1. Social class and crime Patterns / statistics
Explanations – is it to do with culture, material deprivation, or the definition of criminality?
Case studies – bad fellas / violent night!

2. Social class and crime- the figures
In Glasgow 60% of prisoners came from the most deprived council estates.
A 2007 study found that 43% of prisoners had no ed.qualifications and 60% had been claiming benefits.
Another study found that 67% of prisoners were unemployed prior to going in prison compared with 5% of the population s whole.
Problems with the above = only includes those that have been convicted and imprisoned – some crimes of the middle4 class are less likely to result in imprisonment e.g. fraud could be a large fine. Also – corporate and wh.collar cirmes – people often senior so can hide = not in crime stats / prisons.
Self report studies –
Only one recent study of this kind findings = ‘social class of the family, based on occupation of the chief-wage earner was not significantly associated with the likelihood of offending and drug abuse.’ = not social class but ind. Circumstances as more important.
Main suggestions was that it was down to levels of social control for criminality and social class for being labelled as a criminal by the CJS.
Problems = mainly used a sample of year olds.
Lower working class /
working class
Social class and crime- the figures
No big deal
Ditton and Mars found that in a range of services (from bakers to tourist workers)minor theft was regarded as a legitimate part of the job ‘perk’ or ‘fiddle’.
Clarke – employers often turned a blind eye to ‘fiddling’ and accounted for it in pay structure (paying certain bands less as a result)
Functionalist writers have linked this type of crime to the type of profession – claiming that those with a great degree of trust placed on them are less likely to commit occupational crime.
Big and bad
Levi (2007) fraudulent health and unemployment benefit claims total £3 billion and frauds within the NHS are est. at £6 billion.
Counter to the functionalist argument Nelken (2002) found considerable evidence of fraudulent claims made by doctors and dentists against insurance companies in the USA (and to a smaller extent in GB)
About 25% of all retail loss in Britain is accounted for through theft by employees (according to a 1999 study).
Levi (1987) found that 75% of all frauds on financial institutions were by there own employees.
White collar crime
Types –
Bribery
Corruption
Examples –
Medical professionals falsifying prescriptions / patient records
Occupational Crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his / her occupation

3. Cultural explanations
Material deprivation explanations
The definition of criminality- explanations

4. Describing Map

5. Describing Map

6. Outline three reasons why some ethnic minority groups may be more likely than others to commit crime. (6)
Outline three reasons why white collar crimes are commited. (6)

7. Outline three reasons why the working classes commit crimes (6)
Outline three reasons why females may be less likely to commit crime. (6)