Deviance and Crime

#Sociology

Deviance §

• Behaviors and traits that are contrary to the dominant norms
  • For example, people who are exceptionally short or tall etc. are considered “deviants”
  • There’s nothing bad but being deviant, it simply means different from norm
• Norms create deviance
  • If society doesn’t have norms, then you wouldn’t have deviants
• If an act is deviant…
  • we don’t know the morality of that act, it doesn’t tell that.
  • it only says that it violates the norms of a particular group at a particular point in time
• How relative is deviance?
  • Historical deviance:
    • Gay marriage used to be deviant but isn’t really anymore
    • Rosa Parks on the bus was deviant at the time, but is norm now
  • Cross-cultural deviance:
    • Other places may consider it a crime or deviant but not your place
    • For example, owning guns in many other countries would be deviant, but in America its more of a norm
  • Situational deviance:
    • In certain situations some behaviors are ok but not in others
    • Nudist community - wearing something their would be deviant and not wearing something is norm. But outside of that its flipped
  • Role deviance:
    • In a different role it might be ok
    • For example, speeding is deviant and illegal when I do it but it’s perfectly fine for an ambulance driver

Crime §

• Crime is formal deviance
• Behavior that violates criminal law
  • It is labeled by those in authority
  • Punishable by the government
• No activity is criminal in and of itself
  • Something is only criminal because laws exist that are against it
  • If there is no law, there is no crime

Intersection of deviance and crime §

• Deviant but not crime
  • Informal deviance
  • Laughing during a funeral
  • Bizarre clothing
  • Not tipping
  • Adultery (cheating)
• Crime AND deviant
  • Formal deviance
  • Murder
  • Drugs
  • Robbery
• Crime but not deviant
  • Loitering
  • Littering
  • Illegal downloading
  • Underage drinking
  • These are crimes, but are more social norm so not deviant

Social Control §

• Informal control:
  • Peer pressure
  • Gossip
  • Shame
  • Parental control and your parents punishing you
  • etc.
  • These aren’t legal punishments, but they may be more powerful
• Formal control:
  • Punished by laws
  • Legal penalties etc.
• Think about it this way. Which would you rather have. Your name published on the university front page and pasted everywhere for everyone to know that you cheated on an exam OR just have the university punish you for the class and fail you.

Deviance in the different theories §

• Functionalism
  • For functionalists, society is based on value consensus, which deviance threatens
  • But, it also performs some positive functions
  • Crime is universal and inevitable
  • A certain amount of crime and deviance can be helpful to society
    • Clarifies moral boundaries. If you punish people publicly then everyone understands there is moral boundaries
      • Think a teacher reading your text messages if you text in class
    • Promotes social cohesion, uniting people around core values
      • Think what happened after 9/11
    • Promotes social reform
• Robert Merton - Strain Theory (A variation of functionalism)
  • Deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal means to achieve socially acceptable goals.
  • We want to succeed in life, and people go to college to accomplish that goal
  • People who don’t go to college for success turn to other deviant actions like crime to accomplish that goal
  • Some people are ritualistic and don’t care about the goal but still use the society given means (e.g. someone who doesn’t care about getting a job but still goes to college)
  • Retreatism is the group of people who don’t care about following the norms. They don’t go to college and they don’t care for success. They’re not in education, not employed, not in training nothing. They are deviants.
  • The last group is rebellious groups. They come up with their own goals and their own means of achieving them. For example, people who leave the US to join ISIS. They didn’t follow the norms, they made their own goals and did them their own ways.
  • Merton says that we have all these deviants because they don’t have the proper means to reach their goals so they must take other paths.
• Symbolic Interactionism
  • Labeling Theory
    • Deviance that which is so labelled. No status or behavior is inherently deviant until other people have judged it and labelled it deviant.
    • Deviance is a consequence of labels, which change the individuals self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person
    • Self fulfilling prophecy
      • You behave according to what people label you
    • Labels have powerful social repercussions
    • Some people are deviant because they are labelled as such
  • Broken Window Theory
    • People who would not exhibit a certain behavior in one social context might do so in another context where the behavior seems more permissible
    • For example, if in a poor neighborhood then you may be more inclined to commit a crime such as steal since it appears to be more common and less noticed
• Conflict Theory
  • People with power pass laws and use the legal system to secure their position at the top and keep the powerless on bottom
  • They say that the poor and minorities are more likely convicted/arrested/imprisoned because of their poverty and race

Types of Crime §

• Street crime: Crimes committed often in public and associated with violence, gangs, and poverty
• Corporate or white-collar crime: crimes committed by corporate employees or owners in pursuit of profit or other organization goals
  • Nonviolence but not victimless
  • People in trusted professions violating their trust
  • More serious, more costly to society, harder to detect
  • We are more worried about street crime than white collar crime, even though white collar crime tends to cause more damage
• Who gets punished and for what?
  • The answer often depends on the social classes of the perpetrator and the victim
  • There is usually a pattern of class and race
  • Class
    • Different classes end up with different legal penalties
      • Powder and crack cocaine has a similar effect but has different punishments
        • Both are cocaine drugs, but different punishments are associated
        • For powder, a conviction of possession of 5 grams -> probation
        • For 500 grams, a 5 year sentence
        • For crack, possession of 5 grams -> 5 year sentence.
      • There is a difference between the legal consequences, and there is also a difference in terms of class of who has each type of drug
        • Crack cocaine tends to be used by poor people and blacks and Latinos
        • It tends to be cheaper
    • The Judicial process is affected by class
      • More money means you can have better lawyers
      • If accused of crimes, poor people are often jailed because judges require bail as a condition of release, which is often hard for people to pay
        • For example, you have to pay $500forstealingajarofpeanutbutter.Butifyo{u}^{\prime }restealingityouprobablydo{n}^{\prime }thave$500 in the first place