Informal Deviance And Its Aspects Of Criminal Behavior

Deviant behavior is an integral part of all healthy societies. Deviance also offers society members an opportunity to rededicate themselves to their social controls. Deviant behavior actually helps teach society's rules by providing illustrations of violation. Deviance might be functional to a group in that it causes the group's members to close ranks, prompts the group to organize to limit future deviance acts, helps clarify for the group what it really does believe in, and teaches normal behavior by providing examples of rule violation. Finally, in some situations, tolerance of deviant behavior acts to a safety valve and actually prevents more serious instances of nonconformity.

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)

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

There are 6 different types of crime, which include violent crime, property crime, public order crime, white-collar crime, organized crime, and high-tech crime. Violent crimes are crimes against persons, and mainly constitutes murder, sexualt assault, assault and battery, and robbery. Murder is when someone kills another unlawfully. Assault and battery are two separate acts, in which case assault is the threatening towards another that leads them to believe they will be harmed, and battery is the physical act of harming someone.

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

There has been a pleather of research regarding the issue of crime and deviance. A definition of crime and deviance can be explained in relative terms which are dependant on any particular society’s interpretation of crime and deviance. Cultures differ from one society to another and the general consensus of right and wrong can also evolve throughout time. Definitions of crime and deviance can evolve with factors such as time, pace and society. However the general definition of crime is that its an act that breaks the law and deviance refers to behaviour that most people see as differing from acceptable social norms or standards of society. The purpose of

The most important step needed to analyze bullying is to review the existing knowledge. The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant to the work you are trying prove including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodical contributions to a particular topic. Get the facts and review them thoroughly before making a decision.

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

Two key concepts which are useful for understanding the theory are crime and deviance. Crime is “any act or omission which a state at this time says is criminal, and to which the state attaches criminal consequences” (Case et al., 2017. P.55) and deviance is any “behaviour that differs from the normal, behaviour that incurs public disapproval and behaviour that is usually subject to some form of sanction” (Bryant, 2015), both concepts are social constructs and can change overtime but while crime is punishable by law, deviance is just an act which violates the norms and so not necessarily punishable by

In society, when it comes to understanding what a deviant act is, we must be able to understand how conformity plays a big part. A person cannot simply understand what is deviant without understand conformity, it’s almost like society and culture; both intertwine and cannot be understood without one another. The need to belong is a basic human motive and even if they may not agree with everything in society, humans conform because they fear of being disbanded or sanctioned from the group. Norms also play a big part in deviance, norms are the rules on how a person should behave, but when someone breaks those rules, then it is deviant. Now, norms vary in different places. In many countries, the death penalty is extremely deviant, but is accepted in America. Also, because society can change overtime, so do norms. In the 1600 century and for a long time, slavery was justified as okay because people were making profit. Today, murder, adultery, gambling, drugs, cheating on tests, and skipping class are all considered deviant acts. If an individual violates a norm, it is expected to receive responses from others; negative sanctions. The intensity of the negative sanction depends on the importance of the norm. There’s two types of sanctions; informal and formal. Informal sanctions come from social groups and can vary from dirty stares from friends and family to disapproval by the group. A formal sanction comes organizations within society and can vary from fines to prison. So,

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

An example of differing of social reactions to behavior is suicide, throughout much of the world suicide is not looked upon favorably and in some places it is illegal however, Japan (although becoming less now) has seen suicide as a very honorable, additionally various religious see it as a repentance of sins for themselves or spouses(Stack, 1982). Another example of this distortion of crime is cases of people in power or influence being held to a different standard due to their position (Anleu, 2014). An example of this would be the public believing a judge or a person in high position ‘could not’ be a child abuser just because of their position. These examples serve as points of contention against crime being the most fundamental of deviance as it shows that definitions of crime and deviance are highly variable and are easily influenced, this indicates fragility in the aforementioned argument.

Crime is a social construct because it is an idea that is established by a society to control the behaviors of the people within the society (“Radical Concept of Crime”). What is considered to be criminal varies within different area and cultures and even time. Things that were legal two hundred years ago are illegal now. For example, in the 18th and 19th century when slavery was allowed in America, there were a lot of people who saw nothing wrong with it because they had been socialized to accept and justify it. If you ask most Americans now about slavery, they would say that it was a tragedy or that they just cannot understand how it happened. This is because we are now being socialized to think of slavery as wrong. Even though many citizens

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