defining crime and deviance

11
Defining Crime and Deviance

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An introduction to the sociology of crime and deviance

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Page 1: Defining Crime and Deviance

Defining Crime and Deviance

Page 2: Defining Crime and Deviance

Definitions

Crime• Behaviour which breaks

laws and is punished by the legal system

Deviance• Behaviour which goes

against the norms, values and expectations of a social group or society

• Can you think of some examples of criminal and deviant behaviour?

Page 3: Defining Crime and Deviance

Crime and Deviance are Socially Constructed

• Both crime and deviance are culturally determined.

• Foucault wrote about how definitions of criminal deviance, sexual deviance and madness have changed over time. 100 years ago, it was deviant for women to wear trousers!

• Subcultures can have different norms• Plummer (1979) the same act can

be seen as deviant or non-deviant depending upon the situation

Page 4: Defining Crime and Deviance

Societal Deviance

• Swearing at an authority figure

• Random acts of violence

• Child abuse

Situational Deviance

• Being naked

• Wearing outrageous clothes!

• Killing someone

Page 5: Defining Crime and Deviance

Social order and social control create a consensus of how to behave

• By definition _____in society isn’t ______ or _____. Social order and _____ ______ maintain the _____ ___ and create a ______ _________ of how to behave. People are ______ to follow social norms.

Most behaviour criminal deviant social controlstatus quo value consensus socialised

Page 6: Defining Crime and Deviance

Positive/negative sanctions and informal/formal sanctions

Positive Sanctions – Rewarding people for conforming

Negative Sanctions- Punishing people for deviating

Formal sanctions – carried out by an official agency

A certificateA medalA cup

A finePoints on a licenseA yellow card

Informal sanctions – carried out by the public

A pat on the backSaying “well done”

Deliberately ignoring someoneTelling-off

Page 7: Defining Crime and Deviance

Non-sociological theories of crime

• Lombroso (1876) genetic differences

A large jaw, extra fingers and toes• Moir and Jessel (1995) hormonal

Imbalances

Page 8: Defining Crime and Deviance

Psychological Theories

• Bowlby (1946) Individuals deprived of maternal love are likely to develop personality traits which leads to them committing crime

• Eysenck (1964) Inherited psychological characteristics predisposes people to crime

Page 9: Defining Crime and Deviance

For the non-sociological theories the cause of crime lies within the individual.

For sociology, the cause of crime lies in society

Page 10: Defining Crime and Deviance

Practice Questions

• Give an example of a behaviour which is deviant but not criminal

• What is situational deviance?• Give an example of an informal positive

sanction and a formal negative sanction• Give an example of a psychological theory

of crime• Give one difference between physiological

and psychological theories of crime

Page 11: Defining Crime and Deviance

• ‘The cause of crime lies within the individual’ To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?