Crime, Deviance, Social Order And Social Control

Deviant behavior is socially constructed with the people in power defining what is expectable and what is deviant.

Strain theory is described as the cause of crime due to the social class or environment in which a person grows up in. In our society, people strive to obtain wealth, education, materialistic possessions and power. Due to the environment lower social class people are born into, they are unable to obtain these aspirations through legal means. Feelings of frustration lead to strain and can cause these people to resort to external and illegal means to obtain these resources or lead them to abusing drug substances in an effort to feel better.

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.

Deviance and crime is relative to the time and place that you are living in. No particular action itself is deviant or a crime is all depends on society, and how people react to it. Howard becker stated that “social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitute deviance” (Becker, 1963) However functionalists would argue that we need consensus, and that these rules that define deviance help to give our society order. (Thompson, 2011)

For many years deviant behavior and social control have been a common topic of discussion. The book “Deviance and Social control” by Michelle Inderbitzin, Kristin Bates and Randy Gainey, gives readers a greater outlook on the relationship between deviance and social control. When someone acts or behaves in a way that is different from what is considered as a norm or an accepted social standard, it is known as deviance. For example, this explains when people join gangs, or even become murderers. Objectively given conception of deviance is when everyone agrees to general set of norms; this means everyone agrees to a particular norm and conditions of society.

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

Examine and assess the usefulness of one of the following theories of crime and deviance in terms of explaining crime and the social problems in modern society.

The criminal justice system isn’t perfect, much like any largescale system it has its flaws. Sadly, some of the criminal justice system flaws are bigger than others and the smaller ones don’t get any attention from the public and go unresolved. That is not to say that all the problems with the criminal justice system shouldn’t be dealt with, but some of the problems aren’t even being considered. A problem that has rocked the boat on a public scale, but has never really been questioned would be the flawed double jeopardy law. The law that protects people from double jeopardy is a difficult one to undo because it is sealed in the U.S. Constitution. The

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

Imagine a ‘society of saints’, without crime, a notion put forward by Emile Durkheim a historical theorist who argued that this concept is unattainable within society. Social control is and has been present in all societies, organized groups, and cultures since the beginning of time. There are many historical and modern perspectives, which help draw conclusions on the study of deviance and social control, two concepts that go hand in hand. In discussing the connection between social control and deviance, it will reveal why Durkheim’s notion, that in a ‘society of saints’, crime will be found, is very true.

There are key differences between what is considered deviant and what is criminal. Deviant behaviour is defined as violation of norms and these are typically socially defined rules of behaviour and are not legally enforceable. In comparison, the definition of criminal behaviour is the violation of law and this is legally enforceable. For example, it could be considered deviant for someone to refuse to line up in a queue, whereas it is criminal for someone to carry an unregistered gun. A social problem is a condition or behaviour that requires remedy because a large enough section of the community regard it as harmful or negative. These definitions could be considered a social problem because there is no consistent definition of what is criminal or deviant; it is something that changes based on who is doing the defining. This means that what could be considered deviant or criminal by one section of society could differ to the views of another section. For example, some sections of the community consider homosexuality to be a violation of a social norm; some

With the rise of crime rates in the last couple of years, people are wondering if locking up the criminal and throwing away the key would be effective for social control. What these people fail to see is that by just throwing away the key, you aren’t actually helping that person to strive for and become anything better. The thing that would be more effective than throwing away the key is if all prisons today had programs designed to help better the lives of the criminals after prison and help to possibly lower the recidivism rates of those criminals. These programs should be designed to help make criminals marketable so they

Is the criminal justice system more effective as a method of bringing the guilty to justice or as a deterrent or a method of social control? It is unanimously agreed that the aim of the criminal justice system is to provide equal justice for all according to the law, by processing of cases impartially, fairly and efficiently with the minimum but necessary use of public resources. It is a complex process through which the state decides which particular forms of behaviour are to be considered unacceptable and then proceeds through a series of stages - arrest, charge, prosecute, trial sentence, appeal punishment -' in order to bring the guilty to justice' (Munice & Wilson, 2006 pIX) and is designed for a coherent administration

In studying crimes and deviance, sociologists look to explain what types of behavior are defined as deviant as opposed to criminal, who defines deviant behaviors, why people become deviant, and how society deals with deviant behavior. Deviance is defined by sociologists are behavior that significantly goes against expected rules and norms. Criminal behavior is behavior that violates the law. Sociology studies groups as opposed to individuals, so when studying crime and deviance, sociologists are looking at the factors that influence groups as a whole to engage in crime and deviant behavior. In defining deviant behavior, the definition may vary throughout different groups. Not all groups of people will consider the same behaviors