1. Homework reading task to be done before the seminar of the same week
Homework Reading Task: Crime
1. Reading task to find the answers to multiple choice questions in Giddens Crime.
2. Cornell note taking in detail.
3. Two texts: read and underline the key ideas.
4. Four discussion questions to prepare for seminars.
Reading task 1: multiple choice questions
1. Which of the following statements about crime and deviance is false?
a) the concept of 'deviance' is much broader than 'crime'
b) deviance and crime very often overlap
c) the concept of deviance can be applied to individuals and groups
d) deviance is normally sanctioned by law
2. What is Howard Becker’s famous definition of deviance?
a) deviant behaviour is behaviour that is labelled so by the law
b) deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label
c) deviant behaviour is that labelled by the perpetrators
d) deviant behaviour is that which causes public offence
3. What is the central concept associated with Left Realist explanations of criminal
subcultures?
a) social exclusion
b) social construction
c) class conflict
d) relative deprivation
4. The approach to crime prevention based on increased surveillance (such as CCTV and
Neighbourhood Watch schemes) and target hardening (such as car immobilizers and better
home security) is known as what?
a) the new criminology
b) broken windows theory
c) situational crime prevention
d) deviance reduction theory
5. Which of the following is not a reason why corporate crime is more difficult to prosecute
compared with individual crimes?
a) victims may not realise that a crime has been committed
b) it is more difficult to apportion blame to corporate criminals
c) legal systems are founded on individual not collective responsibility
d) corporate offences cause less harm than crimes against an individual
6. What is defined as 'non-conformity to a given set of norms that are accepted by a significant
number of people in a community or society'?
a) criminality

2. Homework reading task to be done before the seminar of the same week
b) deviance
c) recidivism
d) degeneracy
7. Merton describes types of response to a situation where there are widely socially endorsed
values but limited means of achieving them. Which of his types describes an acceptance of
the values but willingness to use any means to achieve them?
a) conformists
b) innovators
c) ritualists
d) retreatists
8. Which approach framed their analysis of crime and deviance in terms of the preservation of
power by the ruling class?
a) New Left Realism
b) Right Realism
c) new criminology
d) interactionism
9. In 1736 a judge declared that a husband could not be guilty of the rape of his wife. When
was this ruling overturned?
a) 1851
b) 1891
c) 1951
d) 1991
10. Which one of the following is a strategy for restorative justice?
a) community service
b) imprisonment
c) electronic tagging
d) curfews

3. Homework reading task to be done before the seminar of the same week
Reading task 2: Cornel notes detailed reading
Read ‘Crimes against homosexuals’ (page 965), and ‘Prisons and punishment’ (Pages 974-
979)
Key words Bullet point notes: do not copy from the text
Summary

4. Homework reading task to be done before the seminar of the same week
Task 3: read the texts and underline the key ideas
Text 1
Consideration of how we understand and explain violence differently in relation to who the victim is,
rather than the circumstances in which the violence occurs, raises the question of the social
recognition and worth accorded certain individuals or social groups and, related to this, the degree
to which they are considered to have ‘lives worth living’ … The focus on lesbians and gay men is
extremely useful in highlighting how interpretations of violence are mediated through notions of
culpability and victimisation. As a marginalised and stigmatised group within society, lesbians and
gay men are unlikely to be construed as ‘innocent’ victims. On the contrary, the idea of the
‘homosexual’ as dangerous, a threat both to individuals they have contact with, especially children,
and to national security and social order has a long history … Analysis of the meanings attributed to
violence towards lesbians and gay men, therefore, helps to make explicit the normative processes by
which we define someone as an ‘undeserving’ or ‘deserving’ victim…
… The idea that the public existence of ‘homosexuals’ represents some form of provocation, which
renders violence and harassment intelligible, is evident in institutional as well as informal
assessments of public violence. This is supported by the literature on homophobic violence … which
draws attention to the failure of the police to acknowledge the significance of recording ‘sexual
orientation’ among the reasons which motivate attackers to abuse and kill, and the reluctance of the
courts to impose harsh sentences on the perpetrators of such crimes.
(Diane Richardson and Hazel May, ‘Deserving victims?: sexual status and the social construction of
violence’, Sociological Review, 1999, pp. 308–31)
Introduction to text 2
Barry Goldson conducted research over a 12‐month period in 2001 and 2002 into young people (he
prefers the term ‘children’) held in locked institutions. Locked institutions take two different forms:
Secure Units, run by local authorities and the Department of Health, where young people deemed to
be ‘at risk’ can be placed; and Young Offender Institutions, managed by the prison service and the
Home Office, which hold young people charged or convicted with criminal offences. In fact, the
backgrounds and circumstances of the young people in these two types of institution share much in
common. The extract below refers specifically to Young Offender Institutions. Some children
interviewed for the study reported negative treatment from the prison staff. Even if prison staff
were willing to meet the inmates’ needs, Goldson found that understaffing meant that in practice
staff were unable to give them appropriate care.
For Goldson, the consequences of such neglect for children are apparent:
Text 2
It hurts all the time. All you do is miss your family and you can’t hack it sometimes. I wouldn’t send
kids to a place like this. (Boy, 16 years)

5. Homework reading task to be done before the seminar of the same week
I felt very lonely and that, very lonely really. You are on your own and there is no one to talk to. All
you can do is think and it really winds you up. I had no one to speak to and it all built‐up and I started
thinking that I can’t take anymore. (Boy, 16 years)
Worse still, young offender institutions are not just neglectful, they are sites of concentrated
bullying in all its forms – physical assault, sexual assault, verbal abuse, racist abuse and assault,
intimidation, extortion and theft. Prison staff explain:
It comes in waves, it depends who’s on the wing. You get kids bullying each other, you get staff
bullying kids and you get staff bullying staff. … Outside the kids can get status in lots of ways. In here
status is measured in different ways: fear and respect become very confused. (Female prison
officer)
I think that it occurs all the time in different ways. … Especially with verbal bullying, or just an
attitude which is a form of bullying, people don’t always see it, particularly staff I would say. They
call it discipline but it’s really bullying, it’s an abuse of power. (Male prison nurse)
In other settings such behaviour would be called child abuse.
(Barry Goldson, ‘Victims or threats? Children, care and control’, in Janet Fink (ed.), Care: Personal
Lives and Social Policy, Bristol: The Policy Press in association with the Open University, 2004, pp.
103–4)
Task 4: prepare these discussion questions for your seminars
1. In Sociology the term ‘youth’ is used; in the introduction to text 2, ‘young people’; and by Goldson
himself, ‘children’. Does the choice of term affect the way you think about the situation of these 15‐
and 16‐year olds? How might labelling theorists interpret the choice of language?
2. If prison does not work as a mechanism for rehabilitation or deterrence what other social
purposes may it serve, particularly with regard to young people?
3. In what ways is this analysis of the position of gay men and lesbians as victims of crime similar to
the analysis of ethnic minority groups as victims of crime?
4. Could there be a link between anti‐gay crime and the ‘crisis of masculinity’?