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Social distribution of crime - Coggle Diagram
Social distribution of crime
Gender
Stats
% homicide by victim - male 70%, female 30%
Violence with injury by victim - male 52%, female 48%
Violence without injury by victim - male 41%, female 59%
Sexual offences by victim - female 84%, male - 16%
Population in prison - 96% male, 4% female
Amount of offenders of violence against people in one year - male - 2300, female - 180
Amount of offenders of sexual assault in one year - male - 916, female - 11
Amount involved in robberies in one year - male - 340, women - 30
Men commit 6 indictable offences per 1 women commit
Men are 60% as likely to be found guilty for committing a sexual offence
Men are 14x more likely to be found guilty for robberies
Men are 13x more likely to be found guilty for posession of weapons
Men are 10x more likely to be found guilty for public offences
Men are 8% more likely to be found guilty for violence against a person
Men are 4x more likely to be found guilty for theft
Feminist perspectives of unequal distribution of crime
Heidensohn invisible criminology of women
Women not focused on in past, most sociologists men, male mc sociologists to preoccupied with wc male crime
Carol Smart
Female crime double as deviant because defies gender roles too, have more too lose, face harsher punishment, more stigmatised
Cruciality of gender roles
Women socialised into feminine roles meaning they are softer and less tempted to commit crime
Messerschmidt research
Males see domestic abuse as fulfilling male role
Heidensohn - more to lose
Women have more to lose through spheres of social agency that are intented to prevent crime therefore commit less crime - "gaurdians of domestic morality" = double jeopardy
Social control in different spheres
Private domestic sphere of home
Ruled by the patriarchy and given gaurdianship duties therefore do not have the time to commit crimes - teenage girls more supervised than boys and given more jobs
Public sphere
Live in fear of male physical and sexual abuse so do not go out at night also fear in the workplace so have less opportunities to be deviant because want to hide, glass ceiling prevents them from committing white colour crime
Social sphere
Have more to lose in terms of reputation because is more deviant - also lose femininity in relation to men when commit crime
Carlen
Women are judged by their character such as how feminine they are and how they act as mother/daughter by jury and CJS not just on the basis of their crime making their convictions more serious - evidence for walkate
Evil women theory
Women who are seen as promiscuous, neglectful or abusive mothers or partners are viewed more critically than men who do the same because of gender roles
Heidensohn + Silvestri
Criminalisation of young women
Young women are more criminalised by the CJS because of labelling and changing values and therefore crimes are treated more seriously than they used to be explaining rise in female crime
Female crime
Women commit less detectable offences
1/3 of women in prison is for theft/handling stolen goods, steal less high value stuff whereas men steal more valuable things so are more likely to be caught
Sex role theory - functionalist + new right
Women are born into the expressive role and so through gendered socialisation are more likely to be emotional and averse to risk taking and therefore commit less crimes
Pat Carlen
Gender deal
Women are socialised into seeking family and marriage and all the benefits that come from it - when do not gain it legitimately resort to crime as a way to gain the benefits
Class deal
Women seek benefits from high job status specifically consumer benefits - again if do not gain them legitimately will gain them through crime
Polak
The chivalry phesis
Women are treated more leniantly by the CJS because it is male run and since they feel an urge to protect women they treat the crimes less seriously
Evidence for
First offenders 1/2 as likely to be sentenced, on average sentences are shorter, more likely to get community service
Evidence against
Women have more mitigating factors, show more remorse, have less unrelated previous convictions, may be a carer
Walkate
Crimes that result in imprisonment for women are less serious than that of men
Adler
Liberation thesis
Women gaining more independence because of changing gender roles meaning they are less likely to be restrained by the patriarchy or typical norms and values giving them more opportunity to commit crimes
Denscombe
Ladette culture
Because of changing values women are more likely commit crimes the same way young men do to seek out peer group approval
Male crime
Sex role theory - functionalists and new right
Because men possess the instrumental role are socialised into being aggressive and have less constraints on them than women do so have more opportunity to commit crime
Cornell - hegemonic mascuilinity
Men place emphasis on criminality and being aggressive as ways of fulfilling masculine role especially through risk taking - places focal point on wc men
Messerschmidt
View committing crime as fulfilling masculine role when cannot do it through legitimate means
Lyng - edgework
Combination of thrill seeking and lacking legitimate means to fulfill masculine role in world of hegemonic masculinity - explains domestic abuse and rape because are thrill seeking - also explains decent into white collar crime
Labelling theorists
Men are more likely to be labelled as criminal than women by police
Control theory + Rational choice + Opportunity
Men dominate public sphere which is where most crime is committed and so have more opportunity to commit crime
Ethnicity
Explanations of unequal ethnic distribution
Neo-marxist
Gilroy
Black people commit crime as a political act against inequality - their crime is overexaggerated
Hall
Policing the crisis
Crisis of hegemony - 1970s
Black crime overexaggerated by media and government to validate legeslation made and cause moral panic
Evidence: Home sec claimed there was over 100% increase in mugging over 4 years but there is no legal definition of mugging so impossible to come up with that conclusion
Specific focus on young black people stereotyped as criminals
Criticisms
Most crime committed by black people is against other black/poor people
