Explain what the British Crime Survey is

The British Crime Survey is a victim study – it asks people if they’ve been a victim of crime

Explain what a self-report study is

Self-report studies ask people if they’ve been a victim of crime

Explain what official crime figures/Home Office crime figures are

It is the crime data complied from police and court records to provide an official figure

What criminological perspective is the following statement located in: “Deviance could no longer be viewed as a pathological act that violated consensual norms, but rather as something that was created in the process of social interaction, which some people who commit deviant acts come to be known as deviants and other do not”

Interactionism and labelling

What is fundamental to Charles Murray's Right Realist argument on crime

That an underclass is emerging in modern Western societies That an underclass is emerging in modern Western societies. For Murray the underclass are a group of people namely, single mums, unemployed young males, who deliberately seek to avoid work. These characteristics are then passed on to their offspring – they’re socialised into an underclass attitude. So crime is integral to the underclass

What did Wilson and Hernstein mean by their term ‘rational choice theory’?

Their Right Realist position sees the individual as making a rational choice to become a criminal. Therefore preventative measures should include more CCTV surveillance and increased security

Why is Durkheim’s study of suicide useful in understanding crime & deviance?

Durkheim argument was that sociologists needed to uncover ‘social facts’. Durkheim’s study into suicide showed it to be a product of social facts – an external force acting on the individual. He found a statistical relationship between suicide rates and religion, location, age and family situation – he applied a specific methodology to his research

Explain Cicourel’s research

Cicourel studied the criteria from which police and probation officers’ labelled young people as being ‘typically delinquent’

Identify some of the methodological problems with the British Crime Survey

It validity could be questionable due to its 75% response rate Respondents are asked to recall events from over a 12 month period and so their memory might not be perfect Defining what a crime actually is varies from person to person (known as problems of operationalisation) There could be representative problems as respondents are only householders, people who are homeless are never questioned

What type of criminological research do left-realists identify as being the most useful and what was their survey called?

The British Crime Survey, as it looks at the victims of crime The British Crime Survey, as it looks at the victims of crime. This is in contrast to labelling theory and radical criminology which left-realists say ignores the plight of working-class people. The Islington Crime Survey was commissioned by left-realists

Why are Albert Cohen and Robert Merton’s views on deviance seen as functionalist?

Albert Cohen sees deviance as a safety valve for example prostitution performs a safety valve function by protecting the family It acts as an indicator of discontent within society. So increasing truancy from school shows problems within the education system For Robert Merton the ‘strain to anomie’ results from a failure to achieve the American Dream He identified 5 possible ways people are able to react living in a ‘success’ driven society