Crime And Deviance In Society

Crime is usually looked upon as an infringement of criminal law where as deviance has a vast and wider approach to crime and is consequently much harder to define. Crime is not a naturally occurring phenomenon it is manmade and more significantly, they are influenced by powerful groups within society. (Doherty, M.2005 page9)

Crime and deviance is one of the sociological disciplines that deals with crime and questions whether the crimes that are being committed are pre-determined through their genes, their upbringing or socialisation. Studying different sociological theories as to why people commit crimes within society has helped me gain more insight in to the topic and this allows me to be able to interpret different types of behaviour from different sociological

Crime is the when an individual or group commit an act against the law. Deviance is an act that is against the social norm and is labelled as deviant. Official statistics have proven that 80% of all crimes are committed by males. However the study of criminology have tended to be dominated by males, therefore the studies are done by men about men. The official statistics suggest that gender is perhaps the most significant single factor in whether an individual is convicted of crime.

Deviance is not usually a crime, but may be seen as one. Deviance is when someone breaks the norms and values of a society, but the act is not illegal. Crime is where a person beaks the law of land, they either do something they shouldn’t, or they don’t do something they should. Crime and deviance can be measured with the use of Official Crime Statistic (OCS). OCS is the crimes which are reported by the victim, and then further recorded by the Police. Not all crimes are recorded by the Police, which lead to a dark figure in the overall collected OCS. To avoid dark figures there are other methods to measure crime and deviance.

Marxist claim that the bourgeoisie choose what they consider is criminal and deviant behaviour within society. They say the proletariat are the main culprits of the criminal behaviour, and they and those who are in a lower class are forced into committing crimes to survive as there is no other option for them. The main reason for the high crime rate is due to how the system works. White collar crimes seem to usually be ignored while lesser crimes such as burglary, vandalism and every day street crime tend to be highlighted more within the public eye and seen as much worse. This may well be because the ruling class have the funds to provide good lawyers and the power to cover their crimes up. Because the working class are policed heavier, as they are expected to break the law more, they are more likely to be caught for any offences. Marxists value the norms and values of society believing that if you do not conform and obey the rules you should be punished. This is why schools, religion and the justice system (prison) are used to encourage people to conform to what society expects of them.

Crime can be described as an act that harmful to an individual as well as the society; such acts are against and punishable by the law. While deviance can be described as acting against social norms, for example a boy wearing a skirt would be out of place in the society

“Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’. Deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label.”

Crime is defined by Muncie (2006) as behaviour which is proscribed by criminal law, however, he similarly to Treadwell (2013) acknowledges that this in itself is not enough to depict its full scope. The perceptions and understandings of what people consider to be criminal are highly variable. The notion of crime is constantly changing and evolving, and is relative to both the time period but also the societies geographical location. This was comparably argued by Treadwell (2013) in his analysis of crime. What is considered to be criminal in one era may not be true of other eras of time. This understanding also varies between different societies and their geographical differences. There is no one broad understanding of what is considered criminal and what is not, or where this line should be drawn. Crime is a continuously contested concept across various spheres of the academic world (Muncie, 2006). There are legal perspectives but there are also social and political views of crime, with similarities and differences between

The non-sociologist definition of crime and deviance would be that deviance is uncommon behaviour, something that offends the morals or the majority of society, without being harmful or serious enough to be criminal. Whereas a criminal act is an act which causes harm to someone else enough to warrant a decision-maker passing a law which forbids the act.

Crime as a social construction is the idea that reality is created in our minds. What we perceive something to be ends up to be what it is. Crime, often described as deviance is a labelled behaviour. If one does not view an action as deviant at the time then it is not deviant, this shows us how deviance is a relative concept. In terms of how different people perceive crime, depending on what religious or ethnic backgrounds one may come from, there is heavy variation between individuals. What is illegal or legal in one culture can be very different in another culture. It can

Crime is defined by the Oxford dictionary as ‘an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law.’ (Dictionary, 2015) Whereas deviance is failing to conform to the expectations held by society without necessarily breaking any laws. Criminal behaviour differs to deviant behaviour as a person can be deviant without committing a crime and vice versa, a person can be criminal without being deviant. For example, speeding is a criminal offense but is not considered abnormal or deviant behaviour as it is committed by the majority of people in society at some point. Likewise, if a man dresses as a woman in public they are considered to be deviating from society but are not breaking any laws and therefore are not criminal. This means that behaviour can be legal, without necessarily being acceptable in society. However, what is considered acceptable in society can change overtime as well as the removal and creation of certain laws. For example, over 50 years ago, homosexuality would have been stigmatised as well as illegal whereas nowadays it is legal and perfectly accepted by the majority in society although some homophobia does still exists. Social order is ‘the totality of structured human interrelationships in a society or a part of it.’ (Webster, 2015) These are the expectations of norms held by society that pressure people to behave in a certain way which keeps the peace within

Imagine someone rich or powerful committing crimes without the fear of serving consequences. The crime may include murder, robbery, or stealing. Deviance is a label for an action or behavior that violates social norms. Social norms are rules or expectations which usually guide members of society. Deviance is nonconformity to these norms. Social norms can vary from culture to culture and is defined in numerous ways. Many researchers believe that deviance is a violation of social norms. Some believe deviant behavior is breaking the law or acting in a negative manner. Sociologists use specific words to classify deviant actions from a sociological perspective. There are crimes that are deviant actions and not deviant acts. For example; this

Theories of Deviance are limited in their ability to explain deviant acts if one adopts the view that these theories are universal. There is no universal, right or wrong theory, rather each theory provides a different perspective which only "fully makes sense when set within an appropriate societal context and values framework" .

Crime is an action taken by people that violates the law that could be prosecuted by state and can be punished according to the criminal law according to according to Chapter 9, page 208. Deviance is an action people take that is different from the usual or accepted standards by the society, according to Chapter 9, page 208.

There are many perceptions of what defines crime. The definitions appear to change throughout history and are still changing today (Henry, S. and Lanier, M. M., 2001 ,p.139). For example, in the past marital rape was not considered a crime as it was thought that women were believed to be “sexual property” of the male and, therefore it couldn’t be classed as rape (Brownmiller, 1975, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.3). However, in the United States in 1978 a man was convicted of rape on his wife (Russell, 1990, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.4). This shows how it is hard to define crime due to the changes in views over time. Different cultures also have different perceptions of what is, or is not considered to be a crime. For example,