Crime and Deviance | AQA A-Level Sociology (7192)
Crime and Deviance
- 239 questions
- 19 subtopics
- Paper 3: Crime and Deviance
- Paper 3
Crime and Deviance is examined on Paper 3, alongside Theory and Methods.
It works through the major theories of why crime happens, who is recorded as offending and why, the newer questions of globalisation, green and state crime, and how societies try to control crime and treat victims.
Sample questions from Crime and Deviance
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Functionalist, strain and control theories of crime
What is the central idea of Merton's strain theory?
Show the answer
Deviance results from a strain between the culturally approved goals a society sets its members (in the USA, monetary success or the American Dream) and the legitimate, institutionalised means available for achieving them. -
Interactionism and labelling theory
What did Lemert mean by secondary deviance?
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Deviance that is the result of societal reaction and labelling. Once publicly labelled, a person may be treated as a deviant, take on a deviant identity and go on to commit further deviance. -
Left and right realism
What crime-control policies do right realists favour?
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Situational crime prevention and target hardening, zero-tolerance policing of minor disorder, and tougher, more certain punishment to deter offenders. -
Social class, white-collar and corporate crime
What is corporate crime?
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Corporate crime refers to offences committed by companies or employees acting on behalf of companies, including health and safety violations, environmental crimes, and financial fraud. -
Globalisation and crime
How do global criminal networks conceal their illegal activities within the legitimate economy?
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They use legitimate business structures to obscure illegal activity. -
Moral panics and the deviancy amplification spiral
What is the first stage in the deviancy amplification spiral?
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Initial deviance occurs. -
State crime and human rights
According to Stan Cohen, what is genocide as a type of state crime?
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The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation, by the state. -
Situational and environmental crime prevention
How does improving natural surveillance work as a situational crime prevention measure?
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Designing environments so that potential offenders are more visible to others, increasing the likelihood of being seen and reported.
The 19 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Functionalist, strain and control theories of crime | Durkheim on the functions of crime and anomie, Merton's five adaptations, and Hirschi's social bonds. | 22 |
| Subcultural theories of crime | Cohen's status frustration and middle-class measuring rod, Cloward and Ohlin's three subcultures, and Miller's focal concerns. | 13 |
| Interactionism and labelling theory | Primary and secondary deviance, typifications, the deviant career, and deviancy amplification. | 14 |
| Marxist and critical theories of crime | Criminogenic capitalism, selective law enforcement, the ideological functions of crime, and critical criminology. | 9 |
| Left and right realism | Murray's underclass and rational choice on one side, relative deprivation, subculture and marginalisation on the other. | 18 |
| Gender and crime | The gender gap in offending, the chivalry and double deviance theses, and the liberation thesis. | 8 |
| Social class, white-collar and corporate crime | Why working-class offending dominates the statistics, and why white-collar and corporate crime does not. | 10 |
| Ethnicity, policing and the criminal justice system | Stop and search, institutional racism, and the left realist and neo-Marxist explanations of over-representation. | 10 |
| Globalisation and crime | Transnational organised crime, glocal organisation, risk consciousness, and the effect of financial deregulation. | 9 |
| The media, crime and fear of crime | News values in crime reporting, how coverage differs from the statistics, and imitation, desensitisation and fear. | 15 |
| Moral panics and the deviancy amplification spiral | Cohen on the Mods and Rockers, folk devils, the stages of the spiral, and the left realist caution. | 11 |
| Green crime | Primary and secondary green crime, green criminology's wider definition, and why prosecution is so difficult. | 19 |
| State crime and human rights | Defining state crime through human rights, and the typologies of Cohen and McLaughlin. | 11 |
| Denial, neutralisation and prosecuting state crime | The techniques of neutralisation, Cohen's spiral of denial, zemiology, and why state crime stays invisible. | 11 |
| Situational and environmental crime prevention | Target hardening, natural surveillance, removing targets and reducing rewards, set against social crime prevention. | 10 |
| Realist crime control, surveillance and the panopticon | Right and left realist approaches to control, CCTV, electronic tagging, and Foucault on discipline. | 8 |
| Punishment, sentencing and the criminal justice system | Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation and incapacitation, restorative justice, and the agencies of the system. | 16 |
| Victims and victimology | Positivist and critical victimology, repeat and secondary victimisation, and who is most at risk. | 12 |
| Crime prevention strategies and their limits | Zero tolerance, broken windows, community policing, displacement, net widening and actuarial justice. | 13 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA A-Level Sociology Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,116 questions with their answers.