SOCIOLOGY Who breaks the rules and why? (3)

Introduction  There are many different groups in society.  There is more crime in certain groups.  There are causes for this.

Measuring Crime (1)  There are three sources;  Official statistics – police and home records. A: easily accessible. D: not all crimes are reported police.  BCS – annual survey asking people what crimes they have been victims of. A: a big sample, shows hidden figure. D: people many be unaware they are victims.  Self – report studies – anonymous questionnaires where people confess to crimes. A: shows hidden figure of crime. D: Some lie and are small samples.  Dark figure of crime – the crime not recorded by police may be due to ignorance or choice.  There are reasons not all crimes are reported. These are;  Trivial  Police effectiveness  Embarrassment  Fear of trouble  Reprisals  Private  Unaware

Measuring Crime (2)  Despite reports crime is steady and the only change is reports to the police. These changes in procedures are;  Counting rules – how 6 crimes is actually 6 crimes  Police detection – police becoming more able to solve crimes due to technology.  Police attitudes – Police ideas about what is more important e.g. drug dealing  Legal changes – changes in laws make different things illegal e.g. rape within marriage.  Easier communication – phones and s make it easier.  Affluence – people are wealthier than before and therefore there is more to steal.  Changing social norms – changes in attitudes towards things like rape and child abuse.  Intolerant public – public are fed up.

Measuring Crime (3)  Reasons why police may not record every crime;  Trivial – some incidents are not worth investigating.  Victim not proceeding with complaint – e.g. parents and children  Unreliable witness – will be discredited in court  Police values – think some crimes are more important.

Media & Crime  Another source to measure crime.  Mass media – consists of films, TV, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines and books.  Crime in the news – it forms a significant amount and proportion of crime news has heavily increased. TV and radio devote more time to crime than newspapers.  A lot of coverage of violent and sexual crimes. Homicide is particularly popular.  Criminals portrayed tend to be males and older, but in crime statistics they are male and younger.  Judiciary is never criticised in media and they are seen in a positive light, instead it blames the individual.  Crime fiction – shows that crime is a regular thing and mostly middle aged men commit then and that most crimes are solved.  Why so popular – have particular values about news and stories. They give the public a shock factor and something to talk about.  Many are influenced by the reporting of crime;  They think crime is increasing.  They are worried about crime.  Moral panics – Stanley Cohen developed idea that the media can create panic in society.  Media has power to create powerful stereotypes about people in society and they are used as scapegoats.  Cohen suggests that stereotypes of young people provide exciting stories and hit headlines. They are used as scapegoats to to create a sense of unity in society.  Young people are therefore powerless because they have no say and no money and easy to pick on. E.g. mods and rockers.  Deviancy Amplification – Cohen argued that the media covering these events makes matters worse. It acts as a prediction that there will be more trouble and is like an advertisement to more rule breakers.

Patterns of Crime  Official statistics show crime is not evenly distributed amongst these groups. E.g. with the age group young vs. old.  Social class – official statistics say working class people are more likely to be arrested. The reasons are;  Poverty and unemployment – they are more likely to suffer and crime allows them to provide for themselves and family because property crime increases when poverty and unemployment does.  Relative deprivation –big gap between the poor and rich causes poor to sustain life through crime.  Stereotyping and prejudice – fit police stereotype and therefore are targets. Also they might see middle class people just having fun and see working class people and think they are making trouble.  Informal social control – middle classes are expected by the police to socialise their own children in school, home etc. However, they may feel that they should socialise the working class themselves.  Lower-class working values – different values that lead to crime e.g. being macho and excitement.  White collar crime – usually committed by individuals, by members of middle and upper classes and are less likely to be targeted by judiciary which Marxists think are middle class institutions.  Corporate crime – usually involves who company and includes misrepresentation of products etc. and from middle and upper classes. It is hard to find who specifically is responsible, rarely people are aware they are victims and therefore there a few persecutions.

Patterns of Crime (2)  Gender – Official statistics show that males commit more crimes than females in the ratio 5:1 and the most common crime of a women is theft.  Why do females commit less crime? – these are some reason;  Socialisation – expected to be more passive and boys are expected to be the opposite.  Opportunity – have less freedom and are more closely supervised.  Sometimes the official statistics underestimate female crime. This is because;  They are far less reported  Female crime is less harshly by judiciary.  Chivalry factor – sympathy felt towards women due to their circumstances and men in positions of power see themselves as knights saving women.  Starts at school.  Other sociologists say that women are treated more harshly in crime statistics;  Treated more harshly than men for some crimes  When women go against the caring typical role of a woman.  Makes women seem evil and are demonised.  E.g. mother abusing child.  The female crime rate is rising;  Changing socialisation  Greater opportunities  Women are more likely to be victims of rape, sexual assault and domestic abuse than men. These statistics however are underestimated because women don’t tend to report them.

