WORKBOOK ANSWERS
AQA A2 Sociology Unit 4
Crime and Deviance with
Theory and Methods
This Answers book provides suggestions for some of the possible answers that might be given for the
questions asked in the workbook. They are not exhaustive and other answers may be acceptable, but they
are intended as a guide to give teachers and students feedback. The student responses for the longer
essay-style questions are intended to give some idea about how the exam questions might be answered.
The examiner comments (underlined text) have been added to give you some sense of what is rewarded
in the exam and which areas can be developed. Again, these are not the only ways to answer such
questions but they can be treated as one way of approaching questions of these types.
Section A Crime and
deviance
Topic 1 Theories of crime, deviance,
social order and social control
Functionalism
1 Behaviour that differs from the normal, incurs disapproval, and is subject to some form of sanction.
2 Behaviour that contradicts consensus norms and values. (The approach of seeing deviance in
normative terms is shared by functionalists and the New Right.)
3 He meant that in any society with rules there will be people who break them. A deviance-free society is
therefore impossible.
4 ‘Anomie’ literally means ‘normlessness’ but here Durkheim meant a state where large numbers of
people are insufficiently integrated into society’s norms and values.
5 Durkheim regarded small instances of deviance as functional because deviant people can be ahead of
their time and bring about positive social change (e.g. suffragettes); deviance can act as a marker of
the boundaries of appropriate behaviour; and deviance can sometimes promote social cohesion by
binding people together in moral outrage against it.
6 Hirschi’s premise was that most criminologists were approaching the problem from the wrong angle.
Instead of asking why people commit crime, he asked why people are so conformist. His answer lay in
the idea of the strength of the ‘bonds of attachment’ that connected people to society, in terms of what
integrated them and what they had to lose if they got caught.
7 Strain theory or ‘anomic paradigm’.
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8 Merton explained crime in terms of goals and means. He assumed everyone in society shared the
same goal/values (the ‘American Dream’) and that those whose opportunities were blocked, meaning
that they could not attain their goals legitimately, would use illegitimate means to achieve them.
9 American subcultural theory developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a response to Merton’s failure to
explain non-material crime. Like Merton, Cloward and Ohlin explain working-class crime in terms of
blocked opportunities and goals, which sometimes result in ‘illegitimate career structure’, but they
disagree that delinquents share the same values and goals as the rest of society. They see the lowerworking-class delinquents as sharing their own deviant subcultural values (‘criminal’, ‘conflict’ or
‘retreatist’).
Albert K. Cohen sees deviance as a reaction to what he terms ‘status frustration’. He saw young males
who were faced with failure choosing a delinquent subculture and achieving their own status from rule
breaking.
In contrast, Walter B. Miller sees lower-working-class deviance resulting from people being socialised
into deviant subcultural values he called ‘focal concerns’. Miller also makes a connection between
delinquency and boys who were brought up in female-headed, lone-parent families.
Exam-style question
Here is a suggested plan to give you guidance on how to answer such questions.
Introduction
Functionalists adopt a structuralist, macro, top-down approach to explaining crime. As a theory,
functionalism derives from the work of Emile Durkheim and consequently adopts a normative approach;
therefore functionalists’ explanation for a social problem like crime tends to focus on inadequate
socialisation. AO2 point: Marxists argue that functionalists focus too much on working-class crime and
ignore white-collar and corporate crime, while interactionalists argue that they ignore processes like
labelling.
Main body
Emile Durkheim used ‘anomie’ to apply to people who have been insufficiently integrated into society’s
norms and values. He also identified three characteristics associated with deviance: the normal, the
universal and the functional. In the case of the functional, the theory is that in small amounts deviance can
promote beneficial social change, unite people in their moral condemnation and set boundaries about
what is acceptable.
AO2 point: The advantage of Durkheim’s work is that it provides an explanation for crime in terms of
inadequate compliance to norms and values. However, as a theory it struggles to explain why some are
more criminal than others or why some types of crime take place.
In response to these criticisms, Robert Merton adapted Durkheim’s anomie (which he felt was used too
vaguely) through his ‘strain theory’. He identifies the strain between people’s wants (goals) and their ability
to achieve them (means) in a five-fold anomic paradigm.
AO2 point: Merton’s big contribution to the debate lies in linking crime to blocked opportunities, through
explaining the crime of ‘innovators’ who share the goal (American Dream) but have to use illegitimate
means to achieve them. However, Marxists would point out that white-collar crime and corporate crime
cannot be explained by blocked opportunities.
Merton’s ideas are supported in the recent research of several theorists including Carl Nightingale,
Philippe Bourgois and, most recently, Robert Reiner and Jock Young.
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AO2 point: However, Laurie Taylor described the groupings of his anomic paradigm as over-simplistic: ‘the
fruit-machine theory of criminology’. He also came in for criticism from the subcultural theorists for failing
to explain the non-material crime of juvenile delinquency.
Albert K. Cohen uses the term ‘reacting formation’ to describe how delinquent youths suffering from
‘status frustration’ respond by inverting the rules to enhance their status based on delinquent activities.
AO2 point: One strength of Cohen’s argument is that it explains non-material crimes like vandalism and
graffiti. However, it fails to explain other sorts of crime where the motive may not be status but money or
pleasure. Cohen has also been criticised for ignoring female deviance.
Cloward and Ohlin put forward the idea of an ‘illegitimate career structure’ to explain how those denied
access to lucrative legitimate employment may be tempted into crime. This overlaps with Merton’s blocked
opportunities but they disagree with Merton that lower-class delinquents share the same goals and values
as the rest of society.
AO2 point: Although Cloward and Ohlin link crime to three subcultures (criminal, conflict and retreatist)
they have been criticised for not explaining why there is also corporate and white-collar crime or how the
higher classes are also able to succeed through an ‘illegitimate career structure’.
To explain juvenile delinquency, Walter B. Miller uses the concept of ‘focal concerns’ to refer to the
deviant subcultural values into which the lower class are socialised. This portrays youth as autonomous,
seeing delinquent behaviour as a normal part of the macho lower-class culture into which they are
socialised.
AO2 point: However, Miller has been criticised for also ignoring female deviance and for ignoring the fact
that ‘focal concerns’ can be observed across the social-class spectrum. In addition, postmodernists, such
as Lyng and Katz, would argue that his analysis ignores the role of emotions in driving crime, although
one of his focal concerns is ‘excitement’.
Travis Hirschi’s contribution to the debate is to ask not why some commit crime but why so many people
are conformist. He uses the concept of ‘bonds of attachment’ to explain that the more integrated people
are to societal norms, values and laws, the less likely they are to commit deviant and criminal acts.
AO2 point: One strength of Hirschi’s argument is that it does explain why most people are conformist and
why crime is committed. However, unlike Marxists, he cannot explain why people who are well integrated
into society commit white-collar crime.
Conclusion
Most functionalist explanations are linked in some way to the concept of anomie. AO2 point: However,
functionalist analysis is preoccupied with working-class crime and does not explain why crime is
committed by middle- and upper-class people as well.
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Marxism
1 Willem Bonger
2 Laureen Snider
3 Edwin H. Sutherland
4 Chambliss discovered a web of connections between organised crime and politicians, senior police
officers and businessmen. In addition, he found that the police frequently ignored the illegal activities of
these elites and focused on the working class and working-class areas.
5 Croall argues that the seriousness of corporate crime gets softened through the use of terms like
‘cons’, ‘rip-offs’ and ‘fiddles’.
6 The authors of The New Criminology (Taylor, Walton and Young) were criticised for portraying crime as
political, as an act of class consciousness by an oppressed and alienated proletariat. They
romanticised crime, seeing it as redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, whereas in reality most
acts of crime are committed by the working class on the working class. Feminists like Pat Carlen argue
that they ignored patriarchy and power.
7 He went on to develop Left realism and looked back at his work on New Criminology critically, calling it
‘Left idealism’.
8 The explanation of the CCCS was that because they were young, they were not tied down by ideology
or finance and were capable of resisting the controlling mechanisms of capitalism by developing
rebellious and deviant youth styles.
9 CCCS generally: This Marxist subcultural approach of the 1970s–80s saw youth styles (teddy boys,
skinheads, punks etc.) as a form of resistance to capitalism. It argued that young people are neither
locked into the media-driven ideology of capitalism nor the necessity to buckle down to the demands of
earning a living and paying bills. However, Stan Cohen criticises the CCCS for selectively using
evidence to reflect class-based resistance. Shane Blackman argues that most youth subcultures are
not class based but have more to do with locality, age or sexuality.
Phil Cohen: Phil Cohen studied ‘skinheads’ (and ‘mods’) in the East End of London, concluding that
youth subcultures are a symbolic solution to the wider conflicts such as the decline of the traditional
working class community along with poor housing and employment prospects. However, critics argue
that he is imposing motives into the youth’s behaviour that may simply not exist. They may simply be
racist or enjoy violent confrontations.
Mike Brake: Brake sees the resistance of working-class youth as a ‘magical’ response before
becoming trapped by financial constraints in adulthood. As such he is implying a degree of acceptance
that their future adult lives may be dull and routine, but see youth as a period of escapism and
enjoyment before settling down. Brake’s ideas are coherent, but it should be remembered that most
young people did not join youth styles and were ordinary young people.
Exam-style question
New Criminology is a neo-Marxist perspective developed in the 1970s by Taylor, Walton and Young in
their book The New Criminology. The innovation of their approach, as implied in the title of their book, was
to embrace elements of interactionism and labelling theory and, as such, New Criminology made a
significant impact on the sociology of crime in the 1970s. However, many regarded it at the time as naïve,
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political and guilty of over-romanticising crime. Indeed, within a decade, one of its authors, Jock Young,
had developed Left realism and disparagingly renamed New Criminology ‘Left idealism’.
This is a detailed beginning to an answer that unpacks New Criminology in some detail for an introduction.
It brings in key strengths of synthesis with labelling theory and identifies its key criticisms.
New Criminology developed out of the traditional Marxist perspective on crime which links the causes of
crime with inequalities created by the capitalist system. It shows that the traditional Marxist approach is a
macro approach, seeing crime as stemming from the inherent inequalities of capitalism. However, by
embracing elements of interactionism and labelling theory, New Criminology attempts a synthesis of both
structure and process and can be viewed as containing elements of both a macro and a micro approach.
This is a well-constructed paragraph that explores ideas of structure and process, and relates this to
macro and micro approaches. Having made a clear initial point, the tone of the paragraph becomes
explanatory and critical, gaining AO2 marks in the process.
With their fully social theory of deviance, Taylor, Walton and Young show how the behaviour of the
offender, society, social circumstances, social reaction (labelling) and the agents of control such as the
police and the courts are linked. They argue that crime is a political act, as criminals see offending as an
act against oppression and asserting class consciousness. However, non-Marxist sociologists view this
analysis as over-simplistic, naïve and frankly wrong, arguing that criminals are motivated by factors such
as greed, material gain, blocked opportunities or status, and would not identify with this New Criminology
analysis.
There is good critical analysis of New Criminology here. The criticism is direct and to the point.
While most people viewed the arguments of New Criminology negatively, the final chapter in which Taylor,
Walton and Young advocated a ‘fully social theory of deviance’ won widespread approval. Building up
through seven points, they located crime in terms of its wider origins (capitalism), its immediate origins
(e.g. deprivation), the actual act (individual motivations) and its social reaction (labelling). This shows New
Criminology’s attempt to explain crime in terms of both structure and process and deserves credit for
being so innovative and embracing elements of macro and micro sociology.
This aspect of New Criminology’s approach is worthy of praise, which is explicitly given in this paragraph,
gaining AO2 marks.
Paul Gilroy has been linked to New Criminology and is sometimes referred to as a ‘Left idealist’ for his
suggestion that black crime is politically motivated. He sees black crime as a justified and legitimate
response to a white racist society. This shows crime as a legacy of the colonial struggle and as an active
response. However, Gilroy is heavily criticised for glamorising and romanticising crime and ignoring the
pain and hurt it causes. He also ignores the fact that a lot of crime is committed by blacks on blacks, just
as New Criminology generally ignores the fact that most crime is committed by the working class on fellow
members of the working class.
Gilroy’s ideas from the 1970s reflect the ideas of New Criminology closely and are worthy of inclusion
here. His ideas are subject to evaluation so would gain AO2 marks. The useful last point makes a critical
comment on New Criminology, gaining further AO2 credit.
New Criminology has come in for some specific criticisms, which raise important questions about its true
usefulness. Some have argued that blaming crime on capitalism effectively removes responsibility from
the criminal for his actions. This ignores the psychological and financial damage crime can cause.
Feminists, such as Pat Carlen, have also criticised New Criminology for ignoring patriarchal structures and
excluding women from any discussion.
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The further criticisms addressed here would secure more AO2 marks.
In conclusion, while New Criminology can take some credit for shaking up criminology in the 1970s and
attempting a synthesis between structure and process, its overt political nature has resulted in most
commentators questioning its usefulness in terms of our understanding of crime. A critical indication of its
lack of usefulness is the fact that one of its key members, Jock Young, subsequently distanced himself
from this approach, regarding it as too idealistic. Young’s subsequent work attempts to explain crime in a
more realistic manner through Left realism.
This is quite a long concluding paragraph, but it does make several critical points about New Criminology’s
usefulness, thus referring explicitly back to the question.
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Labelling theory
1 The ‘outsiders’.
2 The only difference is that deviants are the ones who got caught (and labelled as such).
3 Master status becomes the most important aspect of a person’s identity. Other people define that
person by means of this label of identity, as well as the person defining himself by it. ‘Paedophile’ is an
example of a deviant master status because of its overriding label of identity.
4 According to Becker it is ‘moral entrepreneurs’ who create the rules and laws. Marxists argue that it is
the rich and powerful; functionalists argue that it is the consensus will of the people.
5 Becker saw deviant careers as being linked to the process of labelling and the formation of a master
status. When the latter develops, the labelled individual may become isolated and excluded from
mainstream society. As a consequence they may then come to associate themselves with similar
deviant people. The resulting group may encourage further deviant behaviour (hence ‘career’) by
providing a rationale and possibly encouragement.
6 By ‘primary deviance’ Lemert meant the act of deviance and by ‘secondary deviance’ he meant the
subsequent social reaction involving a deviant label being attached. Lemert stressed that the act is
insignificant; it is only the social reaction that is important.
7 Akers criticises labelling theory for ignoring motives and not differentiating between non-deviant and
deviant people who are portrayed simply as victims of the labelling process. He argues that sometimes
people choose to do bad things and this should be recognised.
8 Ciçourel’s concept of negotiation is an important idea that demonstrates how some people are more
likely to be labelled than others. In his study of two US towns he discovered that it was easier for white
middle-class juveniles to negotiate themselves out of being arrested and consequently labelled than
those from the working class. His concept can equally be applied to explaining why women might be in
a stronger position to negotiate than men, or why black male youths are in a particularly weak
negotiating position.
9 The term ‘moral panic’ is associated with the work of Stan Cohen and his study of mods and rockers.
The term ‘moral’ implies a decline in ethical awareness of threats to the norms, values, rules and
regulations that govern society; ‘panic’ signifies that the problem has arisen suddenly, escalated in a
dramatic fashion and become of great concern to society.
Exam-style question
Labelling theory is a bottom-up micro approach because it looks at the meanings and the reasons behind
crime. Labelling theory is often referred to as the social-reaction theory because it focuses on the links
between criminal activities and the reaction to these activities. As a theory it focuses on the process
whereby some individuals or groups become labelled as deviant. Its usefulness can be gauged by its
influence on subsequent theories such as New Criminology and elements of Left realism.
This is a focused introduction. A nice evaluative point is made in the last sentence.
Howard Becker developed labelling theory to explain how a person becomes deviant not so much through
their actions as through social reactions. If a person’s behaviour is labelled deviant or criminal, he may
become marginalised and be seen as non-conformist by society. This can result in the person being
labelled as deviant and this label becomes their master status. This means that the person might identify
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with this role and continue committing criminal or deviant acts by turning to a deviant career. However, it is
also important to note that labelling is not the only factor that might lead to a person turning to a deviant
career. For example, the functionalists would talk in terms of anomie and blocked opportunities whereas
Marxists would focus on structural inequalities like poverty and unemployment. Other theories thus
challenge labelling theory’s usefulness.
This rather long but detailed paragraph unpacks and explains labelling theory and brings in key concepts
like master status and deviant career. There is a good evaluative section at the end, which compares
labelling theory’s ideas with functionalist and Marxist alternatives.
Edwin Lemert proposed that there are two types of deviance. Primary deviance refers to the act of
deviance the person commits. Secondary deviance refers to the social reaction of the public (family and
society) to the act. Like Becker, he implies that the social reaction is more important than the criminal act.
Lemert gives an example of the fear of stuttering among Hopi Indians and how the social reaction of
parents can lead to stuttering among their children increasing rather than decreasing. Thus the social
reaction can encourage further deviance as a form of social construction. However, Akers (1967) criticised
labelling theorists for presenting deviants as perfectly normal people who are no different from anyone
else until someone comes along and slaps a label on them. There is often a good reason why the label is
applied to certain groups or individuals and not to others. As long as labelling fails to explain this, then it is
an incomplete theory and less than useful.
