1.1 - crime and deviance

• values - general principles or guidelines for how we should live our lives
• norms - specific rules or socially accepted standards that govern people behaviour in particular situations
• moral codes - a set of basic rules, values and principles held by an individual, group, organisation or society as a whole
• there are 3 types of deviant behaviour:

  • Unusual and good
  • Unusual and bizarre
  • Unusual and bad
• Deviant behaviour that is : unusual and good


  Such as heroically risking one's own life to save someone else
• Deviant behaviour that is : unusual and bizarre

  Talking to trees or hording
• Deviant behaviour that is : unusual and bad

  Breaking the law - committing murder
• formal sanctions - imposed by official bodies like the police, courts, schools - punishments for breaking formal written rules
• Informal sanctions - punishments for breaking 'unwritten' rules, this punishment if often showed through disapproval from others
• Positive sanctions - rewards for good behaviours
• Social control - sanctions are a form of social control, ways in which society seeks to control our behaviour and ensure that we conform
• Actus reus - the guilty act
• Mens rea - the guilty mind
• for the courts to consider an act to be breaking the law it has to ave 2 elements, actus reus and mens rea
• in some cases there is no need for evidence of a mens rea as the action alone is enough to convict even if there is not evidence of wrongful intentions
• not all acts that people think ought to be made into crimes have laws passed against them
• some laws change to reflect public opinion or campaigning - and visa versa, laws are decriminalised due to public opinion
• 2 main types of offence:

  • Summary offence
  • Indictable offence
• summary offence - less serious offences like speeding that are tried by a magistrates court
• Indictable offences - the more serious offences like rape and murder that are tried in a crown court before a judge and jury often with more serious punishments
• some of the main categories of indictable offences:

  • violence against the person
  • sexual offences
  • offences against property
  • Fraud and forgery
  • Criminal damage
  • Drug offences
  • public order offences
• serious offences can be punished with custodial sentences, imprisonment or detention in young offenders institutes
• community sentences include probation orders, restrictions, curfews, attendance of anger management courses, drug testings, treatment orders
• financial penalties such as fines, compensation payments to victims, confiscations of assets gained from crime, surcharges on fines (to pay towards costs of criminal justice system)