Crime revision

Question	Answer
Jock Young - developed Becker's ideas. In 1971 how did he put Becker's ideas into practice? What did he argue?	Conducted a study on Hippie marijuana users in Notting hill, London. That initially many 'Hippies' did not smoke marijuana. But overtime because of the negative way the police labelled and treated them, the hippies closed ranks as a form of self defense. In Becker's terms they had accepted the master label of 'Hippie drug user'. A deviant career of buying and selling drugs developed as it became increasingly difficult for the hippies to enter normal society. Deviancy amplification had occured.
Define deviancy amplification.	When the actions of the media or police cause more crime to be detected or committed.
Define cultural capital.	An idea developed by a French sociologist. He argues that middle classes are able to give their children not just economic advantages but also cultural advantages such as use of language, expression and valued social skills.
Chamberliss: Saints and roughnecks. What did this study focus on?	Focused on two groups of boys who went to the same American high school. One group the 'Saints' consisted of eight middle class delinquent boys, the other group 'the roughnecks' were six working class delinquent boys. Both groups committed the same delinquent behaviour but 'the saints' were not seen as delinquent and rarely got into contact with the police, and when they did they were able to use their cultural capital to negotiate their way out of trouble.
What did Chamberliss claim were the consequences of the roughnecks being labelled by society were?	Over time the self fulfilling prophecy took place as the 'roughnecks' accepted the negative label they'd been given. Whilst two of the roughnecks were able to escape their label and become teachers, two became serious criminal offenders and two were frequently in trouble with the police. All of the 'saints' graduated from college and gained middle-class jobs.
Social action theory: Howard Becker - what did he argue about deviance?	Deviance is a relative concept and only exists because those with power in society have decided that something is deviant. And also whether or not the label 'deviant' will be applied depends on who commits the act, when and where they commit it and who sees it. It also depends on the negotiations that take place between those committing the act and the police.
What did Becker also introduce the idea of? Define	The 'master label' and the 'deviant career'. The 'master label' refers to the label that takes precedence over all other labels. Examples of negative master labels would be criminal, prostitute, junkie and pedophile - these labels override all other labels like friend, parent and neighbour.
Baldwin and Bottoms - what did they examine the process of? When does this process occur? What might this be due to? Explain the process in more detail...	They examined the process of tipping. Occurs when an area is seen as going downhill. This may be due to council policies of putting problem families in one place, or it may be because of a real or imagined increase in antisocial behaviour. to check answer look on slideshow
Wilson and Kelling: what did they argue?	That if a single broken window in an abandoned house is left unmended, other windows will get broken and the area will go downhill.
Privatization of public space: what is this argument? What does this mean?	That in recent years public spaces such as shopping and leisure centres have become privately policed. Private security guards and CCTV are used to control how people access and use them. 'Undesirables' are kicked out, and some shopping centres even have dress codes. This means that police have been confined to poorer estates and teenagers have been excluded from privatized public spaces - forcing them to go to estates.
Nocturnal economy: Hobbs and Lister, what did they focus on? What will this lead to? What has been estimated?	The rise in nocturnal economy: this refers to the growth in the UK of pubs and clubs in cities. Thousands of drunken teenagers in the early hours of friday and saturday night will lead to increased crime. That about one third of all violent crimes in urban areas occur between drunk or drugged males, but it is increasingly women too.
What are four crimes that do not involve financial gain?	Vandalism, graffiti, joy riding and violent behaviour.
Albert Cohen 1955 What type of theorist was he? Who did he claim that delinquent behaviour was most likely to develop among? Why was this?	A subcultural theorist, working class boys doing badly at school, as they suffered from status frustration, achieving status through academic success would be very difficult for them instead they could gain status from delinquent behaviour.
Cloward and Ohlin 1961, developed Cohen's ideas, what did they argue?	They argued that working class boys can belong to three subcultures... Crimes involving a financial gain, if there is no established criminal culture a conflict subculture might develop - more concerned with violent and aggressive behaviour than making money, a retreatist subculture of drink and drugs
Miller 1962 what did he argue was the main reason why many working class boys get into trouble? Name three of the focal concerns	As they have a different set of norms and values from the rest of society, he calls them focal concerns. Trouble: accepting life involves violence, Toughness: 'real men' fight, drink and womanize. Excitement: always on the look out for having a laff!
