Achieved Distinction with these notes. Covers all four questions, including moral panic, patterns of victimisation, strengths and weaknesses of theories, and more.
Question 1:
Crime is the act of breaking a national law and the behaviour can be punished by law.
Theft is the act of stealing someone else’s belongings without them knowing whereas robbery is
theft that involves violence or threats of violence. Burglary occurs in a house or other property, like a
shop.
White collar crimes are generally non-violent crimes committed in commercial situations for
financial gain. Organised white-collar crimes can concentration of protection rackets but also involve
illegal gambling and prostitution.
Moral crimes are crimes that go against the normal standard of morality, for example, illegal
gambling and underage drinking.
State crimes are typically committed by governments, i.e genocide.
Cybercrimes are any crimes that relate to the internet or technology.
A hate crime is any crime that is perceived by the victim to be motivated by prejudice or hate based
on a characteristic protected by the Equality Act (2010). These protected characteristics are; religion,
age, sexuality, gender, sex, marital status, race, disability, and pregnancy.
Honour crimes are punishments on people for acts deemed to have bought shame on their families.
For example, an acid attack given as punishment for a religious reason is an honour crime.
The five theories of crime are functionalism, right realism, left realism, Marxism and neo-Marxism,
and postmodernism. The exam will ask about one of these, but using one theory to criticise another
will earn extra marks.
Police recorded crime is measurable. For crimes that are well-reported and accurately recorded,
police recorded crime can provide a good picture of the volume of this crime type. Police recorded
crime data also provide an insight into the demands being made on the police and on where policing
effort is being spent.
However, for many types of crime, police recorded crime statistics do not provide a reliable measure
of levels or trends in crime, they only cover crimes that come to the attention of, and are recorded
by, the police and can be affected by changes in policing activity and recording practice and by
willingness of victims to report.
Also, targeting police strategies in places where crime may not be frequent, but where residents are
more willing to report offences could result in bias against areas that under report crime. Police
forces are therefore recommended to evaluate how their data is influence by factors other than
crime victimisation. If police recorded crime data is used to inform crime occurrence, it is critical to
develop statistical techniques to migrate the inherent bias driven by both recording and reporting
inconsistencies.
A dark figure crime is a term used by crime experts and sociologists to illustrate the number of
committed crimes that are never reported or are never discovered and this puts into the doubt the
effectiveness and efficiency of the official crimes data.
Volume crimes are crimes which has a significant impact on the community and the ability of the
local police to tackle it. Examples include vehicle-related crimes, burglary, shoplifting and robbery.
,Major crimes involve the use of violence, results in substantial financial gain or is conducted by a
large number of people working together in pursuit of a common purpose. An offender with no
previous convictions who commits a major crime is expected to get a minimum of three years in
prison. Examples include gang-related crimes, bank robbery and murder.
Offense against the person crimes are crimes that directly harm a person (i.e assault). Offense
against the property crimes are crimes that directly affect a home, school, or other building (i.e
theft). Some crimes can be hard to classify as either (i.e drug possession) or could be classified as
both (i.e robbery).
There is also offense against society, which include offences such as possession with intent to supply
or public order offences. They are offences without a direct victim.
There are three main types of offense under UK law: summary only, either way, and indictable only.
Magistrates court deals with summary and either way offenses. Crown court deals with either way
and indictable offenses. The severity of offence determines which court is used.
Summary only offenses are of a lower severity and include most driving offenses and common
assault.
Either way covers a wide range of crimes including theft, possession of drugs and ABH.
Indictable offences are the most serious and include murder, manslaughter and rape.
Functionalism
Durkheim - “Crime is normal… an integral part of all healthy societies.”
Crime is functional in 4 ways:
1) Reinforces value consensus and social solidarity
When crime happens, the majority are disgusted and don’t commit crime. The majority’s morals
increase and the likelihood of us committing crimes decreases. It reaffirms boundaries about
right and wrong. This is referred to as the collective consciousness. If nobody committed crime,
there would be no collective consciousness and shared values.
2) Acts as a safety valve
There are certain crimes in our society which are low level, and by people committing low level
crimes, it prevents higher level, more severe crimes and allows individuals to de-stress. He
suggested that prostitutes were important to prevent men from being more aggressive and
committing more serious crimes like rape or domestic abuse.
3) Acts as a warning device
Durkheim suggests that if we had no offenders, we wouldn’t be warned about it. It works as
both a local warning from parents and teachers but also a national warning device from
governments.
4) The creation of jobs
Police officers, government departments, forensic scientists, criminologists, and many more jobs
wouldn’t exist without crime.
, Durkheim suggested that those who deviate from the collective consciousness experience anomie.
Anomie can be defined as normlessness.
Merton’s strain theory
Functionalists believed everyone wanted the American Dream (money, nice house, nice car, family,
good job) but that not everyone had the opportunity to achieve this, causing them to experience
strain, resulting in anomie and a life of crime.
Deviance is the result of strain between the goals of society and the legitimate means of achieving
them. People’s opportunities are blocked, they experience strain, which produces frustration, which
creates a pressure to deviate.
Merton suggested there were 5 different responses to strain:
1) Accept cultural goals and accept institutional means
Conformity – Has a goal and work hard for it. Entirely legal. You accept the goals and values of
society and work to achieve them, with the belief that you will eventually achieve them.
2) Reject cultural goals and accept institutional means
Ritualism – Continue to go about their day but is unwilling to achieve. Reject the goals of society
but continue to follow the means of achieving them. You understand what is expected but
realise you will never achieve the final goal.
3) Accept cultural goals and reject institutional means
Innovation – Drug dealers and white-collar crimes. Accept the goals of society but not the
legitimate means of achieving them, so forge your own path.
4) Reject cultural goals and reject institutional means
Retreatism – Don’t work or deviate, i.e unemployed alcoholic. Reject both the goals and the
means of achieving goals and retreat from society.
5) New goals and new means
Rebellion – Those who want something else from society and have their own goals, achieve
through criminal ways. Reject the goals of society and the means of achieving them legitimately.
Rebellion and innovation are typically the criminal responses to strain. Ritualism, innovation,
retreatism and rebellion are all deviant behaviours.
Strengths of functionalism
Explains why working-class crime rates are higher than other classes
Explains the patterns found in official statistics.
Criticisms of functionalism
The theory is very old
Functionalists built their theory around society at the time, which may have changed drastically
over the years. The theory is static and doesn’t adapt to changes over time.
The strain theory focuses on the American Dream
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