AQA GCSE Sociology: Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification (8192)

This guide covers Paper 2 The Sociology of Crime and Deviance and Social Stratification, the second of two equally-weighted components in AQA GCSE Sociology (8192), first teaching 2017. Sociological research methods (3.7) is examined across both papers rather than as a standalone section, and is covered in the Paper 1 guide.

Where this fits in 8192

Paper 1 introduces the sociological approach through the familiar territory of families and education. Paper 2 applies the same theoretical toolkit – functionalism, Marxism, feminism and interactionism – to two topics students usually find more abstract: why some acts are labelled criminal while others are not, and why society is unequally structured along lines of class, gender and other factors. The same four perspectives recur throughout both sections, so a secure grip on what each perspective claims is the single most transferable skill for this paper.

Syllabus coverage

AQA GCSE SOCIOLOGY (8192) — PAPER 2 CRIME AND DEVIANCE, AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Section 3.5 Crime and deviance:

• 3.5.1 The social construction of crime and deviance — how concepts of crime and deviance are socially constructed rather than fixed; functionalist, interactionist, feminist and Marxist explanations including anomie, labelling, structural and subcultural theories; Merton’s functionalist account of the causes of crime; Becker’s interactionist account
• 3.5.2 Social control — formal and informal methods of social control, including unwritten rules and sanctions; comparison of perspectives on social control; Heidensohn’s work on female conformity in patriarchal societies
• 3.5.3 Criminal and deviant behaviour — factors affecting criminal and deviant behaviour, including social class, gender, ethnicity and age; public debates over violent crime, sentencing, young offenders, the prison system and media coverage of crime; Albert Cohen’s work on delinquent subcultures; Carlen’s work on women, crime and poverty
• 3.5.4 Data on crime — the usefulness of the main sources of crime data, official crime statistics, patterns and trends, and the “dark figure” of unreported and unrecorded crime

Section 3.6 Social stratification:

• 3.6.1 Functionalist theory of stratification — the functionalist account of effective role allocation, linking reward to performance; Davis and Moore’s theory; feminist and Marxist critiques
• 3.6.2 Socio-economic class — socio-economic class divisions; Marx’s and Weber’s differing accounts of class
• 3.6.3 Life chances — factors affecting life chances including social class, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability, and religion and belief; Devine’s work revisiting the “affluent worker”
• 3.6.4 Poverty as a social issue — interpretations of poverty including the culture of poverty and material deprivation, government attempts to alleviate poverty and unemployment, and the impact of globalisation; Townsend’s work on relative deprivation; Murray’s work on the underclass and New Right theory
• 3.6.5 Power and authority — forms of power and authority, including traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority; Weber’s account of power and authority
• 3.6.6 Power relationships — factors affecting power relationships including social class, gender, sexuality, race, age, disability, and religion and belief; Walby’s work on patriarchy

How to approach it

Both sections repeatedly ask students to “describe, compare and contrast” a perspective on the same issue – crime, social control, class, poverty, power – from functionalist, feminist, Marxist and (in section 3.5) interactionist viewpoints. Rather than revising crime and stratification as unconnected topics, build a single revision grid with the four perspectives down one side and each named issue across the top: it turns eighteen separate points into a pattern that is far easier to recall under exam pressure. The named sociologists (Merton, Becker, Heidensohn, Cohen, Carlen, Davis and Moore, Marx, Weber, Devine, Townsend, Murray, Walby) are commonly the subject of short-answer questions asking students to identify which perspective a theorist belongs to and summarise their key idea in a sentence – practise this specific skill rather than only reading longer descriptions of each theory.

Common mistakes

Treating “crime” and “deviance” as identical terms, when the specification requires students to explain that deviance is broader than crime (a deviant act need not be illegal). Attributing Marx’s and Weber’s views on class interchangeably – Marx’s account centres on ownership of the means of production, Weber’s adds status and party as separate dimensions of stratification. Confusing the “dark figure” of crime with the crime rate itself. Describing poverty using only the culture-of-poverty explanation without contrasting it against material deprivation, which the specification treats as a genuine theoretical dispute.

Worked example

A question asks: “Compare the functionalist and Marxist views of social stratification.” What separates a strong answer from a weak one?

FUNCTIONALIST (Davis and Moore): stratification is necessary and
    beneficial -- society allocates its most able members to its
    most important roles by attaching greater rewards to them,
    motivating people to compete for demanding positions.

MARXIST: stratification exists because the ruling class (the
    bourgeoisie) owns the means of production and uses that
    ownership to exploit the working class (the proletariat) --
    inequality serves the interests of the powerful, not society
    as a whole.

COMPARISON: the functionalist view treats inequality as a fair
    outcome of a competitive, meritocratic process; the Marxist view
    treats it as the product of unequal ownership and power that a
    "fair" competition never actually offered. A strong answer states
    both positions accurately, in their own terms, before comparing
    them -- not just describing one after the other.

A weak answer treats this as “one theory says X, the other says Y” without ever setting the two side by side to explain what specifically they disagree about.

Quick revision checklist

• Explain why crime and deviance are described as “socially constructed” rather than fixed categories.
• Compare Merton’s and Becker’s explanations of the causes of crime.
• Distinguish formal and informal methods of social control, with an example of each.
• Describe the “dark figure” of crime and why official statistics may under-represent the true crime rate.
• Compare Marx’s and Weber’s views of class, and Davis and Moore’s functionalist justification for stratification.
• Contrast the culture-of-poverty and material-deprivation explanations of poverty, naming Townsend and Murray.
• For every named sociologist, know which of the four perspectives they represent and be able to state their argument in one sentence.

Related resources

Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification revision notes | Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification practice questions

Official syllabus

AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, first teaching 2017, sections 3.5 Crime and Deviance and 3.6 Social Stratification — aqa.org.uk and aqa.org.uk.