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Section 3 at a Glance
Crime
• Crime affects everyone in the United States, some as victims,
some as criminals, and some as observers.
• Crimes are grouped into five general categories: violent crime,
property crime, victimless crime, white-collar crime, and
organized crime.
• Crime statistics are gathered and reported by two main
sources, the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Crime
Victimization Survey.
• The criminal-justice system—made up of the police, the courts,
and corrections—deals with crimes that have been committed
and reported.
Crime and Criminals
• A crime is any act that is labeled as such by those in authority and is
prohibited by law.
• An act that is immoral is not necessarily illegal.
• Criminals can be any age, gender, or race, although people under 35 are
more likely to be involved in crime.
Types of Crime
Violent Crime
• Murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault
• Make up small percentage of total crime rates, but still alarming
• One every 22 seconds in the United States
• Most victims are African Americans
• Majority of murders committed with guns
Property Crime
• Burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson
• One every three seconds in the United States
• People under 25 commit most crimes
• Many crimes committed by those on drugs
Victimless Crime
• Prostitution, illegal gambling, illegal drug use, and vagrancy
• Although classified as “victimless,” often have negative
consequences for society
White-Collar Crime
• White-collar crimes include fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement,
price-fixing, toxic pollution, insider trading, and political corruption
• Corporations can be charged with crimes, not just individuals
Organized Crime
• Crime syndicate: a large-scale organization of professional criminals
that controls some vice or legitimate business through violence
• Legitimate businesses can serve as “fronts” for illegal activities
Crime Statistics
• The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is published annually by the FBI.
– Uses data from local police departments
– Factors that limit reporting of crimes:
• Not all complaints make it into a formal report.
• People less likely to make a report against friend or family member.
• Police more likely to make an official report when crime is against a highstatus person.
• Victims less likely to report some forms of crime.
• The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is published by the
Bureau of Justice Statistics.
– Uses data from crime victims about reported and unreported crimes
– Relies on interviews with representative sample
The Criminal-Justice System
Police
Courts
• Control over who is arrested
• Police discretion: the ability to
decide who is actually arrested
• Racial profiling: the practice of
assuming that nonwhite Americans
are more likely to commit crimes
• Hold trials to determine guilt or
innocence
• If guilty, assign punishments
• Plea bargaining: the process of
legal negotiation that allows a guilty
plea in return for a lighter sentence
Corrections
Juvenile-Justice System
• Corrections: Imprisonment,
parole, probation, community
service
• Functions: retribution, deterrence,
rehabilitation, social protection
• Recidivism: repeated criminal
behavior
• Young offenders cannot be
expected to be as responsible as
adults
• New laws ensure juveniles receive
fair treatment
• Some places treat young as adults
Sociology in Today’s World
Identity Theft
Identity theft occurs when a criminal uses another person’s name and
financial standing to buy items or complete financial transactions.
Victims of identity theft often lose their financial standings because of
the crime.
• Identity thieves may rent an
apartment, get medical
services, make large
purchases, or use another’s
name while being arrested.
• Federal Trade Commission
estimates there are more than 9
million cases a year.
• Methods of theft include
stealing wallets or phishing.
• Prevention methods include
shredding documents and
monitoring bank statements.
Functionalism and Crime
Functionalist Approach
• Rather than starting with the individual as
with biological and psychological theories, the
functionalist analysis of deviance starts begins
with society as a whole.
Crime as Inevitable
• Durkheim argued that crime is an inevitable
and normal aspect of social life.
• Crime is present in all types of society, indeed
the crime rate is higher in the more advanced,
industrialized countries.
• It is inevitable because not every member of
society can be equally committed to the
collective sentiments (shared values and
beliefs)
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) 4ed., pg 389
Durkheim
• Durkheim imagines a ‘society of saints’
populated by perfect individuals.
• In such a society there would be no murder or
robbery but there would still be deviance as
the slightest slip would be regarded as a
serious offence and would attract strong
disapproval.
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) 4ed., pg 389
Crime as functional
• Crime is not only inevitable – it is functional.
• Durkheim argued it only becomes
dysfunctional when it its rate is unusually high
or low.
• He argues that all social change begins with
some form of deviance.
• If collective sentiments are too strong – there
will be little deviance and little change or
progress.
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) 4ed., pg 389
Crime as functional
• Conversely if there is little
collective sentiment, there will
be too much crime and deviance
and individuality rises and the
status quo breaks down.
• This is what Durkheim referred
to as anomie – the loss of
shared and guiding principles
and norms.
