Key term
OCR A-Level Sociology H580
Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity
Topic overviewCulture, norms, values and cultural relativismSubculture, high culture and popular cultureGlobal and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridityPrimary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer groupMedia, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisationLifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debateSocial control, sanctions and formal agencies of controlInformal agencies and theories of social controlThe concept of identity, ethnicity and nationalityGender, class and sexual identityAge, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities
Families and RelationshipsComponent 01
Topic overviewFamily types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitationDemographic change, family diversity and newer family typesNuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New RightMarxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debateConjugal roles and the domestic division of labourPower, the dark side of the family and theories of partner rolesThe child-centred family, views of childhood and its extensionParent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views
Youth SubculturesComponent 01
Topic overviewFunctionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth cultureHebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subculturesClass, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflictDelinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subculturesGangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offendingFunctionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth devianceLabelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance
MediaComponent 01
Topic overviewRepresentations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gazeRepresentations of gender, social class and young peopleRepresentations of older people and theories of media representationDirect and indirect media effects modelsActive audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities
Topic overviewPositivism, quantitative data and interpretivismVerstehen, qualitative data and validityReliability, representativeness, generalisability and theoryResearch topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary dataOperationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validationLongitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policySampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sampleAccess, gatekeepers and research ethicsQuestionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observationUnstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism
Understanding Social Inequalities
Globalisation and the Digital Social World
Crime and DevianceComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining crime and deviance, social control and relativitySocial construction of crime and police recorded crimeThe Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studiesCrime patterns by social class, gender and ageCrime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crimeGlocal organised crime and green crimeFunctionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crimeMarxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crimeRight realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patternsLeft-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justiceSituational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice
EducationComponent 03
Topic overviewFunctionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of educationSocial democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational educationClass and ethnic patterns in educational attainmentGender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionalityInside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racismMaterial and cultural deprivation and cultural capitalExplaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievementTypes of school and education policy since 1988Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy
Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominationsSects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalismMeasuring religiosity and believing without belongingFunctionalist and Marxist views of the role of religionNeo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religionReligion, social change and whether religion is positive or negativeClass and gender patterns in religiosityWomen's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patternsAge cohorts, global religious trends and resurgenceDefining secularisation and evidence of religious declinePro- and anti-secularisation theoriesReligion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns
Crime and Deviance
- 11 subtopics
- 22 things to know
- Component 03
- Component 03 Section B option, one of three
What Crime and Deviance covers
Crime and Deviance is examined on component 03 of OCR Sociology, Debates in contemporary society. It is one of the three Section B options on that paper, of which a student sits one. 119 recall questions across 11 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Component 03
Debates in contemporary society, Section B option of three.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 11 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativityRecall questions on defining crime and deviance, acts that are deviant but not criminal, social order, formal and informal social control, and the relativity of crime and deviance over time, between societies and within a single society.Open →
- Social construction of crime and police recorded crimeRecall questions on the social construction of crime and deviance, the two sources of official crime statistics, the dark figure of crime, what police recorded crime measures with its advantages and unreliability, why victims do not report crime, and why police may not record it.Open →
- The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studiesRecall questions on the Crime Survey for England and Wales, its advantages and limitations and why it differs from police recorded crime, local victim surveys, and self-report studies with their uses and weaknesses.Open →
- Crime patterns by social class, gender and ageRecall questions on class patterns in conviction and victimisation and why statistics may exaggerate working-class crime, occupational and corporate crime, gender differences in offending, offence types and victimisation, the fear of crime paradox, and how offending and victimisation vary with age, including desistance.Open →
- Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crimeRecall questions on ethnicity in criminal justice statistics, stop and search and victimisation, the long-term fall and changing composition of crime in England and Wales, global organised crime, Castells's global criminal economy, and why globalisation has made transnational organised crime easier.Open →
- Glocal organised crime and green crimeRecall questions on Hobbs and Dunnighan's glocal organised crime and Glenny's McMafia, green crime, South's primary and secondary green crimes, where traditional and green criminology disagree, anthropocentric and ecocentric views of environmental harm, and Beck's risk society.Open →
- Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crimeRecall questions on Durkheim's view that crime is inevitable and functional, anomie, Merton's strain theory and five adaptations, Albert Cohen's status frustration and delinquent subculture, Cloward and Ohlin's three subcultures, Miller's focal concerns, and Matza's drift and techniques of neutralisation.Open →
- Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crimeRecall questions on Marxist views of capitalism as criminogenic, selective law enforcement and the ideological function of crime, Taylor, Walton and Young's New Criminology, Hall on mugging, Becker's labelling theory, primary and secondary deviance, deviancy amplification, Cicourel on crime statistics, and Lea and Young's left realism and square of crime.Open →
- Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patternsRecall questions on right realist rational choice and Wilson and Herrnstein's biosocial theory, Murray's New Right underclass explanation, Heidensohn's control theory, the chivalry and double deviance theses, Adler's liberation thesis, Messerschmidt on masculinity, Gilroy and Phillips and Bowling on ethnicity, and why offending peaks in the teenage years.Open →
- Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justiceRecall questions on left-wing and right-wing approaches to crime reduction, social and community crime prevention, the Perry Pre-School Project, rehabilitation, restorative justice and Braithwaite's reintegrative shaming with its advantages and criticisms, structural change in society, and the left realist policy programme.Open →
- Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justiceRecall questions on situational crime prevention, target hardening, rational choice and displacement, Wilson and Kelling's broken windows thesis, zero tolerance policing and the disputed New York evidence, environmental crime prevention, retributive justice, punitive punishment, deterrence and incapacitation, and Foucault's disciplinary power.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
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How does offending vary with age, and what is meant by desistance?
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Define green crime.
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How does Merton's strain theory explain the causes of crime?
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Distinguish between primary and secondary deviance, and explain the part played by master status.
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What is Adler's liberation thesis, and what is the main objection to it?
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Describe the Perry Pre-School Project and name a British programme built on the same logic.
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Define restorative justice.
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Why is the New York experience treated as disputed evidence for zero tolerance policing?
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Distinguish between general and individual deterrence, and explain what incapacitation adds.
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How does Foucault's account of disciplinary power help explain modern crime control?
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Define the term deviance.
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Why might the police fail to record an offence that has been reported to them?
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Apart from the national survey, what use do sociologists make of victim surveys?
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How does recorded offending differ between men and women?
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What does the evidence on stop and search show?
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Why has globalisation made transnational organised crime easier to carry on?
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Name the four types of primary green crime identified by South.
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List the focal concerns Miller identified in lower-class culture.
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Give one act that is deviant but not criminal, and one that is criminal but rarely treated as deviant.
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How does the type of offence differ between male and female offenders?
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What is the difference between an anthropocentric and an ecocentric view of environmental harm?
Take Crime and Deviance further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Define the term crime.
Model answer
A crime is an act that breaks the criminal law of a society and is punishable by the state through the criminal justice system.
- 2
Define the term deviance.
Model answer
Deviance is behaviour that departs from the norms of a social group and attracts disapproval, negative sanctions or attempts to correct it.
- 3
Give one act that is deviant but not criminal, and one that is criminal but rarely treated as deviant.
Model answer
Talking loudly to yourself in a quiet carriage is deviant but lawful, while driving a few miles per hour over the speed limit is criminal yet widely tolerated.
- 4
What do sociologists mean by social order?
Model answer
Social order is the stable, predictable patterning of everyday social life that results from people largely sharing and following the same norms and expectations.
- 5
Define the term social control.
Model answer
Social control refers to the processes by which members of a society are persuaded or compelled to conform to its norms and laws.
- 6
Distinguish between formal and informal social control, with an example of each.
Model answer
Formal social control is exercised by official agencies with written rules and legal sanctions, such as the police and courts, while informal social control operates through everyday approval and disapproval from family, peers and colleagues.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Crime and Deviance revision questions
- What does Crime and Deviance cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?
- 11 subtopics: defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity, social construction of crime and police recorded crime, the crime survey, victim surveys and self-report studies, crime patterns by social class, gender and age, crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime, glocal organised crime and green crime, functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime, marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime, right realism, new right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns, left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice and situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Crime and Deviance organised?
- By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Crime and Deviance, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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