Sociology Report: Analysis of Social Class and Criminal Behavior

This report provides an overview of social class and crime from a sociological perspective. It begins by defining social class and its various categories, including lower, working, middle, and upper classes, highlighting the challenges and social barriers faced by each. The report then delves into the Marxist theory of social class, emphasizing the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the working class. The second part of the report focuses on crime, differentiating between functional and dysfunctional crime and their respective impacts on society, including the role of crime in social regulation and change. The report concludes by summarizing the key points and emphasizing the importance of understanding social class and crime for a comprehensive understanding of society.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Social Class..................................................................................................................................1
Crime...........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Social class us known is a set of concepts of in which social science and political theory that
are centred on various models of social stratification. In this process of stratification people are
grouped in various categories in hierarchical form. There are various categories are defined in
the social class which are known as upper, middle and lower class (Marsh, C., 2018). The other
topic that will be discussed in report will be crime. Crime is considered as action or act of some
one for which they can be punished by the government of legal body of country. This report will
be providing brief of the topics which are explained above. Various aspects of social class and
crime will be provided in the report in brief way. Brief discussion also will be made in the report.
MAIN BODY
Social Class
Social class refers to the group of people with similar level of influence, status and wealth.
There are different classes are classified in sociology which are lower social class, Working
social class, Middle class and The upper class. These are main classes which are explained in
social class currently exists in society. The lower class is defined as people who are typified with
poverty, homelessness and do not have any job. These people have less opportunities of study,
lack of medical care, lack of proper housing, do not have decent clothing and vocational training.
Working class people are those people who are educated to some extend and mainly engaged in
manual labour with come prestige. People who are unskilled by performing some job in local
society are fall in this class. This class is mainly known as working poor. The skilled worker use
to work as carpenters, plumbers and electricians. These people are often known as people with
blue collar workers. These people may be earning more money than the middle class. There
work is sometimes dangerous and more labour based. This thing make them fall in working
class. Middle class people are known as white collar job people (Piff, P.K., Kraus, M.W. and
Keltner, D., 2018). These people have more money than the working class and less than the
upper class people. This thing make them sandwich class. This people are more educated than
working class and possess more professional skills. The top class people in the society are known
as upper class people. These people holds most of wealth of the country. These people completes
their education form best education institutions of the country. In current time still these
different classes are present in society due to the differences in earning of people. Due to
difference in the income people are still classified in these categories. Some improvement have
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been analysed in current time and now working class people are now considered in middle class.
There are some challenges and social barriers are faced by these people in society. Some of the
main barriers in the society due to these social class gap are- communication gap, cooperation,
cultural barriers like tradition, customs, religion and some economic barriers, ideology and
values. These barriers can affect the standards that are provided to the people.
As per the Marxist Theory of Capitalism and social class, the capitalist stage of the
production consists of two main classes which are bourgeoisie, capitalist are the people who
owns the means of the production and much larger working class who sells their labour power. S
per this theory there are only two class are there (Van Doesum, Tybur and Van Lange, 2017).
These social classes are classified as owners and labourers. Owners pay the labourer to sell their
power for earning money.in some countries labour are exploited by the people in the wages.
These case is more common in the developing countries where people work hard for little money
and at the same time owners of business earns larger capital and profit. As per the Marxist theory
in this case owners use the power of labour at very low cost that can make huge difference
between the upper class and working class. For example in some countries organization like
Primark and McDonald’s is providing low wages to the people who are working as their
employees. For example in India McDonald’s is offering less wages to their employees in return
of their work and skills. This case is same for organization like Primark in developing and under
developing countries.
There is huge difference between the people who gain more attention over the people
who lives in the poverty. These difference is just the result of difference between the two
different social classes in country (Manstead, 2018). This difference can be evaluated by the
availability of the resources and needs of daily routine. By the image provided below it can be
understood that there is a huge difference between lower class and upper class people in society.
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Crime
Crime is considered as activities that are performed by people for which people can be
punished as per the laws and legislations that are formed by the legal body of country. Crime and
Deviance can be of both type which are known as functional and Dysfunctional crime.
Functional. This classification of crime is based on the impact of crime on society and
community Taylor, 2019)
. The functional crime is known as the crime which is actually good for the society and
community. There are some type of crime that can cause larger damage to the society which is
known as Dysfunctional crime. The activities in both type of crime can be explained as goo and
bed crime.
The functional crime is consists of acts that can lead to some benefits to the society. Some of
the main advantages functional crime in society and community are- This crime can lead to
improved cultural values and norms in society that can help the people to get united. This is how
people can come together to get better benefits from society. This is how crime can help the
people get united under a community. This also provide temporary safety values to the society. It
helps the people to get aware of the current situation and take appropriate actions. These crimes
are also effective for the unity with in the community and society. This type of crime can lead
the leaders to unite the people in a society and community. Social regulation is also one of major
benefit of the functional crime. As a person commit crime police arrest these people and this act
convey a message to the society that these type of acts are not legal in country. This is how
functional crime act make the people aware of the rules and regulation in the country.
Newspapers and news channels effectively convey these regulations to the people. for the social
integration these crimes are very effective (Crawford, A. and Evans, K., 2017)
.. As a crime occur in society it allows the people to get united against the crime and make
proper protest. Functional crime are also considered as the driver of the social changes. these
crime leads positive development and changes in socity by making people aware of the negative
activities running in the country. This is how functional crime are can lead to positive impact on
society.
Dysfunctional crime are considered as the criminal acts that can lead to negative impact
on the society and people of the community. These type of crime are negative for the
organization. Some of the main impact of dysfunctional crime are explained as- criminal acts
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insecurity in society and community are considered as dysfunctional that lead to tension and
insecurity in society and community. This can lead to high negative impact on the people of
country. These type of crimes affect the trust between the people and increase insecurity between
the people. There are different institutions are working in organization that can affect the trust
between the people of country. These type of crime are negative and costly to the society. It can
cause major damage to the public and private property of the people. This is how dysfunctional
crimes are highly negative for the organization. These is how crime in the society can be
classified in two categories which are functional and dysfunctional crime. Functional crime can
cause positive changes in society and dysfunctional changes lead to negative impact on society
and country.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding the brief information about the different type of social classes that are
present in current time and how people are laying in this type of social categories. All the
categories of the society has been discussed in the report. Different challenges that are faced by
people in society also has ben conclude in the study. The term crime also has been discussed in
the report. In the study functional and dysfunctional crime also has been discussed to develop
better understanding about the crime occurred in society and community.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Crawford, A. and Evans, K., 2017. Crime prevention and community safety (pp. 797-824).
Oxford University Press.
Manstead, A.S., 2018. The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts
thought, feelings, and behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology. 57(2). pp.267-
291.
Marsh, C., 2018. Social Class and Occupation 1. In Key variables in social investigation (pp.
123-152). Routledge.
Piff, P.K., Kraus, M.W. and Keltner, D., 2018. Unpacking the inequality paradox: The
psychological roots of inequality and social class. In Advances in experimental social
psychology (Vol. 57, pp. 53-124). Academic Press.
Taylor, I., 2019. Crime in context. Routledge.
Van Doesum, N.J., Tybur, J.M. and Van Lange, P.A., 2017. Class impressions: Higher social
class elicits lower prosociality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 68. pp.11-
20.
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