Crime as Functional
• Durkheim also suggested that crime
strengthens social cohesion
• By publically condemning those who have
broken significant rules we are aware of the
norms and values and the limits of toleration
and unite against the condemned
• The public response to crime and deviance is
what is functional as it reinforces social
solidarity and integrates society
Watch Chris Livesey clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9DgtZ0fbL0
The Function of Punishment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZs0KYbD0Gg
• According to Durkheim, the function of
punishment is not remove crime, but to ‘heal
the wounds done to the collective
sentiments’.
• Without punishment – the collective
sentiments would lose their force and
strength
• For Durkheim – crime and punishment are
both inevitable and functional.
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) 4ed., pg 389
Albert Cohen
• Albert K. Cohen identified two possible
functions of deviance:
1. A safety valve – deviance provides a relatively
harmless expression of discontent. For example,
prostitution performs a safety valve function
without threatening the institution of the family.
2. Certain deviant acts also act as warning devices to
indicate an aspect of society is malfunctioning. For
example, truancy in schools may reveal
unsuspected causes of discontent leading to
changes.
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) 4ed., pg 390
Criticisms of Durkheim
• Durkheim didn’t explain why some groups
were more prone to deviance than others or
why certain forms of deviance seem to be
associated with certain groups.
• It was Robert K Merton who provided these
answers within a functionalist framework.
Robert K Merton (1930s)
• Merton argued that deviance resulted from
the culture and structure of society itself
(structuralist).
• He begins from the standard functionalist
position of value consensus – that is, all
members of society share the same values.
• According to Merton culture, especially
Western, attaches great importance to the
values of competition, success and wealth.
Social Structure and Anomie
• Since members of society are placed in
different positions in the social structure (e.g.
they differ in terms of class position), they do
not have the same opportunity of realizing the
shared values.
• This situation can generate anomie and
deviance.
• He refers to this as strain theory
Strain Theory
• Merton highlights that there is a strain
between the cultural goals of a society (in his
study the American Dream) and the legitimate
means to achieve these goals.
• Those who are at the bottom of the ladder
find it hardest to succeed, therefore they are
the ones who are more likely to seek
alternative routes to success.
Varieties of Deviant Responses
• Merton identifies five ways in which
individuals may respond to the strain between
goals and the means of achieving them in
society:
Conformity Most of the population cope by doing their
best and making the most of what society
offers them
Sir Allen Stanford was accused in
connection with an $8bn (£5.6bn)
investment fraud.
Innovation Commitment to cultural goals may remain
strong, but some people reject the
conventional means of acquiring wealth and
turn to illegal means
Ritualism
Some people have lost sight of material
goals, but derive satisfaction from fairly
meaningless jobs
Retreatism A small number of people reject both the
goals and the means, by dropping out of
society
Rebellion
People may rebel and seek to replace shared
goals and institutional means with more
radical alternatives, and may use violent
methods to achieve this
What Is Social Control?
• Internal social control takes place when
individuals internalize norms and values and
follow those norms and values in their lives.
• External social control involves negative
sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors and
punish rule breakers.
Functionalist Perspective
Deviance serves three functions:
1. Deviance clarifies rules.
2. Deviance unites a group.
3. Deviance promotes social change.
Symbolic Interactionism / Labelling
Theory
• No actions are by nature criminal or deviant –
it depends on the norms of the society and
the reaction of members of society of society
in different situations and contexts.
Howard Becker
• States there is no such
thing as a deviant act.
• No act is inherently criminal
or deviant in itself, in all
situations and at all times.
• An act only becomes
criminal or deviant when
others label it as such.
Labelling and Power
• The social construction of deviance requires two
activities:
1. One group which normally lacks power, behaves in a
particular way.
2. Another group with more power, responds
negatively to it and labels it as criminal.
• Becker claims a powerful groups create rules or
laws to define what counts as deviance and
labels those who fail to conform as criminals or
outlaws (outsiders)
Edwin Lemert
• Distinguished between primary and
secondary deviance
• Primary deviance is insignificant deviant acts
that have not been publicly labelled.
• Secondary deviance is the result of societal
reaction – of labelling.
• Secondary deviance leads to stigmatization
where people are shunned and excluded from
normal society.
Secondary Deviance
• Lemert asserts that the criminal label can become
a master status where society interprets all
actions and motives within the context of the
label.
• Secondary deviance leads to prejudice,
discrimination and produce a self-fulfilling
prophecy and the labelled person may seek
refuge with other people branded with a similar
label.
• Think of the consequences for sex offenders and
ex-cons.