Most crime reported by public so cant be police labelling
Left realist
Black people commit crime because of marginality - pushed to the side of society through education and so are forced to commit crime because cannot achieve legitimate means of becoming successful in society
Lea + Young
Cannot be police labelling if 92% of crimes reported by public
Bowling and Phillips
Higher levels of crime in black people because of poverty, social exclusion and lacking identity within subcultures - pakistani and bangladeshi have more foundation in britain so have more of an identity hence why they commit less crime
Labelling
Reiner
Canteen culture in police force because of macho masculinity label black people as criminals and therefore becomes a success story to arrest them within police force
Bowling + Phillips
Direct racism
Institutional racism
Racism that is built into society and delivered by actions of micro-aggression
Stop and search
Black people 6x more likely and asian people 2x more likely than white people to be stopped and searched
Discrimination in sentencing
More likely to recieve longer sentance than white people in the same position
Arrests, charges and court proceedings
Charge more black and asian people without sufficient evidence
Over-representation in prison
2013 were 12% of population but 26% of prison population
Indirect racism
Mistrust of the police
Less likely to comply with orders and so less viable candidates for shorter sentences
Social position
More likely to have characteristics that police and public subconsciously label as criminal
Sharp and Budd
White people more likely to re-offend
Stats
Sharp + Budd
Committed any serious crime over the past 12 months
White - 4%
Mixed - 5%
Asian - 2%
Black - 3%
Other - 3%
Committed any crime over their life time
White - 42%
Mixed - 39%
Asian - 21%
Black - 28%
Other - 23%
Committed any crime over past 12 months
White - 10%
Mixed - 12%
Asian - 5%
Black - 7%
Other 8%
Prison population by ethnicity up to date
White - 74%
Black/black british - 12%
Asian - 8%
Mixed - 5%
Other - 1.5%
Committed any serious crime over their life time
White - 21%
Mixed - 24%
Asian - 11%
Black - 14%
Other - 10%
Stop and search per 1000 people
White - 6
Black - 27
Mixed - 9
How much more likely to be ... than white people
2x more likely to be reported by the police
3x more likely to be arrested than a white person
5x more likely to be in prison than a white person
Class
White collar crime
Newburn - study of crime
Working class crime overexaggerated in stats because crimes of the powerful ignored
Sutherland
First showed wc crime is not a phenonomenon but white collar crime is just less detectable
Differential association - the more people you associate with who commit crime the more likely you are to commit crime
Eval of working class crime
Does not explain why more people do not commit crime who are in the same position - GORDAN
Timmer + Eitzen
Crime in the suites
Pearce
Crime of the powerful - often have as much loss or money involved that it outweighs wc crime anyway
Crime committed by the mc for personal gain at the expense of employers, clients or the government
Slapper + Tombs
Corporate crime
Crime committed by big companies to make more profit at the cost of usually the consumer or the government
EG - manufacturing crimes, environmental crime, fraud and false advertising, blacklisting
EG - fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, fiddling expenses, bribery, corruption
Croall
Crimes against the NHS - making fake prescription charges so that they can claim more money than they are owed
Under-represented because "complaintless crime", less obvious than "blood on the streets", often has no obvious victims, hard to detect or investigate, victims do not know they are victims
Lord Conrad Black
Convicted and sentenced to 15 years for abusing his position and being able to defraud clients
Merton - strain + control theory
MC believe they are deprived relatively in comparison to others and so commit more crime for material gain in age of social media
EVIDENCE - young builimic society
Control theory
Driven by socialisation into aggressive management culture normalising taking legal shortcuts -reduced moral controls
Nelken - strain and control theory
Often make huge financial purchases because of strain theory but then get into financial trouble and take illegitimate ways out which is the control theory
Box, Slapper + Tombs - marxist
Likely to commit crime as a way of making profits because of criminogenic capitalist global society
Labelling
Nelken
Less likely to be labelled as criminal because of appearances
Employ lawyers who change narrative of their crime
Croall
Not accompanied by direct intent to cause harm so appear less criminal
Seduction of crime and edgework
Kats + Lyng - crime can be seductive and thrilling so material gains are not only motivation
Nelken
Subculture for young men to live in fast lane and take risks
Blacklisting
A type of white collar crime that involves not hiring people because of their affiliation with trade unions
Most common in construction and other trade industries
Economic league created files of those who were involved in trade unions for companies to access
Ideaological state apparatus evidence
The word of the businessman is more believed than that of the worker and so crimes of businessman are ignored
Repressive state apparatus evidence
State proving coercive power over workers to keep them in their place through weak legislation around blacklisting
Stats
Sources of stats
Victim surveys
Limited by truthfulness of people's responses, may not know that they are vicims
Find out about unreported/recorded or victimless crimes
Crime surveys
Police reports
CSEW + PRC
PRC accounts for everything that is recorded
CSEW accounts for everything that also isnt recorded but may exclude extreme crime
HM inspectorate of the constabulatory found that 19% of crime went unreported
Why crime goes unreported/unrecorded
Police may not trust person reporting it
Police can't do anything about it
Victimless crime
Inconvenient to report
Solved dispute between themselves sufficiently
Power struggles
Worried about reputation
Factors affecting crime stats
The media
Changing attitudes and values
Changing police priorities
Technology
Changes in the law