The work of Lemert and primary and secondary deviance are discussed using his example of Native
Americans and stuttering. The work and ideas of Akers are used to evaluate labelling theory.
Steven Box, although generally associated with a Marxist perspective, can be identified with labelling
theory and social-reaction theory. As part of a jury trying a case of a woman caught shoplifting, he found
that other members of the jury put false claims on their expense forms. This shows that even though their
fraudulent expenses were worth more than the value of the goods shoplifted, because there was no
negative social reaction towards them, unlike the shoplifter, they were not labelled as deviant. Box’s study
highlights the usefulness of labelling theory in showing how the social reaction is more important than the
deviant act.
Box’s case study of jury service is a good illustration of how the act is insignificant compared with the
social reaction. Note: although Box is not a labelling theorist, this example is a good illustration of labelling
theory.
Jock Young undertook a participant observational study in Notting Hill. He found that the more the police
tried to stop drug taking, the more it happened. Harassment from the police turned drug-taking from a
peripheral act into an important symbolic gesture of rebellion. This shows that the social reaction served to
increase drug-taking and became the drug-takers’ master status. This explains how crime can result from
negative social reactions and encourage a rebellious attitude among deviants to the social reaction.
However, functionalists and the New Right would challenge the usefulness of this labelling approach,
pointing out that drug-taking is criminalised for a good reason and that the police were doing their job.
Young’s response was that this overreaction to soft drugs in the 1960s led to an increase in hard
drug-taking in the 1980s.
Again the work of a non-interactionist is effectively used to illustrate labelling theory. When candidates do
this in exam answers they should make this point explicitly; such recognition would gain AO2 marks.
Aaron Ciçourel studied juvenile crime rates and the police treatment of delinquent youths in two towns in
the USA. He found that middle-class youths were able to negotiate their way out of trouble with agencies
of control such as the police. This meant that they were less likely to be imprisoned or fined by police
when caught. Working-class youths and black youths were less able to negotiate with the police and other
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agencies. As a consequence, Ciçourel was critical of official statistics, arguing that they do not reflect real
crime rates, merely the activities of those least able to negotiate themselves out of arrest, prosecution and
conviction. In addition, this labelling and stereotyping by the police may well antagonise certain groups,
like black working-class males, who may be oppositional towards the police. Supporters of labelling theory
argue that the police choose to concentrate on areas and individuals who reflect their ‘canteen culture’
world-view and consequently those groups have a higher chance of being arrested.
The work of Ciçourel is discussed in some depth here with good levels of analysis of his concept of
negotiation. This is followed by a reflective discussion about the police. Note how nearly all the
paragraphs in this answer end with reflective or evaluative AO2 points.
The interactionist Stan Cohen studied the moral panic that surrounded mods and rockers in the 1960s.
This study shows how the media constructs and labels deviant groups as ‘folk devils’ by identifying
‘antisocial behaviour’ and exaggerating its extent. Marxists undertook another study of moral panic.
Hall et al. studied mugging and found that young black males were more likely to be associated with the
label of ‘mugger’. This was because the media exaggerated this fear of mugging, leading to a social
reaction that effectively labelled all young black males as potential muggers. Hall argued that a moral
panic about black muggers was deliberately created to generate support for giving the police more powers
at a time when capitalism was going through a period of crisis. However, Hall’s theory ignores interest
groups other than the dominant class that can influence the law. It has been argued that history has
recently repeated itself with a moral panic about Islamic terrorists being used to justify further reductions in
civil liberties and granting more powers to the police.
Any answer on labelling will benefit from inclusion of Stan Cohen’s classic study of the labelling of mods
and rockers following their 1960s confrontations. The creation of any ‘folk devil’ is a classic example of
labelling. Hall et al.’s discussion of the social construction of mugging in the 1970s is then considered. A
point not fully exploited here is that although Hall et al. are not interactionists, their study still usefully
illustrates the labelling process. There is a good evaluative point about Hall et al.’s work followed by a
useful reflection of history repeating itself in using people’s fears of terrorism since ‘9/11’ to justify
strengthening state powers.
In conclusion, interactionist labelling theory views criminality as the result of negative labelling that might
be linked to social class, ethnicity or gender. It is useful because it demonstrates that negative social
reactions towards deviant or criminal people can be more important than the criminal act itself. Therefore,
this theory can useful in explaining why ethnic minorities and working-class males seem to feature
prominently in official crime statistics. However, others (such as realists) would argue that statistics are an
accurate portrayal of who commits crimes, and Akers notes that there is often a good reason why the
deviant label is applied to certain groups and not to others.
This is quite a long conclusion. However, it would be credited because it refers explicitly back to the
question, which is what conclusions should do, and reflects on the findings of the essay.
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Realism
1 Right realism was developed as an apparent response to sociology’s failure to solve the problem of
crime. The term ‘realism’ suggests an approach that avoids idealistic theories to explain the causes of
crime.
2 It has a negative view of human nature, seeing people as naturally greedy and selfish. It also assumes
that human behaviour is voluntaristic and can be controlled through costs and benefits to the individual.
3 Murray’s work is a mixture of subcultural theory and Right realism. He views the underclass as a
clearly distinguishable group of people at the bottom of society with their own deviant subcultural
values.
4 Wilson and Kelling argue that if minor acts and visual reminders of crime (‘incivilities’), such as broken
windows, vandalism, graffiti etc. are not dealt with, they will signal the start of a downward spiral into
serious crime.
5 Wilson saw active citizens as people who challenge incivilities and antisocial behaviour. They then
become responsible for reducing crime and, by reducing incivilities, they help to keep more serious
crime at bay.
6 ‘Zero tolerance’ is a policing policy whereby minor incivilities are taken seriously and punished. When
Mayor Rudy Giuliani introduced zero tolerance in New York, the crime rate halved.
7 According to Marxists, crime is caused by the inequalities and exploitative nature of capitalism.
Because Young claimed that Left realism should provide governments with practical solutions to the
problem of crime, Marxists argued that he had ‘sold out’ since he had shifted from blaming capitalism
to becoming a policy-maker.
8 ‘Military policing’ is what Left realism calls the police tactic of stop and search.
9 Subculture, relative deprivation and marginalisation are the three causes of crime according to Left
realism. Left realists saw young, black, working-class males as particularly prone to criminality because
of these three factors.
10 Left realism sees subculture as one of the causes of crime. It is important to understand the connection
Left realism makes between subculture, marginalisation and relative deprivation. Left realists place a
particular focus on the subculture of young, black, working-class males. The subculture of this group is
seen as centred on the acquisition of material wealth. This is in marked contrast to the first generation
of immigrants who largely accepted their marginalised position in society. Left realism argues that
young black males’ subculture stems from the disparity between high material expectations and life’s
reality of deprivation. This was graphically summed up by Stuart Hall as the choice between
‘unemployment or white man’s shit work’. Left realism argues that this results in feelings of unjust
relative deprivation which, together with marginalisation, become drivers of criminal activity. Young,
black males’ subculture is further strengthened by the frequent prejudice and harassment of stop-andsearch policing, described by Left realism as ‘military policing’.
Exam-style question
James Q. Wilson and Ernst van den Haag developed Right realism as a response to the failings of
sociological criminology. It has many similarities to the functionalist perspective but essentially was a
critical response by the New Right to the failings of sociological theory to explain and solve the problem of
crime. It locates the causes of crime in agency (selfish and greedy people who believe the benefits of
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crime outweigh the costs of crime). This is in contrast to Left realism, which adopts a more structural
explanation of crime (relative deprivation, marginalisation and subculture). Right realism is rooted in New
Right political ideology in contrast to the social democratic philosophy of Left realism.
Although this question is on Right realism, this introduction demonstrates good practice (and gains AO2
marks in the process) by making contrasting comparisons with other sociological perspectives, in this case
Left realism.
The New Right adopted the term ‘realism’ to highlight how previous sociological thinking had been
theoretical and out of touch with the real situation. This is similar to Thomas Hobbes’ view of humanity as
selfish and greedy and supports Durkheim’s view of the need for punishment as a means of maintaining
social control. Charles Murray sees cultural factors as a key factor behind crime which is particularly
associated with the breakdown of the community, the rise of an underclass with deviant values,
inadequate socialisation, single mothers, absent fathers, work-shyness and violence. However, Alan
Walker challenges the existence of an underclass and accuses Murray of simply relying on ‘innuendos,
assertions and anecdotes’.
This is a useful paragraph beginning with how and why Right realism originated and making comparisons
with the ideas of Hobbes about the nature of humanity. Murray is discussed in some detail. Note the good
evaluation from Walker that ends this paragraph with a good AO2 point.
Right realism believes that sociological criminology has over-complicated our understanding of crime with
largely unproductive and complex theories that have mainly failed to reduce crime levels. However, Right
realism is not too optimistic about reducing crime levels either, but argues that selective and appropriate
policies could control and prevent crime significantly. This shows that Right realism, through its neo-liberal
political ideology, sees the best way to reduce crime is less by government intervention and more by the
people behaving as ‘active citizens’ and embracing their responsibility to challenge incivilities and antisocial behaviour whenever they encounter it. However, if people are naturally selfish and greedy, as Right
realism argues, why should they take the trouble to intervene and prevent crime?
There is an abundance of AO2 points in this paragraph. This is an area that candidates find challenging,
but the more you practise, the easier it becomes. Using the word ‘however’ can become repetitive, but it
shows you and the examiner that you are making evaluative points. It’s a good starting point; you can
improve and develop your style later.
Right realists pour scorn on sociological thinking, which explains crime as a product of social
circumstances. This means that they particularly oppose any connection between crime and poverty. They
point out that as capitalism has increased the affluence of people, crime rates have soared, thus
challenging any connection between poverty and crime. Adopting a victim-blaming approach to the poor,
the deprived and the underclass, Right realism argues that it should not be the responsibility of the state to
intervene and attempt to change social conditions. This implies that the poor themselves should take
individual responsibility to pull themselves out of poverty. As far as the New Right is concerned, extending
welfare services, education reforms etc. has actually led to a significant increase in crime.
Some useful points are made in this paragraph about Right realism’s critique of much of the sociology of
crime. A counter point, from a social democratic position, could have been made in the last sentence.
James Q. Wilson sees communal action to promote order as a key factor in controlling crime. Crime
thrives in disorderly communities as people do not feel safe on the streets and are unable to challenge
antisocial behaviour. Respectable people are likely to move out of an area that is dirty, where graffiti and
vandalism are rife, allowing less respectable people to take their place. Most communities, he argues,
consist of a balance between those who commit offences and the law-abiding. If the conformists impose
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‘informal sanctions’, then social control is maintained. However, most people show little appetite for
becoming active citizens and challenging antisocial behaviour.
No answer on Right realism would be complete without discussion of the work and ideas of
James Q. Wilson.
Wilson argues that changes to the way we police the streets could improve the crime situation. He is a
strong advocate of ‘zero tolerance’ policing policies, whereby minor incivilities are taken seriously and
punished. The implication is that taking all crime seriously sends a message to the community. It also
helps to prevent areas from declining into the ‘broken-window’ situation. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani
introduced zero tolerance in New York, the crime rate halved. Drunks and drug addicts were moved on or
arrested and prostitutes were removed from the streets. However, critics argue that this policy simply
moves criminal behaviour into neighbouring districts, as was found when zero tolerance was applied to the
King’s Cross area of London.
There are some further points from Wilson here, including a detailed discussion of zero tolerance with the
applied example of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s experiment in New York. Examiners will reward appropriate
examples from the real world.
In their ‘broken-window thesis’, Wilson and Kelling argued that if minor acts and visual reminders of crime,
such as broken windows, are not dealt with, they will signal the start of a downward spiral into serious
crime. This implies that areas where minor ‘incivilities’ (litter, graffiti, noise, vandalism etc.) are kept to the
minimum will stay respectable and largely crime-free. However, where incivilities occur unpunished, this
encourages wider antisocial behaviour and more serious crimes.
The important broken-window theory is included here. A critique of incivilities is that it is the other way
round. Serious crime encourages incivilities.
In conclusion, Right realism can take a lot of credit for making criminologists shift from ideology to a
practical analysis of crime. It has been an important influence in shaping government policies across the
world for the past 30 years or so. However, many feel it is too rooted in blaming crime on agency
behaviour (bad, greedy people) rather than on structural factors like poverty, deprivation and blocked
opportunities.
This is a useful final paragraph to conclude this answer. It relates back effectively to the question.
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Topic 2 The social distribution of crime
and deviance
Social class and crime
1 White-collar crime, such as fraud and embezzlement, tends to be hidden and committed by the middle
class and above. It also includes workplace crime, such as fiddling expenses, committed by whitecollar employees. Some older definitions equated white-collar crime with corporate crime.
2 Jeffrey Reiman sees ruling-class crimes such as corporate crime associated with health and safety
violations, environmental damage or the production of unsafe goods, such as pharmaceutical drugs.
3 Pearce said that members of the social elite would not creditably survive close legal scrutiny of their
business or professional lives. He also argued that the financial value of working-class crime is
insignificant compared with that of corporate crime.
4 Walter B. Miller and Cloward and Ohlin saw crime particularly concentrated in the working class, or
more specifically the lower working class; some people might describe this group as the underclass.
5 Murray sees the underclass as a group of people living ‘outside’ society in the sense that they live by
deviant subcultural values. He sees them as promiscuous, work-shy, welfare-dependent and inclined to
violence.
6 In Merton’s anomic paradigm the working class were innovators.
7 Marxists maintain that corporate crime and white-collar crime grossly exceed the value of workingclass crime.
8 The interests of the ruling class. Even when laws apparently exist to benefit everyone, Marxists argue
that partisan interpretation and enforcement by the police and the criminal justice system are biased in
favour of the ruling class. The CJS focuses attention on working-class crime while the misdemeanours
of the ruling class go unpunished or are treated more leniently.
9 Saints: middle class; Roughnecks: working class.
10 White-collar crimes, such as fraud and embezzlement, are crimes committed by the middle class and
above. They also include workplace crime, such as fiddling expenses, committed by white-collar
employees. Some older definitions equated white-collar crime with corporate crime. White-collar crime
is seen as less serious because it is less visible than working-class crime and often people are
unaware that they have become victims of it.
Exam-style question
The view that crime is a working-class problem is reinforced in many sociological perspectives and
supported by official crime statistics. The criminal justice system — in the form of policing, the courts and
the prison system — is overwhelmingly dominated by working-class criminals. However, Marxists in
particular challenge the validity of this picture, arguing that there is a considerable amount of hidden whitecollar and corporate crime. While the incidence of white-collar and corporate crime is less, they argue that
it significantly outstrips working-class crime in terms of value and hence could be viewed as a bigger
problem.
This introduction lays its cards on the table. It shows how and why crime may be perceived as a
working-class problem, but evaluates this from the Marxist point of view.
The functionalist perspective has long maintained that crime is a working-class problem. Merton’s strain
theory makes a link between those who can aspire to the American Dream legitimately (middle class and
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above ‘conformists’) and those who use illegitimate means to move closer to this goal (working-class
‘ritualists’). However, this does not explain why rich people who have the dream still commit crime. In an
interesting development, Steven Box used Merton’s idea of goals and means to explain the motivation for
corporate crime: if firms could not maximise the goal of profits legitimately, then this encouraged them to
use illegitimate means. This shows crime is not confined to the working class.
This answer outlines functionalists’ support for the idea of crime being a working-class problem. The ideas
of Merton are discussed here in relation to class, which is then evaluated. Box’s interpretation of Merton’s
ideas illustrates an example of non-working-class crime.
Functionalist subcultural theorists reinforced the idea that crime is a young, male working-class problem.
Both Cloward and Ohlin and Walter B. Miller used the lower working class as the focus of their analyses.
They both implied that within this location there exists a distinctly different set of subcultural values that
drives deviant and criminal behaviour. However, Miller’s assumption that focal concerns only apply to the
working class can be challenged. For example, Boris Johnson describes how the behaviour of the
Bullingdon Club members (made up of the progeny of the wealthy upper class) at Oxford University
frequently resulted in them being pursued by the police.
Subculturalist functionalists locate juvenile delinquency firmly in the working class but they have little to
say about other types of crime or indeed adult crime. However, they are only concerned with subcultural
deviance.
Labelling theorists, although their analysis is not specifically class-based, would broadly support the idea
that crime as a working-class problem is socially constructed through the process of labelling. For
example, Ciçourel found that the police share a collective stereotypical view of who constitutes a ‘typical’
criminal — a delinquent, working-class male — which undermines the ability of such people to negotiate
themselves out of the label. Chambliss found in his study of two gangs that the ‘Saints’, who came from
respectable middle-class homes, had not received so much as a parking ticket, even though they had
committed more serious acts than the working-class ‘Roughnecks’.
Labelling theory and a discussion of how the problem of working-class crime is constructed is unpacked in
this paragraph using the work and ideas of Ciçourel and Chambliss. There is not much explicit AO2
content in this paragraph, which should ideally occur in every paragraph.
