Chapter 6: Deviance and Crime WHAT IS DEVIANCE?

Social control: systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance o One form of social control takes place through socializaiton whereby individuals internalize societal norms and values o A second form of social control involves the use of negative sanctions to punish rule breakers o Many companies and individuals try to control their intellectual property through legal means which is a formal type of social control o Informal means of social control shape our behaviour Deviance: any behaviour, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs Behavioural deviance: a person may engage in intentional deviance by drinking too much or shoplifting or in inadvertent deviance by losing rent money at a video lottery terminal or laughing during a solemn occasion Radical or unusual beliefs: ex. cults Defining Deviance o Deviance is relative: an act becomes deviant when it is socially defined as such o Crimes: behaviours that violate criminal law and are punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE Strain Theory: Goals and the Means to Achieve Them o Strain theory: people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to reach because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals Opportunity Theory: Access to Illegitimate Opportunities o Illegitimate opportunity structures: circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot get through legitimate channels o Cloward and Ohlin: three different forms of delinquent subcultures- criminal, conflict, and retreatist- emerge based on the type of illegitimate opportunities available in a specific area Criminal subculture focuses on economic gain (ex. theft, drug dealing) Control Theory: Social Bonding o Social control theory has its roots in Durkheims anomie theory Anomic suicide occurs when a lack of social regulation, caused by factors such as rapid economic change, creates a situation in which social organization is weak and the individual lacks moral guidance

Linda Deutschmann: in towns early stages, the absence of control from institutions such as families and churches means that deviant behaviour may be common. In later stages of development, the strains of a booming town may also cause deviance o Travis Hirschi: deviant behaviour is minimized when people have strong bonds that tie them to families, school, peers, churches, and other social institutions o Social bond theory holds that the probability of deviant behaviour increases when a persons ties to society are weakened or broken. According to Hirschi, social bonding consists of: 1) Attachment to other people 2) Commitment to conventional lines of behaviour (ex. schooling and job success) 3) Involvement in conventional activities 4) Belief in the legitimacy of conventional values and norms Robert Merton: Strain theory- deviance occurs when access to the approved means of reaching culturally approved goals is blocked Richard Cloward/Lloyd Ohlin: Opportunity theory- for deviance to occur, people must have the opportunity. Access to illegitimate opportunity structures varies, and this helps determine the nature of the deviance in which a person will engage Travis Hirschi: social control/social bonding- social bonds keep people from becoming criminals. When ties to family, friends, and others become weak, and individual is most likely to engage in criminal behaviour

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE Symbolic interactionists believe deviance is learned in the same way as conformity- through interaction with others Differential Association Theory: individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with people who favour deviance over conformity o Developed by Edwin Sutherland o People learn the necessary techniques and the motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes of deviant behaviour from people with whom they associate o Differential association is most likely to result in criminal activity when a person has extensive interaction with rule-breakers Labelling Theory: deviants are those people who have been successfully labelled as such by others o Two processes involved in defining deviance Some people act (or are believed to act) in a manner contrary to the expectations of others Others disapprove of and try to control this contrary behaviour o The process of labelling is directly related to the power and status of those persons who do the labelling and those who are being labelled

Robert Rosenhan study seven people admitted themselves into mental hospitals they acted normal however their sanity went undetected by staff and was noticed by their fellow patients o Primary deviance: initial act of rule breaking o Secondary deviance: when a person who has been labelled a deviant accepts that new identity and continues the deviant behaviour o Primary deviance: young person tries drugs -> labelling causes stigmatization: arrested and convicted of drug use -> deviant self-image: a drug user -> secondary deviance: becomes part of drug subculture o Moral entrepreneurs: persons who use their own views of right and wrong to establish rules and label others as deviant o Moral crusades: public and media awareness campaigns that help generate public and political support for their causes Edwin Sutherland: differential association- deviant behaviour is learned in interaction with others. a person becomes delinquent when exposure to law-breaking attitudes is more extensive than exposure to law-abiding attitudes Howard Becker: labelling theory-acts are deviant or criminal because they have been labelled as such. Powerful groups often label less powerful individuals Edwin Lemert: primary/secondary deviance- primary deviance is the initial act. Secondary deviance occurs when a person accepts the label of deviant and continues to engage in the behaviour that initially produced the label

