Key Terms

• Alder


  Women are controlled by their husbands in the way that younger girls are controlled by their fathers and male siblings
• Corporate crime


  Crimes committed by companies, such as illegal pollution, not giving proper pay or conditions, criminal negligence, tax evasion, fraud
• Institutional racism


  Racism in the policies and procedures of an organisation, not just the behaviour of specific racist individuals
• Crime


  Any act or omission that breaks the law. For conviction, the court needs to be satisfied the person both did the illegal act and intended to do it/knew they were doing it
• Judiciary


  The courts and judges
• Key terms


  • Crime rate
  • Criminal justice system
  • Criminal subculture
  • Dark figure of crime
  • Delinquency
  • Deviance
• Labelling


  Placing a positive or negative label onto an individual or group based upon observations or preconceived ideas about their behaviour
• Crime rate


  The number of reported crimes per 100,000 of the population
• Criminal justice system

  All the institutions, organisations and people involved in the investigation, prosecution and prevention of crime, including the police and the courts
• Law


  The rules that, if broken, are crimes. Most laws are made by parliament
• Criminal subculture


  A group of people for whom crime is normal, e.g. a criminal gang
• Legislation


  Laws made by parliament
• Dark figure of crime


  Crimes that do not show in the statistics as they are not reported
• Delinquency


  Rule-breaking and law-breaking, often used in the context of young people ("juvenile delinquents")
• Legislative process


  The way laws are made in parliament
• Deviance


  Behaviour that does not conform to the norms and values of society, including crimes and legal but abnormal behaviour
• Legislature

  An institution that passes legislation - that makes laws, e.g. the UK Parliament
• Deviancy amplification


  The reaction to crime and/or deviance can actually make it worse or increase it, e.g. media reporting encouraging more people to commit crimes
• Magistrate


  A member of the public who determines whether people have committed crimes and what their sentence should be for non-serious crimes
• Deviant career


  Breaking the law as a way of earning a living and choosing to live one's life
• Media


  All media that can reach a mass audience, such as newspapers, television and radio
• Discrimination


  Treating people differently because of certain characteristics
• Ethnic group


  A group of people who all share the same ethnicity
• Master status


  The label given to an individual that carries all of their other characteristics and influences their interactions with others
• Media stereotypes


  Simplified generalisations about groups or individuals based upon their social characteristics that are presented by the media
• Ethnic minority


  An ethnic group who are a minority group in society
• Miscarriage of justice


  When an individual is incorrectly processed through the justice system and found to be guilty, either when they are innocent or correct procedures have not been followed
• Ethnicity


  Culture, a product of people's race, nationality, culture, perhaps religion, language, etc.
• Folk devils


  Popular villains in the media, with their crimes exaggerated
• Moral panic


  An exaggerated reaction to an event or behaviour of individuals and groups, usually amplified by the media, causing a fear amongst the public about a decline in moral behaviour
• Gender deal


  The emotional rewards women receive from marrying and having children, stopping them from committing crime
• News value

  The worthiness of events to be published or broadcast as news based upon their interest to the public
• Identity theft


  A form of fraud where a criminal steals an individual's personal data to pass themselves off as that person
• Non-indictable offence


  A less serious offence dealt with by a magistrate's court
• Indictable offence


  An offence where the person has the right to trial by jury
• Injustice


  When something is not fair, including "miscarriages of justice" where people are found guilty of a crime they did not commit
• Institutional racism


  Racism in the policies and procedures of an organisation, not just the behaviour of specific racist individuals
• Norms


  Normal patterns of behaviour in specific social situations
• Judiciary


  The courts and judges
• Official crime statistics


  Statistics published by the government on the level of crime