Chapter 7

Deviance

• violation of social norms

Crime

• violation of a social norm encoded by law

Difference between Deviance and Crime

• Severity it social response

• perceived harmfulness

• degree of public agreement

  • Both depend on the context though: some see certain acts like selling organs as legal, whereas other parts of the world see it as unethical and terrible

Sanctions

• Informal Punishments → mild + raise eyebrows

  • Stigmatism

• Formal Punishments

  • Severity depends on the severity of the crime

Types of Deviance and Crime

• Social Diversions

• Social Deviances

• Conflict Crimes

• Consensus Crimes

Measuring Crime

• Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), collected by police

  • TREND: overall decline in Police-Reported Crime Rate

  • Either measured through Tradition Crime Rate or Crime Severity Index

  • 4/5ths of reports have no violence

    • 1st Shortcoming: victimless crimes are less seen

    • 2nd Shortcoming: police decide what to share and what to ignore

• Victimless Crimes

  • violations of the law where a victim does not come forward, potentially due to the humiliation/stigmatization

• Self-Report Surveys

  • Asking respondents to indicate their involvement in criminal activities, either as perpetrators or as victims

    • Illustrate the overall engagement in crime: 1/4th of the population has been a victim [most of which do not go to court]

• Victimization Surveys

  • People are asked whether they have or have not been a victim of crime

  • example: General Social Survey (GSS)

  • TREND: Victimization Rates DECLINED since 2004, mostly non-violent and theft of personal property

    • More among single/women than married/a man

• 4 Types of Crime is increasing since 2014:

  • Fraud

  • Cybercrime

  • SA

  • Shoplifting

• TREND: Hate crime increasing

• Explanations for Decrease in Crime Rate since 1992

  • Better trained police force and law

  • Young men do the most crime, but their age cohort has decreased

    • Baby Bust ;-;

  • Lower unemployment rates

  • Legalization of Abortion

    • Less unwanted babies to felt neglect and turned to crime

Criminal Profile

• More Men being accused of SA than women in court

Race/Ethnicity

• TREND: increase in Indigenous incarcerations, but why?

  • More street crimes than white-collar crimes, which are more noticeable

  • They live in poverty and have to do crime to live

  • Discrimination of police and law enforcement

  • Western Culture made ruined Indigenous social life, so less cohesion/morals

• Above also applies to black people

• THEREFORE: certain races are NOT “more law-abiding” than others, social forces rather determine incarceration rate

Symbolic Interactionalists

• Labelling Theory

  • People become deviant only when they are labelled deviant and embody a deviant identity when they otherwise would not

  • When being surrounded by people who’s deviances are normalized, you tend to take on such acts too and do not see yourself as deviant

• Deviance is learned and can also be unlearned

• Howard S. Becker’s “Learning Deviance”

• TREND: parents seeing their kids as deviant make them more deviant, resulting in more trouble with the police and more sever punishments from law enforcement
  

Functionalists

• Durkheim: Crime is functional because:

  • Reminds people of common values

  • Fosters collaboration in punishing somebody

  • Can drive Social Change (ex: Martin Luther King)

• Robert Morton: Strain Theory

  • Not having your cultural ideals met by society results in strain, which is dysfunctional

  • Society never provides enough opportunities for all to succeed

• Criminal Subcultures: people adapting to strain caused by social dysfunction

  • Majority black and Indigenous → due to oppression and poverty

  • These groups tend to normalize criminal activities, as if morally acceptable

• Critique: They stress the relationship between Crime and Social Class too much

  • All do crime, but the TYPE of crime differs:

    • Rich, economic greed → white-collar crimes

    • Poor, economic need → street crimes

Conflict Theory