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Year 12 Sociology Summer term.

Understanding Power and Control - Crime and Deviance.

Our society has many sets of assumptions and expectations upon which we carry out our everyday behaviour. But what if we do not behave the way others expect? What happens if a guest does not bring a gift to a wedding ceremony? What happens if this guest brings a syringe and some white powder to the same party? Certain kinds of unpredictability are not welcome, and are even punished in our society. Who has the power to define other people's behaviours as unwelcome or punishable? That question can also be extended to what, how, where, and when is behaviour regarded Deviant?

Exercise 1

Working in small groups attempt to arrive at some, “common sense” answers to the below, we will then discuss your answers as a class.

• What is, “deviant.”?

• What is a crime?

• How can crime be functional to the well being of society?

• Who makes the laws in Britain?

• Whose interests do they reflect?

• Is the law fair?

• Who breaks the law and why?

• What is the relationship between the media and crime?

• Which political party is the best party at maintaining law and order?

Defining Crime and Deviance

What is Deviance?

• To deviate means, literally, to move away or stray from, set standards in society. Deviance is used by sociologists to refer to behaviour that, while being different, is often not controlled legally.

‘Non-conformity to a given norm, or set of norms, which are accepted by a significant number of people in a community or society’ (Anthony Giddens 1993).

• Absolute Deviance refers to an act which is universally wrong e.g genocide.

• Relative deviance is an act which is seen as wrong according to prevailing norms of the time.

What is Crime?

• Behaviour going against the formal, written laws of a given society. The punishment of crime is likely to be more serious than the punishment of ‘deviance’

• “ Crimes are those actions deemed so disturbing to citizens or disruptive to society as to justify state intervention” (Pease 2002)

Defining the difference between crime and deviance is more complex than you think. Deviance is a wide category of which crime is a part. Thus:-

1. An Act can be Criminal and Deviant. E.g murdering an old lady, but what about murder in a war situation?

2. An Act can be deviant but not criminal E.g walking down a street naked, but is it deviant to walk around naked in your own home?

3. Acts can be criminal but not deviant E.g if someone is found guilty of a minor speeding offence and fined, are they subject to social disapproval? Similar examples include tax evasion and fiddling expenses.

Exercise 2 Give three examples of each of the three categories described above. Use exercise 3 to help you!

Exercise 3

Which of the following activities are deviant and which are criminal? Draw two interlocking circles as shown on the board and put some of these into the correct circles as examples.

Alcoholism

Forcing your wife to have sex against her will.

Downloading porn off the Internet.

Stealing from a shop

Smoking pot in the privacy of your own home.

Cross Dressing

Not appointing a black candidate because you are racist.

A homosexual relationship between 17 year olds.

Cheating at cards

Having sex at 15 years of age.

Prostitution

Becoming an ‘eco warrior’

Being rude to Friends.

Two-timing your boy or girl friend.

Attempting suicide.

Buying cigarettes when only 14.

Truanting from lessons

Murder

Homosexuality

Rioting

Wearing a tattoo

Tax evasion

Mental illness

Breaking the speed limit

Nude sunbathing

The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance

What is criminal or deviant is not universal across all cultures or across time. Crime and deviance can also vary across different situations. How a particular society defines what is criminal or deviant will depend upon current norms and values which are a product of social construction. This means that deviance is a relative concept.

Exercise 4

Come up with two deviant acts which vary according to:

o Time

o Place

o Social situation

Not all deviance is negative

It can be argued that it is often deviant acts which contribute to positive change in society the most.

Exercise 5

Draw upon your own general knowledge to think of at least three deviant acts which have led to positive change in society.

Extension work -What and who is most deviant in today’s society?

Exercise 6

Find a recent news story about crime or deviance and write a summary of the story suggesting why it might be a popular one with the public.

Exercise 7

Official statistics of crime suggest that criminals are more often male, working-class, young, have a poor educational background or home background and are often black. Suggest some reasons for these patterns.

