1. Examples of Crime & Deviance Essay-Style Questions (21 Marks)
1) ‘Women are often seen only as the victims of crime. However, this is too simplistic a
view of the relationship between criminality and gender’.
Evaluate this view with reference to the alleged under-representation of women in
crime statistics
2) Assess the usefulness of subcultural theories in understanding crime & deviance.
3) Assess the usefulness of consensus approaches such as functionalism in
explaining the causes and extent of deviance in society.
4) Using material form Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of Marxist
approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance.
5) Assess sociological explanations of gender differences in rates of crime and
deviance.
6) ‘Deviance is the result of the social background of the deviant, rather than of the
actions of social control agencies’. Assess this view.
7) Assess the usefulness of conflict theories for an understanding of crime and
deviance.
8) ‘Since the mid-1950s, the number of recorded crimes in England and Wales has
risen from about half a million a year to around 5 million today’
Assess sociological explanations of the increase in recorded crime in last 50 years.
9) Using material form Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations of
gender differences in patterns of offending, victimisation and punishment.
10) Assess sociological explanations of social class differences in crime rates.
11) Assess the view that delinquent subcultures are the main cause of crime.
12) Assess the usefulness of realist theories for our understanding of crime.
13) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the
relationship between crime and the mass media.
14) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the
relationship between crime and globalisation.
15) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the
relationship between crime and the state.
16) Assess sociological arguments for the over-representation of the working-class in
crime statistics.

2. Crime questions that are related to theory and methods (21 Marks)
Assess the usefulness of official statistics to a sociological understanding of crime.
Assess the usefulness of quantitative and qualitative sources of data in studying suicide.
Assess the usefulness of statistical data in the study of crime and deviance.
Assess the usefulness of observational methods within the study of crime and deviance.