class

• Marxism-


  -Gordon- capitalism is criminogenic. Crimes are committed in order to survive.

  -Box- laws are constructed by the ruling class to control and criminalise W/C
• Labelling-


  Labelled as a criminal by agents of social control and punished more by the courts. W/C also less likely to negotiate out of trouble.
• Omolade-


  Carried out a study of 2171 prisoners in England and Wales, he found 47% had no education qualifications, 36% were unemployed and 60% had been claiming benefits.
• Hitchens-


  found a link between living in the most deprived wards and in Scotland prisons, 60% of prisoners came from the most deprived states
• Evaluations-


  -stats only include those convicted and imprisoned

  -unemployed and claiming benefits may not be an accurate measure of class

  -White collar crimes are less likely to lead to conviction
• Neo-Marxism-


  W/C are more likely to be alienated from society and choose to commit crime to protest against society
• Right Realist-


  Murray- most crime is committed by the underclass

  Hirschi- control theory- W/C have fewer social controls
• Left Realist-


  W/C commit crime due to relative deprivation and marginalisation
• Hagell and Newburn-


  Youth detention- vast majority of W/C background, compared to only 8% of persistent offenders coming from a M/C background
• Reiner-


  Found 74% of the prison population was drawn from the poorest 20% of the population
• Functionalists- Merton-


  W/C people can't achieve cultural goals through legitimate means and commit crime to achieve material goals.
• Subcultural- Cohen-


  Strain leads to status frustration and people committing crime to gain status from peers
• Prison Reforming working group-

  surveyed the entire prison population and found-

  -67% to have been unemployed at sentence

  -32% homeless

  -27% brought in care