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Deviance and Crime
Chapter 6
Chapter Outline
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What Is Deviance?
Functionalist Perspectives on
Deviance
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives
on Deviance
Postmodernist Perspectives on
Deviance
Chapter Outline
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Crime Classifications and Statistics
The Criminal Justice System
Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the
Future
The Global Criminal Economy
Deviance

Any behavior, belief, or condition that
violates social norms in the society or
group in which it occurs:
– drinking too much
– robbing a bank
– laughing at a funeral
How Much Do You Know About
Peer Cliques, Youth Gangs,and
Deviance?

True or False?
– Street crime has a much higher economic
cost to society than crimes committed in
executive suites or by government
officials.
How Much Do You Know About
Youth Gangs, and Deviance?

False
– Although street crime—such as assault
and robbery—often has a greater
psychological cost, crimes committed by
persons in top positions in business or
government have a far greater economic
cost, especially for U.S. taxpayers.
How Much Do You Know About
Youth Gangs and Deviance?

True or False?
– Juvenile gangs are an urban problem;
few rural areas have problems with
gangs.
How Much Do You Know About
Youth Gangs, and Deviance?

False.
– Gangs are frequently thought of as an
urban problem because central-city
gangs organized around drug dealing
have become prominent in recent years;
however, gangs are found in rural areas
throughout the country as well.
What Is Social Control?

Practices that social groups develop to
encourage conformity to norms, rules,
and laws and to discourage deviance.
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.
Polling Question

Do you favor or oppose federal
legislation banning the manufacture,
sale, or possession of semiautomatic assault guns, such as the
AK-47?
A.
B.
C.
Favor
Oppose
Don't know
Functionalist Perspective
Deviance serves three functions:
1. Deviance clarifies rules.
2. Deviance unites a group.
3. Deviance promotes social change.
Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
Mode
Method
Conformity
Accepts approved goals, pursues
them through approved means.
Innovation
Accepts approved goals; uses
disapproved means.
Ritualism
Abandons society’s goals;
conforms to approved means.
Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
Mode
Retreatism
Rebellion
Method
Abandons approved
goals and approved
means.
Challenges approved
goals and approved
means.
Opportunity Theory

Sociologists Richard Cloward and
Lloyd Ohlin (1960) suggested that for
deviance to occur, people must have
access illegitimate opportunity
structures:
– Circumstances that provide an
opportunity for people to acquire through
illegitimate activities what they cannot
achieve through legitimate channels.
Functionalist Perspectives
Theory
Strain
theory
Opportunity
theory
Key Elements
Deviance occurs when
approved means of
reaching approved goals
is blocked.
Lower-class delinquents
subscribe to middleclass
values they can’t attain.
They may achieve goals
illegitimately.
Functionalist Perspectives
Theory
Key Elements
Social
control/
social
bonding
When ties to family and
friends are weak,
individuals are likely to
engage in criminal
behavior.
Interactionist
Perspectives
Theory
Key element
Differential
association
Deviant behavior is learned in
interaction with others.
Labeling
theory
Acts are deviant because they
have been labeled as such.
Interactionist Perspectives
Theory
Primary
/secondary
Key element
A person accepts the “deviant”
label and continues to engage
in “deviant” behavior.
Conflict Perspectives
Theory
Critical
approach
Feminist
approach
Key Elements
The powerful use the
criminal justice system to
protect their interests.
Liberal- deviance arises
from discrimination.
Radical- focuses on
patriarchy
Socialist - focuses on
capitalism and patriarchy
Differential Association
Theory Perspectives
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
States that people have a greater
tendency to deviate from societal
norms when they frequently associate
with individuals who are more
favorable toward deviance than
conformity.
From this approach, criminal behavior
is learned within intimate personal
groups such as one’s family and peer
Differential
Reinforcement
Theory

Criminologist Ronald Akers (1998)
combined differential association
theory with elements of psychological
learning theory to create differential
reinforcement theory.
– If a person’s friends and groups define
deviant behavior as “right,” they is more
likely to engage in deviant behavior.
– If a person’s friends and groups define
deviant behavior as “wrong,” the person
is less likely to engage in that behavior.
Social Bond Theory
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The probability of deviant behavior
increases when a person’s ties to society
are weakened or broken.
According to Hirschi, social bonding
consists of
–
–
–
–
attachment to other people
commitment to conformity
involvement in conventional activities
belief in the legitimacy of conventional norms.
Labeling Theory
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States that deviance is a socially
constructed process in which social control
agencies designate certain people as
deviants, and they, in turn, accept the label
and begin to act accordingly.
Focuses on the variety of symbolic labels
that people are given in their interactions
with others.
The act of fixing a person with a negative
identity, such as “criminal” is directly related
to the power of those who do the labeling
Postmodern Perspective
Theory
Knowledge
is power
Key Element
Power, knowledge, and social
control are intertwined.
Example: Methods of prison
surveillance make prisoners
think they are being watched all
the time,
giving officials power over the
inmates.
Stages in the Labeling
Process
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If individuals accept a negative label, they
are more likely to continue to participate in
the type of behavior the label was initially
meant to control.
Secondary deviance occurs when a person
who has been labeled a deviant accepts the
identity and continues the deviant behavior.
Tertiary deviance occurs when a person
who has been labeled a deviant seeks to
normalize the behavior by relabeling it as
nondeviant.
How the Law Classifies
Crime
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Crimes are divided into felonies and
misdemeanors.
– A felony is a serious crime such as rape,
homicide, or aggravated assault, for
which punishment typically ranges from
more than a year’s imprisonment to
death.
– A misdemeanor is a minor crime typically
punished by less than one year in jail.
Polling Question

Did you ever use marijuana during
your senior year in high school?
A.
B.
Yes
No
How Sociologists Classify
Crime

Sociologists categorize crimes based
on how they are committed and how
society views the offenses:
1.
2.
3.
4.
conventional (street) crime
occupational (white-collar) and corporate
crime
organized crime
political crime
Arrests by Type of
Offenses, 2002
Polling Question

Have you ever been arrested?
A.
B.
Yes
No
FBI Crime Clock
Arrest Rates by Sex, 2004
Arrest Rates by Race,
2004
Discretionary Powers in Law
Enforcement
Functions of Punishment
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Retribution
– The punishment should fit the crime.
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Social protection
– Restrict offenders so they can’t commit
further crimes.
Functions of Punishment
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Rehabilitation
– Return offenders to the community as
law-abiding citizens.
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Deterrence
– Reduce criminal activity through a fear of
punishment.
Polling Question

From the following list, what do you feel
should be the most important function of
prison?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Punish people for crimes they committed.
Rehabilitate people who have crimes.
Protect society by locking away criminals.
Serve as a warning to would-be lawbreakers.
Make people pay back society for the crimes they
have committed.
Don't know
Death Row Census, January
2005
Global crime
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The 1994 United Nations Conference
on Global Organized Crime estimated
that about $500 billion per year is
accrued in the global trade in drugs
alone.
Today, profits from all kinds of global
criminal activities are estimated to
range from $750 billion to more than
$1.5 trillion a year.
Reducing Global Crime

Requires a global response, including:
– Cooperation of law enforcement
agencies, prosecutors, and intelligence
services across geopolitical boundaries.
– Regulation by the international
community to control international money
laundering and trafficking in people and
controlled substances such as drugs and
weapons.