paper 3 - 2022 Flashcards
define crime
a legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceedings, which may result in punishment; an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law.
define deviance
behavior which is disapproved of by most people in a society or group, which does not conform to shared norms and values.
define social order
general conformity to the shared norms and values, so that society is peaceful and predicable.
sociologists do not agree on how and why social order is achieved, and in whose interests it works.
define social control
the processes by which people are persuaded to obey the rules and conform . the agencies of social control are institutions that serve to ensure conformity.
define formal social control
- institutions that directly and explicitly control the behavior of the population, via passing and enforcing laws
- carried out by the government, armed forces and the criminal justice system including the police, the court and the prison service.
- people are aware they are happening
example and effects of formal mechanisms of social control
education =legal requirement to attend and behavior codes
workplace = official discipline procedures and codes of conduct
sanctions - warning from police, sentences, dismissal from work and exclusion from school
police, court and criminal justice system, government and the military = passing and enforcing laws that directly and explicitly control the behavior
military - rarely used in UK, however military tactics used at time of civil unrest
religion - within families and communities, sanctions = public exclusion
define informal social control
control our behaviour in more subtly way and are carried out by agencies such as the education system, the family, the peer groups, media and religion.
individuals are less aware but more important and effective.
sanctions = social exclusion (peer group), disappointed reactions from parents, being passed over for a promotion at work, celebrities being criticised in magazines
elements of a social construct
not fixed created by society different in different cultures - cultural relative laws define them temporally relative - change over time context dependent
why crime is socially constructed
relativity of …
time - drinking alcohol in 1920’s US
culture - women cant show their legs in Islamic society
circumstances - killing the a enemy solider at war
what do police recorded crime figures include
statistics produced from police, court and prison records
data collected in the crime survey for England and wales
a victim survey which asks people about their experiences of crime
collected by the home office and published by the ONS
strength of police recorded crime figures.
easy to access and have already been compiled
up to date and standardized - time between report and occurrence tends to be short
covers the whole population over a long period of time - help with identifying patterns and trends
no ethical issues
not an estimated sample - provided a whole count
weaknesses of police recorded crime figures
don’t include undetected or unreported crimes - dark figures of crime
don’t provide a complete picture about the individual crime
accuracy may vary between areas
influenced by changes in public perceptions
definitions, laws and police counting change - changes in police practice and government polices may influence them
pressure on police to meet certain crime reduction
the dark figure of crimes
term used for all unreported crime - hard to estimate how large the figure is
some crimes are more likely to have dark figures than others
Sociologists =
mumsnet et al
starmer
lindsay armstrong
mumsnet et al - dark figure of crimes
83% of those who are raped or sexually assaulted didn’t report to the police
1/2 were to embarrassed to report
2/3 hesitated because of how low conviction rates were
3/4 felt the media was unsympathetic to raped women
starmer - dark figure of crime
9/10 rapes or sexual assaults are never reported because victims don’t believe in the criminal justice system.
support - 2014 the ministry of justice relieved that conviction for SA fell
Lindsay Armstrong - dark figures of crime
went through a second ordeal by the defense lawyer in the court case leading to the conviction of her attacker but also her suicided / overdose
police discretion
an issue with police recorded crime figures is that they will be affected by the discretion and decisions made by the police
some police may be corrupt and have their own reasons for misrecording
however recent evidence suggests that practices which compromise the accuracy of the statistics are widespread
officers can also influence statistics by being affected by stereotypes.
manipulation techniques - coughing, cuffing and skewing
manipulation technique - coughing
offender may be encouraged to admit to a number of offences in return for being charged of a less serious crime.
this will improve clear up rates for the police
manipulation technique - cuffing
removing reports from the statistics at a later date, because officers decide either that they don’t believe the complaint or reassess the offence following further investigation.
improving figures
manipulation technique - skewing
involves forces putting further resources into those areas measured by performance indicators, to the detriment of other areas, thus skewing figures
James Patrick - the whistle blower
allegations of routine manipulation of statistics were made in 2013 by James Patrick. He provided evidence to parliamentary committee about his concerns. he was disciplined by the police and left his job as a result.
when a police officer analyzed data for the metropolitan police and found that serious sexual offences were routinely no-crimed and burglary was downgraded to a lower crime.
he has support from other senior officers - public administration committee attitudes and behavior which led to misrecording of crime has become ingrained, including within senior leadership
define victim survey
alternative way of measuring crime which involves surveying people about which crimes they have been victims of in a given period, including crimes they have not reported
e.g. the Islington crime survey, or Dobash and Dobash
strength of CSEW victim surveys
positivists views the BCS methods as highly scientific, representative, reliable and objective
random sampling - nationally representative = highly generalizable
structured interviews offer reliability because its standardized and planed in advance
uncovers the dark figures of crime - more valid than police recorded figures
limitations of CSEW victim survey
- Marxists point out that the general public are usually unaware that they may have been a victim of crimes committed by the economically powerful.
- left realists argue that they don’t tell us a lot about the day to day life in high crime areas such as inner cities as there is low respondent rates. - higher homelessness and less private housing
- Pinkington notes that the BCS distort the meaning of the numbers; a small number of crimes are violent or sexual but they are the most traumatic