glossary

Question 1

crime

Answer 1

refers to behaviour that violates formal, legally enacted laws and is subject to punishment by the state.

Crime is when someone breaks a
law.

Laws are the written rules of society.
Links to formal social control

Socially constructed

Question 2

deviance

Answer 2

Deviance is when someone breaks an
unwritten rule of Society.

That person will behave in a way that is unusual and unexpected/ goes against norms

E.g. facial piercings or tattoos

Question 3

laws

Answer 3

Laws change over time, Different countries have different rules. Some acts are legal in one place and illegal in another (nudity/ homosexuality for example)

People are not all equal, some may be treated differently by legal processes e.g. age

Question 4

relativeness

Answer 4

Crime and deviance are relative, to
- time (e.g. homosexuality, abortion)
-Differs over culture (muslim countries vs the west)
- Place (e.g. nudity in shower vs on the street)
- Circumstance (e.g. age of sexual consent or driving)

Question 5

discretion

Answer 5

Discretion has the meaning of acting on one’s own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge.

Question 6

individual discretion

Answer 6

Particular police officers have specific concerns and interests and thus interpret and apply the law according to them.

Question 7

canteen culture

Answer 7

New recruits enter a world that has a highly developed culture which has evolved from the particular type of job that police officers must do.
Police officers are predominantly white and male.
They work long hours in each other’s company and are largely isolated from the public.
The result is the development of a very specific occupational culture – ‘Canteen Culture’

Question 8

stuctural

Answer 8

Marxists theory stresses that the law is biased in favour of powerful groups in society and against the working class. Therefore, upholding the law involves upholding the values of capitalist society. Police officers’ definition of crime in terms of street crimes and burglary (as opposed to white-collar or corporate crime) derives from their role as agents of control of a capitalist society.

Question 9

magistrates

Answer 9

Magistrates are volunteers drawn from the local community and are meant to be representative of it

Question 10

Dark figure of crime

Answer 10

Official statistics do not include the ‘dark
figure of crime.’

This is the term used for all unrecorded crime.
It is hard to estimate how large this figure is,
because it includes crimes that are not even
known about.

Some types of crime are more likely to be part
of the ‘dark figure of crime.’

Question 11

Street crime

Answer 11

refers to any criminal offense that happens in a public place, such as a street, highway, or parking lot, and includes acts like robbery, assault, theft, vandalism, and drug-related offenses.

Question 12

White collar crime

Answer 12

Coined by Edwin Sutherland, nonviolent crimes committed by individuals or organizations for financial gain, often involving fraud, concealment, or a breach of trust within a professional or business context.

Question 13

Victimisation

Answer 13

refers to the process of being a victim in crime.

Question 14

Social class

Answer 14

refers to a group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. Besides being important in social theory, the concept of class as a collection of individuals sharing similar economic circumstances has been widely used in censuses and in studies of social mobility.