Both Right and Left realism support the view that crime is a working-class problem. For example, in an
approach that marries subcultural theory with Right realism, Murray sees crime as concentrated in an
underclass. However, by describing the underclass as living ‘outside society’ (compare with Becker’s
‘outsiders’), Murray could be seen as linking crime not to the working class as such but to a deviant
subcultural group beneath the working class. In contrast, Left realists, Lea and Young, see crime as
specifically associated with young, black, working-class males. This group is particularly prone to crime
because of its subculture and the relative deprivation and marginalisation it faces. However, Left realism
has been criticised (like Right realism) for ignoring the crimes of the more powerful sections of society,
and for concentrating on street crime.
Both realisms are covered in this paragraph. Although they are very different in their focus, note how the
last sentence enables an AO2 evaluation of both.
Of all the perspectives, it is only really Marxism that would challenge the view that crime is a working-class
problem. Marxists emphasise the scale of corporate crime and white-collar crime, arguing that thieving
and burglary by the working class pales into insignificance in comparison. Croall points out that the
seriousness of corporate crime is softened through words like ‘cons’, ‘rip-offs’ and ‘fiddles’. However,
critics like Left realists argue that there is a real fear of crime, and it is working-class crime that ordinary
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people perceive as the problem. Consequently critics argue that victims of robbery and burglary are simply
ignored by the traditional Marxist approach.
The examiners like it when candidates recognise different and contrasting views. Marxists clearly
challenge the assumption that crime is a working-class problem. This view is explained and evaluated in
this paragraph, gaining AO2 marks.
In conclusion it can be seen that the bulk of sociologists would support the view that crime is a workingclass problem. The only significant exception to this view is that held by Marxists who argue that corporate
and white-collar crimes are not recognised as a problem because they are largely invisible. With growing
awareness of green crime and organised global crime, it is possible that in the future the simplistic link
between crime and the working class will be challenged more.
This is a focused conclusion that refers back to the question. While it is not recommended to bring new
material into a conclusion, the reflective thoughts of the last sentence could in this case be accepted as
they show recognition of social change and thinking ‘outside the box’. Examiners will reward such thinking
provided it is relevant to the question.
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Gender and crime
1 The ratio of male crime to female crime is over four to one.
2 Ladette culture is where females adopt the characteristics of males behaving badly.
3 They mean that issues such as female offending and women as victims have until quite recently been
largely ignored by most sociological theories of crime. The focus of theory and research has been on
male offenders.
4 She explains the invisibility of females by the fact that most sociologists are men, that they are
preoccupied with macho working-class deviance, and that a lot of female crime, such as prostitution
and shoplifting, is invisible or hidden.
5 Sex-role theory explains differential levels of gender crime as stemming primarily from socialisation.
Females are socialised into different roles and values, which result in them being more conformist. In
addition, being tied as adults to family and children, they have less opportunity and more to lose from
being involved in crime.
6 Several sociologists, such as Pat Carlen, have used social control to explain lower levels of offending.
She argues that women are controlled by both a ‘class deal’ (material gain from work) and a ‘gender
deal’ (rewards from family and home). Carlen points out that young females in court often have a
broken ‘gender deal’: they have often been brought up in care, run away from home or been thrown out
of home.
7 This is a term originally associated with Otto Pollak, referring to the more lenient way females are
treated by the police and criminal justice system. However, Carlen points out that women who come
across as unfeminine, promiscuous or ‘bad mothers’, or are assumed to have committed serious
crimes, get treated more harshly than men.
8 Connell, like many other sociologists, sees a lot of crime linked to ideas of ‘machismo’ and being a ‘real
man’. Hegemonic masculinity is such a dominant form of maleness based on toughness, physical
fighting and the subordination of women that it empowers all men who operate in its shadow, but at the
same time is a benchmark to put down males who do not conform to it.
9 When legitimate means of asserting masculinity are blocked, Messerschmidt argues that some males
turn to ‘masculine-validating resources’ whereby they assert themselves through violence against other
males by fighting and against females in the form of domestic violence. Like Walter Miller, he saw
those most in need of ‘masculine-validating resources’ as coming from the most deprived areas.
10 Katz explains crime in terms of a search for pleasure; this becomes meaningful in explaining masculine
crime when additionally crime is understood as a means of achieving macho status, control over others
and success. Lyng argues that young males often engage in ‘edgework’, whereby they seek pleasure
through risk taking behaviour that takes them to the edge between security and danger. This explains
activities like joy riding and drug taking. However, it would be wrong to see edgework as exclusively
male — some females are attracted by risk taking activities as well
Exam-style question
Males have an official offending rate of at least four times that of females. Explanations for this differential
range from socialisation to lesser levels of social control and postmodernist ideas of transgression.
Therefore to answer why males have a higher offending rate, it is necessary to explain why females
appear more conformist and, at the same time, factors that seem to be driving male offending.
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Weak gender answers tend to focus on reasons for female conformity. Better answers look at factors
driving male offending as well. While this introduction is quite short, it clearly signposts that both factors
will be considered in this answer. It is always good practice to show the examiner you have a thorough
understanding of the question and how you are going to approach it in your answer.
Frances Heidensohn notes that evidence from recorded crime statistics, self-report studies and victim
surveys all confirm that it is mainly young, adult males who carry out crime. In terms of serious crime,
males account for 87% of convictions and constitute about 97% of inmates in prisons and juvenile
detention institutions. However, some critics argue that female offending is much higher than officially
recognised. Females are simply better at evading being caught, or are treated more leniently. For
example, Pollak talks of a ‘chivalry factor’ whereby females are treated more leniently throughout the
criminal justice system.
Examiners like it when candidates include statistics in their essays. There is a good evaluative AO2 point
about the ‘dark side’ of female crime statistics.
The Victorians had ideas, now largely discredited, that biological factors explained the differences in
offending between men and women. For example, Cesare Lombroso argued that females are innately
different from men and that this explained the different levels of crime between the genders. Such ideas
have largely been replaced by sex-role theory, which sees the socialisation of young females as ‘lacking’
in the values that are generally associated with delinquency and aggressiveness, which lie behind a lot of
crime.
Sometimes it is worth putting obsolete ideas into essays simply to discredit them. This will gain AO2
marks. If you do this it will enhance your answer further if you discuss which ideas and theories have
replaced them, as here.
Another explanation for differential gender offending rates is the way females are controlled in society.
Social control theory highlights how females are controlled in both public and private spheres in ways that
do not apply to males. So, while daughters are controlled more within the family, most adult women are
controlled by their domestic responsibilities. However, Pat Carlen argues that if the social control of
women is so strong then why do some women still become deviant? Her explanation is that it is a failure
on the part of some women to make ‘class deals’ (material rewards in return for working) and ‘gender
deals’ (psychological and material rewards in return for love) that explains this deviance.
Control theory is discussed here and then evaluated through the work of Carlen.
Many feminists attribute differential offending rates simply to a lack of opportunities. This view is supported
by many radical feminists who regard women’s position in the home as one of entrapment. Through the
ideology of the family, women’s focus is in the private sphere of the home whereas men occupy the public
sphere of the workplace, the streets at night and pubs. However, this traditional view of gender is now outdated and to some extent obsolete. Women now increasingly occupy the public sphere and the growth of
ladette culture and female misdemeanours linked to excessive drinking in the nocturnal economy reflect
this. Stephen Jones wonders if the decline in male social control has encouraged women to make choices
to offend in the same way that men do. However, others suggest that women offend precisely because
they are under the control of men.
The marginalised position of women is effectively discussed here, followed by some evaluative points. The
idea of social change is shown through the suggestion of increasing female offending rates.
Carol Smart argues from a feminist and postmodernist position that to truly understand issues of gender
and crime we need to apply new radical thinking to challenge traditional ideas. She argues the case for a
need to apply what she calls ‘transgressive criminology’ to explore in a reflective way explanations for
women’s differential participation in crime as well as understanding the ways women can be harmed by
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crime. For example, she argues that a fear of crime results in many women having self-imposed curfews
— too frightened to go out at night, especially if it is dark. Another area she highlights is the way women
are sometimes labelled by the police, or in court, as somehow complicit in being raped if it can be shown
that they were dressed in ‘provocative’ clothing, such as low-cut tops or miniskirts. Smart’s ideas,
contained within transgressive criminology, deserve credit for the way they have made sociologists rethink
their ideas about women and crime. In addition, it poses some challenging questions that were not
considered in this topic, previously dominated by male sociologists. Another of its strength lies in the way
it addresses why most offending is by males, through a focus on the impact of masculinity.
Examiners increasingly expect to see recent research and ideas in answers from candidates.
Postmodernist ideas of transgressive criminology would be expected in essays like this. Note how the last
three sentences make evaluative AO2 points as well as linking into the content of the next paragraph. This
enhances the coherence and structure of the answer, but is a difficult skill to develop.
Raewyn Connell argues that although there is a range of masculinities, the most culturally dominant form
is ‘hegemonic masculinity’ which is typically expressed through physical strength and male power. James
Messerschmidt recognises that the construction of masculinity differs in different contexts. He cites the
example of working-class males who, denied power at work, may seek to enhance their masculinity
through violent behaviour. In response to the criticism that the work of Connell and Messerschmidt lacks
context, Simon Winlow explained male violence as a result of the shift from a traditional to a post-industrial
society. He argues that young men, particularly those not working at all, may have great difficulty resolving
this, frequently resorting to antisocial and violent behaviour.
A range of theorists are discussed here, including Raewyn (né Bob) Connell. Although Winlow makes
similar points, he can also be used here to evaluate and hence gain AO2 marks.
In developing the role of masculinity, Jack Katz argues that the general search for pleasure needs to be
understood in the context of a male world-view. Katz recognises the importance to young males of status,
control and success. Another postmodernist analysis comes from Stephen Lyng who argues that young
males search for pleasure through the risk-taking behaviour of edgework (behaviour that is on the edge
between safety and danger). However, neither Katz nor Lyng can explain why excitement and edgework
should drive males (rather than females) to offend, other than in order to accomplish masculinity.
Postmodernist ideas are again explored here with Katz and Lyng, who are then evaluated, deriving AO2
marks.
In conclusion, it is apparent that females do offend less than men, although some of their crimes may be
hidden. There are several explanations as to why this differential in offending takes place, ranging from
factors specific to females to attempts to link it to an accomplishment of masculinity. However, female
crime is rising and it might be the case that as female autonomy increases, then so will the offending by
women.
This is a clear conclusion that refers explicitly back to the question. The notion of possible future change is
the focus of the final sentence, written in a reflective way.
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Ethnicity and crime
1 Intraracial crime is committed within ethnic groups rather than between them.
2 Blacks are four times more likely to be arrested than whites.
3 Results from self-report surveys vary, with some showing black people committing significantly fewer
offences. However, any self-report survey has to be assessed with caution since individuals may
conceal their offences (or indeed on occasions exaggerate). Probably the safest conclusion to draw is
that offending rates are more or less the same for whites, blacks and Asians.
4 More likely, even for the same offence.
5 Canteen culture.
6 Institutional racism.
7 A moral panic about black muggers was generated according to Hall et al. in order to distract attention
from a crisis of capitalism and to provide a justification for giving the police more powers.
8 Subculture, marginalisation and relative deprivation.
9 ‘Obligation by bystanders’.
10 a
Like Merton he explained that blacks and Hispanics in El Barrio aspired to the same goals as the
rest of American society with crime stemming from blocked opportunities.
b
Like Cloward and Ohlin he found that they engaged in what he described as an ‘alternative
economy’ of criminal and black-market operations, similar to their ‘illegitimate opportunity structure’.
11 While some sociologists argue that ethnic-minority groups are more likely to be victims of crime, it
seems that, when their lower-age profile, social-class location and the deprived areas where most of
them live are taken into account, this shows that their victimisation rate is similar to the majority white
population. However, all ethnic-minority groups are at greater risk of racially motivated attacks than
whites and they report higher levels of fear of crime than the white population.
Exam-style question
Official statistics do show that men and women from African-Caribbean backgrounds are
disproportionately over-represented in terms of arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. Reflecting this
picture, Left realism argues that the typical offender is a young, black, working-class male. This suggests
at face value that the UK has a problem with black criminality. However, crime statistics can be
misleading. This is the position adopted by the statistical artefact approach, which suggests that
apparently high levels of offending by young, black males have more to do with their demographic and
social-class profiles than their ethnicity. Labelling theorists would add that there is a problem with the
police operating according to stereotypes fuelled by a canteen culture that helps to turn the prejudice of
black criminality into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This is quite a long introduction. However, it is packed with ideas that will be explored in the main body of
the essay. Note that the first sentence makes a significant gender point: that we should not overlook black
women in this answer, even though there is little in textbooks about them.
Many black sociologists, such as Hall and Gilroy, argue that the image of black criminality stems from the
biased and prejudicial treatment they receive at the hands of the criminal justice system. For example,
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Home Office statistics show that in London black males are stopped and searched eight times more than
white males. Critics of the idea of black criminality argue that the police operate within the norms and
values of a ‘canteen culture’ whereby a stereotypical view is reinforced and shared within the police
community. This results in the labelling and arresting of young black males, which then serves to reinforce
and justify the values of the police: a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This point about police labelling is the major argument for why official crime statistics may give a
misleading impression of high levels of black offending. The depth of content is raised by reference to Hall
and Gilroy (although these are getting a little dated) and the concept of ‘canteen culture’. A weakness of
this paragraph is that it contains limited AO2 content.
Fitzgerald et al. set out a range of factors that account for the disproportionately high offending rate of
young black males. The first is that they are overwhelmingly located in the working class. Not only this, but
they often grow up in the most deprived working-class neighbourhoods where crime is highest. This
reinforces the work of the Chicago School, as well as Cloward and Ohlin, who identified a correlation
between areas of deprivation with a high population turnover and criminal gangs. Nightingale and
Bourgois have also made a link between deprivation and black crime in the USA.
Examiners will reward comparisons between sociological perspectives. Comparing and contrasting is a
useful way of acquiring AO2 marks. The content is now shifting towards what is known as the artefact
explanation — that analysis of statistics shows that it is not necessarily their ethnicity as such, but social
locations (locality, age, social class etc.) that explains high levels of apparent offending.
Many young black males grow up in lone-mother-headed, single-parent families. The New Right and
Charles Murray in particular have reinforced the idea that such families are feckless and dysfunctional,
resulting in fatherless children becoming delinquent. However, Walker criticises Murray for relying solely
on innuendos, anecdotes and stories. The evidence shows that while there is a statistical link between
higher crime levels and lone-parent families, this is probably more to do with the deprivation of such
families rather than their structure and shape.
This is a detailed paragraph on lone-mother families. Murray’s condemnation of them is followed first by a
critique by Alan Walker and then by a balanced consideration of the evidence.
An approach known as the ‘statistical artefact approach’ has an interesting theory to explain the higher
engagement of young males from the Caribbean community in criminal behaviour. Fitzgerald et al. argue
that since evidence shows that young males commit most crime, it follows that an ethnic group with a
demographic profile that is disproportionately young will present a distorted picture in crime statistics. In
other words, it will appear that males from that ethnic group commit more crimes. Therefore it is to be
expected that young black males will be viewed as prominent offenders, because of the age profile of their
ethnic group. However, Left realists would argue that other factors lie behind black offending, such as
subculture and feelings of marginalisation and the relative deprivation they experience.
This paragraph covers an interesting explanation associated with Fitzgerald et al. that the motivations of
black offenders are the same as white offenders, but black males appear to be more involved in crime
through their demographic profile of being disproportionately young as an ethnic group. The paragraph
ends with an AO2 point using Left realist ideas to argue that there may be specific factors associated with
the black male community that drives criminal activity.
Many sociologists have identified firstly subculture and secondly educational underperformance as key
factors in explaining particularly juvenile crime. Young, black males are particularly associated with
underachievement and are three times more likely to be excluded from school as white boys. There is a
logical link between exclusion and juvenile delinquency. However, it is worth pointing out that the poorest
performing educational group is white, working-class males.
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A useful link is made to levels of offending by young blacks and educational underachievement and
exclusions. Remember that this unit is synoptic so any link back to other topics will be rewarded, as would
the reference to families above.
In conclusion, the over-representation of young, black males does not result from a ‘black criminality’ as
such but has far more to do with their social location in the deprived sections of the working class and their
demographic profile of being over-represented in the youthful category in which most offending takes
place.
This is a clear and focused conclusion that comes down firmly on one side of the argument based on the
evidence in the answer above.
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Topic 3 Globalisation and crime in
contemporary society
Global crime, human rights and state crimes
1 Cybercrime is the targeting or use of computers for the purpose of committing illegal acts. Because of
the nature of the internet, it is often global in nature with attacks coming from criminals located in other
nations. Examples include the spreading of viruses, using computers to commit traditional crimes such
as fraud or illegal gambling, or using computers to store illegal or stolen information.
2 Globalisation can be defined in many ways but explanations commonly use terms like ‘growing
interdependence’ and how the growth of communications and transport is ‘shrinking’ the world in terms
of time and space. Many crimes are now viewed as increasingly global. Examples include corporate
crime where money, goods or environmental waste are moved around the world in order to avoid
prosecution.
3 Interpol (International Criminal Police Organisation) is an international police agency, based in Lyon,
France, that liaises between the police forces of 188 countries. Europol is the European Union law
enforcement agency that handles criminal intelligence between the police forces of member states.
Both Interpol and Europol aim to prevent and combat serious international organised crime such as
money laundering, arms smuggling, drugs and people trafficking and, increasingly, terrorism.
