The social distribution of crime, including the patterns by social class, age, gender and ethnicity, and sociological explanations of these patterns.

What this dot point is asking

Eduqas wants you to know the patterns of crime by social class, age, gender and ethnicity as shown in the statistics, and to explain those patterns, while recognising that the statistics may be shaped by policing and labelling. This dot point applies the forms of differentiation from the stratification topic to crime.

Class and age

These explanations connect directly to the theories of crime. But the patterns may also reflect that the crimes of the young and the poor (such as street crime) are more visible and more heavily policed than the crimes of the wealthy, which is the key criticism.

Gender and crime

The gender pattern is one of the clearest in the statistics, and socialisation and social control are the standard explanations. A strong answer can also note that the gap may be narrowing and that women's crime has historically been under-studied.

Ethnicity and crime

The statistics also show patterns by ethnicity, with some ethnic groups over-represented in arrest and prison figures. Sociologists are careful here, because the patterns are heavily disputed. The main explanations are:

• Social factors: some ethnic minority groups are more likely to face poverty, unemployment and discrimination, which strain and subcultural theories link to crime.
• Labelling and policing: interactionists and others argue the figures reflect stereotyping and selective policing, for example being more likely to be stopped, searched and charged, rather than higher offending.

This shows that the ethnicity pattern, more than any other, may reflect the reaction of the criminal justice system as much as actual offending. The overall lesson is that the social distribution of crime must be read alongside the criticisms of crime statistics: the patterns are partly real, but partly the product of policing, labelling and the dark figure.