AQA GCSE Sociology: Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification study guide | Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification revision notes

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Section A

1. Name four factors that can affect criminal and deviant behaviour, according to the specification. [4]

2. State four formal or informal methods of social control. [4]

Section B

3. Explain three reasons why official crime statistics may not give an accurate picture of the true level of crime. [6]

4. Explain two ways subcultural theory accounts for delinquent behaviour among young people. [4]

5. Explain the difference between the functionalist and Marxist views of social stratification. [8]

6. Explain three factors, other than social class, that can affect a person’s life chances. [10]

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Answers

1. Any four: social class [1]; gender [1]; ethnicity [1]; age [1]. (Also accept public debates over sentencing, the prison system or media coverage as contextual factors the specification links to this content.)

2. Formal methods: the police [1] and the courts [1]. Informal methods: peer group disapproval [1] and family sanctions [1] (also accept: religion, the media).

3. Any three, 2 marks each: unreported crime — the “dark figure” of crime includes offences victims never report, for example through embarrassment or a belief the police cannot act, so official statistics undercount real crime [1] [1]. Unrecorded crime — even reported incidents may not be formally recorded by police, for instance if judged too minor, again lowering the official count below the true level [1] [1]. Changes in the law and policing priorities — statistics can rise or fall simply because a new offence is created or police focus shifts to a particular crime type, without the real underlying rate necessarily changing [1] [1].

4. Any two, 2 marks each: status frustration — Cohen argued working-class boys, denied status by mainstream success criteria, form delinquent subcultures that invert conventional values, gaining status by breaking rules instead [1] [1]. Group loyalty and identity — subcultural theory holds that once formed, the subculture’s own norms reward and reinforce delinquent behaviour as a source of belonging, making it self-sustaining [1] [1].

5. Functionalist view (Davis and Moore): stratification is necessary and beneficial — society allocates its most able members to its most functionally important roles by attaching greater rewards to them, motivating competition for demanding positions [1] [1] [1]. Marxist view: stratification exists because the ruling class (bourgeoisie) owns the means of production and uses that ownership to exploit the working class (proletariat); inequality serves the interests of the powerful rather than society as a whole [1] [1] [1]. Comparison mark(s): a full answer states both positions accurately in their own terms and explicitly contrasts them — for example, noting that the functionalist view treats inequality as the fair outcome of open competition, while the Marxist view treats the competition itself as never genuinely fair, given unequal ownership from the start [1] [1].

6. Any three, not social class, up to 3-4 marks each depending on development: gender — women have historically faced narrower occupational and educational opportunities and continue to experience a gender pay gap, affecting income and career life chances [1] [1] [1]. Ethnicity — some minority ethnic groups experience discrimination in employment, housing or the criminal justice system, which can narrow opportunities regardless of individual ability [1] [1] [1]. Disability — physical or cognitive impairment can restrict access to employment, education or housing, both through direct barriers and through discrimination [1] [1] [1]. (Also accept: sexuality, age, religion and belief, each with a similarly developed explanation.)

Building a “perspective on an issue” answer quickly

Many of Paper 2’s higher-mark questions, like Questions 5 and 6 above, reward the same underlying skill regardless of the specific topic: naming the relevant sociological perspective or factor, stating its key claim accurately, and — where the question asks for comparison — explicitly setting two views side by side rather than describing them one after another with no direct link. A quick planning habit worth building: for any “explain the difference between X and Y views” question, jot each view’s one-sentence core claim first, then write a single linking sentence stating what they specifically disagree about, before writing the fuller explanation of each.

Keeping crime and stratification content distinct

Because both sections of Paper 2 draw on the same four perspectives (functionalism, interactionism, feminism and Marxism), it is easy to blur which specific argument belongs to which topic during revision. Keep a clear mental separation: Merton and Becker’s explanations belong specifically to the causes of crime, while Davis and Moore’s functionalist justification belongs specifically to stratification — even though both are, broadly speaking, “functionalist” arguments. Practising short-answer questions that name a theorist and ask which topic, not just which perspective, they belong to helps fix this distinction before the exam.

Where marks are usually lost

• Listing a factor (e.g. “gender”) without explaining how it affects the outcome asked about, which only accesses the lower mark band.
• Describing the functionalist and Marxist views of stratification separately with no explicit comparison, when the question specifically asks for a difference.
• Confusing the “dark figure” of crime with the overall crime rate.
• Treating subcultural theory as simply “peer pressure” rather than explaining the status-frustration mechanism the specification actually describes.
• Naming a sociologist without being able to state which perspective they represent or their specific argument — the specification’s named theorists (Davis and Moore, Cohen, Marx, Weber and others) are routinely the basis of short-answer questions.

Official syllabus

AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, first teaching 2017, sections 3.5 Crime and Deviance and 3.6 Social Stratification, and Section 4.0 Scheme of Assessment — https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/gcse/sociology-8192/specification/subject-content/crime-and-deviance, https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/gcse/sociology-8192/specification/subject-content/social-stratification, and https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/gcse/sociology-8192/specification/scheme-of-assessment, fetched and verified in full 2026-09-03.