4 Because the offender may be in a different country from the victim. A nation will not have the power to
arrest an offender in another sovereign state. In addition, nations will need to cooperate with each
other over extradition arrangements so that offenders can be tried in the country where the offence
took place.
5 It was estimated by Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister that 50% of crime in Britain is related to
drugs in some way. Therefore, given that most ‘hard’ drugs and a significant proportion of ‘soft’ drugs
are imported illegally into Britain, they indirectly drive significant levels of domestic crime. For example,
individuals will mug and burgle in order to finance their drug addictions.
6 Money laundering is processing stolen or illegal currency in a way that makes it look respectable and
therefore beyond the reach of law-enforcement agencies. Money laundering is typically an international
operation whereby money is moved around the world electronically, often in and out of tax havens
where the origin and dubious authenticity of money can go unchecked and unquestioned.
7 With the exception of Marxists, sociologists tended to ignore the role of the state except perhaps to
view it as the guardian of citizenship rights and upholder of order through the criminal justice system.
However, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights through the Human Rights
Act of 1998 not only enshrined rights but identified new areas where people became protected by the
law. Sociologists now consider the issue of human rights through crimes such as child slavery,
trafficking and adult slavery, genocide, terrorism and the use of force by agents of the state.
8 State crime is defined by Green and Ward as ‘crimes committed by, or with the complicity of,
government and its agents’. It includes actions by one country against another, such as the illegal
invasion or declaration of war against United Nations resolutions. State crime can often involve the
illegal activities of a state’s officials or agents, such as politicians or senior civil servants allocating
contracts in return for bribes, favours or donations to political parties. State crime can also apply to the
activities of agents like the police. Thus the killing of the suspected terrorist, Brazilian electrician Jean
Charles de Menezes, on a London Underground train could be regarded as a state crime.
9 The starting point with regard to any Marxist analysis of crime is that laws reflect the interests of the
rich and powerful, namely the ruling class. Given that Marxists see the state as representing rulingclass interests, it follows that when deemed necessary in order to do this, the state will break
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international laws and even its own domestic laws. State crime is therefore to be expected if rulingclass interests (e.g. as owners of major capitalist industries) are threatened directly or indirectly.
Exam-style question
State crime refers to crimes committed by, or with the complicity of, government and its agents (Green
and Ward). It includes crimes committed by politicians and state officials who work in the government and
agencies such as the police. Inevitably, there are many problems associated with studying state crime,
ranging from the fact that states set laws, and are therefore in a position to define what is criminal within
their own borders, to the fact that they are so powerful they can restrict what sociologists want to study.
This is a short introduction, but it begins well with a clear definition from Green and Ward and then
identifies two clear problems with studying state crime. It could have made a more specific point that it is a
crime difficult to operationalise.
Rummel estimated that in the last century governments murdered at least 169 million people. This figure
excludes all those killed in warfare. Those trying to research these deaths will come up against walls of
secrecy, or excuses that they were ‘enemies of the state’ or ‘terrorists’. The situation in Syria in 2011–12
illustrates a government illegally killing its citizens, but defending its action on the grounds that it is
clamping down on ‘armed militants’. The media, which are often biased one way or another, can
sometimes provide a degree of objectivity on how much state crime is being committed.
The horrific number of killings calculated by Rummell forms the basis of discussion for this paragraph.
Note that examiners will reward real-life examples, such as the murdering of its own citizens by the Syrian
government. There is an interesting and balanced point about the media included at the end.
Green and Ward suggest that a solution to such problems is to make human rights the focus of
sociological research. This means that if a country’s laws violate human rights as defined by the United
Nations, then that nation can be accused of state crime. This overcomes the problem of individual states
defining what constitutes a crime, as human rights have become a global benchmark, reinforced by the
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
Seeing state crime in terms of human rights is one solution to the problem highlighted by the question.
A common form of state crime is corruption. Many developing countries are known as kleptocracies
because they are characterised by a ruling elite who take bribes, siphon off aid for their own personal use
or are just blatantly corrupt. Corruption is one of the commonest forms of state crime and often involves
collusion between political elites and trans-national corporations (TNCs) or other nations. Because illegal
activities take place behind closed doors and are often obscured by an elaborate deception of ‘smoke and
mirrors’, it is hard for sociologists to identify and research such practices.
Candidates who had earlier studied global sociology in Unit 3 will be familiar with the kleptocracy and the
common corruption of elites in many developing countries.
It is not just developing countries that can be corrupt. For example, the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s
involved officials from the USA illegally selling arms to Iran (defying an international arms embargo) in
order to fund right-wing rebels, which the US government was supporting in its attempt to overthrow a
democratically elected government in Nicaragua. Other examples of corruption in the developed world
include giving contracts in return for financial donations to political parties. This appears widespread
across many European countries, including possibly Britain. Under New Labour there were repeated
allegations of contracts or peerages given in return for donations to the Labour Party. However, despite
investigation by the police, no one was ever tried, showing how the rich and powerful can close ranks at
the top. This makes the investigation difficult for the sociological researcher.
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This paragraph contains good applied examples that the examiners will reward.
States can use official secrets and general restrictions to giving out information in order to prevent
sociologists from studying state crime. Tombs and Whyte make the point that even when nations are
democracies they can block access to any sensitive or illegal information. So, for example, although in
Britain we have the Freedom of Information Act, the government can, under the banner of ‘national
security’, withhold any information it decides is ‘sensitive’. Researching state crime is harder when
countries are totalitarian, as their agents tend to be more secretive and forceful.
Note how this answer is supported throughout by reference to sociological research. Examiners will
reward this in their marking.
Ross has argued that states can commit state crime by negligence. For example, in China inadequate
planning checks were recently highlighted which resulted in substandard buildings being constructed in an
earthquake zone. However, it is often difficult to cross-check records, particularly when they refer to
events of several decades ago. Sensitive documents often get ‘lost’ within bureaucratic structures, making
it difficult to prove that a state crime has been committed.
Examiners will reward applied examples from the real world, such as this example from China.
Another problem with investigating state crime is knowing what actually constitutes a crime. For example,
the Marxist Barak argues that the US government is guilty of a state crime by not providing adequate
welfare for the poor or providing a national healthcare system for its people. However, this is essentially a
personal judgement, but it has been argued that if human rights are used then this becomes an objective
measure of state crime.
The problem with operationalising state crime is discussed here. Note how every paragraph tends to end
with an evaluative point, gaining AO2 marks.
Therefore, there are many problems associated with the sociological study of state crimes. As Green and
Ward state, one of the key problems is definition since the state is in a position to define what is criminal.
Governments are the biggest funders of research and may be reluctant to finance research that threatens
to expose state crime. Finally, gaining access to official documents in order to provide evidence of state
crimes can be difficult since states have a vested interest in suppressing such information.
Like all good conclusions, this final paragraph refers explicitly back to the question. This conclusion sums
up three practical reasons why studying state crime could be problematic.
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Green crime
1 Green crime is a broad term that applies to any criminal activity that has a detrimental environmental
impact resulting in harm to individuals or other organisms. Examples include environmental destruction
by large corporations, the trafficking of rare animals, fly-tipping and noise pollution. Such acts can be
deliberate or caused by negligence.
2 This is another term for green crime.
3 Primary green crime is directly connected to the deliberate destruction and degradation of
environmental resources through human actions such as deforestation, creating significant amounts of
pollution and despoiling the environment. Secondary green crime (sometimes referred to as ‘symbiotic
green crime’) is the consequential impact of negligent behaviour that impacts on the environment, such
as flouting the rules that seek to regulate illegal toxic-waste disposal, spillage from grounded ships etc.
4 Environmental racism refers to actions that result in racial discrimination because the environment of
such minority and low-income communities is damaged. It links elements of racism with environmental
degradation.
5 Greenwashing is when corporations and their activities are portrayed as kind to the environment, when
the reality is they have a record of damaging it. So a polluting company may play up its recycling
activities or its financial support for the planting of new trees, which is pure tokenism in comparison to
its responsibility for environmental degradation.
6 This is an attempt to discredit environmental campaigners by portraying them as extremist and radical.
They are often compared negatively with big business, which is portrayed as responsible and
honourable because it provides jobs and supports local communities. The media often side with the
view that campaigners are extreme and don’t reflect either the consensus or common-sense view.
7 In 1984 toxic gas escaped from the American-owned Union Carbide pesticide plant, affecting 578,000
people and killing more than 2,000 people instantly. Union Carbide discounted negligence, initially
claiming the leak was due to vandalism, and refused to pay any compensation for more than 25 years.
Finally, in 2010 eight former executives of the company’s Indian subsidiary were convicted of
negligence and sentenced to 2 years in prison and fined 100,000 rupees, or $2,100.
Exam-style question
Green crime can be an example of both state crime and corporate crime. As an example of the latter it can
be invisible (as with nuclear emissions), but because of its nature it is often visible, resulting in the scarring
of a landscape and harm to people or other living organisms. With a growing green political agenda, such
crimes are viewed with increasing concern and treated seriously. Therefore, both nations and corporations
are anxious to play down their environmentally unfriendly activities.
The issue of green crime is introduced here. It is defined and located in the context of a changing
political climate.
One of the problems with green crime is operationalising exactly what constitutes this phenomenon. Since
governments are law-makers, they can manipulate context and definitions in order to avoid accusations
that they have broken the law. Therefore important ‘policers’ of green crime are not the agents of the state
but environmental pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
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The difficulties in operationalising green crime in practice are highlighted here. In addition, it shows how
easy it is for governments to avoid prosecution and even identification as law-breakers, since they are the
law-makers and enforcers.
Swale borrows Matza’s concept of ‘techniques of neutralisation’ to describe how nations and corporations
attempt to dilute the impact of their actions on the environment. This is a useful concept centred on
lessening the impact and justifying illegal activities.
Jill Swale makes an interesting point that corporations can engage in Matza’s concept of techniques of
neutralisation. Examiners will reward excellent lateral thinking like this.
Through the skilful use of the media and public-relations teams, firms are able to gloss over environmental
crimes by defending their activities with arguments such as providing employment, boosting export
earnings, advancing technology. An example of this would be the Canadian government and Shell’s
defence of the destruction of large areas of Canada for the extraction of oil from sand deposits.
The manipulation of the media is an important idea here. This could be developed into a significant
synoptic link back to the topic of mass media. A useful up-to-date applied example of environmental
damage is given.
Bruno et al. talk about the ‘5 Ds’ to refer to ways in which corporations attempt to lessen the impact on the
environment of their actions. These are ‘denial’, such as that global warming is a myth; ‘delay’ whereby
the environmental impact is viewed as nothing to worry about in the present time; and ‘dumping’ whereby
waste is disposed of abroad rather than at home where it would be politically and socially sensitive. The
other two ‘Ds’ are ‘divide’ whereby public opinion is divided through issues like loss of jobs; and ‘dupe’
whereby polluting firms dare to manifest themselves as friends of the environment by engaging in
tokenistic and highly publicised green activities.
The work of Bruno et al. is discussed here. His ideas provide a lot of content that is useful for answering
this question.
In conclusion it can be seen that there are a number of ways in which both nation states and corporations
can minimise accusations of green crime. With regard to governments, it is relatively easy for them to
avoid prosecution and even identification, since they are the law-makers and enforcers. With regard to
business offenders, it really depends on the will of the government to pursue them. If this is lax, then
corporations will find it easy to avoid accusation.
There is not much published material on this topic. Use newspapers and magazines to add to your
cuttings library on green crime.
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Media and crime
1 Pearson highlights how the media shape both a fear of becoming a victim of crime, but also a
fascination with all aspects of crime. The media are full of police and crime stories: both factual (news)
and fiction (drama).
2 While the media are often portrayed negatively in terms of their impact on crime levels, they can also
play an important role in challenging deviance as wrong. An example of this would be how the media
have reinforced the ‘zero tolerance’ message about domestic violence. This behaviour has now
become recognised as a crime rather than a ‘family matter’.
3 Clacton, Essex (over the Easter weekend, 1964).
4 The national newspapers were short of a main story, so when reports of disturbances at Clacton came
through they were suddenly blown up to a front page that exaggerated its seriousness. As Cohen
points out, seaside disturbances had been taking place since the 1950s, so this was neither a new nor,
in the case of Clacton, a serious disturbance.
5 Cohen believed that moral panics result at times of rapid social change, causing instability and
resulting in people looking for scapegoats to blame for their insecurity. He identified how moral
entrepreneurs (people who make a stand about the nation’s morals, such as newspaper editors,
politicians and church leaders) use the media to spread this sense of insecurity until it develops into a
moral panic.
6 Miller and Reilly present the idea that moral panics are a form of ‘ideological social control’ in that they
are often used to soften up public opinion. An example of this would be the media’s Islamophobic
coverage of Islamic terrorism that has subsequently justified government anti-terrorist reforms even
though they have significantly curtailed people’s civil liberties.
7 McRobbie and Thornton argue that Cohen’s work on moral panics is outdated because moral panic
has become so common that it is now used by the media on an increasingly sophisticated audience.
Whereas moral panics might once have been an unintended outcome of media involvement, they
argue that the media now deliberately target moral panic as a goal. In addition, they argue, some
groups may actively use the media to generate moral panics.
8 Missing white-woman syndrome highlights how the social status of victims can influence media
coverage. It is argued that the media give significantly more attention and coverage to victims if they
are middle-class, young, white and attractive. This is also known as ‘missing pretty-girl syndrome’.
9 Marxists see the media as biased in their coverage of crime. Because they are owned by the ruling
class (or, in the case of the BBC, regulated by the ‘great and the good’ drawn from the establishment
— effectively the same thing), they present a pro-capitalist agenda and reflect the world-view of the rich
and powerful. As a consequence white-collar and corporate crime receives limited coverage and its
significance is played down, when and if it is reported. In this way the media reinforce the idea that
criminals are typically working class and moral panics frequently arise in connection with powerless
groups, who are often scapegoated for society’s crime problems. Marxists stress how the media
reinforce an ideological position that regards crime as something associated with the working class,
youth and ethnic minorities. The media in their coverage of crime are viewed as distorting reality and
reinforcing a sense of fear, enabling, as Hall et al. showed, an increase in state and police powers
while limiting individual freedoms.
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Exam-style question
Postmodernists highlight the superficial nature of contemporary society, which is viewed as having little
depth any more. As a consequence, they argue, this puts the mass media in an even stronger position to
‘construct’ reality (at least in our heads). Therefore, postmodernists are increasingly researching how the
media are in an increasingly powerful position to shape and construct meanings about crime.
This introduction unpacks ideas about postmodernism, society and how the media’s ability to shape ideas
about crime is getting stronger.
Adopting the ideas of Geoffrey Pearson, postmodernism starts with the premise that people have a
powerful combination of fear and fascination with relation to crime. As Left realism showed, people have
real fears about crime, yet Pearson points out how we are at the same time fascinated with crime, as
evidenced by crime sections in bookshops and libraries and programmes like CSI on television. It could be
argued that Crimewatch is a postmodern construction generating both fear and fascination from the
content.
The ideas of Pearson are explored here and related to media coverage. The examiners would credit the
contribution on Left realism.
Kooistra and Mahoney see the bulk of media coverage of crime as ‘intertextual’. This has overlaps with
postmodernist Jean Baudrillard’s concept of ‘simulacra’, implying that the media are increasingly blurring
reality and fiction — even the reporting of crime. It is claimed that all the media, including the BBC, are
‘dumbing down’ and presenting crime news in a way that panders to the lowest common denominator. It is
argued that competition for audience numbers has driven this trend with the outcome of crime reporting
becoming a mixture of entertainment and sensationalism, what Postman refers to as ‘infotainment’.
A lot of important concepts and terms are discussed in this paragraph. The implication is that an
increasingly competitive media will portray crime in an increasingly superficial way.
Kidd-Hewitt and Osborne make the point that the postmodern media are particularly prone to constructing
crime events as a ‘spectacle’. They argue that media (and their audience whom a commercial medium
has to reflect) like nothing more than a major crime event, preferably with good pictures, such as murders,
people kept hostage, stabbings and shootings etc. that they can turn into a spectacle.
The idea of spectacle is an important one here. It reflects the standard criticism of the postmodern values
of image and style over substance.
Kidd-Hewitt and Osborne go on to argue how these spectacles are engaging, partly because of the ‘fear
factor’ but also how news-production teams often mimic Hollywood movies. With events like ‘9/11’ and the
London tube and bus bombings, audiences become both repelled by such spectacles but drawn in
through fascination at the same time.
Here the media are being accused of generating an image of society that bears no relation to reality,
adding to the fears people have, especially about the extent of violent crime.
Postmodern analysis of crime coverage in the media has identified how criminal activities have become a
form of entertainment. This does not just apply to fictional police programmes; real-life crime is now
repackaged with programmes like Police Camera Action. Real-life events on the streets attract audiences,
presumably seeking vicarious pleasure from incidents such as car thefts and violent and dangerous
driving.
The turning of real-life crime into entertainment is an interesting postmodern phenomenon.
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In conclusion, it would seem that a postmodernist analysis of the media’s coverage of crime raises some
interesting questions, with crime increasingly portrayed as a spectacle or a source of entertainment. It is
argued that media competition for audiences is driving this ‘dumbing down’ of reporting, with an
increasingly superficial audience demanding to be entertained, even when serious events like crime are
involved.
