Crime and deviance with theory and methods is the third and final exam paper (7192/3) in the AQA A level sociology specification – below are a few thoughts on how I would’ve answered the paper from the June 2017 exam…
Sociology paper 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods, 2017
Q01 – Two reasons for ethnic differences in offending
I’m a bit concerned that the plural on differences means you need to talk about two different ethnic groups… so to be on the safe side. (Of course it’s not obvious that you need to do this from the question, and maybe you don’t, but remember the AQA’s burning hatred of teenagers… I wouldn’t put it past them!
To be on the safe side…
- African-Caribbeans more likely to end up in jail due to more serious nature offences (knife/ gun convictions) compared to whites
- Asians over represented due to Islamophobia – more labelling by media/ public/ police = higher conviction rate.
Both of those need to be better articulated, but they are two completely different reasons!
The hub post for ethnicity and crime is here – official statistics on ethnicity and crime
Q02 – Outline three functions of crime
BOOM!
Or so you probably thought… it’s simply a matter of explaining Durkheim’s three functions of crime:
- Integration
- Regulation
- Social chance
BUT – Have you really nailed the difference between integration (belonging/ connections) and regulation (clarity of rules/ prevention of anomie)?
Q03 – Analyse two ways in which deviant subcultures may respond to the difficulties of achieving mainstream goals
The item directs you to underachievement at school and deprived or unstable neighbourhoods. You could draw on the material from subcultural theory – so I’d go with…
- Albert Cohen’s status frustration and the standard rebellious subcultures.
- Then you could draw on Cloward and Ohlin’s subcultural types (there’s that burning hatred of teenagers again, this is turgid old stuff that could be relevant) – criminal or retreatist subcultures
- To link into the above point you could draw on Merton’s responses to strain and just relate these to subcultures.
Q04 – Evaluate sociological contributions to crime prevention strategies
The item directs you to both right and left realism and then surveillance… so it’s simply a matter of
Obviously topped and tailed with an intro and conclusion
Q05 – Outline two advantages of choosing overt observation compared to covert observation
I covered this at the bottom of this post of participant observation, but you’d need to expand on all the points!
I’d probably go for point 1 validity and point 2 on ethics to make sure the two points are very different.
One thing you NEED to do for this is to compare the two -overt and covert!
Q06 – Evaluate the view that conflict approaches are more useful than consensus approaches in our understanding of society
Straightforward – the item directs you to consensus and Marxism and labelling theory (also Weber’s social action theory, but I’d leave that aside and just settle for 16 or 17 out of 20) and talks about power.
So simply –
Point 1 – Functionalism and evaluate using contemporary evidence
Point 2 – Marxism and evaluate using contemporary evidence
Point 3 – Social action theory and evaluate using contemporary evidence
Overall evaluation – use PM to criticise both, and conclude that conflict theories are absolutely more relevant!
Overall I thought this was a reasonable paper! Classic, even.
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