Measuring Crime

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There are actually 3 ways in which Crime is measured

• official statistics - PRC

• victim surveys - CSEW

• self-report studies

OFFICIAL STATISTICS or Police Recorded Crime (PRC)

This is police recorded crime, it is based on police records – on the records kept by the police of crimes which they have recorded. Each year statistics produced from police records provide an official account of the volume of crime and trends in crime. In addition, statistics complied from court records and police cautioning give a picture of those responsible for crime.

Exercise 8

Key Question: Can we trust Official Crime Statistics?

Consider each of the following situations. Give reasons why you (as a victim) would or would not report the crime and why you (as a police officer) would or would not record the crime.

|Crime situation |Reasons for victim not reporting |Reasons for police not recording |

|You experience date rape in your partner’s flat. | | |

| | | |

| | | |

|Your best friend hits you when you claim to be in love| | |

|with his/her partner. | | |

| | | |

|Your brother has taken £5 from your wallet or purse. | | |

|You see people beating up someone on the street | | |

| | | |

|You discover someone who has been stabbed to death | | |

| | | |

|You see a bunch of fourteen year olds you know buying| | |

|alcohol in a pub. | | |

|Someone has scratched your car door. | | |

| | | |

| | | |

|You see one of your neighbours breaking into someone’s| | |

|house | | |

| | | |

|Someone has stolen milk from your doorstep | | |

The CSEW, a victimisation study

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is intended to find out about the prevalence of crimes that have not been reported, therefore presenting a different picture from official crime statistics which depend on police recording reported crimes. Crimes may not be reported where offences are trivial, the victim is not insured so cannot claim compensation, the offender is known and the victim fears repercussions, the victim has offences to hide or has little faith in the police. Thus a comparison with official crime statistics in 2002- 3 found that according to the BCS (British Crime Survey / previous CSEW) there were twice as many bicycle thefts and woundings and three times more thefts from the person and cases of vandalism, whereas car theft figures were similar.

The CSEW also provides information on fear of crime and precautions people take against it, which could be useful to policy makers. It also shows what sort of people are most at risk of crime.

Exercise 9

What lies beneath? Draw an iceberg and label it to represent the hidden figure of crime.

SELF REPORTING STUDIES - How criminal are you?

Self-report studies of crime ask people whether they have committed a series of offences. They are usually based on a self- completed questionnaire or an interview. Respondents are presented with a list of offences and asked which they have committed over a period of time usually 12 months.

| |Often |Rarely |Never |

|Allowing your dog out of the garden | | | |

|Copying CD Rom or DVD | | | |

|Downloading music | | | |

|Drinking alcohol underage | | | |

|Drinking under-age | | | |

|Dropping litter | | | |

|Graffiti on desks or tables in school | | | |

|Hitting or pushing people | | | |

|Letting people borrow DVDs and games you rented | | | |

|Not paying bus fare on bus or trains | | | |

|Opening letters to other people | | | |

|Saying bad things about people | | | |

|Swearing in public | | | |

|Watching pirate DVD and video | | | |

Crime and Gender Research Project

Background information.

Carol Smart (1977) puts forward a number of reasons why there has until recently been little work in the area of women and crime:

1. Women tend to commit fewer crimes than men

2. Most crimes committed by women seem to be of a trivial nature.

3. Sociology and criminology has tended to be dominated by males

4. Criminology has been motivated by a desire to control “problematic” behaviour. Women’s criminality has been seen to be less problematic.

It would appear however from statistics that gender is the most important factor in whether an individual commits crime. The ratio of male to female crime and convictions is roughly 5:1 but for some offences it is much greater: e.g it is 100:1 for sexual offences. Overall 87% of crimes are committed by males.