Name the two most infamous gangs	African American Crips and Bloods of Los Angeles
What colour did the Crips identify themselves with? and what colour did the bloods identify themselves with? Why did they stop identifying themselves in this way?	Blue Red as it makes identification very easy for the police and other gangs.
Nightingale (1993) Who did he study? and where? What do gang members actually want to achieve - but can't? How are they excluded? what are they therefore forced to do?	He studied young black gangs in an inner city of Philadelphia, US. The American dream of having the latest consumer goods. They are excluded educationally, economically and politically from mainstream US culture. They are forced to gain these things through crime.
David Downes (1966) What did he find? What did he find little evidence of?	That many working class boys hung around together but were not in any sense an organised gang. Found little evidence of the American ideas of status frustration (cohen) different types of gangs (Cloward and Ohlin) or focal concerns (miller) Even in large cities there weren't the equivalent of the Blood or Crips!
Bennett and Holloway (2004) Where and who did they study data from? What did they find? From this research what was estimated?	Data from interviews with over 5,000 arrestees across England and Wales. The found that 15 per cent had current or past experience with gang members. There could be 20,000 active gang members in the UK aged 18 or over.
Korem (1994) Who did he examine? How long did he conduct research for? And where? What does he argue? What is the key factor that pushes someone into a gang?	The middle class gang. For seven years, in the UK, US and other countries. That affluent middle-class boys are forming gangs in ever increasing numbers. The key factor seems to be family problems. gang becomes a substitute family, family problems are a better predictor of joining gangs
Thrasher What did he research? Where and when? What did he find? What then did he argue?	He researched 1,313 gangs in the US in the 1920's, he found only 6 female gangs, and argued that female gang activity is 'auxiliary in nature': women's role in gangs is very limited and exists only to serve the male gang members in a social or sexual sense.
Anne Campbell, who did she study? What did she focus on?	New York girl gangs, she focused on the experiences of three gang members and researched the limited choices available to working-class inner-city American girls.
Hunt (2001) Who did he interview? Although Hunt found that the 'homegirls' committed crimes, what did they also do (or not do)?	141 female gang members from the San Francisco Bay area of the US. Within the gang they conformed to traditional gender roles and had to ensure they didn't have sex with too many male gang members in case they were labelled negatively
David Matza (1964) What does he argue that research into gangs is? What does he argue? What do many young men do? and why do they do this? Why do they get caught?	Too determistic. The studies imply that once you have joined a gang you cannot escape and you commit yourself to a deviant lifestyle. He argues that this isn't the case. Many young men drift in and out of criminal activity, they are just looking for excitement and fun, but they are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
What do social action theorists argue in terms of criminals? What do they call this?	Young men are targeted and picked by the police. They call this process labelling. Middle class boys simply get away with more and are treated more leniently by the police.
Define environmental theory	Also known as Urban Criminology, looks at the relationship between patterns of crime and where people live, work and spend their leisure.
Shaw and McKay, When and where did these American sociologists conduct their research? What did they do? What did their results reveal?	At Chicago University in the 1930's. They plotted the addresses of people who had committed crimes in the city. Revealed that when the city was divided into concentric zones, each of the five different zones had different levels of crime. Explain more on paper.
Sutherland. What did he introduce the concept of? What does this mean? What does Sutherland claim?	The concept of differential association. That everyone in society associates with different people. Some of these people will be law abiding and some not. The more time you spend with people that aren't law abiding the more likely you are to turn to crime yourself. Younger people who live in the city are most likely to be influenced.
Morris, where did he study? What did he argue?	He studied Croydon. It was the local council's policy of housing 'problem' families together that created high-crime areas.
Define delinquent behaviour	anti-social and criminal behaviour committed by children and young adults
Status frustration	The anger and resentment felt when individuals have their aspirations blocked.
Define a subculture	A group within society whose member share common values and have similar behaviour patterns.

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	Created by Hannah Fay Bosto over 11 years ago