Social Construction of Crime & Deviance (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology): Flashcards

Marxists argue that the bourgeoisie control the law, so they decide what counts as criminal in the interests of the ruling class.

False.

Marxists argue that the system often ignores or treats leniently white-collar crimes, such as tax evasion, but harshly punishes working-class crimes, such as benefit fraud.

Functionalists see crime and deviance as normal and necessary, because they can reaffirm social norms and encourage social change.

Feminists argue that the justice system applies double standards, punishing women for breaking the law and for violating traditional gender roles.

Interactionists argue that no behaviour is inherently deviant; it only becomes deviant when society labels it as such.

A deviant label can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the person internalises the deviant identity and continues to act accordingly.

Social control refers to how people's behaviour is regulated to encourage conformity and discourage deviance.

Sanctions are the rewards and punishments that society uses to achieve social control.

Praise, promotion, awards and gifts are examples of positive sanctions.

False.

Informal social control, through social pressure from family, peers and communities, manages most of daily life.

Formal social control is control based on written laws and regulations that the state enforces.

The legislature, the Houses of Parliament, creates the laws that govern our behaviour.

Crown Courts deal with serious (indictable) offences, such as murder or terrorism, where juries decide guilt and judges issue sentences.

Magistrates' Courts deal with less serious, or summary, offences such as common assault.

The probation service supervises offenders released from custody and helps them reintegrate into the community.

Marxists see the police as a tool of the ruling class that enforces laws protecting property and capitalist interests.

In 2025, 75% of senior judges had studied at Oxford or Cambridge, compared with less than 1% of the population, which suggests class bias in the judiciary.

Informal social control is control based on unwritten or implicit rules, such as the approval or disapproval of others, which ordinary people and social groups enforce.

The hidden curriculum teaches obedience, punctuality and respect for authority.

Local communities reinforce social control through the threat of gossip or exclusion.

False.

Informal social control can fail when families or communities hold deviant values, e.g. underage drinking or anti-school attitudes.

Feminists argue that informal social control benefits the patriarchy by keeping women under control, e.g. through pressure to conform to expectations of femininity.

The hypodermic syringe model is the idea that media messages are injected directly into audiences' minds, which assumes audiences are passive and powerless to resist.

Agenda setting is the media's role in deciding which issues become public priorities, by focusing on some stories and excluding others.

Journalists, editors and media owners act as gatekeepers, deciding which events are newsworthy.

Gatekeepers select crime stories based on news values, e.g. whether a story involves children, violence or celebrities.

False.

Because the media over-represents violent and serious crime, the public assumes these crimes happen more often than they really do.

A moral panic occurs when the media portrays a group or activity as a major threat to social values, causing public fear and overreaction (Stanley Cohen, 1972).

Folk devils are groups that become scapegoats for society's ills in a moral panic, stereotyped as dangerous or immoral.

Common folk devils include youths, ethnic minorities, welfare claimants and refugees.

Stanley Cohen studied the mods and rockers, whose fights took place in seaside towns such as Clacton.

Deviancy amplification is when media exaggeration and an overreaction by the public and police lead to more deviant behaviour, which confirms the stereotype.

False.

Cohen showed that the media not only reports deviance but also creates it.

Moral panics can leave public anxiety, harsher laws and group stigma, even after the panic fades.

Social media contributed to the disorder because its algorithms amplified misleading content, which a House of Commons committee found helped drive the violent disorder in several towns.

Functionalists argue that media coverage increases awareness and leads to campaigns such as knife amnesties, which reinforce shared values and social order.

Interactionists argue that moral panics often reinforce the self-fulfilling prophecy, where people labelled as deviant act according to their labels.

Marxists argue that moral panics distract the public from real issues such as inequality and exploitation, diverting attention from the failures of capitalism.