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Summary AQA a-level sociology, crime and deviance summarise revision notes
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These are summarised revision notes for AQA sociology crime, and deviance paper three which scored me an a A* in the paper
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Crime and the mediaThe public’s perception of crime comes from how the media represents it
The media influences our thoughts and behaviours about crime for example, the
‘devious licks’ TikTok trend caused students in schools to steal things such as
soap dispensers.
However, the media gives a distorted image of crime when compared to official
statistics:
The media overrepresents violent and sexual crimes – Ditton and Duffy
found that 46% of media reports were about violent and sexual crimes yet
they only made up 3% of police records.
Media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle class than
those typically found in the justice system.
Exaggerates the risk of victimisation especially to women and white
individuals, this causes an unrealistic fear of crime.
Overplays extraordinary crimes and underplays ordinary crimes, Felson
calls this ‘dramatic fallacy’
News values and crime coverage
The distorted picture of crime painted by the media reflects the fact that news is
a social construct.
Cohen and Young say that news is not discovered but manufactured
News values are the criteria by which the media decides whether a story is
newsworthy enough to report:
Unambiguity – The simpler the event, the more likely to be reported
Negativity - Bad news Is regarded as more exciting and dramatic than
good news
Personalisation - If a story can be linked to an Individual and a personal
story made from It.
Brian Williamsons, a journalist lied to the public saying his plane was attacked
when it was a lie. This is evidence to support that news is a social construct.
Fictional representations of crime
Mandel estimated that between 1945-1984, over 10 billion crime thrillers
were sold worldwide which would influence our thoughts about crime.
Surette calls the ‘law of opposites’ meaning the representations of crime
are the opposite of the official statistics e.g., property crime is under-
represented while violent and sexual crimes are over-represented.
The media as a cause of crime
, Films, rap lyrics and video games such as GTA have all been blamed for causing
crime.
Garbner et al found that heavy users of television had higher levels of fear of
crime.
Crime and globalisation
Global crime is a crime committed in one part of the world which can affect
another part of the world or multiple places at once.
Castells says that there is a global criminal economy which is worth over £1
trillion per year. This takes many forms e.g., smuggling illegal immigrants,
human trafficking, terrorism etc.
Global risk consciousness
The risk of crime is now seen on a global scale rather than purely local making
people believe that they are more likely to be a victim of crime creating moral
panics.
Crimes of the powerful – nation-states and large corporations have the power to
inflicyt serious damage on the environment.
Zemiology – the study of harms: the many acts which may injure humans but not
go against the law.
Crimes without frontiers – harms done to the environment that inflict damage on
a global scale e.g., cybercrime.
Taylor says globalisation has created crimes at both ends of the social class
system. For example, some big companies now employ workers from poorer
countries. This creates job insecurities, unemployment and poverty in England.
Deregulation means that the government now has little control over companies
and the economy. For example, companies may import illegal workers breaching
health and safety regulations.
Hobbs and Dunningham argue crime is rooted in the local community but has
international links. This is known as a 'glocal system'.
Green Crime
^ Refers to crimes committed against the environment.
Beck argues that we have entered a 'global risk society' where risks now
transcend boundaries and environmental damage is a part of the risks created
through modern technology. All countries need to work together to tackle this
problem.
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