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What are Crime, Deviance, and Social Control:
What is deviance?
Deviance: behavior that breaks social norms or expectations.
Not always illegal.
Deviance is broader than crime.
Can be positively sanctioned (e.g., heroism).
Deviance studied in sociology includes non-criminal acts like:
Mental illness
Suicide
Sociologists often analyze how labels are applied—rather than just defining actions as wrong.
Key Features:
Relative: depends on time, place, culture - smoking indoors once normal, now deviant. (dominant values set the line of what is and isn't deviant)
Context-dependent: Who, where, when. - killing during war vs murder.
Not always negative: Can lead to social change.
What is crime?
Crime = behavior that breaks the law.
Always punishable by formal legal sanctions.
Examples:
Theft.
Assault.
Fraud.
Overlap with Deviance:
Not all deviance = crime e.g. Nudity at beach (deviant but legal).
Not all crime = seen as deviant by everyone. e.g. Speeding.
Social Order:
Social Order: society’s stable patterns of behavior - predictable, organized life.
Maintained by social control.
Social Control:
Ways society regulates behavior.
Ensures conformity to norms/rules.
Two Types:
Informal Social Control
Unwritten rules.
Enforced by family, peers, community.
Sanctions:
Praise.
Ridicule/shaming.
Exclusion/gossip.
Formal Social Control
Written laws and rules.
Enforced by official agencies:
Police.
Courts.
Government.
Sanctions:
Fines.
Prison.
Arrest
Agencies of Social Control
Agencies of socialization (e.g., media, religion) also act as agents of control.
Media: Reinforce norms through crime reporting.
Religion: Teach moral codes (e.g., Ten Commandments).
Police & Courts: Investigate, prosecute, and punish offenders.
Penal System: Physical confinement (prisons).
Why do people conform?
Socialization
Learning society’s norms and values.
Internalizing expectations.
Family, education, peers all teach conformity.
Sanctions
Positive: rewards, approval.
Negative: punishment, disapproval.
Encourage conformity, discourage deviance.
Stanley Cohen’s Social Control Evolution(why people conform more now)
Growth of state involvement: Police, prisons.
Rise of private security.
Classification systems to manage deviants.
Shift from physical punishment to psychological reform.
Expansion of video surveillance and replacement of public spaces.
Families, schools, and local communities are expected to help in conformity
What are the Patterns of Crime?
Dark figure: Crimes not included in stats.
White-collar crime often invisible or handled internally.
Corporate crime: Often overlooked or resolved outside police (e.g., credit card fraud).
Why Official Statistics (police records) Under record Crime
Reporting Issues
Victims may not report crimes, especially if:
They think it's too trivial.
They feel embarrassed (e.g. sexual assaults).
They fear retaliation from offenders.
They distrust the police or legal system.
Police Discretion
Police decide what counts as a crime and whether to record it.
They might downgrade seriousness to meet performance targets.
Some offences are ignored if they don't fit crime stereotypes.
Community Bias
Under-policed areas might miss entire categories of crime.
Over-policed neighborhoods (often working-class or ethnic minority) may have inflated crime stats simply due to increased surveillance.
Institutional Pressures
Police face media and political pressures to show results.
This leads to “cuffing”—removing crimes from records to show a lower crime rate.
Invisible Crime
These are crimes that:
Happen regularly, but aren't detected or reported.
Don’t make it into statistics—hence they’re “invisible.”
Moral Panic
A moral panic is when society overreacts to certain deviant behaviors, often due to fear or sensationalism.
Causes:
Media exaggeration: Reports that dramatize isolated incidents (e.g., youth crime, drug epidemics).
Public anxiety: When social values seem under threat.
Political reactions: Leaders may call for stricter laws or enforcement.
Patterns of Crime by Demographics
Age:
Most offenders: 15–25 years old.
Juvenile delinquency:
The same acts would be criminal if they were done by adults.
Often non-violent & temporary.
Influencing factors:
Identity exploration, lenient/strict parenting, peer influence.
Older People
Lower offending rates.
Japan case: Rise in elderly crime linked to economic stress and social isolation.
Social Class:
Working-Class Crime ("Blue-collar"):
Tend to be overrepresented in official crime statistics.
Often involved in theft, property damage, and visible street-level offences
Theories explaining this include:
Subcultural values: Short-term gratification and different moral codes.
Relative deprivation: Feeling denied material goods others have.
Marxist critique:
The ruling class defines the law to serve its interests.
The justice system punishes working-class individuals to distract from systemic problems.
Working-class leaders can be targeted to prevent opposition to the system.
Middle-Class Crime ("White-collar"):
Typically non-violent, financially motivated offences (fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion).
Often underrepresented in crime statistics due to:
Being handled internally (by firms or tax departments).
Avoidance of publicity (companies prefer not to involve police).
Better legal representation and understanding of their rights.
Offenders don’t fit the stereotype of typical criminals, leading to more lenient treatment.
Ruling-Class Crime:
May engage in harmful acts that are not classified as crimes due to their power to shape laws.
