Develop
your knowledge: Crime and Deviance
Use
chapter 13 of Paul Taylor et al (1996) Sociology
in Focus
Answer
these questions and then learn the answers. You may find it useful to
create an index card for each answer to hold in your revision notes.
1.
What
is a norm?
2.
How
do Downes and Rock define deviance?
3.
Attempt
a definition of crime.
4.
Why
does Heidensohn consider that there are a variety of acts that are crimes?
5.
What
varying forms can deviance take in our society? (Think of overt and
covert, singular and collective deviance)
6.
Plummer
points out that ‘time’ is an element of deviant behaviour. Explain
this in your own words.
7.
Why
is deviance generally agreed to be a ‘relative concept’?
8.
Why
must sociologists reject common-sense views of crime and deviance?
9.
How
do the media create and structure public perceptions of crime?
10.
What
did Smith say was people’s most significant source of information about
crime?
11.
Williams
and Dickinson discovered an anomaly between media coverage of violent
crime and its actual occurrence in society. What was that?
12.
Explain
the sentence ‘crime is a social construct’ in your own words. This
could be worth developing into an essay plan.
13.
What
is the ‘dark figure of crime’
14.
List
all of the reasons why one should distrust official crime statistics in
your own words. You may choose to return to this question after reading
the whole chapter as this is a classic question for both crime and for
methodology sections of papers
15.
Summarise
the main trend in crime occurrence recorded by the police.
16.
Account
for the trends in crime occurrence with reference to the reporting of
crime and changes in legislation
17.
What
pattern in nostalgia and public response to perceived crime waves can be
seen over the years?
18.
What
is the BCS or British Crime Survey? How often does it take place?
19.
According
to the BCS, what proportion of crimes end up in police statistics?
20.
According
to the BCS, why has the recorded crime rate risen since 1981?
21.
Which
people are most likely to be the victims of crime? For each category
identified, you should offer a reason for their victim status.
22.
Why
is there a gap between BCS figures on sexual offending and the figures
suggested by victim surveys of females?
23.
According
to crime statistics, who offends? In your opinion, and based on previous
reading of this chapter, how much trust should we place in that figure?
24.
What
is a self report study?
25.
What
picture of the criminal do socio-biologists such as Lombroso and
psychologists such as Eysenck offer to the debate?
26.
Why
should sociologists reject such theorising?
27.
Why
does Durkheim suggest that deviance is good for society?
28.
Suggest
in one word what an abused wife or child might think of Durkheim’s view!
Now summarise the same view in sociological language.
29.
What
was Durkheim’s purpose in studying Suicide?
30.
What
forms of suicide did Durkheim identify? Summarise each in one simple
sentence.
31.
Why
has Durkheim’s reliance on official statistics been criticised?
32.
Why
does Atkinson say that suicide is a social construction?
33.
What
is the difference between Durkheim’s and Merton’s view of suicide?
34.
What
is the ‘strain’ theory of crime
35.
Summarise
each of Merton’s accounts of the origins of criminal behaviour in one
sentence each.
36.
What
is a subculture?
37.
How
did Cohen use subculture to explain crime?
38.
Cloward
and Ohlin identified three types of deviant subculture. What were these?
39.
What
are the typifying features of working class culture according to Miller?
40.
Marxists
offer a different view of deviant subculture, how do they suggest that
working class sub-cultures arise?
41.
What
is the significance of notions of ‘resistance’ in the development of
working class subculture?
42.
According
to Marxists, why can nothing be done to solve the problems of crime?
43.
How
do the Marxists manage to make racism and homophobia among working class
males seem to be acceptable modes of behaviour?
44.
Interactionalists
such as Matza suggest that criminal careers can happen by accident,
through ‘drift’. Explain this process.
45.
How
do deviants justify themselves according to Matza?
46.
What
is ‘white collar crime’?
47.
What
is ‘corporate crime’?
48.
What
is occupational crime?
49.
What
are the three central beliefs which underlie interactionism according to
Blumer?
50.
How
do interactionists define deviance?
51.
What
is ‘labelling theory
52.
What
is the difference between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary deviance’?
53.
How
do mental institutions and prisons create a deviant personality according
to Goffman?
54.
According
to Stanley Cohen, what is a ‘moral panic’?
55.
Summarise
the deviance amplification spiral described by Cohen.
56.
What,
according to many theorists is the main failure of interactionalism and
labelling theory?
57.
What
is the relationship between crime and the structures of society according
to Marxists?
58.
How
does capitalism affect people’s personal morality?
59.
What
is the relationship between the law and the upper classes according to
Marxism?
60.
What
is radical criminology and why was it felt necessary to develop such a
view?
61.
What
are the seven dimensions of the new criminology?
62.
What
is mugging? How can it be understood as a moral and racist panic?
63.
Why
do black youths ‘mug’ according to Hall?
64.
Why
did the government ‘need’ mugging in Hall’s view?
65.
In
your view, is mugging a moral panic or a natural reaction of black
children to the oppression of racism? Does Hall clarify his position on
this point?
66.
How
did Rock challenge the New criminology?
67.
How
did Lea and Yong challenge interactionalism?
68.
What
are the three main areas of concern of feminist criminologists?
69.
What
is victimology?
70.
How
does Heidensohn turn malestream sociological approaches to women and crime
on their heads?
71.
What
did the Scarman Report suggest about ethnicity and crime?
72.
Which
groups are most likely to be the victims of racism?
73.
What
was the contribution of right realism to Reagan’s administration in the
USA?
74.
Wilson
offers a new right perspective on the link between poverty and crime.
Summarise it.
75.
What
are the cultural factors which contribute to crime according to Murray?
76.
What
is ‘control theory’?
77.
Is
crime are real problem according to left realists?
78.
Why
do left realists support the police?
Points
of evaluation
and discussion
·
Why are Marxists likely to romanticise criminal behaviour among the
working classes?
·
Does interactionalism solve the question of why people choose to
act in a criminal or deviant fashion?
·
Are youth cultures about rebellion or having a good time?
·
To what extent is crime a masculine behaviour?
·
Suggest reasons why crime rates have risen at the same time as
relative affluence.
·
Is
CCTV an infringement of civil rights or a blessing which prevents crime
from occurring?
·
Is
crime a positive feature of society? Answer with reference to sociological
theory.
·
Can
we ever solve the ‘problem’ of crime?
·
Is
crime an extension of ‘normal’ behaviour?
·
Which
is more unacceptable, the breaking of a moral code or the breaking of a
social code? |
