CRIME AND STRATIFICATION

• Crime


  Breaking a law
• Deviance


  Breaking a norm
• Relative deviance


  Norms and deviance can change with different times and places
• Norm


  Expected pattern of behaviour
• Culture


  Way of life
• Causes of crime


  • Poverty and unemployment
  • Material deprivation (no food, clothes etc)
  • Gang cultures
  • Role models - influences (parents or peers)
• Institutional racism


  How some organisations (including the police) discriminate on racist or ethnic grounds opposed to just individuals action on racial prejudice
• Halsey, Heath and Ridge ideas - accessed a large sample of 8000 men and divided them into 3 social classes: the service class, the intermediate class and the working class. Showed that sons follow their dads profession and state that it is difficult to change your class.
• Paul Willis ideas (marxist) - Studied a group of counter - school subculture, 'the lads' and found out that what they did at school set them up for their future jobs (e.g. plumber)
• Causes of crime


  • Poverty and unemployment
  • Material deprivation (no food, clothes etc)
  • Gang cultures
  • Role models - influences (parents or peers)
• Possible reasons for disproportionate crime figures

  • Stop and search
  • Stereotypes
  • Labelling by police or people in authority
  • Poverty and unemployment
  • Cultural habits
  • Racism/ prejudice (from the police force and others)
• Edgework


  Behaviour at the edge of what is normally allowed or accepted; risky or radical behaviour e.g. stealing and driving a car (joyriding)
• Gang cultures - many gangs will recruit boys under 10 because if they get caught, they will not be held criminally responsible and so they won't get prosecuted. This means that the gangs can transport drugs easier and aid their business.
• Bedroom subculture


  The idea that girls spend more time at home and at each other's houses, spending time chatting
• Types of crime women commit

  • Shoplifting
  • Prostitution
  • Minor crimes (typically not robbery or murder)
• Types of crime men commit

  • Drug abuse
  • Rape
  • Robbery
  • Murder
  • Fights
  • Assault
• Collective conscience


  The communal beliefs, morals and attitudes of a society
• Media amplification


  Media exaggeration of the significance of a social issue or problem by over - reporting it (Stan Cohen)
• Types of punishment


  • Caution
  • Fine
  • Antisocial behaviour order
  • Community service
  • Electronic tagging (curfew)
  • Imprisonment
• Types of crime


  • Indictable crime - the most serious types of crime (murder, robbery, assault)
  • Non indictable crime - less serious types of crime (parking ticket, minor shoplifting)
• The Dark Figure


  Crimes that are unreported to the police
• Problems with police recorded crime

  • Undiscovered crime
  • Unreported crime
  • Crime in workplaces may be dealt with internally
  • The police do not report or record certain crimes
• Victim surveys


  We know that there is a dark figure of crime, some crimes are not reported to the police for many reasons, sociologists use victim studies to find out about the level of crime
• Measuring crime


  • Official statistics
  • Victim surveys
  • Offender surveys
  • British crime surveys
• Social construction


  An idea or practise that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted
• Functionalist theories of crime

  • Setting boundaries
  • Changing values
  • Social cohesion
  • Safety valve
• Marxist theories of crime - they believe that in our current capitalist society, we are divided into two main groups called classes and that society is unequal which can cause crime.
• Robert Merton ideas (functionalist) - Strain Theory - conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Explained that these were the causes of crime.
• Howard Becker ideas (crime) - interactionism, interested on how people interact, discovered the impact labelling had on someone relating to crime (self fulfilling prophecy), what impact having a good or bad label had on someone
• Heidensohn ideas (feminist) - chivalry theory - the idea that women are treated more leniently by the police, 'you can't rob a bank whilst pushing a baby buggy', women experience both dual burden and triple shift
• Albert Cohen ideas (functionalist) - subcultures - smaller groups with a way of life, status frustration - particularly young adults are frustrated with their lack of independence
• Pat Carlen ideas (feminist) - interviewed 39 women who were in crime, came up with the gender deal and class deal, gender deal - if a woman succeeds in creating a successful and functioning family, she will not resort to crime, class deal - if a woman had high status and a safe financial situation, she will not resort to crime
• Poverty


  Below the expected standard of living and income/wealth
• Absolute poverty


  When individuals are unable to satisfy their basic needs of food, shelter and clothing
• Relative poverty


  When an individual's standard of living is well below that of the majority of the population in your area/ society (not in the entire world)
• Subjective poverty


  Your idea of poverty that it not based on your actual financial situation (e.g. thinking you have nothing to wear)
• Welfare state


  A government run organisation that protects and promotes the wellbeing of the public
• Globalisation


  Process where societies and cultures become interconnected
• Democracy


  Government of the people, by the people, for the people
• Dictatorship


  One person/party that hold absolute power with high control