Are protected by legal systems that serve capitalist interests.
Less likely to be prosecuted, and when they are, they face lighter penalties.
International crimes include terrorism, war crimes, torture, and genocide
Corporate crimes include false advertisement, bribery, corruption, etc.
Gender and Crime:
Female crime has often been underestimated.
Different explanations include:
Pollak claimed women evade detection due to subtlety and underreporting.
The Chivalry Thesis suggests courts are lenient due to gender stereotypes (e.g., motherhood).
Parsons believed differences in socialization—girls remaining home-focused—may explain lower criminality.
More recent feminist views link the rise in female crime to:
More women working and accessing public life
Shifting gender norms allowing ‘masculine’ behaviors
Resistance to patriarchal systems
Male crime is often linked to asserting masculinity—through aggression, risk-taking, or control (e.g., hooliganism or domestic violence).
Ethnicity and Crime
Statistics show overrepresentation of minority ethnic groups in UK crime data. However, this might not reflect actual behavior:
Youthful demographic skews figures
Victim bias (reporting based on race)
Police targeting leads to inflated statistics
Why Some Ethnic Minorities Show Higher Crime Rates
Relative Deprivation & Marginalization
Minorities may share mainstream aspirations but face blocked opportunities due to poverty or discrimination.
Feeling excluded or deprived can lead to crime as an alternative path to success.
Police Targeting & Racism
Some groups are disproportionately stopped, searched, and arrested.
Institutional racism and biased assumptions skew crime statistics.
Media & Moral Panic
Ethnic minorities are often linked to specific crimes in news and entertainment.
This creates public fear and justifies aggressive policing, reinforcing stereotypes.
Historical Disempowerment
Legacies of colonialism or systemic exclusion may foster distrust in institutions.
This alienation sometimes translates into deviant behavior or rejection of authority.
Victims of Crime
The most likely victims are often those most likely to be offenders: young people, working-class individuals, women, and minorities.
Women as Victims:
Fear vs. Reality: Although many women fear being attacked—especially at night—official data shows their actual risk is low. However, this fear can lead to behavioral changes that ironically make them more vulnerable.
Media Influence: Media exaggerates violent crime against women, creating public anxiety and reinforcing stereotypes about danger in public spaces.
Underreporting: Crimes like rape and domestic violence are severely underreported due to:
Shame or confusion over whether the act qualifies as a crime.
Fear of not being believed or being blamed.
Emotional or financial dependence on the offender.
Police and judicial systems may carry outdated assumptions or show leniency toward offenders.
Victim-Offender Relationship: Most sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows, often in private settings—not by strangers in public, as is commonly believed.
Patriarchal Control: Feminist perspectives argue that crimes like rape and domestic violence serve to reinforce male dominance by asserting power over women.
Policing and Law Enforcement:
Situational Crime Prevention
This approach aims to make criminal actions less attractive by increasing the risks or effort involved.
Environmental Design:
Well-lit entrances, clear visibility of access points.
Planting thorny bushes under windows to deter entry.
Use of locks, alarms, and other target hardening techniques.
Behavioral Deterrents:
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras discourage theft or assault.
Traffic enforcement cameras limit speeding and red-light violations.
Credit card fraud systems detect unusual activity, limiting potential gains.
Private Security Measures:
Wealthier individuals may hire guards or live in gated communities, isolating themselves from poorer populations -> reflects unequal access to safety across social classes.
Cybercrime and Technology
Types of Cybercrime
Cybercrime refers to illegal acts involving computers, mobile tech, and internet platforms.
Computer-based crimes:
Spreading viruses or malware
Identity theft, phishing scams
Fraud involving online purchases
Internet-specific crimes:
Cyberbullying and cyberstalking
Distribution of obscene content
Illegal drug trade or goods trafficking
Cyberterrorism:
Attacks on government or financial websites
Hacking campaigns to disrupt services or send political messages
May involve state-sponsored actors across borders
Challenges in Policing Cybercrime
Borderless nature of cyberspace → offenders may live in different countries from victims.
Legal inconsistencies between countries (e.g., what counts as offensive or illegal).
Governments differ: some restrict political speech online, others promote free expression.
Punishment and Criminal Justice
How Societies Respond to Crime
Judicial systems involve courts, trials, and formal punishments.
Historical punishments included:
Public torture
Exile or ostracism
Reasons for Punishment
Incapacitation: Prevent future crimes by restricting movement (e.g., prison)
Deterrence: Serve as warning to the offender and others
Rehabilitation: Reform offender’s mindset through education or community work
Restorative Justice: Offenders meet victims to apologize, understand harm done
Types of Punishment
Imprisonment:
Removes freedom
May include rehabilitation programs
Conditional Sentences:
Restrictions on movement or behavior (often enforced by electronic tagging)
Fines:
Monetary penalties for lesser offences
Community Sentencing:
Offenders perform unpaid work that often relates to the crime (e.g., graffiti clean-up for vandalism)
NOTES DONE BY FARIDA SABET
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