social class

• working class are over represented in official crime stats suggesting they are more criminal than middle class
• WORKING CLASS CRIME

  commit street crime, property crime and violent crimes - all visible so likely to get caught
• WORKING CLASS CRIME

  criminal justice system criminalise working class and assume they commit so spend more time dealing with street crime
• EXPLANATION FOR WORKING CLASS CRIME

  functionalism mertons strain theory - face strain to anomie due to hardships faced so innovate and turn to crime to achieve money and success
• EXPLANATION FOR WORKING CLASS CRIME

  functionalist structural theory cohen - working class males feel status frustration so join deviant subcultures for peer respect and street capital by committing crime
• EXPLANATION FOR WORKING CLASS CRIME

  traditional marxism - response to social inequality and poverty so commit utilitarian crime for survival. Non utilitarian to vent frustration.

  capitalism is criminogenic - capitalist values make crime inevitible
• EXPLANATION FOR WORKING CLASS CRIME

  left realism - high crime rates for working class due to relative deprivation, marginalisation and forming subcultures
• EXPLANATION FOR WORKING CLASS CRIME

  right realism - murray believes working class single parents with welfare dependency make children have fatalistic attitudes and become unemployed and likely to offend. lack of male role model so move to gangs for 'tough love' or material deprivation due to poor socialisation
• CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL

  ruling class commit invisible crime so less likely to be detected and prosecuted
• WHITE COLLAR CRIME

  by a middle class who abuse work positions for personal gain

  embezzlement - financial fraud transfer someones money to your bank

  inside trading - trade stock exchange to ones advantage through confidential info - illegal
• WHITE COLLAR CRIME LOW PROSECUTION RATES

  hard to detect

  dealt with internally by companies due to fear of bad publicity

  lack of awareness by victims of crime committed

  no individual victim to report offence eg. fraud against NHS
• CORPORATE CRIME

  committed by large companies to directly benefit the company and increase profits - more harmful
• CORPORATE CRIME

  neglect of health and safety regulations - companies cut corners to increase profit eg. ghaffer crushed to death by machine at a factory
• CORPORATE CRIME

  manufacturing offence - eg. dieselgate causing environmental harm by creating air pollution
• CORPORATE CRIME

  financial crime - eg. furlough fraud or companies breaking rules and fore employees to work in lockdown even though it was illegal
• CORPORATE CRIME

  grenfell tower inferior cladding was flammable, knew but did not do anything and caused widespread harm - financial,physical and environmental harm
• CORPORATE CRIME LOW PROSECUTION RATES

  not defined as crimes - seen as civil accidents and matters

  difficult to pinpoint blame eg. grenfell

  perpetrator uses powerful position to avoid prosecution - economic capital

  biased criminal justice system
• SOC EXP OF CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL

  Box- adapted merton and argues corporations illegally maximise profits if they cant legally eg. furlough fraud - felt strain to anomie so innovated
• SOC EXP OF CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL

  traditional marxism - corporate crimes are criminogenic and have pressures to increase profit eg. dieselgate showing corporate crime is inevitable in capitalist society
• SOC EXP OF CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL

  delabelling - white collar and corporate unlikely to be labelled criminal as similar to normal business practise so go under delabelling to avoid criminal labels - do not match police stereotypes so undetected and seen as accidents rather than deliberate eg. grenfell
• SOC EXP OF CRIMES OF THE POWERFUL

  PM edgework - people in high finance commit out of edgework from their competitive environment eg. employee enjoys embezzling funds on his computer as he is at high risk of getting caught - boss could find out at any time