30 mark essays

• Crime


  Any act that breaks the laws of a particular society
• Marxist view of crime

  • Capitalist society is criminogenic
  • Pressure to consume can drive people towards crime
• Capitalism


  Creates a competitive spirit that needs to be satisfied in order for an individual to feel that they have enough social status or influence
• Laws


  Devised not in the public interest, but in the interests of the ruling classes who wish to protect their private property
• Chambliss


  • Argues the majority of laws have been devised to protect the ruling classes
• Snider


  • Ruling class has the power to prevent laws being introduced which could potentially threaten their profitability
• Working class oppression


  Continues as the working classes are being penalised more heavily by the legal system since it targets them more specifically
• Labelling


  Working classes being labelled as criminal by police and law enforcement agencies as people hold preconceived ideas about their criminality
• Even those social groups who do lack opportunity do not necessarily turn to crime
• Lack of opportunity


  Does not necessarily result in crime as women, for example, have a much lower rate of offending than men, and yet are oppressed by a patriarchal society which restricts their chances of social mobility
• Subcultural theory


  • Lack of opportunity in society can result in criminality as individuals turn to illegitimate opportunity structures
• Strain theory


  • Lack of opportunity in society can result in criminality as individuals turn to illegitimate opportunity structures
• Some sociologists would agree that a lack of opportunity in society results in higher levels of criminality and is therefore the main cause of crime
• Others disagree and say that even those social groups who do lack opportunity do not necessarily turn to crime
• There is a significant overrepresentation within the prison system of ethnic minorities, and in particular black people. Statistics show that despite constituting only 2.8% of the population, black people make up 11% of the prison population
• Sociologists would attribute these trends to

  • Police targeting
  • Lack of positive male role models
  • Material deprivation
• Ethnicity itself does not in fact cause greater criminality, rather that the police statistics do not include sufficient details of those crimes committed by the white middle classes as these are rarely investigated by the police
• There are other explanations of criminality such as gender or social class that might prove more significant
• Police targeting of ethnic minorities


  Black and Asian people are around eight times as likely to be stopped and searched by the police
• Labelling theory


  The reason why the police target ethnic minorities has little to do with their likelihood of actually committing a crime and much more to do with prejudicial or outdated stereotypes held by police officers
• Left Realist theory


  Ethnic differences in offending do indeed reflect a social reality as crime is seen to be a product of relative deprivation
• Lea and Young


  Over 90% of crimes known to the police are actually reported to them, rather than being a result of their own investigations
• New Right theory


  The increased likelihood of young black males being raised in a single-parent family meant that they did not receive as much attention from their mothers as they were likely to be the breadwinner for the family
• Where those mothers in fact chose to accept state benefits instead of working, the New Right argued that they were encouraging their children to grow up to expect money to be freely accessible and so they were more likely to engage in crime to achieve it or become benefits scroungers themselves as they have been socialised into the values of fatalism and immediate gratification
• Similarly, the New Right argued that a lack of male role models in single-parent families led to a lack of discipline and self-control in young black males, making them more likely to engage in criminal behaviour
• Feminists argue that even though women have far fewer opportunities in society than men, four out of five convicted offenders in England and Wales are men
• Heidensohn


  Puts this down to greater levels of patriarchal control in areas such as the home, in public and at work which mean that women are limited in terms of their opportunity to commit crime in the same way their other opportunities are limited
• Chivalry thesis


  Women are just as likely as men to commit crime but that they are often let off by law enforcement as they are seen as the weaker sex
• Right Realists argue that there may be certain biological differences that cause criminal behaviour, or a lack of adequate socialisation
• Moral panics within the mass media and negative labelling or stereotyping are also key factors causing criminality, as well as the prejudices that are created by labelling individuals according to issues such as age or ethnicity which could create a self-fulfilling prophecy of crime
• As a general rule, the majority of crimes in society tend to be committed by males
• Statistics show that four out of five crimes committed in England and Wales were by men and men were also statistically more likely to be repeat offenders or to embark on criminal careers
• The rate of female criminality has been understated in sociological research, with many blaming a 'chivalry' thesis for the reason why men appear to be more criminal than women
• Females are more likely than men to commit property offences (except burglary)
• Masculinity


  A social construct that men need to continually work at in order to prove themselves in society
• Hegemonic masculinity


  • The most desirable form of masculinity that brings the highest level of social status
• Men engage in criminal or deviant behaviour


  As it represents the most hegemonic form of masculinity
• Critics question whether Messerschmidt's concept of hegemonic masculinity actually explains why the crime takes place, or whether it is simply a label that could be used to describe the nature of the offender
• Gender socialisation


  The process by which males are socialised into characteristics that potentially make them excellent criminals such as competition, aggression, risk-taking and extrovert behaviour
• Boys are directed towards toys, games and activities


  That facilitate the development of criminal characteristics