This final concluding paragraph sums up the key ideas outlined above.
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Topic 4 Crime control, prevention and
punishment
Criminal justice system and other agencies
1 The criminal justice system is a comprehensive term that encompasses all the agencies of law and
order. These include the police, the courts, prisons, the probation service and the Crown Prosecution
Service. The Home Office and Ministry of Justice oversees all these agencies.
2 This is closely related to Right realism’s ‘rational choice theory’ and is based on the premise that crime
will be deterred when the costs are raised and the benefits reduced. The emphasis here is not so much
increasing costs through tougher punishment as making it harder to commit crimes in the first place.
3 Target hardening is closely linked to situational crime prevention and refers to initiatives that involve
targeting areas or groups that are seen as prone to criminal activity. Measures might include extra
policing, CCTV cameras, improved lighting etc. to reduce the opportunities to commit crime.
4 It is argued that such policies simply result in ‘crime displacement’. That is, crime is reduced in one
area but criminals simply move into neighbouring areas. An example of this was King’s Cross in
London, which was successfully targeted, but crime rose in adjoining areas.
5 Wilson and Kelling’s broken-window thesis supports the idea of clamping down on incivilities. It is
argued that removing low levels of anti-social behaviour helps to prevent more serious crimes
occurring. The introduction of ASBOs by New Labour was another tool in the fight against anti-social
behaviour, as were alcohol-free zones and curfews. However, critics argue that such policies have had
only a limited effect in reducing anti-social behaviour, which is still a significant problem in some areas.
6 The term ‘actuarialism’ derives from the insurance industry and describes the practice of identifying
groups most at risk of offending and concentrating resources on those groups. This results in the police
targeting working-class and ethnic-minority areas, which they perceive to be where criminals are
concentrated. Marxists argue this simply makes white-collar and corporate crime even easier to commit
as such activities are ‘below the radar’ of mainstream policing.
7 Consensual policing applies to the type of policing that is centred on the community. Such a view of
policing is somewhat rose-tinted. The police are portrayed as on the side of the community and
representing the interests of the law-abiding population. Police officers are not portrayed as different,
but part of the community they are drawn from. They are supported by the population, and are seen to
share their common-sense values. If a police officer is caught doing something wrong, then the
community is rightfully shocked and in favour of severe punishment for abusing their position of trust.
The conflict approach is very different and supported by Marxists. They portray the police in terms of
‘them and us’ and some, such as Scraton, go as far as to refer to them as an occupying force over the
working class and ethnic minorities. Rather than reflecting consensus values and the community, those
adhering to the conflict view see the police as reflecting the interests of the rich and powerful. The
policing of working-class areas is therefore all about social control and the imposition of law and order.
The police are also perceived as targeting certain groups, such as young black males, who are more
likely to be arrested, charged and prosecuted than other groups.
8 Discretion refers to the police practice of not necessarily enforcing every law but using their judgement
about whether to arrest or simply warn individuals. Clearly every individual police officer has certain
values and prejudices, which may mean they treat people differently according to their class, gender,
age, ethnicity or sexuality. Attitudes can become reinforced in the police force through their shared
norms and values with regard to certain groups. This culture is known as the ‘canteen culture’. Marxists
would argue that the working class and ethnic minorities are targeted, while a blind eye is turned to the
misdemeanours of the middle and upper classes.
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Exam-style question
The police would argue that their role is to help to maintain social control and to treat everyone equally in
terms of upholding the law. However, sociologists would argue that the whole criminal justice system,
which includes policing, is biased against the working class. This is partly because crimes committed by
the middle and upper classes are largely invisible and receive far less police time and resources and
partly because of a mindset within the police and society generally that assumes that crime is a workingclass problem.
This introduction attempts to unpack the question. It makes a useful point by seeing policing as just one
part of the CJS. The implication is that the police are not alone in being preoccupied with those at the
bottom of society. There is some attempt to explain why those at the bottom are targeted.
The view of the police is shaped by sociological perspectives. For example, functionalists see the police
as drawn from the community and reflecting consensus norms and values. The police, they argue, simply
concentrate their resources on deviant law-breakers; the fact that most of these come from the working
class simply shows where criminals are concentrated in society. However, Marxists would argue that this
view of policing is simplistic and naïve, based on fundamentally preconceived ideas that cause prejudice
in police officers, causing them to concentrate on working-class problems rather than the misdemeanours
of the rich.
The functionalist view of policing is explored here in terms of explaining their focus on the working class.
This is evaluated from a Marxist perspective, gaining AO2 marks.
In contrast, Marxists see the police as agents of the state, exerting controls over and oppressing the
proletariat. Louis Althusser regards the police as an element of the ‘ideological state apparatus’ (ISA)
when they are portrayed as defenders of law and order. However, when the police adopt the role of overt
agents of social control, as with riot policing, he describes them as a ‘repressive state agency’ (RSA).
Althusser’s point here is that the police can be viewed superficially as the citizen’s friends, but
ideologically their real purpose is to reflect the interests of the capitalist class. Either as part of the ISA or
as an RSA, their role as defenders of the interests of the rich and powerful means they will channel their
resources towards the working class.
The work and ideas of Althusser are explored in this paragraph. A distinction is made between the police
as an element of the ISA and as an RSA, but either way they serve to oppress the working class and
protect the interests of the capitalist class. There is no AO2 evaluation point in this paragraph.
Examples of policing that target the working class come from two US Marxist sociologists: William
Chambliss and Frank Pearce. Both studied elites in the USA and found that the police turned a blind eye
to crime at the top of society. Chambliss found that policing policy concentrated on the criminal actions of
the working class and working-class areas rather than the suspect activities of the social elites. Pearce
found that while the behaviour of the social elite would ‘not creditably survive close legal scrutiny of their
business or professional lives’, a prevailing ideology that crime is a working-class problem had been
constructed within the police.
Although dating back to the 1970s, both these studies illustrate how the deviant and criminal activities of
the rich elites tend to be ignored by the police, who have a culture of targeting the working class and their
areas.
The neo-Marxists Hall et al. view the police as preoccupied with those on the margins of society, such as
youth, ethnic minorities, and those living on the street. They argue that the police regard such groups as
the biggest threat as, in contrast to the rest of society, they have not established strong bonds with
capitalism through mortgages, hire-purchase debts etc. This supports the idea of marginalisation held by
Left realism.
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The Marxist ideas of Hall et al. are explored here. Policing is seen as concentrated on those who are
viewed as the biggest potential threat to capitalism as they are not locked into the system. Note how the
AO2 point at the end links into the next paragraph.
Left realism supports the idea that crime is concentrated in deprived areas of the working class. Through
victim surveys, they have linked crime levels to locality and see them highest on estates and in rented
accommodation. It is in such places that those at the bottom of society are located. Left realists argue that
the police target ethnic minorities within the working class, through what they refer to as ‘military policing’
(stop and search).
This paragraph flows nicely from the previous one. It brings in some empirical findings from victim surveys
carried out by Left realists. The idea of targeting groups at the bottom of society is a useful inclusion here
as it shows how the police differentiate among those at the bottom of society.
Finally, labelling theorists would explain the concentration of policing on the bottom of society as reflecting
a widespread view held and reinforced in the police force as to where criminals are located. This view is
created and reinforced through the ‘canteen culture’, which could also emphasise certain groups at the
bottom of society as particularly deviant, such as black working-class males. By operating according to
this stereotype, the police help to reinforce it by turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So while the
Marxist perspective on policing is seen to be ideologically driven, the view here is that it is driven by a
widespread belief in the police force itself that criminals are located at the bottom of society.
This answer has covered ideas from functionalism, Marxism, Left realism and labelling theory. An
examiner would reward the breadth of this answer in relation to the question. Labelling theory is explained
here, with a useful AO2 comparison to Marxism made in the last sentence.
In conclusion it can be seen that there are a variety of reasons why the police are seen to target those at
the bottom of society. There is a perception that this is where crime is concentrated. However, there is a
danger that focusing on crime in this area creates a self-fulfilling prophecy while allowing white-collar and
corporate crime to remain generally free from police scrutiny and investigation.
This conclusion refers back explicitly to the question. It is often a good idea to use the wording of the
question in your conclusion.
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Topic 5 The sociological study
of suicide
1 Genuine suicide refers to behaviour where the intended result of an act of self-harm is death. False
suicide refers to risk-taking behaviour where the intended result of an act of self-harm is not to die but
to survive.
2 The ‘social suicide rate’ is the term given by Durkheim to refer to the number of deaths from suicide in
a given society. He derived this rate by examining the quantitative data of 26,000 suicide records
collected by the public record departments of countries across Europe.
3 Durkheim discovered, firstly, that significant differences existed between suicide and societies/social
groups and, secondly, that these differences remained stable and consistent over time.
4 Egoistic suicide (associated with insufficient social integration) and altruistic suicide (associated with
excessive social integration).
5 Anomic suicide (associated with insufficient regulation) and fatalistic suicide (associated with excessive
regulation).
6 Douglas questions whether official statistics about suicide can be relied on, by identifying four key
criticisms of statistical analysis of suicide rates. These are: that they underestimate the true level of
suicide; that comparisons between countries are not viable due to different data-collection procedures;
that systematic biases exist due to different interpretations of coroners; and finally that the statistics
cover only ‘completed’ suicides as opposed to all suicidal behaviour.
7 According to Atkinson the key to understanding suicide is to attempt to measure it quantitatively but to
approach it through a qualitative study of the process of how deaths get categorised in the first place.
As an ethnomethodologist, he argues that official statistics are largely meaningless and claims that
coroners adopt a ‘common-sense theory’ in their approach to classifying deaths as suicide. For
example, if the information surrounding a death appears to support the idea of suicide then they are
more likely to classify such deaths as suicide. He believes that coroners rely on certain ‘cues’ such as
the presence or absence of suicide notes, the method used, the location and related circumstances of
death. In addition, coroners use clues such as the mental state of the deceased, their experiences in
childhood, unhappy relationships and recent traumas like bereavement and unemployment, as markers
for or against suicide.
8 People seen to have jumped in front of London Underground trains.
9 Taylor adopted a realist approach that is midway between the positivist and interpretive approaches.
His basic argument is that suicide (or attempted suicide) stems firstly from the degree of certainty or
uncertainty individuals have about themselves and secondly from the quality of their relationships with
others (‘attachment’). He differentiates between ‘inner-directed’ and ‘other-directed’ suicides. For
example, ectopic suicides are what Taylor refers to as ‘inner-directed’ suicides. He identifies two types.
Submissive suicides occur when a person regards their life as over and wants to die. Examples might
include the terminally ill or severely depressed. Thanatation suicide refers to suicide attempts where
people dice with death such as playing Russian roulette.
Symphystic suicides are what Taylor refers to as ‘other-directed’ suicides. Again he provides two
examples: sacrifice suicides occur when an individual has the desire to make others feel guilty
following death. The reasons for suicide are often clearly outlined in suicide notes. Appeal suicides are
normally false suicides in the sense that they are an attempt to find out how friends, relatives and
perhaps work colleagues will respond. Taylor regards them as acts of both despair and hope.
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Exam-style question
Official suicide statistics are the result of deaths that have been judged by a coroner’s court to have
resulted from someone deliberately taking their own life. The problem is that the cause and intention of
death are not always clear-cut. As noted below, coroners operate according to ‘indicators’ and are also
sensitive to the feelings of the dead person’s family. Therefore, they tend to side with caution and if they
are in some doubt that it might not be a genuine suicide, they will declare the death an ‘accident’ or ‘open
verdict’. Critics of statistics conclude that official statistics are therefore little more than a subjective
judgement and tell us nothing of the real level of suicide.
This introduction is focused clearly on the question and unpacks the nature of recording suicide and how
this is essentially a judgement by coroners and their courts. Note the evaluative tone of the last sentence,
introducing AO2 content into the introduction.
The most famous embracement of official suicide statistics was Durkheim’s statistical analysis of suicide
based on government records and death certificates. From the statistics he was able to identify some
clear patterns between the suicide rates of countries and groups in those countries associated with factors
like religion, family size, work and marriage. However, some sociologists have criticised Durkheim’s
approach because he cannot say which individuals in any of his categories will be the ones to commit
suicide. The specific meanings that lie behind suicide can be lost in quantitative data. For example, if
statistics show that suicide rates are higher in affluent areas, this does not mean that wealthy people are
more likely to commit suicide; it could be poor people in wealthy areas who are taking their lives because
they feel relatively deprived. However, the main criticism about Durkheim’s approach comes from
interpretive sociologists who challenge the basic principles of his statistical approach rather than quibbling
about details.
Defence of the use of official statistics will inevitably include reference to the work of Durkheim. Note,
given the nature of the question, there is little need to cover his ideas in detail, and the bulk of this
paragraph on Durkheim is actually evaluative criticism.
Interpretive sociologists question Durkheim’s uncritical use of suicide statistics for failing to address issues
like the huge discrepancy between the high number of those who attempt suicide and the relatively small
number who succeed. In addition, the very nature of interpretive sociology is to question the reliability and
validity of official suicide statistics. For example, Jack Douglas questions the accuracy of official statistics
on suicide, claiming that they underestimate the real level. He argues that comparisons between countries
are not viable due to the different data-collection procedures. He also points out the systematic biases that
exist due to the differing interpretations of coroners. However, Steve Taylor has criticised Douglas for
being inconsistent. He implies that suicide statistics can never be reliable, yet concedes that causes of
suicide might possibly be found in the future.
Further criticism of Durkheim’s unquestioning acceptance of official statistics on suicide is included in this
paragraph, along with the critical work of interactionist Jack Douglas. This, in turn, is followed by
evaluation from Taylor.
The French interpretive sociologist Jean Baechler made extensive use of case studies of suicide,
discounting the idea that they could be explained in terms of external factors. His argument is that,
regardless of which external factor is considered (religion, urban living, bereavement etc.), far more
people choose not to commit suicide than the few who do. He argues that suicide can only be really
understood by exploring the meanings that lie behind the statistics. However, official statistics can give an
indication of patterns and trends associated with suicide.
There is further critical content using official statistics here, this time using the work and ideas of French
sociologist Jean Baechler, but note some positive evaluation of official statistics in the final sentence.
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J. Maxwell Atkinson, as an ethnomethodologist, totally rejects the value of any official statistics. As a
consequence, he challenges the notion that there could ever be an objectively measured ‘true’ rate of
suicide. Suicide statistics, he argues, are only the interpretations of coroners of deaths submitted to them
because they are unusual. Therefore suicide rates are simply a social construction determined by how
deaths get reported and categorised as suicide. From an observational study of coroners, Atkinson
concluded that their role necessitates adopting a common-sense approach to suicide whereby if
information surrounding a death fits the theory, then it tends to be classified as a suicide. They use a
range of ‘cues’ such as location, state of mind, recent bereavement etc. These ‘cues’ point coroners
towards or against suicide.
The work of Atkinson is important in responding to the question. Atkinson is critical of the way coroners
come to conclusions about suicide, claiming (as an ethnomethodologist) that an official statistic is nothing
more than a social construction.
Besides official suicide statistics being a social construct, they are inevitably inaccurate because of the
methods of recording them. Given that the only deaths referred to coroners in the first place are those
considered sudden or unexpected, it follows that many suicides that appear to be accidents may not be
referred in the first place. In addition, it follows that practical constraints, such as time and workload, will
also have an impact on a coroner’s decisions. For example, the number and quality of post-mortems
depends on access to the resources and technology in pathology. It follows therefore that over time,
improvements in technology (especially in toxicology) will inevitably increase the classification of death as
suicide. However, if suicide statistics are simply the common-sense interpretations of coroners, then it
follows that the view of J. Maxwell Atkinson is also little more than a personal interpretation.
This paragraph considers some of the practical problems with the generation of suicide statistics.
Recent studies of suicide have endeavoured to move beyond this positivism versus interpretive debate:
for example, Steve Taylor’s realist approach, based not on statistical evidence but on attempts to discover
underlying, unobservable structures and causal processes. Looking at data from attempters and
completers, he argues that it is impossible to classify suicidal acts as either ‘serious’ (genuine) or ‘cries for
help’ (false) as the majority of them fall somewhere between these extremes. From his study of deaths on
the London Underground, he concluded that suicidal behaviour is about ‘risk’ and ‘trial by ordeal’ and as a
consequence most suicides are parasuicidal. Like Atkinson’s ‘cues’, Taylor believes that specific factors
seem to influence verdicts of suicide and that this distorts the accuracy of official suicide statistics.
However, unlike Atkinson, he does not believe that such problems make it impossible to explain suicide.
The work and ideas of Taylor are considered here. He studied the deaths of people who were seen to
jump in front of London Underground trains. Taylor’s realist approach is a useful contribution to the debate
and examiners will reward this paragraph. The last point makes an interesting and evaluative comparison
between Taylor and Atkinson.
Taylor has made an important contribution by attempting to understand the motives for suicidal behaviour.
He shows that behind the statistics there are people who want to kill themselves, while for others it is a cry
for help. However, his theory is hard to test and falls foul of the interactionist criticism that the motives for
suicides can be interpreted in different ways.
This is a short paragraph, but it justifies and explains further Taylor’s contribution, and ends with an
evaluative point.
