Crime and Deviance help

I think I have messed it up. The essay question especially.

I wrote how social class is made up of age,gender,class(financial) and ethnicty. I wrote something like this. Sorry for the poor spelling and grammar.

young people are convicted of crime more than older people Most crime is committed by teenagers. The peak age for criminal activity Is 18 for men and 15 for women It's argued that young people commit more crime because their lifestyles take them to environments where crime takes place The vast majority of crime Is property theft - young people are more bluely to be on the streets or In clubs, which Is where crimes Ilke this (e g pickpocketing or mugging) often happen this Is supported by the evidence that-young people are most likely to be victims of crime too - If you're aged between 16-25 you're six times more Ilkely to be a victim of crime than chose aged 75 and older it's not as-: Itself, but the likelihood of being In areas where opportunities for crime arise which Is the significant factor Young people may actually commit more crime, or It may be that they get caught more than older people crime committed by the young is typically more visible, e g vandalism, so It's Ilkely to be witnessed, and the perpetrator Is more Ilkely to be caught Whlte-collar crimes'' such as fraud are more likley to be committed by older people but these offences are more hidden and don't take place In the public arena Social stereotypes that young people-commit crime lead to police suspecting and monitoring young people more than older social groups - increasing their chance, of being caught.
In court - because they can't afford expensive lawyer's fees Young

Men are Convicted more than women ,

Women make up only 6% of the prison population. (HM Prison Servlce) 58% of male prisoners released from prison are re-convicted within 2 year; (Social Trends, 1998) In 2001, 167 per 10 000 of the male population were found guilty or cautioned for an offence compared to 3.7 per 10 000 of the female population
Men are convicted of more crime than women
Men are suspected, charged and convicted of crime of all types more than women this pattern crosses all other social factors such as age, class, ethnicity and region The subcultures theories of Miller (1962) and Merton (1968) argue that the culture and lifestyles of young men encourage and lead to crime (remember, most crime Is committed by the young) Heidensohn (1986) says gender socialisation prompts men to be more aggressive which makes thm more Iikely than women to commit violent crime. She also says that women are socialized Into not being criminal In the same way as men are socialised Into seeing criminal activity as acceptable Abbott and Wallace (1990) argue young women are more closely watched by their families and given less freedom outside the home, reducing their opportunities for crime Criminal behaviour would be seen as highly deviant as well as criminal for women Ian Marsh (1986) reckons that men commit more crime because they have more opportunities to do so. He said that where females have similar opportunities to males they seem as likely to break laws An example of this Is handling stolen goods - women have more opportunity to sell, buy or use stolen property than to steal goods In the first place There may be an underestimation of female crime because the police and courts are less likely to suspect women or give women a custodial sentence The stereotypes of men as criminal work as a form of sexism against men, which allows female criminal activity to go unchecked Campbell (1981) did a self-report survey which unearthed a lot more female crime than the official statistics However, she did Include more trivial crimes than the official statistics do.

Urban areas have much more crime than rural ones
In 2003-2004, Metropolitan (urban) police forces recorded 43% of all crime In 2002, less than 2% of people living In rural areas became victims of burglary In 2003-2004, 60% of all robbery In the UK took place In 3 urban areas -Manchester = londoan and west midlands Thls table shows the percentage of households which have been victims (at least once) of vehicle theft burglary and violent crime The data's from the Brltlsh crime Survey, 2004 There's more crime In cities Sociologists argue most crime takes place In cities because there are more opportunities higher density populations mean more chances for robbery and property crime. Most young people live In urban areas and they are the most likley to commit crime It's hard for criminals to remain anonymous In close-knit rural communities

most criminal convictions are of people with a working class background

There are more working class people In prison than any other social class Home office figures also show that the majority of people who altar In court are working class, regardless of whether they're found guilty or not Sub-cultural theorists such as Miller argue this reflects the working class sub-cultures which often have crime as an accepted or rewarded activity.
Marxists argue the system of law and order Is run by the ruling class, against the Interests of the working class They say parts of the working class are crlmlnallsed by a biased system middle class crime ls treated more leniently by society. Fraud and white collar crime Is often undetected and seen as victimless crime'' by the public consider public response to benefit fraud compared to tax or Insurance fraud There's more about Marxist An ethnic ' minority background und increases your chances ofarrest or

Ethnicity

2001 census, and the Home office statistics on Race and the criminal justice system (2004.)
Some have argued that police racism results In higher suspicion against black people In general The Macpherson Report (1999) concluded that the police were Institutionally racist The court system has also been accused of automatically favouring white middle class defendants.
There are few black people In either the police force or the legal system Hall et al (1978) and Gilroy (1987) argue that young black people have been labelled as criminal by modern British society and have become a scapegoat for social problems In society.
Hall also says that high levels of unemployment among young black men lead some young black men to opt out of mainstream society and turn to crime.
New Right sociologists favour a subcultures explanation for the differences Ethnic minority households are more at risk of crime than other households . a g the British crime Survey says they/re more likely to be mugged than white groups, and slightly more Ilkely to be victims of vehicle theft pakistanis and Bangladeshis were more likely to be burgled The survey found ethnic minority respondents were more worried about crime In 2000 than white respondents (2004 Only 23 of reported crimes In 2003 were solved - l e someone was convicted for the offence in 2003(2004 social Trends) The social profile of who committed the unsolved and undetected crimes could change these patterns considerably.

Reply 1

mrmrchris

A lot of it is okay but, in honesty, I wouldn't have written about age or gender if it's social class.

Don't worry - there's no point in POST exam stress. :smile:

Crime and Deviance help

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