Crime and Deviance

What Crime and Deviance covers

Crime and Deviance is examined on Paper 3, alongside Theory and Methods. It works through the major theories of why crime happens, who is recorded as offending and why, the newer questions of globalisation, green and state crime, and how societies try to control crime and treat victims.

The 19 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Functionalist, strain and control theories of crimeDurkheim on the functions of crime and anomie, Merton's five adaptations, and Hirschi's social bonds.Open →
• Subcultural theories of crimeCohen's status frustration and middle-class measuring rod, Cloward and Ohlin's three subcultures, and Miller's focal concerns.Open →
• Interactionism and labelling theoryPrimary and secondary deviance, typifications, the deviant career, and deviancy amplification.Open →
• Marxist and critical theories of crimeCriminogenic capitalism, selective law enforcement, the ideological functions of crime, and critical criminology.Open →
• Left and right realismMurray's underclass and rational choice on one side, relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation on the other.Open →
• Gender and crimeThe gender gap in offending, the chivalry and double deviance theses, and the liberation thesis.Open →
• Social class, white-collar and corporate crimeWhy working-class offending dominates the statistics, and why white-collar and corporate crime does not.Open →
• Ethnicity, policing and the criminal justice systemStop and search, institutional racism, and the left realist and neo-Marxist explanations of over-representation.Open →
• Globalisation and crimeTransnational organised crime, glocal organisation, risk consciousness, and the effect of financial deregulation.Open →
• The media, crime and fear of crimeNews values in crime reporting, how coverage differs from the statistics, and imitation, desensitisation and fear.Open →
• Moral panics and the deviancy amplification spiralCohen on the Mods and Rockers, folk devils, the stages of the spiral, and the left realist caution.Open →
• Green crimePrimary and secondary green crime, green criminology's wider definition, and why prosecution is so difficult.Open →
• State crime and human rightsDefining state crime through human rights, and the typologies of Cohen and McLaughlin.Open →
• Denial, neutralisation and prosecuting state crimeThe techniques of neutralisation, Cohen's spiral of denial, zemiology, and why state crime stays invisible.Open →
• Situational and environmental crime preventionTarget hardening, natural surveillance, removing targets and reducing rewards, set against social crime prevention.Open →
• Realist crime control, surveillance and the panopticonRight and left realist approaches to control, CCTV, electronic tagging, and Foucault on discipline.Open →
• Punishment, sentencing and the criminal justice systemRetribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and incapacitation, restorative justice, and the agencies of the system.Open →
• Victims and victimologyPositivist and critical victimology, repeat and secondary victimisation, and who is most at risk.Open →
• Crime prevention strategies and their limitsZero tolerance, broken windows, community policing, displacement, net widening and actuarial justice.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Crime and Deviance further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Primary deviance vs Secondary deviance

  Primary deviance: unlabelled rule-breaking with little effect on identity. Secondary deviance: further rule-breaking produced by public reaction and an imposed identity.

• Formal social control vs Informal social control

  Formal social control: regulation exercised by authorised agencies able to impose sanctions. Informal social control: regulation through everyday pressure from family, peers and communities.

• Left realism vs Right realism

  Left realism: an approach linking offending with relative deprivation, marginalisation and subculture. Right realism: an approach stressing individual choice, weak control and practical prevention.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why did Durkheim argue that crime is inevitable in every society?

   Model answer

   Because not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the shared norms and values, and modern societies contain many diverse subcultures, so some behaviour will always breach the collective conscience. A certain level of crime is therefore normal and found in all societies.

2. 2

   What did Durkheim mean by describing a limited amount of crime as functional?

   Model answer

   That a controlled level of crime is not only inevitable but necessary and beneficial for society, helping maintain order and enable change. Only unusually high or low levels of crime are dysfunctional.

3. 3

   How does crime perform a boundary maintenance function according to Durkheim?

   Model answer

   Crime provokes a collective reaction, and punishing offenders publicly (for example through the courts) reaffirms society's shared values and reminds members of the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, strengthening social solidarity.

4. 4

   How did Durkheim argue that crime allows social change and adaptation?

   Model answer

   All change begins with an act of deviance: individuals with new ideas must first challenge existing norms, so a degree of deviance has to be tolerated for morality and law to evolve. Today's deviance can become tomorrow's normality.

5. 5

   What did Durkheim mean by anomie?

   Model answer

   A state of normlessness in which shared norms and values weaken or become unclear, so behaviour is inadequately regulated. It is especially likely during rapid social change and can lead to rising deviance.

6. 6

   Besides boundary maintenance and change, what other functions of deviance have functionalists identified?

   Model answer

   A safety-valve function, where deviance releases stresses harmlessly (Davis argued prostitution does this), and a warning function (A.K. Cohen), where deviance signals that an institution is malfunctioning and prompts reform.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Crime and Deviance revision questions

What does Crime and Deviance cover in AQA A-Level Sociology?

19 subtopics: functionalist, strain and control theories of crime, subcultural theories of crime, interactionism and labelling theory, marxist and critical theories of crime, left and right realism, gender and crime, social class, white-collar and corporate crime, ethnicity, policing and the criminal justice system, globalisation and crime, the media, crime and fear of crime, moral panics and the deviancy amplification spiral, green crime, state crime and human rights, denial, neutralisation and prosecuting state crime, situational and environmental crime prevention, realist crime control, surveillance and the panopticon, punishment, sentencing and the criminal justice system, victims and victimology and crime prevention strategies and their limits. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Crime and Deviance organised?

By the AQA 7192 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.