Chapter 6Deviance and Crime

Chapter Outline

• The Social Definition of Deviance and Crime

• Explaining Deviance and Crime• Trends in Criminal Justice

Crime in the United States

• There are roughly 2 million people in state and federal prisons and local jails.– This number is increasing by 50,000

to 80,000 per year. • The U.S. has more people behind bars

than any other country on Earth.– Over 12% more people are behind

bars in the U.S. than in China and India combined.

Polling Question

• Do favor or oppose a 7-day waiting period before handgun purchases?

A. FavorB. OpposeC. Don't know

The Social Definition of Deviance and Crime

• Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King, Jr., were considered deviant and criminal.– Susan B. Anthony was arrested

and fined for voting. – Martin Luther King, Jr. was

repeatedly arrested for marching for African-Americans’ civil rights.

Deviance

• Deviance involves breaking a norm.• Crime is deviance that is against the

law.• Informal punishment may involve

raised eyebrows, gossip, ostracism, “shaming,” or stigmatization.

• Formal punishment results from people breaking laws, which are norms enforced by government bodies.

Classifying Deviance:John Hagan

Three dimensions:1. Severity of the social response.2. Perceived harmfulness of the act. 3. Degree of public agreement

about whether an act should be considered deviant.

Deviance and Crime

Hagan: Types of Deviance

• Social diversions are minor, harmless acts.

• Social deviations are more serious, somewhat harmful acts.

Hagan: Types of Deviance

• Conflict crimes are deviant acts defined by the state as illegal, but the definition is controversial in the wider society.

• Consensus crimes are widely recognized to be bad in themselves.

Crimes Against Women

• Until recently, many crimes against women were largely ignored.

• Rape is still associated with a low rate of prosecution, but is prosecuted more often than it used to be.

• Sexual harassment is now considered a social deviation and in some circumstances, a crime.

White-Collar Crime

• Includes embezzlement, false advertising, tax evasion, insider stock trading, and fraud.

• In the 1980’s– Armed robbers netted about $400

million.– The savings and loan scandal cost the

American public $500 to $600 billion.

White-Collar Crime

Reasons for few convictions: 1. Often takes place in private and is

difficult to detect.2. Corporations can afford legal experts,

public relations firms, and advertising agencies that advise their clients on how to bend laws, build up their corporate image, and influence lawmakers to pass laws “without teeth”.

% Population Victimized in Preceding 12 Months

Problems with Crime Statistics

• Many assaults go unreported because the assailant is a friend or relative.

• Many rape victims are reluctant to report the crime because they’re afraid they’ll be stigmatized.

• Many crimes are not in crime indexes published by the FBI (prostitution and illegal drug use).

• Most white-collar crimes are excluded from crime indexes.

Violent Crime

Property Crime

Crime Rates

• On average every hour during 2002:– 2 murders – 11 rapes– 72 robberies– 102 aggravated assaults– 142 motor vehicle thefts– 245 burglaries– 800 larceny-thefts

Decline in Crime Rate: Factors

• In the 1990s, governments put more police on the streets and many communities established patrol systems.

• Young men are most prone to street crime and the proportion of young men in the population has declined.

• The economy boomed in the 1990s, when fewer people have jobs, more crime occurs.

Decline in Crime Rate: Factors

• Some researchers noted the decline in crime started 19 years after abortion was legalized in the United States.– In 1992 the population included

proportionately fewer unwanted children.

– Unwanted children are more crime prone than wanted children because they tend to receive less parental supervision and guidance.

Abortions and Crime

Criminal Profiles

• 77% of all persons arrested in the United States in 2002 were men.

• In the violent crime category, men accounted for 83% of arrests.

• In 2001 Americans under the age of 40 accounted for 80% of arrests.

• Those 15- to 19-years-old age cohort is the most crime prone.

Criminal Profiles: Race

• In 2002, African Americans accounted for 26.9% of arrests but composed only 12.3% of the population.

• Three factors:– Bias in collection of crime statistics.– Low class position of blacks in

American society.– Racial discrimination in the criminal

justice system.

Polling Question

• Have you ever been arrested?A. YesB. No

Arrests by Age, 2001Age Cohort % of Population % of Arrests

Under 10 14.0 0.2

10-14 7.3 5.1

15-19 7.1 21.2

20-24 6.8 19.4

25-29 6.8 12.3

30-34 7.2 11.2

35-39 8.2 10.9

40-44 8.1 8.9

Arrests by Race, 2001

Racial Group% of

PopulationArrests

White 75.1 70.7

Black 12.3 26.9

American Indian and Alaskan

Native0.9 1.3

Asian and Pacific Islander

3.7 1.1

Deviance and Crime Theories

• Motivational theories identify social factors that drive people to commit deviance and crime.

• Constraint theories identify social factors that impose deviance and crime (or conventional behavior) on people.

Durkheim’s Functional Approach

• According to Durkheim, deviance gives people the opportunity to define what is moral and what is not.

• Our reactions to deviance clarify moral boundaries, allowing us to draw the line between right and wrong.

• This promotes the unity of society and encourages healthy social change.

Strain Theory: Merton

• Argued that cultures often teach people to value material success.

• However, societies do not provide enough legitimate opportunities for everyone to succeed.

• Therefore, some people experience strain.– Most will adhere to social norms.– The rest adapt.

Strain Theory

Institutionalized means

Accept RejectCreate New

Cultural Goals

Accept conformity

innovation

Reject ritualism

retreatism

Create New rebellion

Subcultural Theory

• Argues that gangs are a collective adaptation to social conditions.

• Distinct norms and values that reject the legitimate world crystallize in gangs.

Features of Criminal Subcultures

• Delinquent youths may turn to different types of crime.

