Download Power and Social Construction of Crime and Deviance

Chapter 7
Deviance and Crime
Chapter Outline
• The Social Definition of
Deviance and Crime
• Explaining Deviance and Crime
• Trends in Criminal Justice
Deviance
• Deviance involves breaking a norm.
• Many deviant acts go unnoticed or are
considered too trivial to warrant
punishment.
• People who are observed
committing more serious
acts of deviance are typically
punished, either informally or formally.
Punishment
• 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.
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 AfricanAmericans’ civil rights.
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
The Difference between
Deviance and Crime
1. Social diversions are
minor, harmless acts.
2. Social deviations are
more serious, somewhat
harmful acts.
Hagan: Types of Deviance
The Difference between Deviance
and Crime
3. Conflict crimes are
deviant acts defined by the
state as illegal, but the
definition is controversial in
the wider society.
4. Consensus crimes are
widely recognized to be
bad in themselves.
Power and Social Construction of
Crime and Deviance
• Social Construction emphasizes that various
social problems, including crime, are NOT
inherent in certain actions themselves.
• Instead, some people are in a position to create
norms and pass laws that stigmatize other
people.
• Therefore, one must study how norms and laws
are created (constructed) to understand why
particular actions get defined as deviant or
criminal in the first place.
Power and Social Construction of
Crime and Deviance
• Power is a crucial element in the social
construction of deviance and crime.
• Power is the probability that one actor
within a social relationship
will be in a position to
carry out his/her own
will despite resistance
• Powerful groups are able to create norms
and laws that suit their interests
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”.
Power and Social Construction of
Crime and Deviance
• The powerless, however, often struggle
against stigmatization.
• If their power increases, they may
succeed in their struggle.
– Crimes against Women
– Discrimination in the justice system
Power and Social Construction of
Crime and Deviance:
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.
Power and Social Construction
of Crime and Deviance: Criminal
Profiles: Race
• African Americans arrests:
• Three factors:
– Bias in collection of crime statistics.
– Low class position of blacks in American
society.
– Racial discrimination in the criminal justice
system.
Question
• Did you ever use marijuana
during your senior year in high
school?
a.Yes
b.No
Measuring Crime
Victimization:
Offenses by Type of Crime
Question
• Do you favor or oppose federal
legislation banning manufacture,
sale, or possession of semiautomatic assault guns, such as
the AK-47?
a. Favor
b. Oppose
c. Don’t’ know
Question
• Have you ever stolen little things
worth between $2 and $50?
a. Yes
b. No
Question
• Have you ever stolen things
worth more than $50?
a. Yes
b. No
Crime Rates
• On average every hour during
2002:
–2 murders
–11 rapes
–47 robberies
–98 aggravated assaults
–144 motor vehicle thefts
–246 burglaries
–802 larceny-thefts
Decline in Crime Rate
Property Crime
Decline in Crime Rate
Violent Crime
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
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.
Problems with
Crime Statistics
• 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.
Criminal Profiles
• 77% of all persons arrested in the
United States in 2003 were men.
• In the violent crime category, men
accounted for 83% of arrests.
Criminal Profiles
• In 2001 Americans under the age
of 40 accounted for 74% of arrests.
• Those 15- to 19-years-old age
cohort is the most crime prone.
Criminal Profiles: Race
• In 2000, African Americans
accounted for 27% of arrests but
composed only 12.3% of the
population.
Polling Question
• Have you ever been arrested?
A. Yes
B. No
Arrests by Age, 2001
Age
Under 10
% of Population
14.0
% of Arrests
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
Population
Arrests
White
75.1
70.7
Black
12.3
26.9
American Indian and
Alaskan Native
0.9
1.3
Asian and Pacific
Islander
3.7
1.1
Crime and Deviance:
Prisons
Question
From the following list, what do you
feel is the most important function of
prison?
a. Punishment for crimes.
b. Rehabilitation of people.
c. Protect society from criminals.
d. Serve as a warning.
e. Make criminals pay society back
f. Don't know
Crime in the United States
• 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 10% more people are behind bars in
the U.S. than in China and India combined.
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.
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.
Moral Panic
• 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 15,000 murders take
place in the United States every
year.
– Only about 175 death sentences
are handed out.
– A murderer has a 1% 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.
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.
Motivational Theories of
Deviance and Crime
Theory
Sociologist
Functionalism
Durkheim
Strain Theory
Merton
Cohen, Cloward,
Subcultural Theory
Ohlin
Learning Theory
Sutherland
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 in some way.
Strain Theory
Institutionalized means
Accept
Reject
Create
New
Accept conformity innovation
Cultural
Reject
Goals
Create
New
ritualism
retreatism
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.
Learning Theory: 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.
Constraint Theories of
Deviance and Crime
Theory
Sociologist
Labeling Theory
Becker, Matsueda,
Cicourel
Control Theory
Hirschi and
Gottfredson
Conflict Theory
Spitzer
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.
Quick Quiz
1. Sociologist John Hagan classifies
types of deviance and crime along
which of the following dimensions?
a. severity of the social response
b. perceived harmfulness of the act
c. 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. embezzlement
b. burglary
c. tax evasion
d. insider stock trading
e. 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 police
b. self-report surveys target only
perpetrators not victims
c. many crimes are not incorporated
into major crime indexes
d. 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 ghettoes
b. low class position of blacks in
society
c. racial discrimination in the criminal
justice system
d. 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 success
b. exposure to more deviant than nondeviant values during socialization
c. 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 success
b. criminal subcultures that collectively
adapt to social conditions and reject
mainstream values
c. exposure to more deviant than nondeviant 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. Which of the following are
regarded as a function of
prisons?
a. rehabilitation
b. deterrence
c. revenge
d. incapacitation
e. all of these choices
Answer: e
• Rehabilitation, deterrence,
revenge, and incapacitation
are regarded as a function of
prisons.