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How crime & deviance defined and measured? (SOCIOLOGISTS THINK POLICE…
How crime & deviance defined and measured?
CRIME
legal wrong, criminal proceeding and punishment
DEVIANCE
disapproved by society against norms and values, socially constructive 'relative' circumstance, culturally diverse
SOCIAL ORDER
conform norms and value
SOCIAL CONTROL
obey rules, informal (exclusion, social) formal (judges, police)
ONS
stats police, courts, prison
POLICE RECORDED CRIME FIGURES
crime aware of and record it
AD
easy access, up to date, little time lag, whole population, no ethical issue
DIS
undetected, reported, police discretion, accused, definition of law differs
DARK FIGURE OF CRIME
unrecorded crime, hard estimate
Police discretion
by police, some officers, corrupt, own behaviour
*Rape /Assault
mumsnet 2012 83% those raped not reported 1/2 too embarrassed, 2/3 hesitate due conviction. Lindsay Armstrong hold evidence up in court
Manipulation
Coughing: offender encourage admit, Cuffing: remove statistics Whistleblowing: 'downgraded'
SOCIOLOGISTS THINK POLICE RECORDED CRIME STATS
Functionalism
social facts, qauntative data, reliable, see police represent us all, 'typical criminal'
New Right
'typical criminal' believe laws benefit society, police represent who society, focus crime deprived
Left Realist
recognise police figure not perfect
Feminists
some accept female commit less, due high social control (McRobbie - bedroom culture)
VS
Internationalists
focus social movement, police labelling powerless groups society and police
Marxist
police recorded crime control WC, justify control
Radical Criminologist
power police political reason, challenge over representation ethnic minority groups
Feminists
focus female offenders treated differently, male crime vs women underrepresented in police figures vs accuracy
VICTIM SURVEYS
survey of people, crimes been victims of, not reported, accuracy
Crime Survey England & Wales
CSEW: largest special survey, face to face structured interviews, 16+ 10-15 with parent, show crime 4x higher police, somatic, stalking, sexual victimisation
Limitations
victimless crime, response rate on 75% (Hough & Hayyhew: ‘value of crime surveys assessed not against the yardstick perfection but against the existing alternatives'
Islington Crime Survey
specific geographical areas, impact of crime, 1989 1/3 households touched by crime, shaped lives (to scared go out in dark) (Young: males more likely be victims of crime than females, females fear crime moral panic)
Limitations
not fully representative, qualitative , accuracy relies on memory
SELF REPORT STUDIES
ask people which crime committed themselves, local, ethical problem, minor crimes
(Campbell: Levels of crime and deviance admitted to by females and males much closer than the police recorded figures suggest
(Farmington: age 8 to 32, gender differences, relevant age group and info sources. Some evidence that while young males may readily admit their convictions this may not be true for older males or female, may be because older people and females conceremed to present faces of respectability young males truthful. Gave young people opportunity steal compared actual stealing with self reported)
Youth Transitions and crime
longitudinal, offer career gender differences
Usefulness issues
Validity
: true picture? accuracy of data (West & Farrington: Age 18, 94% convicted admitted that they had been involved only 2% unconvicted boys claimed to have be)
Attraction
participation drop out
Ethics
informed consent, able withdraw, free refusal. Challenge with definition of criminal behaviour