Key Concepts: Formal social control - agency set up to ensure people conform especially to the law e.g police, courts Informal social control - carry out social control in an informal way e.g family Deviance - behaviour that is disapproved by society (can only be defined by the norms at that particular time, in that situation) Crime - behaviour that breaks the law Juvenile - crime committed by people ages between 10 and 17 Status frustration - young peoples frustration at their lack of status within society White collar crime - offences committed by people in middle-class jobs Corporate crime - offences committed by large companies (profit the companies not individuals) Relative deprivation - the lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that an individual or group (not poverty) Key Research/theories: Functionalists: crime is a result of structural tension and lack of regulation Durkheim & 'Anomie' > anomie exists when there are no clear guidelines on how to behaviour within a certain situation. Durkheim argued this makes people feel disorientated. He argued that within the modern world people are able to be more individual and therefore non-conformity will exist. Durkheim & 'Deviance' > it serves two functions. 1) it brings about changes 2) it promotes the good and bad behaviours in society Merton (1957) & 'Strain' > strain is put on behaviour when accepted norms conflict with social reality. In most societies status is reflect through material success, for many people this material success is out of reach, therefore they must find other ways of gaining it. Merton identified five reactions to this: conformists, ritualists, retreatists, innovators and rebels Subcultural theories: Cohen (1955) & 'Delinquent boys' > boys in lower class status's are often frustrated with their position and consequently join together in a delinquent subculture e.g. gangs Cloward and Ohlin (1960) > boys who have been internalised to aspire to middle class values but are unable to reach their goals, turn to subcultures. Such gangs are most common in areas where achieving success legitimately is at its lowest. Interactionist > deviance is socially constructed - certain behaviours are defined as deviant but others aren't - this is the same for groups of people - but why? Labelling theory > deviance is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants e.g. those who enforce the law are able to impose labels
Reporting crime Official crime statistics - published by government agencies Self report - fill out independently Victim study -a survey that asks a sample of people which crimes have been committed against them over a fixed period of time and whether or not they have been reported to the police
Pedagogy: Give pupils a page with lots of images - ask them to identify which is a crime and which is deviant - ask them why? Evaluate theories against one another > leading to an essay regarding theories Show pupils a video of the bbc bitesze gcse link and ask them to write a report on it Ask children to pretend they have been a victim of a crime > write a letter describing which way of reporting the crime is best and what problems are faced with each method Homework > collect case studies on white collar and corporate crimes. Ask pupils to design a presentation in any way that they may wish, ready to present to the class