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In conclusion, the positivistic acceptance of official suicide statistics at face value has been shown by
interpretive sociologists to be naïve and flawed. However, only an approach that attempts to cut through
the positivism versus interpretive debate by seeing all suicides as parasuicidal (neither ‘genuine’ nor
‘false’) can add meaning to our understanding of suicidal behaviour. Given that most suicidal behaviour is
parasuicidal, any concentration on deaths seems to be missing the point.
This conclusion refers explicitly back to the question.
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Section B Theory and
methods in context
Topic 1 Quantitative and qualitative
methods of research
1 A qualitative approach is associated with an interpretive or phenomenological approach centred on
researching individuals to try to make sense of the meanings that drive their behaviour, and then using
this analysis to understand how society operates. The qualitative approach is usually viewed as
successful in collecting data that are high in validity. However, positivists view it as subjective and low
in reliability.
2 The interpretive approach is also sometimes called phenomenology and is associated with Alfred
Schultz, although its origins lie with the work and ideas of Max Weber. It involves adopting a peoplecentred approach that attempts to understand the meanings that lie behind people’s actions.
3 Ethnography literally means the study of people. It is used to describe any in-depth observational study
of a group of people, such as Sharp and Atherton’s study of ethnic minorities and their experiences of
the police. It is therefore often used in A-level sociology synonymously with observation studies. Strictly
speaking it refers to the anthropological study of the daily lives and experiences of small groups.
4 Rapport refers to the close relationship and trust that can build up between a researcher and
respondent, typically in the context of an interview. The formality normally associated with strangers
can inhibit the volunteering of information. By breaking down these barriers and building up a relaxed
relationship, it is hoped that more honest, and hence valid, information can be obtained.
5 Unstructured interviews and observation. Note that semi-structured interviews can also be used to
collect qualitative data, as can questionnaires with open questions.
6 A quantitative approach is associated with the collection of facts, usually statistical in form, favoured by
positivist sociologists. The quantitative approach studies the relationships between different groups of
facts to find correlations or the ultimate goal, cause-and-effect relationships. The quantitative approach
often results in patterns becoming translated into generalisations about the behaviour and attitudes of
wider society.
7 Unstructured interviews and observation are not suitable for the quantitative approach as they are
more appropriate to the study of small groups and the collection of qualitative data. Both methods are
time-consuming, which would also be a barrier to researching large groups.
8 Experiments are rarely used as a method in sociology because of the practical and ethical problems
that are found when applied to sociological research. It is impossible for sociologists to isolate all but
one variable, which is the favoured approach of natural scientists when undertaking experiments.
Human beings know they are being researched on in laboratories so they rarely behave naturally. On
the rare occasions when experiments do occur, they are normally undertaken ‘in the field’.
9 Snowball sampling is frequently used in the research of criminal and deviant groups, such as criminal
gangs, illegal drug-users, paedophiles etc. when it is difficult to find a sample. By making contact with
one member of the group, the researcher gains an introduction to others. Some violent or deviant
groups may mistrust the anonymity and be reluctant to take part. Small sample sizes raise the issue of
representativeness.
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10 Semi-structured interviews allow researchers to collect both quantitative and qualitative data through
the structured and unstructured parts of the interview. These quantitative data can be correlated and
compared and analysed to show any possible trends or patterns. This aspect of the method therefore
produces data that are reliable in that the findings can be replicated. In contrast, the qualitative data,
obtained from the follow-up questions, increase the validity of the findings as people express their
emotions and feelings. Therefore, as a method, semi-structured interviews allow some sort of rapport
to be built between respondent and researcher that will encourage the respondent to open up and
produce valid data of high quality.
Exam-style question
Qualitative data-collection involves collecting data that reflect feelings, attitudes and emotions about
people’s experiences. Such data tend to be richer in detail than data obtained by quantitative means. The
attitudes of ethnic minorities are shaped by the fact that police forces in Britain tend to be predominantly
white. Sociologists, since Skolnick, have discussed the existence of a ‘canteen culture’ that can reinforce
racial prejudice. In addition, the Macpherson Report following the Stephen Lawrence murder found
evidence of institutional racism in the Metropolitan force.
This introduction explains the nature of qualitative research, introduces the basis of ethnic-minority
attitudes towards the police and brings in important ideas like canteen culture and institutional racism.
A qualitative approach to researching this would be centred on trying to understand the factors and
meanings that lie behind the attitudes of ethnic minorities. As such it is closely associated with Max
Weber’s concept of ‘verstehen’. Qualitative research is needed to tease out the evidence suggested in the
Item that relations between the police and black and other ethnic-minority communities are problematic,
especially among young black males where there can be a lack of trust and a degree of hostility.
The qualitative approach is further unpacked here and linked to Weber’s concept of ‘verstehen’.
Qualitative data are normally collected in the interpretive tradition through small-scale research studies.
Such an approach in this case would seek to understand the attitudes of ethnic minorities towards the
police through methods such as semi-structured or unstructured interviews. Unstructured interviews are
informal sessions with the interviewer asking open-ended questions; in this case about attitudes to the
police. The idea is that respondents are free to answer in depth. However, a potential problem here is that
researchers could ask leading questions or put across an anti-police bias, which might encourage the
respondents to exaggerate their experiences.
Further ideas and the qualities of the qualitative approach are explored here. Specific methods are
discussed, followed by an AO2 evaluative point about the dangers of biased and leading research.
A qualitative approach ought to collect data that are high in validity. This is not guaranteed, but is
expected if qualitative practices and methods are used that encourage minority ethnic groups to ‘open up’
and give honest answers about their experiences with the police. However, such research tends to be
small scale and almost impossible to replicate, and so tends to be low in reliability.
Somewhere in this answer the examiner would expect content identifying qualitative research with being
high in validity and low in reliability. Note how in this paragraph validity is addressed in one sentence
followed by reliability in the next. This is good practice; examiners regard answers as weak when they talk
about validity and reliability in the same sentence.
A strength of the qualitative approach is that it is good for researching sensitive issues. Semi-structured or
unstructured interviews can be quite lengthy, enabling both trust and a rapport potentially to be developed
between the interviewer and the respondent. However, because samples tend to be small this can
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Quantitative and qualitative methods
question the representativeness of the research group. In addition, with non-standardised questions being
asked, it is difficult to make generalisations. These are general weaknesses of the qualitative approach.
This paragraph is balanced in terms of presenting a strength of the qualitative approach followed by two
weaknesses.
In conclusion, it can be seen that adopting a qualitative approach when investigating minority ethnic
groups’ attitudes to policing seems logical in that this approach gives a detailed insight into people’s
attitudes and experiences. Consequently, as an approach it should offer an environment in which
respondents can open up and produce data rich in validity. However, there is a risk that the sample may
not be representative or there may be a tendency to exaggerate and lie, and safeguards need to be put in
place to limit the effect of this.
This is a balanced conclusion that summarises justification for using the qualitative approach, but at the
same time recognises potential difficulties.
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Topic 2 Sources of data
Questionnaires
1 Quantitative data (NB it is possible to collect some qualitative data through open questions).
2 Open questions are ones where respondents are encouraged to express themselves in their own
words. This is in contrast to closed questions where respondents either choose from a multiple-choice
list or give a simple answer that is along the lines of ‘yes’/‘no’ or numerical.
3 Questionnaires constitute a quantitative approach that is associated with research high in reliability.
They may also be viewed as high in reliability because they are standardised in the sense that
everyone is asked the same questions and this contributes to their reliability as a method.
4 One advantage of using electronic questionnaires is that respondents do not have the inconvenience
of posting them back. A second advantage is that sending out global electronic questionnaires does
not incur expensive postage costs and responses can be almost instantaneous if people complete
them quickly. Finally, timely reminders can easily and quickly be sent out to encourage the completion
of the questionnaires.
5 Although questionnaires are generally viewed as high in reliability and low in validity, this does not
negate the possibility that questionnaires can have high validity. Questionnaires that search for
answers from issues that are clear-cut and straightforward should achieve high validity, provided there
is no misinterpretation of the questions and people do not deliberately mislead the researcher with their
answers. The key weakness with questionnaires is that there is no one present to check if the answers
are honest or not.
6 Provided the sample chosen is representative, the answers given by the respondents should be
generalisable to the whole population. However, researchers have no way of knowing with
questionnaires completed at home or online that the correct person is completing the questionnaire. If
the wrong person is completing it, the research may be neither generalisable nor representative.
7 Coding refers to the process of allocating a number to each answer. All the ‘coded’ answers are then
included on a spreadsheet that can be analysed for relationships and trends. Today this job is usually
done by software. Given that most coded questionnaires are now read electronically, this makes the
task of recording and analysing results quick and easy for the researcher.
8 Interpretivists tend not to like questionnaires because they only reflect the sociologist’s view of what is
important. Closed questionnaires assume that the sociologist knows all the right questions and
answers and that any alternatives experienced by those filling in the questionnaire are unimportant.
Respondents may feel forced into making responses that they do not really agree with, or they may
react by not responding at all. Questionnaires therefore may only reflect the researcher’s interpretation
and knowledge of the social world.
Exam-style question
Questionnaires are the method preferred by positivists and researchers to collect data from a large and/or
dispersed population. Questionnaires involve standardised questions written on a piece of paper (or in
electronic form) for respondents to answer in their own writing (or by typing and clicking boxes). Given the
sensitive nature of cyber-bullying, which can be defined as the use of electronic devices to intimidate or
upset, questionnaires, through offering anonymity, may well offer the best method choice.
In this introduction questionnaires are defined and explained, as is cyber-bullying, which is also
recognised as a sensitive area for respondents to write about.
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Sources of data
For research into cyber-bullying to be representative and capable of making generalisations, the sample
used needs to be quite large. Because questionnaires are less time-consuming and cheaper than
interviews since no interviewers are needed, this supports the case for using them. However, compared
with interviews, the response rate can be low (a feature of research by Smith et al.), which will undermine
the representativeness of the sample, resulting in biased results.
The strength of questionnaires in relation to representativeness and generalisability is recognised. This is
offset by an AO2 point highlighting the problem of low response rates.
The fact that questionnaires offer anonymity, as the Item states, should encourage respondents to open
up and answer more honestly about either being a victim of cyber-bullying or reporting the committing of
this deviant act. However, respondents may feel uncomfortable answering the questionnaires and could
give distorted or exaggerated answers. A weakness of questionnaires is that the researcher has no idea if
people are telling the truth.
The key strength of anonymity is highlighted here in the context of respondents writing about cyberbullying as either a victim or an offender. This is followed by a good AO2 point evaluating how people may
give distorted or false information in questionnaires.
The absence of interviewers means there is no risk of interviewer effect or interviewer bias whereby the
presence of the interviewer could distort the answers given. However, with questionnaires on cyberbullying there is no guarantee that the answers will be legible, complete or accurate. Another weakness of
using questionnaires is that there is no opportunity to follow up interesting answers. Consequently,
questionnaires could be viewed as an inflexible method.
The absence of any interviewer effects is highlighted as a potential strength. This is followed by two AO2
points: first about quality of answers and second about a lack of opportunity to ask for elaboration.
As a research method questionnaires are seen to be generally higher in reliability. This means that any
research into cyber-bullying is more likely to be replicable. However, interpretative sociologists argue that
questionnaires are low in validity, so the meanings, motives and experiences of cyber-bullying may not be
teased out sufficiently.
The quality of questionnaires being generally higher in reliability is discussed, followed by the AO2 point
that they tend to be lower in validity.
A weakness of any questionnaire is that respondents may not understand some questions and this could
apply to cyber-bullying. For example, there may be problems operationalising what cyber-bullying actually
is as the term may mean different things to different people. In the case of interviews, interviewers could
explain any questions and operationalise the term, thus reducing any ambiguity or confusing questions.
The problem of operationalisation is discussed here, which is evaluated against how interviewers can
explain questions and operationalise cyber-bullying.
In conclusion, questionnaires offer many advantages for the study of cyber-bullying, but they also involve
some potential problems. While reliability should be high using questionnaires, validity may be low as the
motives that lie behind cyber-bullying may not necessarily be found.
This answer ends with a balanced and reflective conclusion.
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SECTION B
TOPIC 2
Sources of data
Interviews
1 The term ‘gatekeeper’ refers to individuals who facilitate access to other potential respondents. The
term is usually applied to people in authority such as head teachers, but can apply to anyone who will
provide contact with others in a snowball sample.
2 Although structured interviews collect quantitative data, the main type of data collected by semistructured, unstructured and focus groups is qualitative data.
3 Structured interviews are similar to questionnaires so the data collected tend to be quantitative and the
questions asked are mainly closed questions. Note that qualitative data can be collected through open
questions, but this type of data is normally collected through semi-structured or structured interviews.
4 One advantage of structured interviews over questionnaires is that the interviewer can clarify terms or
explain ambiguous questions. In addition, the response rate tends to be higher than with
questionnaires. With home-completion questionnaires, anyone can fill in the answers, whereas with a
structured interview the interviewer can make sure the right respondent answers the questions and
assess whether a person is telling the truth. Responses from those suspected of lying can be marked
in some way and discarded.
5 Focus groups enable researchers to investigate group dynamics. It is sometimes felt that data received
will be more valid (truer to life) when a group is researched together rather than interviewed
individually. However, countering this is the risk of people not being prepared to say things because
they are shy in the group context or do not wish to offend or contradict other members of the group.
6 The accurate transcription of interviewee responses is crucial; otherwise there might be a
misrepresentation of what they said. Interviewers must transcribe accurately, otherwise there might be
a temptation to write down what the interviewer thought they meant rather than what they actually said.
If this occurred then the research would become biased and have low validity.
7 Semi-structured interviews could be viewed as offering the best of both worlds. They have the benefits
of structured interviews in that every interviewee can be asked a set of standardised questions, and the
benefits of unstructured interviews in that there is an opportunity to seek clarification or ask
supplementary questions. A rapport can be established and data rich in validity can be gained. So as a
method semi-structured interviews can produce both reliable and valid data as well as quantitative and
qualitative data.
8 The emphasis of qualitative research, which is associated with unstructured interviews, is on deriving
validity rather than representativeness. However, in terms of making generalisations to the wider
population, there is no reason why interviews are inferior to questionnaires, other than sample sizes
being much higher for the latter.
9 When researching offenders, there is the potential for ethical issues to come to the fore. In the course
of an unstructured interview there may be disclosure of embarrassing information. This could create
awkwardness and inhibit the flow of information and thus the validity of the data. Researchers normally
grant interviewees anonymity and confidentiality in research. However, the researcher is put in a
problematic position when offenders disclose crimes they have committed, sometimes of a serious
nature, such as rape, child abuse etc. Great care must be taken when writing up the research that no
one can be identified and hence everyone remains anonymous.
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Sources of data
Exam-style question
An unstructured interview involves the interviewer and interviewee engaging in a conversation. It may
begin with some predetermined questions to put the interviewee at ease and help to build up a rapport,
but the nature of the conversation is fluid. Respondents are encouraged to ‘open up’ and volunteer their
answers, with the role of interviewer as listener. As such it offers an opportunity to research violence in the
nocturnal economy, but as the item shows, people out ‘pubbing and clubbing’ will not necessarily want to
engage in a sociological conversation with a stranger.
This is quite a long introduction but it does explain in some detail what unstructured interviews are. It ends
on an evaluative note, which would earn AO2 marks.
An advantage of using unstructured interviews, compared with participant observation, is that often
researchers can use larger samples. However, even larger samples can’t compare with the size of
samples using questionnaires, which can undermine their representativeness and thus make
generalisations difficult.
This paragraph explores and evaluates the implication of sample sizes and makes comparisons with both
participant observation and questionnaires.
Unstructured interviews are an example of a method used to obtain qualitative data that is normally high in
validity. They can explore the meanings of the responses that are given. This is not the case with
structured interviews or questionnaires. These would be inappropriate methods to use in the nocturnal
economy as people would not be inclined to write or give responses to formal or written questions.
However, the success of unstructured interviews depends on the skills of the interviewer to build up a
rapport and encourage people to volunteer information.
A useful connection is made between unstructured interviews and qualitative data. This method is
discussed in relation to the nocturnal economy. The paragraph ends with an evaluation of how this
method stands or falls on the skills of the interviewer.
Because unstructured interviews take the form of conversations, these could be perceived as less
threatening to respondents, thus encouraging them to open up and volunteer their feelings. It therefore
provides an opportunity for those engaged in criminal and deviant activities associated with the nocturnal
economy to speak for themselves. In this way the researcher gets close to the experiences of those
working or enjoying the nocturnal economy. However, unstructured interviews are time-consuming,
expensive to undertake and require skilled interviewers to build up a rapport with respondents.
This paragraph follows naturally on from the last one and explores how unstructured interviews offer the
strength of getting people to speak for themselves. This is followed by an AO2 point that considers
potential problems with this method.
While unstructured interviews are seen as often developing a strong rapport between interviewer and
interviewee, enabling detailed honest information to be obtained, the nature of the nocturnal economy may
inhibit this. While Winlow could build up a rapport with his bouncer colleagues over time, the clubbing
public would probably be more focused on having a good time than wanting to chat — although this could
be done retrospectively during the day. However, on balance, observation may be a better method of
researching violence.
