Sociology paper 3: Crime and deviance

What is Crime?

Term used to describe behaviour which is against criminal law, law breaking behaviour

What is deviance?

Refers to rule breaking behaviour of some kind which fails to conform to the norms and expectations of a particular society.

Anthony Giddens

Social changes have made distance and national borders for less important as barriers between social groups.

What happens in one society has a ripple effect and can quickly influence other societies anywhere in the world.

Post modernists argue globalisation is a significant feature of contemporary society. This process has a significant impact on crime. Crime itself is becoming increasingly global. Effects of globalisation can have knock-on effects on criminality.

Castells

There is now a global criminal economy worth over £1 trillion.

Human trafficing, organ trafficing, cyber crimes, green crimes, international terrorism, drugs trade.

Transnational crimes

Criminals are operating in different countries and fleeing which makes it harder for the police to moniter.

Global risk consciousness (Beck)

Much of our knowledge about risk comes from the media, which often gives an exadurated view of the dangers we face. For example, negitive coverage of immigrants portrayed as terrorists or scroungers has led to hate crimes against minorities in several european countries.

Globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of ‘risk consciousness’ in which risk is seen as global rather than tied to a particular location. For example the increased movement of people, as economic migrants seeking work or asylum seekers fleeing persecution, has given rise to anxieties among western countries about the risks of crime and disorder and the need to protect their borders.

Misha Glenny

Glenny uses the term McMafia to describe the way that organised global crime networks operate in the same way as legtitimate buisness. ie there are ‘zones of production’ ie heroin in afganistan. These criminal gangs also have zones of distribution ie herion enters the uk via an established route. These criminal gangs know who their consumer market is - zones of consumption. ie services such as prosititution are consumed in western countries

Global crime affecting local crime

Global crime networks often serve and feed off established criminal networks in western countries. Crime is increasingly ‘glocal’ in charachter (Hobbs and Dunningham) This means that crime is still locally based but is now more likely to have global connections.

Illegal drugs trade - local prices and profit for drug dealers in the uk are determined by the availablity and price of drugs around the world. It also depends how efficient drug gangs can move drugs around the world.

Prostitution - Girls on street corners or being abused in the uk have been trafficked by an eastern european gang

Smuggling - Ie cigarettes and alchahol to avoid paying tax. Glenny estimated that the uk lose about £6 billion a year in lost taxes from cigarette smuggling

The impact of globalisation on crime

It has created new oppotunities for carrying out crime ie cyber crime, darkweb and trafficking.

Globalisation has reinforced consumerism- the concsumption of products. The inability to achieve the status and goals marketed by capitalism leads to rising crime in western socieities- think mertons strain theory and marxists who claim capitalism is crimonogenic

What is cybe crime?

Illegal activities carried out via computers and networks (eg the internet)

It is mostly infomational: aimed at acsessing or stealing data

It uses digital tech eg mobiles, pcs or consoles

non-local perpatrators and victims often in different countries

Examples of cyber crime

Identity and data theft: Data breaches, dark web sale, phishing follow-ups

Internet fraud/scams: covid-19, romance. ‘microsoft tech support’

Hacking: Kevin Poulson (APRNET, pentagon)

3D printed illegal products: guns drugs ect

Cyberwarfare: State level attacks, alleged operations by russia

What is state crime?

‘Illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by or with the complicity of state agencies.

They are commited by or on behalf of states and governments in order to further their policies or best intrests

Chambliss

Marxist- crimes of the powerful

Sociologist should investigate ‘state organised crime’ as well as crimes of capitalism

Examples of state crimes

Genocide, torture, imprisoned without trial, war crimes (an act carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war)

McLaughlin

4 categories of state crime

1. political crimes - corruption/censorship

2. Crimes by security/police forces - genocide, torture, disappearance of dissidents

3. Economic crimes - official violations of health and safety rules

4. Social and cultural crimes - institutional racism

Herman and Schwendinger

We should define crime in terms of the violation of basic human rights not law breaking. States that deny individuals human rights are criminal

British case studies of state crime

Hillsborough disaster

Grenfell tower

Post office scandal

Why is state crime so serious

1. the sheer scale of it, huge numbers of victims are powerless to the state and state crimes are often large scale

2. states can escape punishment - they are powerful and corrupt. They can create their own laws. They can hide and escape punishment. Lack of justice

3. Its very difficult for other countries or external authorities to intervene because of boundries and global political ramifications

4. Many countries simply ignore or dont accept some human rights