide Labelling:

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1) Atkinson studied coroners' courts and suggested coroners use their own interpretations and definitions in order to define a death as suicide.
2) He thought coroners had an imagined prototypical suicide victim to compare the case against.
3) He concluded that suicide statistics are not facts, but reflections of coroners' interpretations.

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Taylor on Inquests:

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1) Over 12 months, Taylor studied 32 cases where people had been killed by London tube trains, without having left suicide notes.
2) The inquests recorded 17 suicides, 5 accidental deaths, and 10 open verdicts.
3) Taylor concluded that a suicide verdict was far more likely if the victim has a history of mental illness or had suffered a recent setback or humiliation.
4) Taylor also believe suicide statistics were unreliable