GCSE Sociology₈₁₉₂

• The social construction of concepts of crime and deviance and explanations of crime and deviance.
• The work of Merton on the causes of crime from a functionalist perspective and Becker from an interactionist perspective.

Students should be able to:

• identify, describe and explain various sociological explanations of crime and deviance including anomie, labelling, structural theories, subcultural theories and interactionist theory
• explain the social construction of concepts of crime and deviance
• describe, compare and contrast a variety of sociological perspectives on the social construction of crime and deviance (interactionist, functionalist, feminist and Marxist)
• describe the key ideas of Merton on the causes of crime
• describe the key ideas of Becker on the causes of crime.

• Formal and informal methods of social control.
• The work of Heidensohn on female conformity in male dominated patriarchal societies.

Students should be able to:

• identify, describe and explain formal and informal methods of social control including unwritten rules and sanctions
• describe, compare and contrast a variety of sociological perspectives on social control (interactionist, functionalist, feminist and Marxist)
• describe the key ideas of Heidensohn on female conformity.

• Factors affecting criminal and deviant behaviour and ways in which criminal and deviant behaviour have generated public debate.
• The work of Albert Cohen on delinquent subcultures and Carlen on women, crime and poverty.

Students should be able to:

• identify, describe and explain factors affecting criminal and deviant behaviour including social class, gender, ethnicity and age
• identify and describe various public debates over criminal and deviant behaviour including concerns over violent crime, sentencing, the treatment of young offenders, the prison system and media coverage of crime
• describe, compare and contrast a variety of sociological perspectives on factors affecting criminal and deviant behaviour (interactionist, functionalist, feminist and Marxist)
• describe the key ideas of Albert Cohen on delinquent subcultures
• describe the key ideas of Carlen on women, crime and poverty.

The usefulness of the main sources of data on crime, the collection of official data on crime, patterns and trends in crime figures and the ‘dark figure’.

Students should be able to:

• identify and describe the main sources of data on crime
• describe the pattern and trends in crime figures using relevant statistical data
• explain the ‘dark figure’ of crime (unreported and unrecorded crime)
• describe, compare and contrast a variety of sociological perspectives on the use of data on crime (functionalist, feminist and Marxist).