Control, Punishment & Victims (AQA A Level Sociology): Flashcards

Visible disorder, such as graffiti, signals that no one cares and weakens both formal and informal social control.

According to Broken Windows, a neglected, disorderly area falls into a spiral of decline: respectable residents leave and deviants move in.

Zero tolerance policing is proactive action against even minor disorder, such as fare dodging and begging, to reinforce control.

False.

Young called this success a myth, as crime had already started falling before zero tolerance was introduced in 1994.

New York's crime decline may have been caused by 7,000 extra NYPD officers and economic recovery after the early 1990s recession.

Right realist solutions are criticised as unfair because they focus on petty offences while ignoring serious harms like corporate crime, and give police wide discretion that can lead to discrimination.

Social and community crime prevention is a left realist approach that aims to tackle the root causes of crime by reducing inequality and deprivation.

Left realists see poverty, unemployment and poor housing as the key drivers of crime.

False.

Wider social reforms can prevent crime as a side effect; e.g. policies to promote full employment are likely to reduce crime.

The Perry Pre-School Project was a two-year intellectual enrichment programme with weekly home visits for disadvantaged children aged 3-4.

By age 40, children on the Perry Pre-School Project had fewer arrests for violent crime than a control group.

The Perry Pre-School Project showed that early intervention cut costs: for every $1 spent, society saved $17 in welfare, prison and other costs.

Marxists see crime as shaped by inequality, poverty and a criminogenic capitalist culture.

Marxists want to transform capitalism into a more compassionate, community-focused system, reducing its criminogenic potential.

Like left realists, Marxists stress community building, which leads to stronger social bonds and collective responsibility.

Hughes says these measures address the real problems faced by disadvantaged groups, such as robbery and violence.

False.

Structural reforms are expensive and results may take decades, which makes them less politically attractive than quick fixes like policing.

Critics doubt the idea of 'compassionate capitalism' because they argue that capitalism is inherently competitive and unequal, so deep reform may be unrealistic without major upheaval.

Surveillance is observing and collecting data about individuals, which is then used to regulate, manage or correct their behaviour.

Foucault called the form of power that replaced public executions disciplinary power, which works because people conform when they feel they are being watched.

The panopticon is Bentham's (1791) prison design in which many prisoners can be observed by a single guard but cannot tell when they are being watched.

Because prisoners in the panopticon cannot tell when they are watched, they regulate their own behaviour through self-surveillance.

False.

Foucault argued that disciplinary power is more effective than brute force, as people internalise surveillance and police themselves.

Foucault said surveillance has spread into schools, factories, hospitals and the army.

Goffman claims that some inmates in prisons or psychiatric hospitals resist surveillance and maintain their independence.

Norris found that CCTV reduced crime in car parks but had little or no effect elsewhere and sometimes displaced crime.

Koskela sees CCTV as an extension of the 'male gaze': it makes women more visible to male operators but does not make them safer.

The synopticon is Mathiesen's (1997) idea that the many now watch the few, so everyone watching everyone acts as a form of social control.

Haggerty and Ericson argue that surveillance assemblages create data doubles of individuals by combining technologies such as CCTV and GPS tracking.

False.

Risk-based surveillance often leads to ethnic profiling, e.g. disproportionate stop-and-search at airports, which reinforces inequalities.

Risk management focuses on predicting and preventing crime before it happens, directing resources to where the risks are highest.

Critics argue that surveillance can feel intrusive and undermine civil liberties.

The two key justifications for punishment are reduction and retribution.

Deterrence is punishment that discourages offenders from reoffending and, by 'making an example', deters the wider public.

False.

Retribution is about 'paying back' for crimes already committed, expressing society's outrage as symbolic justice.

Rehabilitation aims to reform offenders, e.g. through prison education, so that they no longer offend.

Incapacitation is punishment that physically prevents offenders from offending again, e.g. imprisonment under the 'prison works' philosophy.

Durkheim argues that punishment reinforces social solidarity and collective values.

The difference is that restitutive justice, found in modern societies, aims to repair damage and restore order, e.g. compensation, whereas retributive justice uses harsh, expressive punishments.

Marxists say punishment serves the interests of the ruling class by defending property and maintaining the capitalist order.

Melossi and Pavarini argue that prison mirrors capitalism because capitalism puts a price on time, so prisoners 'repay a debt' by 'doing time'.

True.

Prisoners may learn additional criminal techniques in prison, which helps explain high reoffending rates.

Garland (2001) argues that the USA has shifted into an era of mass incarceration.

Garland sees the cause as the growing politicisation of crime and 'tough on crime' policies.

False.

The number in US state and federal prisons rose from around 200,000 in 1972 to about 1.25 million by 2023.

Transcarceration is when offenders move between different institutions, such as care, youth offender institutions, adult prison and psychiatric hospitals.

Labelling theory supports rehabilitation because offering reform avoids stigmatising offenders as 'non-people'.

Class bias weakens the case for punishment because laws and punishments disproportionately target the working class while ignoring corporate crime.

Victimology is the study of victims of crime.

The UN defines victims as people who have suffered harm, such as emotional suffering or economic loss, through acts or omissions that violate the laws of the state.

Critical victimology differs from positivist victimology because, while positivist victimology focuses on factors that make individuals more likely to become victims, critical victimology examines how wider power structures shape victimisation.

Miers says positivist victimology concentrates on interpersonal crimes of violence.

Victim precipitation is when the victim triggers the event, e.g. by starting a fight; Wolfgang (1958) found it in 26% of the homicides he studied.

Hentig (1948) suggested that low social status, or lifestyle factors like displaying wealth, can invite victimisation.

True.

It risks portraying victims as responsible for their own victimisation; e.g. rape victims accused of 'inviting' assault are put on trial themselves.

The Marxist critique of positivist victimology is that official surveys only recognise victims the state chooses to see, while others, such as people killed by the police, are denied victim status.

Critical victimology argues that recognition depends on a person's position in power structures, such as class, gender and ethnicity.

De-labelling is when the state and powerful institutions deny or downplay victimhood, concealing the crimes of the powerful.

Tombs and Whyte argue that injured workers are denied victim status because cases are labelled as 'accidents'.

Christie (1986) argues that some victims, such as child victims, are seen as more 'ideal' than others.

It shows that the most powerless are both most likely to be victimised and least likely to be acknowledged as victims.

False.

Critical victimology is less effective at designing specific prevention policies, as its insights are harder to turn into concrete interventions.

False.

The CSEW shows that the poorest groups face higher risks of violent crime, including homicide.

Gender shapes the risk of victimisation because men are more likely to suffer violent attacks, especially from strangers, while women are at higher risk of domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment.

Minority ethnic groups are less likely to report crimes because of distrust of the police and fears of not being taken seriously.

Repeat victimisation is when a small proportion of victims suffer multiple incidents, accounting for a large share of total crimes.

Secondary victimisation is when victims are further traumatised by insensitive responses from the police, courts or media.