Class

• Trends

  • Working class more likely to be convicted of offences
  • Higher percentage in prison popualtion
• Sutherland


  'Criminal statistics show unequivocally that crime, as popularly understood and officially measured, has a high incidence in the lower socio-economic class and a low incidence in the upper socio-economic class'
• Social Exclusion Unit


  In 2002, they found that many prisoners have a history of social exclusion. They were more likely to have grown up in care, poverty and to have a family member convicted of an offence. 67% of prison population had been unemployed prior to imprisonment (5% for rest of society)
• Williams et al


  Other factors found more frequently in prison population included having run away from home, experiencing violence and/or drug and alcohol misuse within the family, regularly truanting and having no qualifications
• Patterns of Victimisation

  • British Crime survey found that young households, lone parent and the unemployed were twice as likely to be burgled.
  • Young discussed myth of equal victim suggesting certain groups are hit much harder when they become victims
  • Kinsey's findings in Merseyside Crime Survey support this as the poor suffer more than the wealthy. More likely to be subject to 'multiple victimisation'