1. Do women commit fewer crimes or are the figures misleading?

Pollak (1950)The Masked Female Offender

Pollak suggested that official figures under represent the extent of female crime. Police and magistrates (male) tend to be chivalrous and women are adept at hiding crimes. Women are experts at deception because of hiding menstruation, invisible sexual arousal and fake orgasms. However Heidensohn states that Pollak’s evidence is based on an unsubstantiated stereo typical view of women. It’s a load of pollaks !!!

The “Chivalry” Factor

Anne Campbell (1981) argued that females were more likely to be cautioned than convicted. Hilary Allen (1987) examined crime statistics and found evidence of leniency towards female offenders: e.g. 73% of women but only 54% of men found guilty of indictable motoring offences, were given fines and this was because men were more likely to receive custodial sentences. However Steven Box concluded that in general official statistics provide a fairly accurate picture of female offending and that a chivalry factor does not account for the difference in crime rates.

Sentencing Policy.

Farrington and Morris found women did tend to get lighter sentences but were likely to commit less serious offences. However some claim that male offenders are sometimes treated more sympathetically than female victims, this may be particularly so in the case of rape trials, men are often seen as being driven by biological sexual need and women victims are seen careless or leading men on. Dobash and Dobash note that the police are often reluctant to arrest men guilty of domestic violence. Heidensohn has claimed that women are treated more harshly when they deviate from societal norms of female sexuality e.g promiscuity or laddette behaviour. However courts may be less willing to imprison women with young children.

2. Why do women who do break the law commit crime?

Biological explanations

Lombroso attempted to discover what physical characteristics were associated with criminality. He did find some correlations such as the size of the thighs of prostitutes but this does not tend to be taken very seriously by sociologists. However there have been some recent attempts to find biological explanations. For example, Anne Moir and David Jessel explain some female crime as resulting from hormonal changes associated with PMS.

Pat Carlen and Control Theory

Carlen argues that some women do not reap the normal rewards of female conformity such as a ‘male breadwinner’ or a loving family. When these rewards are not available or when they do not seem to be worth the sacrifice, criminality becomes a possibility. Carlen found female criminality was related to being brought up in care, poor relationships, drug addiction, poverty but also to a quest for excitement.

Why do females appear to commit fewer crimes?

Sex-Role Theory

Women are socialized from an early age to accept the passive and caring roles. Committing crime is therefore seen as unfeminine and uncaring.

Frances Heidensohn: Women and social control.

She argues that “male dominated patriarchal societies control women more effectively than they do men, making it more difficult for women to break the law.”

Control of women at home

Endless hours spent doing housework and childcare limits the opportunities for women to commit crime. Furthermore if women do deviate from their traditional roles they may be subjected to domestic violence or the threat of it. Men often control the family budget and can use financial power to control women. Daughters are also given less freedom than sons and are expected to do more housework.

Control of women in public

Women often choose not to go out in public because of the fear of being attacked or raped. Heidensohn quotes data from the Islington Crime Survey which found 54% of women but only 14% of men, often or always avoided going out after dark because of fear of crime. Heidensohn makes the point that sensational reporting of rape cases and unsympathetic judges has the effect of controlling women. Fear of a bad reputation and the risk of being labeled a “slag”, “slut” etc. has the effect of limiting their behaviour in public.

Control of women at work

At work, women are usually controlled by male superiors and even in Trade Unions males tend to dominate. Women may also be intimidated by various forms of sexual harassment that disadvantage them at work. Surveys have found that up to 60% of women have experienced various forms of sexual harassment.

Lack of Opportunity

There was an assumption that because women were confined to the private world with limited access to the public world they lacked opportunity for crime. However, this situation is changing, with women occupying roles in the workplace and public life.

3. Is the proportion of female to male crime increasing?

Freda Adler (1975): Womens liberation and the new female criminal.

Adler claimed that women’s liberation has led to a new type of female criminal. She points to statistical evidence that appears to show that an increasing involvement of women in crime, particularly crimes such as robbery and embezzlement, which are normally associated with men. Adler anticipates that as the trend towards equality continues, female crime rates are likely to converge with men’s as male and female social roles converge in both legitimate and illegitimate spheres.

