What is the relationship between social class and crime?
White collar crime
Corporate crime
Explanations for the link between social class, crime and deviance.
There is a link between involvement in crime and their social characteristics. For example:
Ethnicity
Age
Gender
Social class
Albert Cohen's theory of Working-class subcultures
Mertons theory of the 'American dream'
Crime results from unequal opportunities in society to get rich via legal means
Therefore some people turn to illegal means to fulfil this ambition.
Everyone shares the same ambition of becoming rich and successful, no matter their social class or background
Used to explain juvenile delinquency among working class boys
He linked the delinquency such as vandalism and violence to status frustration at school
May normalise deviant or criminal behaviour, which can bring status into particular peer groups.
If they fail to meet middle-class expectations at school they may join gangs in which criminal behaviour is the norm.
Being in one of these subcultures allows them to gain status.
For example, tax evasion, fraud and misuse of expense accounts.
They are harder to discover because they are committed in the workplace in everyday business rather than on the streets for example.
This term refers broadly to the crimes committed by people in high status positions, during the cause of their work.
Refers to crime committed by employees on behalf go the organisation or company they work for
It includes offences against consumers such as the manufacture and sale of safe products
Tombs (2005) says the government make little effort to keep statistics on corporate crimes.