• The availability of different subcultures influences the type of criminal activity to which one turns.

Features of Criminal Subcultures

• Members justify their criminal activities.• Illegal activities appear normal to

the members of the subculture. • Enables criminals to clear their

consciences and get on with the job.

Theory of Differential Association

• A person learns to favor one adaptation over another as a result of life experiences or socialization.– Everyone is exposed to deviant and

nondeviant values and behaviors as they grow up.

– If you are exposed to more deviant than nondeviant experiences, chances are you will learn to become a deviant.

Labeling Theory: A Symbolic Interactionist

Approach• Deviance results not so much from

the actions of the deviant as from the response of others, who label the rule breaker a deviant.

• Master status: One’s overriding public identity:

Control theory

• The rewards of deviance and crime are many.

• Nearly everyone would engage in deviance and crime if they could get away with it.

• System of social control: Sanctions in society by means of which conformity to cultural guidelines is ensured.

Conflict Theories of Deviance and Crime

• The powerful impose deviant and criminal labels on less powerful members of society.

• Meanwhile, they are usually able to use their money and influence to escape punishment for their own misdeeds.

Theories of Deviance and Crime

Motivational Theories

Theory Sociologist

Strain Theory Merton

Subcultural Theory Cohen, Cloward, Ohlin

Learning Theory Sutherland

Theories of Deviance and Crime

Constraint Theories

Theory Sociologist

Labeling TheoryBecker, Matsueda,

Cicourel

Control Theory Hirschi and Gottfredson

Conflict Theory Spitzer

Goals of Incarceration

• In 1966, 77% of Americans believed the main goal of prison was to rehabilitate prisoners.

• In 1994 only 16% held that opinion.

Polling Question

• What do you feel should be the most important function of prison?A. Punish people for crimes they have

committed.B. Rehabilitate people who have committed

crimes.C. Protect society by locking away criminals

from the rest of us.D. Serve as a warning to would-be lawbreakers.E. Make people pay back society for the crimes

they have committed.

Belief in Capital Punishment: % “for”

Moral Panic

• Between the early 1970s and the present the U.S. was gripped by moral panic.

• The government declared a war on drugs, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders.

• Many states passed a “three strikes” law to put three-time violent offenders in prison for life.

• Support for capital punishment grew from 38% to 80% between 1965 and 1994.

Capital Punishment: A Questionable Deterrent• Murder is often committed in a rage.• More than 20,000 murders take

place in the United States every year.– Only about 250 death sentences

are handed out.– A murderer has a 1.25% chance of

being sentenced to death.

Capital Punishment

• A typical execution costs the taxpayer up to 6 times more than a 40-year stay in a maximum-security prison.

• Nearly 40% of death sentences since 1977 have been overturned because of new evidence or mistrial.

Quick Quiz

1. Sociologist John Hagan classifies types of deviance and crime along which of the following dimensions?a. severity of the social responseb. perceived harmfulness of the actc. degree of public agreement about

whether the act should be considered criminal or deviant

d. all of these choices

Answer: d

• Sociologist John Hagan classifies various types of deviance and crime along the following dimensions:– the severity of the social

response– the perceived harmfulness of the

deviant or criminal act– the degree of public agreement

about whether the act should be considered criminal or deviant.

2. Which of the following behaviors is not considered a white-collar crime?

a. embezzlementb. burglaryc. tax evasiond. insider stock tradinge. copyright infringement

Answer: b

• Burglary is not considered a white-collar crime.

3. Crime statistics underestimate the actual incidence of crime because:a. many criminal acts are not reported

to the policeb. self-report surveys target only

perpetrators not victimsc. many crimes are not incorporated

into major crime indexesd. many criminal acts are not reported

to the police, and many crimes are not incorporated into major crime indexes

Answer: d

• Crime statistics underestimate the actual incidence of crime because many criminal acts are not reported to the police, and crimes are not incorporated into major crime indexes.

4. Most sociologists agree that the disproportionately high arrest, conviction, and incarceration rates of African Americans are due to:a. community policing in ghettoesb. low class position of blacks in

societyc. racial discrimination in the criminal

justice systemd. the low class position of blacks in

American society, and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system

Answer: d

• Most sociologists agree that the disproportionately high arrest, conviction, and incarceration rates of African Americans are due to the low class position of blacks in American society, and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.

5. Strain theory explains crime and deviance in terms of:a. the lack of legitimate opportunities

to achieve material successb. exposure to more deviant than non-

deviant values during socializationc. the responses of others who define

some actions as deviant and others as normal

d. the imposition of labels by the rich and powerful on the less powerful

Answer: a

• Strain theory explains crime and deviance in terms of the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve material success.

6. The theory of differential association explains crime and deviance in terms of:a. the lack of legitimate opportunities to

achieve material successb. criminal subcultures that collectively

adapt to social conditions and reject mainstream values

c. exposure to more deviant than non-deviant values and behaviors during the socialization process

d. the responses of others who define some actions as deviant and others as normal

Answer: c

• The theory of differential association explains crime and deviance in terms of exposure to more deviant than non-deviant values and behaviors during the socialization process.

7. The view that deviance results not just from the action of the deviant but also from the responses of others is known as:a. labeling theoryb. strain theoryc. the theory of differential

associationd. subcultural theorye. control theory

Answer: a

• The view that deviance results not just from the action of the deviant but also from the responses of others is known as labeling theory.

8. Which of the following are regarded as a function of prisons?

a. rehabilitationb. deterrencec. revenged. incapacitatione. all of these choices

Answer: e

• Rehabilitation, deterrence, revenge, and incapacitation are regarded as a function of prisons.