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

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

AQA GCSE Sociology (8192)’s live papers have consistently used the same five tariffs — 1, 2, 3, 4 and 12 — across the papers examined for this guide (the specification itself does not publish a closed list of tariffs; this is an empirical pattern from real past papers, not a quoted specification rule) — and each paper is divided into two lettered sections, one per topic, each opening with two multiple-choice questions. This paper follows that shape: Section A on Crime and Deviance, Section B on Social Stratification, each ending with an item-based question and a 12-mark extended-response question.

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

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Section A: Crime and Deviance

1. Which sociologist is associated with “status frustration” as an explanation for working-class delinquency?

A. Becker B. Cohen C. Davis and Moore D. Weber

[1]

2. Which of these is an informal method of social control?

A. The police B. The courts C. Family disapproval D. Prison

[1]

3. Identify two reasons why official crime statistics may not give an accurate picture of the true level of crime. [2]

4. Explain three formal or informal methods of social control. [3]

5. Explain how subcultural theory accounts for delinquent behaviour among young people. [4]

6. Item-based question. Item: A local newspaper reports that recorded burglaries in a town have fallen by 20% over the past year, and concludes that burglary itself must be 20% less common than it was.

Using the item and your knowledge, explain why the newspaper’s conclusion may not be justified. [4]

7. Evaluate the view that official crime statistics give an accurate picture of the true social distribution of crime. [12]

Section B: Social Stratification

8. Which sociologists argued that stratification is necessary because society must motivate its most able members to fill its most important roles?

A. Marx B. Weber C. Davis and Moore D. Cohen

[1]

9. Which of these is a Marxist term for the class that owns the means of production?

A. Proletariat B. Bourgeoisie C. Precariat D. Peerage

[1]

10. Identify two factors, other than social class, that can affect a person’s life chances. [2]

11. Explain the difference between the functionalist and Marxist views of social stratification. [3]

12. Explain two ways gender can affect a person’s life chances. [4]

13. Item-based question. Item: A man and a woman with identical qualifications apply for the same senior role. The man is offered a significantly higher starting salary than the woman during negotiation, and later research finds this pattern holds consistently across many similar pairs of candidates in the same industry.

Using the item and your knowledge, explain how sociologists would account for this pattern. [4]

14. Evaluate the view that social class remains the single most important factor affecting a person’s life chances in society today. [12]

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Answers

1. B — Cohen.

2. C — Family disapproval.

3. Any two: unreported crime — the “dark figure” of crime includes offences victims never report, for example through embarrassment or a belief the police cannot act [1]; unrecorded crime — even reported incidents may not be formally recorded by police, for instance if judged too minor [1]. (Also accept: changes in the law or policing priorities altering the count without the real underlying rate changing.)

4. Any three, 1 mark each: formal — the police [1]; the courts [1]. Informal — peer group disapproval [1]; family sanctions [1] (also accept: religion, the media).

5. 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].

6. The newspaper conflates recorded crime with actual crime, ignoring the “dark figure” of unreported and unrecorded offending [1] [1]. A fall in recorded burglaries could instead reflect a change in police recording practices, reduced public reporting (for example if victims believe nothing will be done), or a shift in police priorities toward or away from burglary, none of which mean the true underlying rate has fallen by the same amount [1] [1].

7. Indicative content — award up to 12 marks by levels, using the level descriptors in AQA’s published mark schemes for 8192 (the specification itself contains none); look for a developed, evaluative argument rather than a checklist of points, so nothing below carries an individual mark value. For “accurate”: official statistics are systematically compiled, cover the whole population reported to the police, and allow comparison over time and between areas. Against: the “dark figure” of unreported and unrecorded crime, and the influence of policing priorities and recording practices, mean official statistics reflect the criminal justice system’s activity as much as underlying behaviour — self-report and victim studies often reveal offending that never appears in official data. Evaluation: strong answers weigh the practical value of official statistics (scale, consistency, availability) against their known distortions, and consider whether patterns by class, gender or ethnicity in the statistics reflect real differences in offending or differences in how groups are policed and recorded.

8. C — Davis and Moore.

9. B — Bourgeoisie.

10. Any two: gender [1]; ethnicity [1]. (Also accept: disability, sexuality, age, religion and belief.)

11. 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]. 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]. 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].

12. Any two, 2 marks each: women have historically faced narrower occupational and educational opportunities [1] [1]; a persistent gender pay gap affects income and career life chances even where qualifications are equal [1] [1].

13. The pattern in the item is consistent with a gender pay gap — even with identical qualifications, women are on average offered lower starting salaries than men in comparable roles, a difference that recurs consistently across candidates rather than reflecting any one individual case [1] [1]. Sociologists would explain this through structural and cultural factors rather than individual merit — for example, unconscious bias in salary negotiation, occupational segregation, and the lasting effect of career breaks associated with childcare on women’s pay trajectories [1] [1].

14. Indicative content — award up to 12 marks by levels, using the level descriptors in AQA’s published mark schemes for 8192, so nothing below carries an individual mark value. For class as most important: class strongly predicts income, wealth, education and health outcomes, and Marxist theory argues ownership of the means of production is the fundamental basis of inequality that other factors operate within. Against: gender (the gender pay gap), ethnicity (discrimination in employment and the criminal justice system) and disability each independently affect life chances, sometimes compounding class disadvantage rather than simply following from it — Weber’s view that class, status and party are separate dimensions of stratification is relevant evaluation here. Evaluation: strong answers avoid treating the factors as competing in isolation, noting instead that class often intersects with gender and ethnicity to produce compounded disadvantage, so ranking a single “most important” factor may oversimplify how life chances are actually shaped.

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Building a “perspective on an issue” answer quickly

Many of Paper 2’s higher-mark questions, like Questions 11 and 14 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: Cohen’s status frustration and Becker’s labelling belong specifically to the causes of crime, while Davis and Moore’s functionalist justification and Marx’s and Weber’s accounts belong specifically to stratification — even though several are, broadly speaking, “functionalist” or “conflict” 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.
• On the item-based questions, describing the item’s scenario without linking it explicitly to a named sociological concept or study.

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.