Revision Flashcards
(15 cards)
Describe Marxist theory
- Reflects differences in power between social classes
- Capitalism causes crime
- Crime is the result of inequality and poverty
- Police and prisons encourage conformity of working class
- Crime is seen as something the ruling class use as social control, lack of conformity results in punishment
Evaluate the Marxist theory
- Negative - Not all working people commit crime
- Negative - Ignores other factors of why people commit crime like gender or ethnicity
- Negative - Not all capitalist societies have high crime rates. E.g Japan
- Positive - Highlights rightly the impact of selective enforcement
Meaning of social values
Beliefs or ideas that a group shares usually within a culture
Meaning of Mores
Formed from core values, rules that a culture would deem ‘Too serious’ to break.
Meaning of norms
Ideas or rules on how a person is expected to behave by society
Evaluate Eysneck’s theory
- Positive- Used a control group to make his theory more reliable
- Negative- People could lie on the test, making his theory invalid
- Negative- May not be typical to all offenders, not all offenders are extroverted
Evaluate Bowlby’s theory
- Positive- Evidence to support theory. 39% Juvenile delinquents had maternal deprivation
- Negative- Can’t account for the other 61% who were juvenile but didn’t have MD
Sociological policy developments
- Zero tolerance policy
- CCTV - Positive= Identify witnesses and suspects and is effective at deterrence with theft related crimes
Negative= Can cause displacement instead and is costly to get CCTV
Social construction of criminality and how it affects place
- Things that are considered criminal due to place
- Jaywalking UK vs USA
- Actions are treated differently in places
- Cannabis smoking and possession UK vs Canada
Individual campaigns that led to policy change
- Clares Law- Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme 2014
- Sarah’s Law- Sex offender Disclosure Scheme used News of the World 2011
- Ann ming- Abolish double jeopardy law resulted in Criminal Justice Act in 2003
Social change that resulted in policy development
- Stance on women’s rights and protection. Clare’s law - Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme 2014
- Stance on the dangers of drink driving. Drink driving- 1967 Road safety Act and 1968 came breathalysers
- Stance on impacts of drug possession. Made it up to 10 years in prison for possession of drugs in 2014
Individualistic theories influencing policies
- Psychoanalysis, Freud. Crime control, sees patients five times a week. A way to bring unconscious conflicts and repressed emotions into the conscious mind to be resolved.
- Uses hypnosis and free association.
Evaulation of Lombroso
Negative- Racist
Positive- He was the first person to study crime scientifically
Evaluation of Sheldon
Positive- Glueck and Glueck found 60% of offenders had mesomorph body types
Positive- Most juvenile delinquents who are extremely aggressive have heavily mesomorph body type
Negative- Ignores other factors that contribute to body type
Evaluation of XYY syndrome
Positive- Price and Whatmore found links between the syndrome and property crime
Negative- Very rare, not a valid reason, not everyone who has XYY syndrome is a criminal
