🏠 Material deprivation
Remember, this means lacking basic necessities such as food, heating or a safe home. A family in a damp, unheated flat, for example, may be pushed towards illegal ways of getting money.
Explaining Crime » Explaining Crime: Social Class
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 6.2.5
- Why crime figures are linked to social class, and what social exclusion means
- How deprivation, inadequate socialisation, lack of opportunity and status frustration may push some people towards crime
- How power inequalities and police targeting shape who is caught and who is not
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Unlock This CourseWhy is crime linked to social class?
Earlier in this section you met the broad patterns in crime figures. In many societies, people from poorer backgrounds are over-represented in recorded crime, especially for street crimes such as theft, burglary and violence. This is a pattern in recorded crime. Most people from every social class never commit a serious crime.
Sociologists ask two questions. Do poorer people really offend more? Or is it partly because of who the police and courts pay attention to? This lesson looks at the explanations for both.
Key terms:
- Social exclusion: being shut out from the things most people in society can take part in, such as decent jobs, good housing, education and a normal social life.
- Power inequalities: differences in how much influence people have over how laws are enforced and who gets punished. Wealthier people often have more power to avoid attention and punishment.
Social exclusion, deprivation and lack of opportunity
Think of a young person who grows up in an area with few jobs, poor housing and under-funded schools. They may feel shut out of the society around them. That is social exclusion, and several explanations build on it.
📱 Relative deprivation
This is feeling poor compared with others around you. A pupil may have enough to eat, but may see classmates going on skiing trips and holidays abroad while their own family cannot afford a day out. Crime may seem a way to catch up.
Lack of opportunity means being blocked from legal ways to succeed. If good jobs are scarce, or need qualifications that poorer pupils find hard to get, some people may see illegal routes, such as theft or drug dealing, as the way to earn money.
Inadequate socialisation
Remember, inadequate socialisation means not being taught the norms and values that stop people breaking the law. Some sociologists argue that this is more likely in some poorer families, where parents may be working long hours, have little support or face great stress, so children are supervised less. Children may then learn the values of a local gang or peer group instead.
Be careful. This idea is often criticised. It can blame poorer parents unfairly, and many children from poor families are very well socialised. Wealthier families can also fail to teach respect for the law.
Status frustration
Remember, status frustration is the anger felt by people who cannot gain respect through school or work. Here the class link is clear: working-class pupils in poorer areas may find the best jobs and the highest status closed to them. If they cannot win respect by legal means, a group that rewards rule-breaking may offer it instead.
Power inequalities and who is policed
Another group of explanations says that the figures show who gets caught, not only who offends. These explanations focus on power.
- Police targeting: remember, police may patrol and stop and search in poorer areas more often, because they link them to crime. More police attention means more arrests, so the figures show more crime there, even if similar offences happen elsewhere.
- White-collar crime: crimes such as tax fraud, price fixing or hiding a product safety fault are often committed by well-off people in business. These crimes can be hard to detect, are often dealt with by fines and warnings from official inspectors rather than arrests, and are less likely to appear in the figures. Powerful people may also be able to afford skilled lawyers.
So the link between class and crime may be partly real and partly caused by unequal policing and unequal power.
Common mistakes
Saying "poor people commit crime because they are poor". Poverty does not cause crime on its own. Most poor people obey the law. Also, do not forget the second half of the picture: white-collar crime and unequal policing. A good answer shows both why some poorer people may offend and why the figures may exaggerate the link.
Exam-style question
(a) Define the term social exclusion. [2 marks]
(b) Explain three reasons why people from poorer social classes may appear more often in crime statistics. [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) Social exclusion is being shut out from things most people in society can take part in (1), such as good jobs, housing, education or a normal social life (1).
(b) Any three developed reasons, for example: Relative deprivation (1): people may feel poor compared with others and turn to theft to get things they cannot afford (1). Lack of opportunity (1): good jobs may be scarce in poorer areas, so some people may see crime as their only way to earn money (1). Police targeting (1): police may stop and search more often in poorer areas, so more offences are recorded there than in richer areas (1). Power inequalities (1): white-collar crime by wealthier people is harder to detect and is often not punished harshly, so it is missing from the figures (1).
Exam tip
For "explain three reasons", name the explanation, then link it to the statistics with "so" or "because". Mix one reason about why some people may offend with one about who gets caught.