Eduqas A-Level Sociology Component 3 Section B: Crime and deviance, a complete overview

Crime and deviance is one of the four options in Component 3, Section B of Eduqas A-Level Sociology (the others are Health and disability, Politics, and World sociology), worth 60 marks. You study one, alongside the compulsory Power and Stratification in Section A. This page maps the six dot points, the perspectives that run through them, and how the option is assessed.

What this option covers

• Measuring crime and deviance. Defining crime and deviance, official statistics, victim surveys and self-report studies, the dark figure of crime, and the social construction of crime statistics.
• Functionalist and subcultural theories. Durkheim on the functions of crime and anomie, Merton's strain theory, and the subcultures of Cohen and of Cloward and Ohlin.
• Interactionist and Marxist theories. Labelling theory (Becker, Lemert, Cicourel, deviancy amplification) and Marxist and critical criminology (selective enforcement, the crimes of the powerful).
• Realism and crime. Right realism (rational choice, broken windows, control theory) and left realism (relative deprivation, marginalisation, subculture), and their solutions.
• Gender, ethnicity and crime. The gender gap (Heidensohn, the chivalry thesis, Carlen, masculinity) and ethnicity and crime (policing, the criminal justice system, social construction).
• Globalisation, media and crime. Globalisation and transnational crime, green crime, state crime, and the media as a cause of crime and the fear of crime.

The perspectives that run through the option

• Functionalism sees crime as inevitable and sometimes functional, caused by strain and anomie.
• Subcultural theory explains non-utilitarian and group crime through status frustration and blocked opportunity.
• Interactionism focuses on labelling, the self-fulfilling prophecy and deviancy amplification.
• Marxism stresses capitalism, selective enforcement and the crimes of the powerful.
• Realism (right and left) focuses on practical solutions and the reality of victimisation.

The unifying idea is that crime and its statistics are partly socially constructed, shaped by power and reaction as well as behaviour.

How the paper is assessed

Component 3 is a 2 hour 30 minute paper worth 120 marks and 40 per cent of the A-level. Section B (60 marks) is one optional substantive topic. The assessment objectives are weighted AO1 45 per cent, AO2 35 per cent and AO3 20 per cent. Eduqas uses the command words Explain, Analyse and Evaluate, and the longer Evaluate essays are marked by levels of response, so a two-sided argument with named theorists and a supported judgement is essential.

How to revise Crime and deviance

1. Build a theories grid of functionalist, subcultural, interactionist, Marxist and realist accounts with their thinkers and evaluation.
2. Compare the theories on causes (strain, blocked opportunity, choice, capitalism), labelling and power.
3. Master the gender and ethnicity debates, foregrounding control, the chivalry thesis, racism in policing and social construction.
4. Know the contemporary themes (globalisation, green and state crime, moral panics) for the modern world.
5. Use Eduqas papers. Rehearse the Explain, Analyse and Evaluate questions, always reaching a judgement.