Again this content flows from the previous paragraph, which adds to the structure and coherence of the
overall answer. It makes the useful point that researching violence does not necessarily have to take place
at night and in situ with interviews. Note how it is quite acceptable in answers like this to suggest that a
different method altogether might be more appropriate.
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Sources of data
In conclusion, because the data are not pre-defined by the questions set, unstructured interviews may be
a useful method here whereby the interviewer can follow up leads and gain detailed and valid information.
However, there is always a risk of interviewer bias with this method: for example, from non-verbal
communication. Finally, unstructured interviews tend to be low in reliability because they are hard to
replicate.
This conclusion sums up the pros and cons of using unstructured interviews for researching violence in
the nocturnal economy. Key concepts of validity and reliability are discussed along with interviewer bias.
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Observation
1 Observation
2 Undercover research whereby those being studied are unaware that a researcher is present. It is the
opposite of overt research.
3 Choose three advantages from the following:
 Because the researcher is not visible and those being studied are unaware of it, the observer
effect can be conveniently avoided.
 Because covert research is characteristically naturalistic in its approach, the derived data should
be high in validity. This is because people are being observed in their natural setting so their
behaviour should be natural.
 Covert research enables researchers to penetrate and study groups that normally would not want
to be researched, such as deviant groups, gangs etc.
 Because covert research is small-scale, it enables in-depth and detailed research to take the
place of groups.
4 The main criticism that positivists make of observation is that it is difficult to replicate. They argue that
this means that observational research is not scientific and runs the risk of simply being a subjective
interpretation of the events and behaviour observed.
5 The term ‘going native’ means getting so close to the group you are observing that there is a danger of
becoming emotionally involved to the point that the researcher is no longer professionally detached
and objectivity is lost.
6 Recording the activities of the group being observed is problematic, especially in covert research. To
avoid arousing suspicion, the researcher must be discreet in making notes in their field diaries. Many
researchers rely on memory and write up their observations at the earliest moment of privacy. This
enables them to concentrate on their observations. However, important events can be forgotten or
distorted in the researcher’s mind in the time that elapses between observing them and writing them
up. Covert research has ethical implications, which become compounded if people are recorded (audio
or video), but recordings give a more accurate record of events.
7 Possible problems include the following:
 In overt observation there may be an ‘observer effect’ whereby the researcher’s presence
influences the group’s behaviour to the point that they do not behave naturally. The group may
be afraid to engage in criminal activity for fear of being shopped or identified when the
research is published.
 Because it is difficult to replicate observations, there could be a trade-off between higher
validity from the qualitative data derived from the overt observation on the one hand, and lower
reliability on the other.
 Any group, but particularly groups of offenders, will be uncomfortable about being overtly
observed. As a consequence, in order to get valid data the research may have to be covert.
Exam-style question
Participant observation is sometimes described as an ethnographic approach. It involves small-scale
observations of groups, either covertly or overtly. As a research method it is sometimes held up as
unbiased since, in theory, all that the researchers do is look and listen, avoiding any pre-conceptions of
what is or is not important. However, critics argue that it is prone to subjective interpretations, especially if
the researcher gets too close and ‘goes native’ within the group.
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The strength of this introduction is that it unpacks participant observation in some detail. However, a
weakness is that the entrepreneurial and violent crime surrounding the work of bouncers is not addressed.
It is always good practice to address the full question in the introduction.
Participant observation is sometimes described as a naturalistic approach, involving the study of people in
their natural setting. It is therefore an appropriate method for researching the entrepreneurial and violent
crime surrounding the work of bouncers because it is viewed as the method least likely to result in
‘imposition factor’. This is when the researcher consciously or unconsciously influences the people s/he is
studying. However, if researchers get too close to their subject matter, the research can lose its objectivity
and become biased. This is sometimes referred to as ‘going native’.
The naturalistic nature of participant observation is discussed here and followed by an evaluative AO2
point. The idea of ‘going native’ is an important one — a potential problem for any research based on
observation.
Participant observation is ideally suited to studying small groups in detail, so would lend itself to studying
bouncers and their criminal activities because it offers the kind of sociological insight that is not found in
social surveys. In addition, the nature of the research here is not something that bouncers would openly
discuss in either questionnaires or interviews. However, observers are inevitably selective depending on
their subjective intuition. Therefore it can never be certain that observations do not reflect the personal
views of the observers who see only what they want to see.
This is a packed paragraph. It begins by justifying the method for studying bouncers. There then follow
good AO2 points about the dangers of observation becoming selective and subjective.
Interpretive sociologists favour participant observation because it is one of the best methods for studying
interaction. By focusing on the meanings that bouncers give for their criminal and deviant actions, such
research should produce data high in validity. However, positivists argue that observation is not replicable
and hence is low in reliability. It would be unlikely that another researcher would establish the same quality
of relationships with the same group and generate the same sort of data.
It is good to connect the method of participant observation with the interpretive approach and the notion
that this method collects data high in validity. A useful AO2 evaluative point is made about participant
observation being low in reliability.
Finally, adopting covert participant observation, like Winlow in the Item, would make it possible to study
bouncers who as a group are unlikely to want to be researched. It also protects the researcher, as Winlow
notes. However, there are ethical issues associated with covert research and because they are a small
group, it may be difficult to generalise from this observation study. Equally, if the researchers lacked
interpersonal skills or the right sort of personality to be accepted by the bouncer’s community, then the
quality of data collected could be seriously impaired.
A good point is made about how covert participant observation could be the ideal method for researching
this group and their criminal behaviour, but there is recognition of the ethical concerns. The second
evaluative AO2 point highlights the sensitivities of researching this specific group and the need to fit in.
In conclusion, because the research here is about a group’s criminal activities, participant observation in a
covert study would seem the most appropriate research method, even though this raises ethical concerns.
It seems unlikely that bouncers would actively participate in any overt observation into their deviant
behaviour because they would be wary of incriminating themselves or they would avoid engaging in the
same degree of deviance and would therefore not be behaving naturally. Therefore covert observation
would seem to be the only practical method since bouncers may be reluctant to be interviewed or to
complete questionnaires about their deviant activities.
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This conclusion makes a bold statement that covert participant observation is the most appropriate
method to use in investigating entrepreneurial and violent crime surrounding the work of bouncers, on the
grounds that bouncers would not participate in overt study and may be reluctant to answer questionnaires
or take part in interviews.
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Documents and official statistics
1 Official statistics are data collected and published by the government and its agencies. While some
data are viewed as accurate, such as birth, death and marriage rates, other data are viewed as
inaccurate, such as suicide and crime rates.
2 Official statistics are usually published on a regular basis and are freely available. Large samples are
used, providing levels of representativeness not available to academic researchers. For example, the
Census is a study of every household and person in the country. In addition, the data can be accurate,
as in the case of birth, death, marriage, divorce etc. rates. Even when there are doubts over the
accuracy of data, such as with crime and suicide statistics, the figures can give indications of trends
over time.
3 Interpretive sociologists argue that statistics are little more than a social construction. For example, the
official crime statistics published as police recorded crime (PRC) only present a picture of crimes that
have been reported to and recorded by the police. This is a significant underestimation of the true or
real level of crime. Therefore official statistics only tell us about who collected them, how they were
collected and for what purpose.
4 Self-report studies are surveys of individuals who are asked to record all offences they have personally
committed over a period of time (usually the previous 12 months). Self-report studies are heavily
criticised because people can forget, exaggerate or feel too inhibited to disclose honestly. However,
they can yield useful information about the age, class and gender of offenders who have avoided
getting caught or processed by the police. In addition, they can provide useful information about
victimless crimes, such as illegal drug use.
5 Self-report surveys are by their nature questionable: there are strong reasons why respondents might
conceal the nature and extent of their offences. OCJS goes some way towards dealing with these
problems, with A-CASI providing some assurance about confidentiality and anonymity. However, it
remains likely that not all responses were truthful; we have only the word of respondents that they were
telling the truth. The research is able to identify the factors associated with victimisation and offending,
but cannot show the nature of this relationship. What is more, children under 10 remain excluded from
this study and from most other research on crime.
6 All sociological research begins with a search of relevant secondary data. This is known as a ‘literature
search’ and includes relevant sociological research that has been undertaken in the same area as well
as official statistics and any documents that are related to the topic of research. This gives a good
background, identifies potential pitfalls, issues and areas to avoid, and may form the basis of
comparisons. Historical documents can be helpful. Personal documents, such as diaries and letters,
need to be viewed with considerable care, as they can reflect little more than subjective bias, but they
can also provide data rich in validity.
7 The first potential problem of using secondary data is to do with accuracy and authenticity. Many
documents attributed to authors are in fact counterfeit. Therefore, all sociologists should be wary of
secondary documents unless their authenticity is certain as the content may contain errors or biases.
We have noted above how interpretive sociologists see official quantitative data as of little value, since
they regard them as little more than a social construction. Another problem with using secondary
sources is that the operationalisation of concepts may differ between researchers and over time.
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8 Formal content analysis involves a systematic analysis of secondary documents in which content is
divided into particular categories, which are then counted. For example, a researcher may be looking
for evidence of racial stereotyping of criminals in the media. A systematic study would be made up of
crime stories with the categorisation of criminals in terms of their ethnicity and the manner in which
they are discussed in terms of their ethnicity. On this basis, it is possible to work out what percentage
of the content of the newspaper could be interpreted as racially stereotypical.
9 Personal documents such as diaries, memoirs and letters are subjective and therefore prone to bias.
However, they have the potential of providing a good source of qualitative data high in validity because
of their personal nature. If they are used with care and recognised as just one person’s viewpoint and
therefore not necessarily representative, they could offer an insight into criminal areas.
Exam-style question
Early theories of deviance, particularly functionalist, tended to see official statistics on crime and deviance
as an accurate reflection of acts of crime, crime-rates and its culprits. However, recent sociological
analysis challenges their validity and therefore their usefulness in understanding and explaining both
crime and criminals. Interactionists argue that they are more useful for studying the process of labelling
that results in a picture of crime that is essentially working class, male, urban and committed by those
under the age of 25. From all the current perspectives of crime, only Left realists are happy to concede
that this may in fact be a fairly accurate picture of criminal deviants.
Few sociologists accept crime statistics uncritically. Central to their argument is that police recorded crime
(PRC) only refers to crimes which are reported and recorded by the police. The usefulness of the statistics
is undermined by the amount of unrecorded crime or the ‘dark side’ of crime statistics. Self-report and
victimisation studies (themselves not entirely unproblematic) have both questioned the usefulness of
official statistics on two grounds. First, the British Crime Survey (2010) showed that victims reported
around 10 million criminal acts compared with the 5.5 million official criminal acts. Second, they reveal that
crimes are perpetrated by groups outside the male, working-class stereotype. Such studies show a
different picture: that crime can be carried out by middle-class people, women and South Asians, all of
which are groups perceived by official statistics to have low offence rates.
The introduction flows nicely into the first paragraph with reference to the dark side of PRC statistics. Selfreport and victim studies are used to question the usefulness of official crime statistics and discussed with
reference to the recently published BCS.
Fluctuations in the rate of recorded crime may also tell us little about trends in the rate of actual crime.
Since the mid-1990s, critics have questioned whether the declining official crime rate reflects a real
reduction in crime or merely a change in how incidents have been classified for political purposes. This
shows that the findings of the British Crime Survey often appear to contradict the official figures — thus
questioning their usefulness for a sociological understanding of crime. However, sociologists have
questioned the persistent rise in official crime since the Second World War. Under the banner of the ‘great
denial’, Jock Young argues that this rise reflects a higher arrest rate and increased reporting of petty
crime. Indeed, ‘radical criminologists’ argue that the police had a vested interest in publishing statistics
reflecting rising crime, as this formed the basis of their claim for more resources from the 1960s onwards.
The reference to up-to-date findings shows that the student is applying sociological ideas to the real world.
The issue of usefulness is also addressed in this paragraph, showing focus on the question.
Sociologists have thus found crime statistics useful — not so much for revealing the real rate of crime as
for an illustration of how official statistics are a social construction. This shows that sociologists recognise
how crime statistics are constructed from the complex processes of interaction, interpretation, negotiation
and selection that occur between the agents of social control and the public. Labelling theorists argue that
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the police and courts work with strict ‘background experiences’ when defining whether a person was
‘criminal’ or ‘deviant’. It is argued that these expectancies include ideas about social class, education and
home background, meaning that middle-class youths could ‘negotiate’ themselves out of becoming
processed as ‘criminal’. Thus a criticism of the usefulness of official statistics is that groups denied such
opportunities to negotiate become over-represented, leading official statistics to reflect crime as a workingclass phenomenon.
The first line addresses usefulness, as does the last sentence of this paragraph. There is more analysis of
the construction of official statistics. Application is mentioned with the reference to labelling theory. The
paragraph ends with a good evaluative point.
Studies show that the professionalisation of the police means that they operate according to stereotypes
(‘canteen culture’) and policies such as ‘stop and search’, which further contribute to the social isolation of
the police, causing them to become anti-working class and racially prejudiced against groups such as
black males and young Muslim males. This suggests that over-representation of black people in official
statistics stems from labelling and moral panics that help to stereotype blacks as deviants. Consequently
crime statistics become socially constructed (and thus less useful) since such groups are more likely to be
stopped and searched by police officers who tend to hold similar stereotypical views.
There is more useful application with reference to the concept of ‘stop and search’ and labelling theory’s
analysis of why some minority ethnic groups are over-represented in statistics. Usefulness is evaluated in
the last sentence.
Anne Campbell and Lesley Shaklady-Smith have both conducted self-report studies on females and
crime. Shaklady-Smith, in particular, found a close correlation between the young females in her study
and the acts of deviance normally considered male-centred. This shows they both see women as grossly
under-represented in official statistics and explain it through the fact that women are much more likely to
be cautioned than charged. Agents of control are said to be influenced by a ‘chivalry factor’ resulting in
women being less likely to appear in official statistics. Shaklady-Smith concluded that female deviants
typically get processed when they fail to conform to images of passive femininity. With the rise in WPCs
(who are more resistant to the chivalry factor) and the growth of female delinquency (as documented in
the growth of ladette culture), we may see official statistics as more useful in reflecting the gender
characteristics of deviance, but sociologists will still need to treat this area critically.
Following the previous paragraph on ethnic minorities, this paragraph examines the usefulness of
statistics with reference to gender. Note the evaluation and focus on usefulness at the end of the
paragraph.
However, Steven Box has criticised Campbell’s study for its over-emphasis on minor crime, and argued
that the official statistics are, in fact, reasonably accurate in reflecting male/female crime ratios. He does,
however, point out that official statistics do tend to reflect the values and attitudes of the judiciary. He
argues that the elitist background of judges leads them to associate crime and deviancy with poverty;
therefore the working class are more likely to be linked with crime. Juries too are also seen to operate
according to class, gender and racial stereotypes, as well as being closely guided in their decisions by
speeches from the judiciary.
In this paragraph there is more evaluation of Campbell’s study and Box’s interpretation of the construction
of statistics through attitudes of judges and jurors.
Marxists have traditionally criticised official statistics for their failure to reflect the considerable amount,
especially in financial terms, of white-collar or corporate crime. The concentration of the agents of control
on working-class crime stems from ideological pressure to conceal the crimes of the powerful. The
neo-Marxist New Criminologists argue that perpetrators of crime are just as likely to be the rich motivated
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by greed as the poor motivated by poverty. Left realists, however, while accepting that official statistics do
grossly underestimate the value of hidden white-collar crime, nonetheless accept that, in numerical terms,
most deviants do appear to be male, working class and under 25 years of age.
This paragraph makes reference to the Marxist focus on the dark side of white-collar and corporate crime.
This is followed with an evaluation from the Left realist standpoint.
Thus, to conclude, the sociological critique of official statistics suggests that they offer a poor reflection of
the reality of real crime rates and deviants, but instead, as a social construct, are useful only in studying
the policies, activities and values of those who compile them and process criminals. While accepting that
they under-represent women and the middle class at the expense of over-representing male, workingclass and black crime, realists argue that they nonetheless can be useful as an approximate picture of
crime and deviance in modern industrial society.
This is a good conclusion that rounds off a detailed theoretical and empirical critique of official statistics
contained in the essay. Note how the conclusion is not entirely negative about the usefulness of statistics
to sociologists.
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ethical considerations
Ethical and practical considerations
1 Research ethics refers to the ethical and moral issues that occur and apply to sociological research.
The British Sociological Association has produced an ethical code to guide sociological research and
ensure that it is ethical. Key ethical issues are confidentiality and anonymity, informed consent,
avoiding deception (as far as possible) and the avoidance of harm to the respondents and the
sociologist.
2 Purposive samples break from the golden rule of sampling, in that they are not representative.
However, they are chosen for a specific purpose (hence their name) whereby they provide for the
researcher a group of people who fit the research requirement. Provided the researchers are aware
that the sample may not be representative and can justify the reasons for using such a sample, then
there is no reason why the resulting research should not produce high-quality data.
3 Informed consent involves getting the consent or permission from every person or group being studied.
This is usually given following the briefing when a clear and detailed explanation of the purpose of the
research, the methods to be used and the future use of the research are outlined. Respondents should
always be able to refuse to co-operate and withdraw. Sometimes, as with the case of covert research,
it is not possible to gain informed consent. Wherever possible, consent should be obtained
retrospectively following the debriefing.
