SQA Higher Sociology Social Issues: a complete overview of crime, deviance and social inequality

What this area actually demands

Social Issues asks you to apply the perspectives and methods from the rest of the course to real social problems, usually crime and deviance and social inequality. The examiners reward candidates who can describe the evidence and patterns, explain the competing explanations, and above all evaluate how effective the responses are.

This guide walks through the explanations of crime, the patterns and statistics, the evidence and causes of inequality, and the responses to both, then sets out how the area is examined. Each topic has a matching dot-point page with practice questions; this overview ties them together.

Crime and deviance: explanations

Crime breaks the law; deviance breaks norms and is not always illegal. The perspectives explain crime differently: functionalists (some crime is normal and reinforces values), Marxists (crime reflects inequality and the law serves the ruling class), interactionists (labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy) and feminists (gender shapes crime). Strong answers compare them.

Patterns of crime and victimisation

Recorded crime falls unevenly by class, age, gender and ethnicity, and victimisation is also uneven. But official statistics are unreliable: they miss the dark figure of crime (unreported and unrecorded offences) and are shaped by policing and labelling, so sociologists use victim surveys to get closer to the truth.

Social inequality: evidence and explanations

Inequality shows up in wealth, income, health, education and employment, with evidence such as the life-expectancy gap, the attainment gap and the gender pay gap, affecting groups including those on low incomes, some ethnic minorities, women and disabled people. The explanations, functionalist, Marxist, feminist and Weberian, and the individualist versus structural debate, explain why it exists.

Responses to crime and inequality

Society responds to crime through punishment and rehabilitation (prison, fines, community alternatives), with the punishment versus rehabilitation debate at the centre. Government responds to inequality through social policy and the welfare state. The key skill is evaluating how effective these responses are.

How this area is examined

A typical SQA profile for Social Issues:

• Explain questions. Defining crime and deviance, or explaining the evidence and groups affected by inequality.
• Analyse questions. Breaking down the explanations of crime or inequality, or the patterns of crime.
• Evaluate questions. Judging the effectiveness of responses to crime or of welfare responses to inequality.
• Applied questions. Using a perspective or evidence to explain a social issue and reaching a judgement.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and explanation questions covering the area. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

1. Explain the difference between crime and deviance. (2 marks)
2. Give one perspective's explanation of crime. (2 marks)
3. Explain why official crime statistics may be unreliable. (4 marks)
4. Name two forms social inequality takes. (2 marks)
5. Describe two responses to crime. (2 marks)