Crime and Deviance

Chapter Seven

What is Deviance?

Central concepts:– Social control: systematic practices developed

by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance (p. 198)

– Deviance: any behaviour, belief, or condition that violates those cultural norms in the society or group in which it occurs (p. 198)

What is Deviance?

Crime: is an act that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions (p. 201)– Juvenile delinquency: refers to a violation of the

law by young people under the age of 18 (in Canada) (p. 201)

Strain Theory

Defined: people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals (p. 201 and from R. Merton)– Example: a study of Canadian Mohawks’

involvement in the organized crime of smuggling in the early 1990s.

Opportunity Theory

Expands on strain theory Defined: for deviance to occur people must

have access to illegitimate opportunity structures—circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot get through legitimate channels (p. 202)

Control Theory

Theme: deviant behaviour is minimized when people have strong bonds that bind them to families, peers, religious organizations, and other institutions

Thesis: that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken (p. 204 and after Hirschi)

Differential Association Theory

(“Getting in with the wrong crowd”) Defined: That individuals have a greater tendency to

deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who favour deviance over conformity (p. 205 and Sutherland)

Variations: Likelihood increases to the level a person has frequent, intense, and long-lasting interactions with others who violate the rules.

– Example: subcultural groups in schools

Labelling Theory

Two elements are involved in defining deviance:– 1. Some people act in a manner contrary to the

expectations of others– 2. Others disapprove of and try to control this

contrary behaviour

Part of this control process involves labelling people as deviants

Labelling Theory

The theory defined: it suggests that deviants are those people who have been successfully labelled as such by others (p. 206)

Process: directly related to the power and status of those persons who do the labelling

One kind of those with power and status: Moral entrepreneurs:

– Persons who use their own views of right and wrong to establish rules and label others as deviant (p.208)

Labelling Theory

Other terms:– Primary deviance: the initial act of rule breaking– Secondary deviance: occurs when a person who

has been labelled deviant accepts the new identity and continues the deviant behaviour

Example: the study of the effects of two different ways of treating blind people

Labelling Theory

Moral entrepreneurs often create moral crusades: public and media awareness campaigns that help generate public and political support for their causes (p. 208)

Examples:– Mothers Against Drunk Driving– The Women’s Temperance movement of the early 20th century that

resulted in Prohibition– Campaigns against abortion, prostitution, and child abuse– 2003 example: Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Muslim, and Sikh

leaders united against same-sex marriages

How the Law Classifies Crime

Indictable Offenses– Includes serious crimes

such as homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and break and entry

Summary Conviction Offenses

– Relatively minor offences including fraudulently obtaining food from a restaurant, causing a disturbance, or committing an indecent act

How Sociologists Classify Crime

Street Crime Occupational and Corporate Crime Organized Crime Political Crime

Street Crime

Defined: that which includes all violent crime, certain property crime, and certain moral crimes (p. 213)

Examples: robbery, assault, break and enter Several types:

– Violent– Property– Moral

Types of Street CrimeTypes of Street Crime

Moral

Illegal action voluntarily

engaged in by individuals

Kinds: prostitution,

gambling, illegal drugs,

illegal pornography

Violent

Force against others

Produces most anxiety

Victims are physically

injured

Victimizers: intimate persons

Property

Break and Entry

Theft

Arson

Vehicle theft

Occupational and Corporate Crime

Occupational or white-collar crime consists of illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or in dealing with their financial affairs

Key Element: a violation of a position of trust in business or government

Occupational and Corporate Crime

Examples: employee theft, soliciting bribes or kickbacks, embezzling

The computer has enhanced this possibility even more

Corporate Crime: illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.

Example: Enron Corporation in Houston

Occupational and Corporate Crime

Costs:– Exceeds that of street crime– Tax evasion: costs about $30 billion a year in

Canada– Calgary Bre-X gold mining company lost around

$5 billion of share holders investment--a geologist had “salted” core samples with gold

Occupational and Corporate Crime

Costs:– Occupational accidents and illnesses were the

third leading cause of death in Canada: some of the causes are unsafe working environments

Problems:– More stigma attached to street crime– Hard to convict

Organized Crime

Defined: is a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit (p. 215)

Examples: drug trafficking, prostitution, liquor and cigarette smuggling, loan-sharking, money laundering, and large-scale theft like truck hijacking

Political Crimes

Defined: refers to illegal or unethical acts involving the misuse of power by government officials, or illegal or unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it (p. 215)

Political Crimes

State officials may use their position to engage in graft through bribery, kickbacks, or “insider” deals

Costly to tax payers Some use these methods to hang onto

power

The Criminal Justice System

Defined: the criminal justice system includes the police, the courts, and the prisons

However, it is not a large, complete, and unified system. Rather, it is a collection of “somewhat interrelated, semi-autonomous bureaucracies”.

Each part has significant discretionary jurisdiction apart from the others.

The Criminal Justice System

Police Courts Prisons

The Criminal Justice System

The Police

Function: They are the concrete extension of the State to provide for social order

This is extended to maintain peace in the community

Broad range: finding lost children, counseling crime victims, notifying next of kin in fatal accidents

Why?

The Courts

Function: they decide the guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime

Process: adversarial:– Prosecutor: A lawyer who represents the State– Defense lawyer: asserts that the accused (the

defendant) is innocent– Judge (or jury): Final decision as to the guilt or

innocence of the defendant

Punishment

Defined: any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of some offence the person is thought to have committed (p. 228)

Functions of Prisons

Social Protection

In prison, he or she cannot commit crime anymore

Retribution

Imposes a penalty on the offender

Deterrence

Seeks to reduce criminal activity by instilling a fear of punishment

Rehabilitation

Seeks to return offenders to the community as law abiding citizens

Restorative Justice

Defined: to seek to return the focus of the justice system to repairing the harm that has been done to the victim and the community (p. 230)

Elements:– The involvement of the victim and other members of the

community as active members in the process– To reconcile offenders with those they have harmed– Roots in traditional societies

Restorative Justice

Elements:– Some aboriginal communities use what is called

circle sentencing: bringing the offender, the victim, and the community together

– Some current attempts: Victim-offender reconciliation Family Group Conferencing: for young people linked to

the victim and the family members

Community Corrections

Defined: shifts responsibility for corrections back to the community and minimizes the separation of the offender from society at a number of different stages in the correctional process

Deviance and Crime in the Future

The present system cannon solve the problem of crime

More structural solutions like:– Better education and jobs– Affordable housing– More equality– Less discrimination– Socially productive activities