Steven Box and Chris Hale put some of the increase in female offending down to changes in the way female crime is dealt with resulting in a greater likelihood of them being recorded by the police. Box and Hale looked at the increase in the number of female police officers as a possible factor influencing recording. They also noted that most female offenders that committed serious crime tended to come from lower class backgrounds and it was therefore more likely that increases were due to poverty and economic recession. They claim that this increase has nothing to do with liberation. However they do believe that the perception of greater liberation has sensitised authorities to the “problem”, and lead to a greater likelihood of female offences being recorded.

4. Why do males commit crimes?

James Messerschmidt (1993) argues that masculinity is something males have to constantly work at. A businessman can achieve masculinity through the exercise of power over women in the workplace, whereas a man with no power at work may express his masculinity through control of women in the domestic situation – e.g. domestic violence. Middle-class boys achieve educational success but at the expense of emasculation. Working-class males adopt an 'oppositional masculinity', both inside and outside school, which is more aggressive in nature. Bea Campbell (1993) argues young men seek compensation for lack of breadwinner status through 'aggressive masculinity'. Katz (1988) argues that criminology has failed to understand the role of pleasure in committing crime. This search for pleasure is meaningful when equated within masculinity’s stress upon status, control over others, and success. Violent crime is 'seductive' undertaken for chaos, thrill and potential danger.

The Project – A quantitative research study into Crime and Gender

You are going to work in groups to design and carry out a piece of research on crime and gender. You can choose from the following topics or think of your own.

• Do males really commit more crimes than females?

• Do males commit different types of crimes to females?

• Do males commit crimes for different reasons than females?

• Do the police treat male and female offenders differently?

• Are male crimes reported more often than female crimes?

• Are males or females more often victims of crime?

Your participants will be selected through opportunity sampling either friends or family and are unlikely to be offenders or victims so for some of these topics you will be asking them about their attitudes towards these topics.

Project stages

1. Consider your aim, what specific question about crime and gender do you want to find out?

2. Do some background research on your topic using this booklet and the internet.

3. Get Official statistics. You should be able to find these on the internet. These may be useful for comparison when drawing conclusions from the primary data which you collect.

4. Formulate a specific hypothesis.

5. Design either a questionnaire or structured interview to collect relevant information from participants. REMEMBER ALL THE INFORMATION YOU COLLECT MUST BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL but you must have a record of whether your participants are male or female. Ask me to check them before they go out to participants.

6. Design a confidentiality and consent form to go with questionnaires or to present to participants before interview.

7. Use opportunity sampling to gain a sample of at least 10 participants per group.

8. Print questionnaires or arrange interview times/dates and collect data.

9. Analyse and draw conclusions from your data, using graphs and referring to your hypothesis etc.

10. Write individual reports addressing each of the following headings:-

• Background research (no more than 1 side of A4 and it can be based on material in this booklet) (15marks)

• Aim – in general what where you looking for(2 marks)

• Hypothesis (What did you predict the results would be) (2 marks)

• Operationalisation (How did you define and measure concepts e.g crime or violence) (2 marks)

• Sampling (2 marks)

• Method (why did you choose questionnaire/interviews) ( 2 Marks)

• Procedure (10 marks)

• Analysis of data (Use graphs etc to present your findings) (10 marks)

• Evaluation (Advantages and disadvantages of method using GROVER) (15 marks)

• A list of which members of the group carried out which tasks.(0marks)

Total 60 marks

Why is this important ? In your A level component 2 exam you will be required to design a study in the exam following this layout.

11. Prepare a 5 minute powerpoint presentation as a group about your study and showing your research, findings, conclusions and evaluations to present to the class in September.

The deadline for reports will be Friday 7th July and presentations must be finished by the following Monday 10th. Good Luck!

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