Crime, Culture and Social
Change- Week 2
Lecture:
What is criminology?
Zedner (2007) observes- one of criminology’s greatest strengths is its disciplinary
hybridity
criminology is bound to the study of law but needs to take on wider matters
criminology is based on broad vision of forms of order and disorder and the power
relations that uphold these
taking a sociological approach to the study of crime
systematic study of human society in relation to rule breaking
Criminological Imagination:
Sociological approach- search to challenge the taken for granted
C Wright Mills (1959) sociological imagination
Sociology- escape from traps of our lives
Society can be responsible for many problems
takes personal problems transforms into public and political issues
criminological imagination- crime as a sociological concept- social construct varying
across time, place and people
Social Divisions of Crime:
Social and economic divisions- role of persons wealth, income and labour in relation to
crime, conflict analysis (crime by the poor is disproportionate attention by CJS), why do
women commit fewer crimes than me?, why state and white collar crime?
Gender and sexuality divisions- Role of a persons gendered identity or sexuality plays a
key role in crime, Frances Heidensohn (1976) and Carol Smart (1976) highlighted the
Crime, Culture and Social Change- Week 2 1
, neglect of women, Daly (1988) argued that there was a fundamental generalisability
problem and feminism led to study of masculinity and crime.
Ethic and racialized divisions- Role a persons race and ethnicity plays a key role in
crime, over representation of minority ethnic groups in criminal justice process, crime is
not evenly distributed over the social spectrum, analysing the relationship of race and
crime needs to accommodate for discrimination in the CJS- Stephen Lawrence, George
Floyd.
Age divisions- Role of a persons age in crime, young people and crime need effective
intervention or lack of it may decide whether young offenders become hardened
criminals, elder crime, social divisions overlap and are not discrete categories, any one
persons experience is a product of interacting divisions.
Social Change and Crime:
Late modernity- tradition to modern
Marx
Durkheim
Weber
Beck- second modernity (2000)
The Impact of Late Modernity:
Young argues three kinds of division characterise late modernity in relation crime:
economic
social
expansion of the CJS
Crime, Culture and Social Change- Week 2 2
Change- Week 2
Lecture:
What is criminology?
Zedner (2007) observes- one of criminology’s greatest strengths is its disciplinary
hybridity
criminology is bound to the study of law but needs to take on wider matters
criminology is based on broad vision of forms of order and disorder and the power
relations that uphold these
taking a sociological approach to the study of crime
systematic study of human society in relation to rule breaking
Criminological Imagination:
Sociological approach- search to challenge the taken for granted
C Wright Mills (1959) sociological imagination
Sociology- escape from traps of our lives
Society can be responsible for many problems
takes personal problems transforms into public and political issues
criminological imagination- crime as a sociological concept- social construct varying
across time, place and people
Social Divisions of Crime:
Social and economic divisions- role of persons wealth, income and labour in relation to
crime, conflict analysis (crime by the poor is disproportionate attention by CJS), why do
women commit fewer crimes than me?, why state and white collar crime?
Gender and sexuality divisions- Role of a persons gendered identity or sexuality plays a
key role in crime, Frances Heidensohn (1976) and Carol Smart (1976) highlighted the
Crime, Culture and Social Change- Week 2 1
, neglect of women, Daly (1988) argued that there was a fundamental generalisability
problem and feminism led to study of masculinity and crime.
Ethic and racialized divisions- Role a persons race and ethnicity plays a key role in
crime, over representation of minority ethnic groups in criminal justice process, crime is
not evenly distributed over the social spectrum, analysing the relationship of race and
crime needs to accommodate for discrimination in the CJS- Stephen Lawrence, George
Floyd.
Age divisions- Role of a persons age in crime, young people and crime need effective
intervention or lack of it may decide whether young offenders become hardened
criminals, elder crime, social divisions overlap and are not discrete categories, any one
persons experience is a product of interacting divisions.
Social Change and Crime:
Late modernity- tradition to modern
Marx
Durkheim
Weber
Beck- second modernity (2000)
The Impact of Late Modernity:
Young argues three kinds of division characterise late modernity in relation crime:
economic
social
expansion of the CJS
Crime, Culture and Social Change- Week 2 2
