OCR A-Level Sociology Component 3 Section B: Crime and deviance, a complete overview
A complete overview of the OCR A-Level Sociology Crime and deviance option (Component 3, Section B). Explains measuring crime, the functionalist, subcultural, interactionist, Marxist and realist theories, gender and crime, and globalisation, media and surveillance, with the perspectives and question types the option rewards.
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Crime and deviance is one of three optional substantive topics in OCR Component 3, Section B, alongside Education and Religion, belief and faith. You study one. It is studied with the compulsory Globalisation and the digital social world in Section A. This overview ties the option together and explains how it is examined. Each section has a matching dot-point page.
How the option is examined
Section B uses extended questions on your chosen option, including an Outline and explain question (around 10 marks, AO1 and AO2) and longer Assess essays, the highest-tariff questions in the paper (each worth up to 40 marks in the full exam, capped at 20 in our practice questions). The essays are marked with a levels-of-response scheme weighted towards AO3, so a two-sided argument with named theorists, evidence and a judgement is essential.
Measuring crime and deviance
The option begins with defining crime (breaking the law) and deviance (breaking norms) and measuring crime. Official statistics miss the dark figure of crime, while victim surveys (the CSEW) and self-report studies reveal more. Interactionists argue the statistics are socially constructed by victims, police and courts.
The theories of crime
The option covers the full theoretical range:
- Functionalist and subcultural: Durkheim's anomie and functions of crime, Merton's strain theory, Cohen's status frustration, Cloward and Ohlin.
- Interactionist and Marxist: labelling theory (Becker, Lemert, Cicourel) and critical criminology (selective enforcement, the crimes of the powerful).
- Realist: right realism (rational choice, broken windows) and left realism (relative deprivation, marginalisation, subculture), plus Hirschi's control theory.
Gender, globalisation, media and surveillance
The gender debate asks why women commit less recorded crime (Heidensohn's control, Carlen's deals, Adler's contested liberation thesis). The contemporary themes are globalisation and crime (transnational, green and state crime), the media and crime (moral panics, deviancy amplification, Cohen) and surveillance and punishment (Foucault), which link synoptically to Section A.
How the option is examined
- Outline and explain (AO1 and AO2). Two developed points with a theorist and an applied example.
- Assess essays (AO3-heavy). A two-sided argument across the theories, with a supported judgement.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR AS and A Level Sociology (H180, H580) specification — OCR (2015)