What does Pitts mean by calling young people reluctant gangsters?

That many are pulled into gangs on deprived estates by poverty, territory and pressure from others rather than choosing gang life out of enthusiasm for crime.

Why do some sociologists argue that the gang problem is exaggerated?

Because loose talk about gangs attaches the label to ordinary friendship groups; Alexander argued that the Asian gang in particular was largely constructed by media reporting and official stereotyping rather than observed in reality.

Describe the broad trend in the number of children entering the criminal justice system in England and Wales over the last two decades.

It has fallen substantially, with large reductions in the number of first-time entrants and in the number of children held in custody.

What is the gender pattern in recorded youth offending?

Boys account for the large majority of proven offences by children, and girls are heavily under-represented at every stage of the youth justice system.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview 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 Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Youth Subcultures

Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending

3 things to know
Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on gangs, with Hallsworth and Young's distinctions, Pitts's reluctant gangsters and claims the gang problem is exaggerated, trends in youth offending and its patterns by class, gender and ethnicity, the chivalry thesis and Heidensohn, county lines, newer deviant subcultures, and Cicourel's criticism of juvenile justice statistics.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

How do Hallsworth and Young distinguish a peer group, a gang and an organised crime group?

Key term

What pattern do official statistics show between social class and youth offending, and why should it be treated with caution?

Key term

Give two competing explanations for the over-representation of black young people in youth justice statistics.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
How do Hallsworth and Young distinguish a peer group, a gang and an organised crime group?
Model answer
A peer group is an unorganised friendship group whose members occasionally offend; a gang is a durable, street-based group for whom crime is part of group identity; an organised crime group runs crime as a business for profit.
2
What does Pitts mean by calling young people reluctant gangsters?
Model answer
That many are pulled into gangs on deprived estates by poverty, territory and pressure from others rather than choosing gang life out of enthusiasm for crime.
3
Why do some sociologists argue that the gang problem is exaggerated?
Model answer
Because loose talk about gangs attaches the label to ordinary friendship groups; Alexander argued that the Asian gang in particular was largely constructed by media reporting and official stereotyping rather than observed in reality.
4
Describe the broad trend in the number of children entering the criminal justice system in England and Wales over the last two decades.
Model answer
It has fallen substantially, with large reductions in the number of first-time entrants and in the number of children held in custody.
5
What pattern do official statistics show between social class and youth offending, and why should it be treated with caution?
Model answer
Recorded youth offending is concentrated among young people from the poorest households and most deprived areas, but policing is also concentrated there, so working-class offending is more likely to be detected while middle-class deviance stays hidden or is handled informally.
6
What is the gender pattern in recorded youth offending?
Model answer
Boys account for the large majority of proven offences by children, and girls are heavily under-represented at every stage of the youth justice system.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

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Murdock identified sexual, , economic and educational functions.

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

BAbuse in the home has historically been treated as a private matter.

CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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