This was made for the 2023 A-Level exams where I ended up getting A*. This document contains key notes and summary of crime and deviance- class, gender, ethnicity and age. Really well summarised so its easy to remember and grasp concepts that can then be easily developed in exam situations. There i...
Crime and Deviance- Class, Gender, Ethnicity and Age Sociologists and
potential Paragraph structures in regard to who agrees as well as opposing
points.
Crime and deviance: crime and class
Rosenbaum: criminal behaviour and problems communities are those where:
- People live in poverty.
- There is poor housing and social environment.
- Low income and benefit dependant households etc
Basically, where there is crime there is poverty.
Carlen: women in prison are more likely to have been living in poverty before convection
Nye and Lunt: 50% of boys in American schools for criminal behaviour children come from the
lowest social classes. However, they conducted self-report studies and found that only 13% of those
who self-reported came from low social classes.
Webster and Kingstone: more recent reports have found a link between poverty and violent crime
and that family structures can also have an impact.
Social exclusion unit UK: found that prisoners are far more likely than the general population to:
- Have been in the care system
- Truanted and been excluded from school/poorly educated.
- Come from dependant households and be benefit dependant adults
- Have mental health or substance abuse problems
For example, Ruben Maudsley who killed 4 people with one murder taking place at a psychotic
hospital and two in prison after receiving his life sentence. He was one out of 12 children and
suffered from heavy abuse from his parents which he was taken away from and taken to ‘Nazareth
House’ a foster home where he was taken care of by nuns. He was depressed and mentally unstable
with several suicide effects which led to his drug addiction.
Middle class crime/ white collar crime
White collar crimes- crime committed by the middle class e.g. fraud and tax evasion rather than
violent crimes. White collar crimes are usually harder to detect and find being characterised by
‘diffused’ meaning victims are unlikely to be aware that crime has been committed.
Example: MPs expenses scandal 2009 where a number of middle-class MP’s ‘fiddled’ with their
expenses. David Chaytor was the first MP to be convicted after trying to cheat taxpayers of more
than £22,000. He was jailed for 18 months yet only served 4 and a half then the 61-year-old was
eligible for home detention.
The Guinness affair 1980’s: Guinness lied about their profits which increased the price of their
shares leading to them making more money. Ronson (one of Britain’s richest 100) was given a one
year prison sentence at Ford Open Prison and was released 6 months later.
, - During his time in prison he had access to telephone and his wife continued to run the
businesses and following his release he continued being a successful business man
Saunders- also involved in Guinness affair but was sentenced for 5 years yet was released after 18
months after his diagnosis of Alzheimer which was later proven to be a false diagnosis
Crime and gender:
1) Sex Role Theory- because boys and girls are socialised differently boys are more likely to become
criminals (functionalist idea)
- Sutherland: girls are socialised in a manner which is far more supervisory and controlled.
Limiting the amount of opportunities to be more deviant. In contrast to boys who are
socialised to be rougher, tougher and aggressive which makes deviancy more likely.
- Cohen: identified socialisation as a difficult time for boys especially if lack of male role model
which leads to boys joining gangs in order to establish masculinity
- Parson:- nuclear family men work and women stay at home and nurse therefore, as women
stay home girls spend more time with their mothers therefore, resulting in more guidance
2) Patriarchal control (Heidensohn) – women have less opportunity to offend then men as they are
confined to be at home, controlled by men within the home and outside of it e.g. at the work place
there is a pay gap (GOV>UK 7.9% as of 2022)
- Box: women have less power and opportunity to commit crime
- Adler (liberation thesis): as women are liberated, they will commit more crime (especially
white collar crimes as they progress within workplace)
- Belknap: women are overlooked in all areas of society but especially crime
- Office of national stats: 95% of prison population are men
However, Lomboso and Ferarro stated that there are fewer females born criminals (biological
explanation) criminality is innate (within you)
3) Chivalry factor- idea that women get treated differently in terms of punishment due to chivalry
- Campbell: self-report study found that female suspects were more likely to receive a caution
than men who’d been prosecuted
- Hood: found evidence when comparing the sentencing of men and women and found that
men are more likely to be given custodial sentences (prison) than women
- Office of national stats: 92% of those who went from court to prison were men
- Carlen: qualitive research in Scotland on sheriffs and judges showed that sheriffs were less
likely to imprison women who were good mothers but were more likely to punish single
mothers or mother with children in care
Reasons opposing the chivalry factor:
- Box: reviewed self-reported data and said finding were same as official figures
- Smart: argues that the criminal justice system first views women through the lens of their
track record of being a mother, wife and daughter
- Walklate: research found that female rape victims face a tough rather than chivalrous court
system as it forces women to prove their respectability before being believed therefore,
believed its actually the women who is on trial
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