4 It is essential that all respondents in research are guaranteed anonymity and that all data collected are
treated in the strictest confidence. It would be quite inappropriate and potentially harmful if people were
unwittingly identified following the publication of research. Therefore it is important, when
contextualising people’s comments or statements, that no supplementary information is given whereby
they can be identified or recognised.
5 It is important that no respondents feel hurt or upset from taking part in research. This is particularly the
case when research is being undertaken into sensitive areas that have the potential to upset, annoy or
offend participants. Therefore research into issues such as domestic violence, eating disorders, rape
and suicide should only be undertaken sensitively by experienced professional researchers to avoid
harming respondents.
6 While it is important to build up a good rapport between researchers and respondents, close
relationships between them should be avoided. As well as being unprofessional, it could result in
biased data. One danger for researchers undertaking participant observation is the risk of ‘going native’
whereby they become so close to the people they are researching that there is a risk of their data being
subjective and value-laden.
7 Researchers will inevitably have their own interests and ambitions, which could result in biased
research. The fact that they find a topic area interesting and consequently worth researching is an
indication of the potential for bias in itself. In addition, areas of research can move in and out of
fashion, resulting in research not necessarily being carried out for the right reasons. Some sociologists,
such as Marxists and feminists, are inevitably value-laden in the sense that they are committed to
bringing about social and political change.
8 Clearly time and money are closely connected: the longer the research takes, the more expensive it is
likely to become. This rules out long-term research, unless a long-term source of financing can be
found. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews take considerably longer than structured interviews
and questionnaires. Observation can take months or years, from the planning stage to the penetration
of groups, observation and finally evaluation of data. Clearly the time required might become the main
factor determining which method is used rather than the intrinsic qualities of the method.
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9 Funding can play a significant part in the choice of method and also the nature and implications of the
research findings. Those bodies that fund research, whether they are government agencies or big
business, often have a preconceived idea of the findings they would like the research to come up with.
Academics may at times feel their research has been ‘bought’ through the pressure to come up with
findings that reflect the world-view or interests of the funding body. University-based research may
offer the researcher fewer constraints and more freedom of choice. In terms of methodology, the level
of funding may drive the research method used.
Exam-style question
Successful sociological research stems from a variety of factors. Clearly avoiding any ethical problems is
a priority, as the safety and interests of those being researched and the researcher are paramount.
However, to be successful, research must overcome any practical barriers, too, as these can impact on
both the quantity and quality of the data collected. However, the nature of undertaking research that
involves studying people means that it is not uncommon to encounter unintended consequences.
Sociologists must always be alert to the fact that their research can have an impact on their respondents.
It follows that conformity to professional ethical guidelines, such as those published by the BSA, is
essential in the pursuit of successful research.
This is a detailed introduction focusing on the question.
Practical problems are often overlooked and not seen as so important in research but they can sometimes
make or break it. An obvious starting point in considering factors that determine the success of research is
the issue of adequate funding. Because research is expensive, without adequate funding the research
proposal will have to be either reduced in scope or terminated prematurely. Either way the quality and
quantity of data collected will be affected.
This paragraph examines the practical problems that can derive from funding issues.
Research can be time-consuming and therefore expensive. This is particularly the case with long-term
research projects. If funding runs out prematurely then the research may be terminated. Another practical
problem with long-term research is when participants drop out. When this happens the representativeness
of the sample becomes undermined, lessening the value of the research.
The practical problem of time is unpacked in this paragraph. A good methodological point is made in the
last sentence.
Sometimes the research method can be problematic for the researcher. If it is not the first choice of the
sociologist, he or she may feel the research suffers from using a method he or she doesn’t feel
comfortable with. However, the research situation often dictates which method would be most appropriate.
Large samples necessitate the use of questionnaires. Therefore it is difficult to collect qualitative data
when samples are large.
The problem of using methods that are not necessarily the ideal choice of the researcher can be
problematic. This paragraph gives examples of how and why this situation might arise.
The career-based motives that lie behind a lot of research can shape the nature and extent of
investigations. Because universities put enormous pressure on academics to publish their research, this
means that what they choose to study is rarely a free choice. Research can be influenced by factors like
their career specialism, what area might lead to funding or to promotion. It follows that whether research is
qualitative or quantitative, such practical factors can shape it either positively or negatively by undermining
its quality.
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The issue of how pressure to publish from academic institutions and career aspirations can drive research
and certain research areas is discussed here.
The first duty of any researcher is to obtain informed consent from the respondents. Sometimes this is not
practical, as with the case of covert observation, which raises the interesting question as to whether all
covert observations are ethically dubious unless shown to be appropriate and justified. Covert participation
could be seen as unethical because deceit is essential. For non-covert research, participants must be able
to sign their consent; they should be informed of the purpose and nature of the research; they should have
the right to withdraw at any time; and they should not be made to participate under duress. However, it is
worth noting that informed consent does not in itself make the research ethical.
The ethical issue of confidentiality and informed consent is discussed here. Note the two evaluative points
at the end of the paragraph.
Another problem associated with participant research is the practical problem of ‘going native’. This refers
to when researchers get too close to the people they are studying. While this can increase the quality of
valid data, it can also be problematic by undermining the judgement and objectivity of the researcher. If a
researcher is seen to side with one particular group in research this could lead to conflict or cause other
groups to become resentful. Clearly, the dynamics of research and the interaction between researchers
and their subjects can be problematic and professional judgement should always be used to ensure that
research practice is correct and appropriate. However, any research that involves children is especially
sensitive.
The potential problems of going native and professionalism are discussed here. A useful point about
children is included at the end.
An essential ethical issue is that all respondents should be guaranteed anonymity and everything they say
treated in the strictest confidence. A problem here is that identity can be inadvertently disclosed when
research is published, simply from the way roles or situations are described. An essential feature of good
research is that nobody should be harmed or disadvantaged, and inadvertently disclosing an identity could
have serious consequences. Researchers must protect respondents, especially when researching
sensitive issues where people are vulnerable. However, anonymity cannot be provided in research that
involves focus groups as people voice their views in front of others.
The ethical issue of anonymity is discussed here. There is a good AO2 evaluative point in the final
paragraph.
In conclusion it is clear that if researchers adhere to the professional research guidelines of the BSA then
the risks of research becoming problematic are lessened. However, it follows that good research does
involve overcoming the many practical and ethical issues that can render it problematic.
This is a short conclusion but one that refers back explicitly to the question, supporting the statement.
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Can sociology be regarded as a science?
1 Positivism is a theoretical approach to research associated especially with the classical sociologists,
who argued that the only approach to unbiased knowledge is through adoption of the methods of
science. It is associated with the quantitative approach and research is centred on the collection of
social facts. Durkheim demonstrated a positivistic approach in his famous study of suicide.
2 Durkheim used the term ‘social fact’ to refer to objective measurable facts that exist in society.
3 The term ‘empirical’ applies to data that can be measured or counted. Therefore the term ‘empirical
evidence’ refers to supporting data that have been measured in an objective manner that can be
subject to some form of verification. Thus empirical evidence of suicide statistics refers to the suicides
that have been officially recorded by coroners — this does not necessarily prove, however, that it is a
true reflection of suicidal behaviour; just that it is a measured amount.
4 The ‘hypothetico-deductive method’ is associated with the positivistic/scientific approach to research. It
is centred on the deduction of a problem or relationship in a logical and systematic fashion that
involves four stages: observation of a particular phenomenon; developing a hypothesis;
experimentation; and analysis of the data collected. The hypothesis should then be either confirmed or
rejected. If the latter occurs then another hypothesis needs to be constructed.
5 Quantifiability is important to positivists because adopting a scientific approach means that data
collected are essentially numerical and factual. Statistics can therefore be compared, correlations
identified and, if possible, cause-and-effect relationships established.
6 The research method most commonly used by positivists is the social survey in the form of
questionnaires or structured interviews. Durkheim also favoured the comparative method, but this is
not used exclusively by positivists as Max Weber also used it. Another method that could be used is
the experiment, but sociologists do not commonly use this method.
7 Sociologists tend not to use experiments for many reasons:
 The subject matter of sociology is different from the natural sciences. Our subject matter has
consciousness, and therefore is aware it is being experimented on. As a consequence, behaviour
may change and no longer be natural. This is referred to as the ‘experimenter effect’, which
renders the data collected largely useless.
 When scientists undertake experiments in the laboratory they ideally are able to isolate all
variables except the one independent variable they are testing. With people it is impossible to
control for all variables, so it is impossible to prove categorically that an outcome in the laboratory
is due to an independent variable, or something that has influenced the person earlier in their life,
such as socialisation, culture etc.
 Many consider the very principle of experimenting on people as unethical. The subject of
psychology is full of suspect experiments such as Milgram’s experiment on authority. It is claimed
that researchers pay scant regard to the trauma and distress people can take away from the
experiment.
8 Interpretivists’ starting point is that the subject matter of sociology is fundamentally different from the
natural sciences as people are conscious and aware that they are being studied. In addition, their
actions are voluntaristic and driven by meanings rather than being shaped by structures beyond
people’s control. As a consequence, positivism is viewed as over-deterministic, ignoring people’s
agency.
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9 Weber used the term ‘verstehen’ to refer to the process of empathising with those being researched.
He argued that the task of the researcher is to investigate how those being investigated interpret the
world. In order to succeed in this task, the sociologist has to get inside their heads and see the world
through their eyes. ‘Verstehen’ literally means ‘to understand’.
10 Realism is sometimes compared with peeling an onion because, unlike positivists, realists do not
believe that social phenomena are necessarily observable. So just as the rings of an onion are only
observable when the paper skin is removed, so the researcher has to probe beneath the surface of
society to discover what is really going on.
11 Realists recognise strengths in the positivist approach and phenomenology and so attempt to break
down the division between a preference for quantitative data (mainly by positivists) and the opposing
view of interpretivists who insist on the primary importance of qualitative data. Therefore a realist
approach will typically collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
12 The comparative method was developed first by Emile Durkheim within a positivist framework in his
classic study of suicide. It supports the scientific approach to research as it involves the systematic
comparison of apparently similar phenomena between societies or of groups in a society. However, it is
also a method embraced by Max Weber who is most closely associated with the interpretivist approach
to research. It is therefore a practical method that cuts across the traditional theoretical dichotomy of
positivism/interpretivism and has been widely used by anthropologists in the past.
Exam-style question
The interpretive approach was developed by Alfred Schultz and Edmund Husserl from the work and ideas
of Max Weber. It developed as an alternative to the positivist approach associated originally with Comte
and Durkheim who argued that sociology should adopt the same positivist approach that had enabled
natural scientists to establish laws of nature. The interpretive approach regards this scientific approach as
flawed as humans are distinctly different from the research matter of scientists and therefore cannot be
studied objectively. However, the interpretive approach itself has been criticised for lacking rigour and
inevitably resulting in subjective analysis. This essay will explore the merits of each and explore whether
the logical approach is that of realism, combining the strengths of each approach.
This introduction focuses on the question and unpacks briefly the interpretive approach and how it
developed as an alternative response to positivism. There is a brief critique of the interpretive approach
with signposting of how the answer will progress. It gets the answer off to a good start — an important
function of introductions.
The positivist approach embraces the scientific method. In addition, it should be viewed as a feature of its
time of development: that is, a product of the period of modernity. The essence of positivism is that
something can only be researched if it is directly observable. Positivists believe that external structural
forces determine behaviour and ideas. Comte advocated an approach to research that embraced a
rigorous methodology that would give sociology the same status as the natural sciences. To achieve this
he stressed the importance of seeking out facts through observation in order to establish law-like
regularities. However, although Durkheim supported this scientific method of inquiry, he felt that Comte
was wrong to predict that it would one day lead to sociology being ‘the queen of sciences’!
Although this question is on the interpretive approach, it was felt necessary to discuss what preceded it
and why it developed in opposition to it. The last evaluative point is interesting, as it differentiates
Durkheim from Comte and offers a hint as to its potential weakness.
The interpretive approach completely rejects the deterministic view of positivism. It fundamentally
disagrees with the assumption that people’s behaviour is shaped by external forces beyond their human
control. Instead, interpretivists argue that human behaviour needs to be understood in terms of the
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meanings that lie behind people’s actions. Behaviour is thus linked to agency, rather than structures.
Research is therefore embracing the approach of microsociology with the individual as the starting point
and Weber’s ideas of social interaction. This approach focuses on the way individuals interact with one
another and embraces Weber’s concept of ‘verstehen’, which means ‘to understand’. However, because
understanding the social world depends so much on the interpretations of the researcher, it is argued that
this could lead to a dangerous and subjective interpretation of people’s behaviour.
This paragraph outlines the interpretive approach in some detail and links it to the work of Weber and
‘verstehen’. Credit could have been given here to Schultz and Husserl who particularly developed the
interpretive research position. A good evaluative point is made and there is a return to the question at the
end of this paragraph.
It is argued by its advocates that interpretive sociology has produced some of the best sociological
research. They argue that for sociology to really understand human behaviour it has to get to the heart of
its subject matter, or as Hughes expressively stated: ‘get the seats of your pants dirty!’ As a consequence
some amazing research has been undertaken into gangs (Whyte), schools (Willis) and religious groups
(Barker’s participant observation of Moonies). However, critics argue there is always a danger of
researchers getting too close to their subject matter, a process known as ‘going native’. If this happens, it
will inevitably result in subjective and biased interpretations. Positivists thus argue a degree of distance
and rigour is necessary in any research to remain objective and faithful to the truth.
This paragraph gives further justification of the interpretive approach. It is good to include examples; these
are all classics and a little dated. Examiners will applaud evidence of awareness of recent research
(Blundell and Griffiths, Sociology Since 2000 is a good source). Candidates could take a case study (or
two) of interpretive sociology and write a paragraph either defending its approach (challenging the
question) or criticising its approach (supporting the question). The evaluation point at the end again will
secure AO2 marks and is a further reference back to the question.
Since the 1960s some sociologists, such as Berger and Luckman, have argued that the debate about
structure versus agency is a sterile and meaningless exercise. Instead they have advocated a new
approach embracing both action and structure. Their argument is that it is not possible to make sense of
people’s behaviour without considering the sort of societies they live in. They have claimed that both the
positivist and interpretive positions have some validity. People through agency create structures; however,
once created, these structures shape and influence people.
There is an interesting inclusion of Berger and Luckman in this answer. They are not prominent
sociologists, but their contribution to this debate is quite well known. Examiners will reward critical
inclusions like this.
Anthony Giddens developed a similar idea through his theory of structuration whereby he argued that we
cannot isolate structure and action from each other. His idea is an attempt to understand how people
create structures but at the same time how structures constrain our actions. His bottom line is that if there
were no structures, then human experience would not be possible. This fundamentally challenges the
interpretive view that we can make sense of human behaviour by simply attempting to understand the
motives that lie behind actions.
The work of Giddens and structuration theory is also an interesting inclusion. Like Berger and Luckman,
he wants to get away from the idea that a valid approach is either structure or agency. Instead an
approach that embraces both is advocated.
Realism recognises strengths in both the interpretivist and positivist approaches, yet it is also critical of
key elements in both. Realists share the positivist view that the social world is made up of structures, but it
disagrees that these are necessarily observable. It also shares the view of interpretivists that, because
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people have consciousness, they can both create and recreate the social world. Realists often adopt a
triangulation approach to research and will collect both quantitative data and qualitative data, arguing that
the strengths of each compensate for the weakness of the other.
The approach of realism is discussed and unpacked here. The paragraph could do with an evaluative
point at the end of it.
Ray Pawson, as a realist, supports the premise of the question. He argues that the problem with the
interpretive approach is that it can result in multiple interpretations. It therefore follows that there can never
be any definitive, literal accounts of social action but only versions of why it has taken place, produced
from the point of view of different observers. Therefore, realists criticise the interpretive approach on the
grounds that if we have no access to the original data, how can this be objectively verified? With only
descriptions of observations or accounts of interviews, we have to rely entirely on the researcher’s
integrity in remaining unbiased.
The first sentence of this paragraph, mentioning the work of Pawson the realist, refers back to the
question. Further critical ideas undermining the interpretive approach are discussed in the second half of
this paragraph.
It is because of the problems discussed above that many research sociologists now embrace a
combination of both interpretive and positivist approaches. By using this third approach of realism they
can undertake research that embodies the strengths of each approach. The strengths of one approach
can compensate for the weaknesses of the other. Therefore any risk of subjectivity in an interpretive
approach can be balanced by the rigour and objectivity of the positivist nature of the realist approach.
Realism, by advocating a triangular approach to methods and the collection of both quantitative and
qualitative data, thus helps to overcome any accusation of subjectivity on the part of the researcher.
The approach of realism is reinforced here. There is further critical focus back to the question, which will
be appreciated and rewarded by examiners.
In conclusion, although the interpretive approach can take some credit for producing engaging research, it
does run the risk, as positivists have argued, of being little more than subjective interpretation. In response
to this accusation, realists would argue for a third way that recognises both the strengths and weaknesses
of each approach.
This is a short but competent conclusion that is focused on the question. Note that conclusions do not
have to be long, but are an essential part of an essay and should always return to the question.
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