Paper 2: The sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification

Which term describes behaviour that breaks society's norms but is not necessarily illegal?

Merton's strain theory argues crime results from:

Describe one example of informal social control.

Identify and explain one reason why official crime statistics may not give an accurate picture of crime.

Item A (written for this paper; fictional research): A self-report survey of 1,200 young people aged 14–17 asked anonymously whether they had committed minor offences in the last year. 38% reported at least one offence, most commonly shoplifting or vandalism. Only 4% had ever been in contact with the police. From Item A, identify two findings.

From Item A, examine one strength of self-report studies.

Describe one feature of white-collar crime.

Identify and explain one disadvantage of using interviews to research young people's involvement in gangs.

Identify and explain one reason why men are more likely than women to be convicted of crime.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that crime is caused by poverty.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that labelling explains why some groups have higher recorded crime rates.

Which term describes movement up or down between social classes?

Which sociologist distinguished class, status and party?

Describe one way life chances differ between social classes.

Identify and explain one reason why some groups are more likely to be in poverty.

Item A (written for this paper; fictional research): A study compared the occupations of 2,000 adults with those of their parents. 45% were in a different social class from their parents; most movement was short-range. Children of professionals were three times more likely to become professionals than children of routine workers. From Item A, identify two findings.

From Item A, examine one reason why comparing occupations may not fully measure social class.

Describe one feature of the underclass, according to Murray.

Identify and explain one advantage of longitudinal studies for researching social mobility.

Identify and explain one way in which gender affects inequality in the workplace.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that Britain is a meritocracy.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that social class is less important today than in the past.