AQA GCSE Sociology key terms

The claimed development of attitudes and behaviour that make people reliant on welfare benefits rather than self-supporting. It is a contested explanation, not a description of all benefit recipients.

A set of values, beliefs and behaviours said to develop among people experiencing poverty and to be passed between generations, helping poverty persist.

The subjects, knowledge and learning activities included in an educational programme.

A sentence that involves confinement in an institution, such as a prison or young offender institution.

A process through which disadvantages reinforce one another and can be passed from one generation to the next.

Crimes that are not reported or recorded and therefore do not appear in official crime statistics.

Information collected or used in research.

Interpreting information, identifying patterns and summarising findings.

Legal protection governing how personal data is collected, used, stored and shared, including people's right to access personal data held about them.

Showing respect towards someone considered more senior because of their position, status or age, for example an employee being polite to a boss.

Crime and deviance committed by young people, usually referring to relatively minor behaviour.

A family member who relies on other family members for support, typically a child under 16 or a young person still in full-time education.

A measure combining indicators of living conditions and participation into a score showing the extent of deprivation.

The idea that education in its existing school-based form should be abolished.

Discouraging offending through the threat or experience of punishment.

Behaviour that departs from a society’s or group’s norms and expectations; it does not necessarily break the law.

A process in which public and media reactions to deviance encourage further deviant behaviour.

A process through which a person becomes increasingly involved in deviance and develops a deviant identity over time.

Shared beliefs and values within a group that justify and support behaviour defined as deviant by wider society.

A political system in which power is concentrated in a dictator who rules through force.

Campaigning that takes action directly on an issue, such as occupying a building.

Treating someone less favourably because of a characteristic such as their religion or belief, including a characteristic they are assumed to have.

Unequal treatment of people because of their membership of a social group.

How power and wealth are shared, or concentrated, among different groups in society.

The legal ending of a marriage.

The number of divorces in relation to the married population over a stated period. ONS figures for 2017 expressed this per 1,000 married men or women aged 16 and over.

The allocation of household tasks, such as cooking, cleaning and caring for children, between family members.