crime and deviance

• Deviance

  An action or behaviour that goes against the norms and values of a society
• Crime

  An action that breaks a written law of society
• Law

  Formal rule made by the legislature (government)
• Norms

  Accepted and expected behaviours
• Values


  Things held as good or desirable
• Mores

  Moral rules that govern a group
• Social control

  Methods used to persuade or force individuals into conforming to norms and values
• Sanctions

  Rewards or punishments used to promote conformity to norms and values
• Agencies of social control

  The groups or institutions in society that enforce or persuade conformity to social rules
• Close-knit communities


  Communities with strong informal social control
• Moral panic

  An overreaction suggesting that society itself is under threat
• Deviancy amplification

  The process by which the mass media through exaggeration and disortion actually create more crime and deviance
• Folk devil


  Individuals or groups posing an imaginary or exaggerated threat to society
• Scapegoats

  People blamed for social issues/problems relating to moral panics
• Subcultures

  A culture within a culture with different norms and values
• Labelling


  Defining a group or person in a certain way
• Police force

  An agency used to control the public by enforcing written laws.
• Police service

  Suggests they are working with and for the public
• Community policing


  Involves making links with the community
• Zero tolerance policing

  Involves police being strict on even the smallest crimes
• Judiciary

  All the legal organisations that work together to decide what happens when laws are broken - includes all types of courts
• Magistrates court


  A court where less serious crimes are heard by a panel of magistrates (unpaid volunteers)
• Crown court


  Where the most serious crimes are tried by a jury to decide if you're guilty and decide a sentence
• Jury

  12 randomly selected people who decide guilt or innocence in cases brought to Crown Court
• Judge

  A person who is in charge of a court and who delivers sentences if an offender has been found guilty by a jury.
• Corporate crime

  Offences committed by large companies or individuals for the gain of the company
• White collar crime

  Offences committed by middle-class individuals for personal gain
• Blue collar crime

  Offences by the working class and involve damage to property or a person
• Youth crime

  Crime committed by 10-17 year olds
• Street crime


  Crime in public places often associated with working class
• Miller


  Investigated male working class subculture - argued they have focal concerns of 'toughness' and seeking excitement
• Cohen


  A sociologist who argued that status frustration can cause people to commit crime
• Merton

  A sociologist who developed strain theory - the theory that people commit crime when they share the goal to have material success but lack the means to achieve this. They may 'innovate' and commit crime.
• Cloward and Ohlin

  Sociologist who investigated different criminal subcultures. They argued that people may lack legitimate opportunities for success but have 'illegitimate opportunity structures' eg. becoming professional criminals
• Status frustration

  A concept which explains why people at the bottom of society may commit crimes as they are angry about their disadvantaged position
• Criminal subculture


  Organised criminal gangs
• Conflict subculture

  No organised crime - gangs fight each other
• Retreatist subculture

  Turn to drugs and alcohol
• Marxism

  Society is built upon a conflict between working-class and the ruling class
• Functionalism

  Society is built on the fact that people consent to the rules of society