Patterns of crime by class, gender, ethnicity and age

Overview

White-collar and corporate crime, offending by age and gender, the chivalry thesis and double deviance, Carlen's class and gender deals, the Lammy Review, stop and search, left realism and Hall's Policing the Crisis.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What do official statistics suggest about social class and crime?

   Model answer

   Official statistics suggest offenders, especially prisoners, come disproportionately from working-class and deprived backgrounds. Many prisoners were unemployed or had few qualifications before custody.

2. 2

   Why might middle-class crime be under-represented in official statistics?

   Model answer

   Middle-class offences such as fraud and tax evasion happen in private and often have no obvious victim. Police concentrate on street crime, so these offences are less often detected.

3. 3

   What is white-collar crime, and who coined the term?

   Model answer

   White-collar crime is crime committed by people of high status in the course of their jobs, such as embezzlement. Edwin Sutherland, an American criminologist, coined the term in 1939.

4. 4

   What is corporate crime? Give a UK example.

   Model answer

   Corporate crime is crime committed by a company, or on its behalf, to increase profit. Southern Water was fined a record £90 million in 2021 for illegally dumping sewage.

5. 5

   What is the usual pattern of offending by age?

   Model answer

   Recorded offending rises sharply in the teenage years and peaks in the late teens. Most people then stop offending as they reach adulthood.

6. 6

   Why are young people more likely to appear in crime statistics?

   Model answer

   Young people spend more time in public spaces with peers, where offending is visible. Police also target groups of young people, so their offences are more often recorded.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.