Crime and Deviance

Methods and Victims

Who is more likely to be a victim of crime?

Measuring crime and deviance

What are the practical and theoretical problems when measuring crime and

deviance?

In pairs…….

What does this say about how we measure crime and deviance?

Interactionist Critique

BECKER: whether an act is counted as deviant or criminal or not depends not on the act itself, but on the reaction of it to others.

CICOUREL: found that WC youths who were arrested were likely to be labelled as deliquent as they fit the police idea of a ‘typical deliquent’, while MC youths were able to negotiate, presenting themselves as remorseful and able to reform.

The dominance of WC in statistics is thus the result of processes of negotiation through interaction.

MarxistLaw and enforcement reflects interests of the ruling class. The crimes of the poor are strictly enforced. Statistics reflect these inequalities.

Feminist

Do not reflect the amount of crime against women, especially domestic violence. These often occur in a private domestic setting where the police are reluctant to get involved. Women feel they can not report these crimes.

Left RealistCrime is a genuine problem, especially poorer groups in society. Favour detailed victim surveys in local areas. Can reveal basis for many peoples fear of crime

How do we measure crime and deviance?

Official statistics (O.S) are numerical data that have been produced by an official body, usually a Government department, or an organisation associated with the Government. O.S cover a wide range of behaviour including births, deaths, marriage, crime…..

What theoretical perspective would favour O.S?

Positivists see them as a valuable source of quantitative data. They provide measures of behaviour that can be used to investigate possible cause and effect relationships.

In pairs, brainstorm the advantages and

disadvantages of O.S.

The production of official Crime StatisticsIncident occurs which the victim regards as a crime

Victim decides whether or not to report to the policeNo Not recorded in the statistics

Yes

Police make objective decision: is this incident recordable as a crime?No Not recorded in the statistics

Yes

Police exercise discretion: will this crime be recorded?No Not recorded in the statistics

Yes

Crime recorded. In light of further investigation will it stay on the records?No Not recorded in the final figure:

Incident ‘no-crime’Yes

Home office calculates details. Incident appears as a crime in the final statistics.

Investigating crime and deviance

The Public p211 -212

The police p212-215

The judiciary p215-216

Government p242 (A2 Soc Moore et al)

Market place

Plenary

Summarize each section in no more than 2 words

Good Luck with that!!!!

Alternatives to Official StatisticsRead the information on (360 -365 Moore et

al)

• Self Report studies• Victimisation surveys• Participant observation

Write notes on eachsection

•Complete a self report study and compare against Official Statistics.

Task

You have been asked by Tony McNulty the Home office Government Minister for crime, policing and community safety to write a speech for

him explainingwhich one is the most reliable way to collect data on crime.

In pairs, write your speech.

MUST highlight the different ways you can collect crime dataExplain two advantages of one method

SHOULDCompare two ways of collecting crime data and highlight the advantages

and disadvantages of them

COULDExplain the similarities and differences of all the collection methods.

Homework

• Using material from Item A and elsewhere examine the usefulness of victim surveys for an understanding of crime and deviance.

12 marks

(p365 Sociology for A2 for AQA: Moore et al)