Patterns of Crime (3)  Age groups 21 and under commit most crimes.  Younger people may be over represented in crime statistics. The reasons are;  Teenagers more likely to be noticed as they are under stricter watch.  Older people commit white collar crime which is heavily under reported.  Delinquency – refers to the undesirable, anti – social behaviour of young people whether its illegal or not.  Old people have always been complaining about the behaviour of youths.  Explanations of delinquency;  Family problems  Failure at school  Use of drugs and alcohol  Social control is stronger over adults e.g. families to look after.  Peer groups also encourage delinquency;  Albert Cohen said that boys failing in school suffer from status frustration and unable to find the approval and success in school that they want they turn to crime to and get approval of peers. This is an example of their own subculture.  David Matza – everyone has two sets of values.;  Conventional values; ones most people follow  subterranean values; which are only expressed in certain places at certain time e.g. aggression. Delinquents are people who express these values at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Delinquency tend to sort itself out but the government has tried too with;  Curfews  Parental responsibility  Activities for young people  Reducing school exclusions.

Patterns of Crime (4)  Black people are most likely to be imprisoned. The reasons are;  Commit more crimes than other groups.  Judiciary is racist.  More likely to live in inner cities with fewer opportunities and less quality education.  Poor relations between police and blacks.  Asian people – not seen as a problem to do with crime. This is because;  Greater economic success  Stronger community and family ties  Strong religious beliefs  Victims – ethnic minorities tend to be victims of racism and violence. There is also a lot of police brutality however not much of these are properly investigated.

Sociological Explanation of Crime  Biological explanations;  Cesare Lambroso – tried to explain that criminals are biologically different than other people. Physical features like large jaws and high cheek bones, dark skin, big ears etc. Most people dismiss this idea as they are offensive and dangerous. Why not lock up everyone with these features?  Modern ideas – crime may be caused by hormones or imbalance of chemicals or genetic explanations. Maybe there is a gene that makes up more susceptible to crime but this raises other issues;  Are they actually responsible?  Should we give treatment to control behaviour?  What should we do to people who have criminal genes?  Psychological explanations;  Criminal minds – different from others. Hans Eysenck said there is the extrovert and the introvert and criminals tend to be extrovert because they are harder to socialise.  Mental illness – things like being a kleptomaniac, or pyromaniac. This suggests they are ill and need help.  Problems;  Many different types of crime.  Certain places have more crimes than others.  Suggest that criminals aren't responsible, however it can be said that people always have a choice.

Sociological Explanations of Crime (2)  Socialisation – crime is a product of socialisation gone wrong. E.g. lone parent families. Adults who commit crimes may have had something go wrong when they were children, like;  Poor parenting  Troubled family  Low reasoning ability  Educational failure – people who leave school with fewer qualifications have less chances. To improve their quality of life some may turn to crime.  Peer group pressure – some may have norms and values which they use to encourage deviant and criminal behaviour. E.g. a subculture.  Subculture – another different way of shared, learned life and have different norms and values from mainstream culture and sometimes are criminal.  Robert Merton – modern world can be a strain because there is a wide gap between peoples goals and actually reaching them. Because of this they respond by;  Giving up  Rebelling  Go to drugs, alcohol.  Continue to strive  Turn to crime.  Cohen – working class fail to be materialistically successful and frustration leads them to invent their own subculture where succes is crime.  Cloward and Ohlin - there are three subcultures which all provide a different opportunity for crime;  Criminal ; highly organised gangs.  Conflict – not organised.  Retreatist – reject both of these and turn to drugs and alcohol.

Sociological Explanations of Crime (3)  Opportunity structures – when people feel like they are unable to get what they want maybe due to unemployment.  Sometimes crime raises when the economic situation is improving because of relative poverty.  No matter how much we have there are people who have more and the media emphasises this.  Cultural and material deprivation – some people are deprived and may turn to crime because of frustration.  Marxists – capitalists systems encourage greed and selfishness and owning things is good as long as a never ending line of goods for consumerism. Also the idea about competition because people want to have a higher status.  Power and status – people who have power and status are less likely to commit crimes and if they do they can use their power and wealth to avoid getting caught.  Marxists – rules are made and enforced by ruling class and that the judiciary doesn’t investigate white collar crime enough.  Labelling – thinking of a person in terms of one or two characteristics and ignoring the rest of them.  They are negotiable and they can agree with it or remove it. However some labels are impossible to remove e.g. murder, drug addict, paedophile.  Although everyone commits crimes, only some people are labelled as criminals and deviant like the judiciary.  Aaron Cicourel – researching police in California, labelled black working class males were more likely to be stopped and searched rather than actually be a criminal.  Idea of self – fulfilling prophecy. –  Moral panics reflect labelling – involves media reporting on a perceived problem raising everyone's concerns and the problem group therefore is labelled.