crime and deviance

• Deviance


  Straying from the unspoken norms and values of society but does not break the law
• Crime


  Straying from the written norms and values of society and breaks the law
• Types of deviance


  • Situational deviance
  • Historical deviance
  • Cross-cultural deviance
• Situational deviance


  An action that is considered deviant depending on the setting and time it happens at
• Historical deviance


  Actions that are considered deviant or normal change over time
• Cross-cultural deviance


  Actions that are considered deviant may vary from culture to culture
• Social control


  • Methods used to persuade people to conform to the rules
  • The way that social groups or societies deal with behaviour that violates the rules
• Agents of formal social control

  • Police
  • Courts
  • Governments
  • Legislations
• Agents of informal social control

  • Parents
  • Peers
  • Sanctions
• Functionalist view of social control

  • Social control is executed by individuals and institutions
  • All institutions help maintain social control
• Feminist view of social control


  • Women are controlled and monitored more closely to stop them from breaking stereotypes and the law
  • All agents of social control keep women in a lower position
• Marxist view of social control

  • Social control was made to benefit the upper class as it teaches people to conform to the values of the bourgeoisie
  • Repressive state apparatus - formal agents of social control that repress the behaviour of society that go against the norms and values of the upper class using either violent or non-violent means
  • Ideological state apparatus - informal agents of social control that repress the behaviour of society through false class consciousness which keeps the working class below the upper class
• Functionalist view of crime

  • Boundary maintenance: Most crimes are disapproved of by society, producing a sense of outrage that reconfirms the norms and values of society
  • Social cohesion and solidarity: It gives society a collective sense of morality that brings society together
  • Adaption to change: society cannot change or evolve if there is no deviance, so deviance is necessary
  • Acts as a warning device: An act of deviance warns society that something is not working properly, allowing them to change
  • Safety valve: Some crimes are a way of expressing feelings and emotions, preventing worse crimes
• Strain theory


  The pressure between the goals someone strives to achieve and the means they have of reaching them
• Merton's modes of adaptation

  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
  • Rebellion
• Marxist view of crime

  • Consumerism encourages criminal behaviour amongst the working class
  • Laws work in the favour of the ruling class
  • Selective law enforcement targets the working class
• Chivalry thesis


  Police and courts are more lenient on female offenders that conform to their gender stereotypes
• Double deviance


  The way that women are treated by the law depends on how closely they fit the stereotypes of society
• Control theory


  There are four social bonds that bind us together; attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. Crime occurs when these bonds are weakened
• Interactionist view on crime

  • No actions are criminal or deviant, but it is the reactions of others that decide it is
  • The main difference between criminals/deviants and ordinary people is that they're labelled as criminals/deviants
  • Deviancy may depend on time and place (situational deviance) or who commits it and who feels harmed by it
  • If someone believes that people think they are a criminal, it may impact how they see themselves and how they act, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Deviant career refers to the process that a person goes through when they are labelled, which may lead them to commit more crime
• Official statistics


  They are socially constructed based on the decisions and choices made by the people who are involved in creating them
• There is a hidden figure of crime that will never be known, which makes official statistics inaccurate
• Marxist view on official statistics

  • Inaccurate, the ruling class choose which crimes to punish, there is selective law enforcement
• Feminist view on official statistics

  • Inaccurate, based on traditional femininity while society has become more progressive, women may be treated more leniently or harshly
• Functionalist view on official statistics

  • Take them at face value, believe they are accurate reflections of crime
• Interactionist view on official statistics

  • Critical of them because they are socially constructed and ignore the labelling process
• Opportunity structure


  Working class live in areas with high unemployment with not many legal opportunities, so may turn to crime as a last resort
• Relative deprivation


  Working class turn to crime because of the emphasis placed on materialism, they feel disadvantaged compared to others and try to close the gap
• Subcultural theory


  Working class boys turn to crime in order to gain status, they experience cultural deprivation and status frustration so reject mainstream society and form criminal/delinquent subcultures
• Inadequate socialisation


  Boys brought up without a male father figure lack discipline because they were not socialised adequately, making them more likely to turn to crime
• Lack of male role models


  Boys will feel vulnerable to peer pressure and reject authority figures, meaning they will turn to crime
• Most white collar crimes go undiscovered and therefore unreported so they are not added as statistics
• There is little effort to record and keep statistics on corporate crime, it is hard to prosecute crimes committed by companies
• Crimes committed by the working class are punished more harshly and the law enforcements target the working class more
• Labelling the working class means that they are more likely to commit crime due to self-fulfilling prophecies
• Selective law enforcement means that they primarily focus on the working class and therefore make up most of the statistics
• pressure and reject authority figures, meaning they will turn to crime
• Official statistics on working class are inaccurate
• There is little effort to record and keep statistics on corporate crime. It is hard to prosecute crimes committed by companies because they can hire good lawyers to defend them and cover it up
• People of the upper class committed crime to increase their wealth but were not suspected because they were able to cover it up. This means less upper class crimes are recorded and more working class crimes are recorded