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE Feel that people in positions of power maintain their advantage by using the law to protect their interests The Conflict Approach o According to Marx, social institiutions make up a superstructure in society that legitimizes the class structure and maintains the capitalists superior position in it. crime is an expression of the individuals struggle against the unjust social conditions and inequality produced by capitalism o Quinney: people with economic and political power define behavaiour that threatens their own interests as criminal. o Some conflict theorists believe that the affluent commit crimes because they are greedy. The poor commit street crimes in order to survive, they cannot afford the necessary essentials such as food, clothing, shelter, and health care. o Living in poverty may lead to violent crime and victimization of the poor by the poor o The conflict approach argues that the law protects the interests of the affluent and the powerful o Karl Marx, Richard Quinney: conflict approach- the powerful use law and the criminal justice system to protect their own class interests Feminist Perspectives on Crime and Deviance

Freda Adler and Rita James Simons declared that womens crime rates were going to increase as a result of the womens liberation movement o Recent feminist scholars have concluded that the roots of female criminality lie in a social structure that is characterized by inequalities of class, race, and gender. Womens deviance and crime are rational responses to gender discrimination o Other theorists propose that women are exploited by capitalism and patriarchy. Most females have had relatively low-wage jobs and few economic resources, so such turned to minor crimes to earn money or to acquire consumer products o Arnold: many of the womens offences to living in families in which sexual abuse, incest, and other violence left them few choices except deviance o Elizabeth Comack examined relationship between womens victimization and their subsequent involvement in criminal justice system Meredith had been sexually abused, she was in jail for fraud and had been involved in drug use and prostitution Janice had been raped and used alcohol to cope. She served time for manslaughter o Feminist theorists feel that women who violate the law are not criminal women byt criminalized women o Kathleen Daly, Meda Chesney-Lind, Elizabeth Comack: feminist approach- current feminist theories suggest that structured inequalities of race, class, and gender condition lead to the criminalization of women Postmodern Perspectives on Deviance o Michel Foucault: study of prisons, pantopticon- a structure that gives prison officials the possibility of complete observation of criminals at all times. The guards wouldnt have to be present all the time because prisoners would believe that they were under constant scrutiny by officials in the observation post o Social control in the larger society is done by technologies (ex. security cameras) o Michel Foucault: knowledge as power- power, knowledge, and social control are intertwined. In prisons, for example, new means of surveillance that make prisoners think they are being watched all the time give officials knowledge that inmates do not have. Thus, the officials have a form of power over the inmates

CRIME CLASSIFICATION AND STATISTICS How Sociologists Classify Crime o Streer crime: includes offences such as robbery, assault, and break and enter Violent crime: involves force or the threat of force against others Property crimes: include break and enter, theft, and arson. The primary motive is to obtain money or some other valuable Morals crimes: illegal action voluntarily engaged in by the participants (ex. prostitution, drugs). Many people feel that such conduct should not be labelled as a crime

Occupational and Corporate Crime Occupational/white-collar crime: illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial dealings (ex. violation of positions of positions of trust like embezzling) Corporate crime: illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support (ex. anti-trust violations like false advertising) o Organized Crime: a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit Ex. drug trafficking, prostitution, large-scale theft Thrive because theres great demand for illegal goods and services, legitimate competitors are excluded because of the illegality, illegitimate competitors are controlled by force Crime Statistics o Official Statistics Our most important source of crime data is the Canadian Uniform Crime Reports (CUCR) system Crime has decreased in past 20 years The major weakness is that police statistics always underreport the actual amount of crime Official crime rates are the result of a criminal act, a complaint by a victim or witness, and a response by the criminal justice system o Victimization Surveys Because many people do not report their victimization to police, some governments carry out large surveys in which members of the public are directly asked whether they have been victims of crime People told interviewers they did not report crimes because they considered the incident too minor, because they felt it was a personal matter, because they preferred to deal with the problem in another way, or because they did not feel the police could do anything about the crime Weaknesses: people may not remember minor types of victimization; they may not report honestly to the interviewer; and the surveys do not provide information about victimless crimes such as drug use and illegal gambling Street Crimes and Criminals o Correlates of crime: factors associated with criminal activity o Age and Crime Arrests increase from early adolescence, peak in young adulthood, and steadily decline with age Explanations for decline in crime after early adulthood are the physical effects of aging, realization by older chronic offenders that further arrests will result in long jail sentences, maturational reform, and different social positions of youth and adults. o Gender and Crime

Most crimes committed by males Social Class and Crime Persons from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be arrested for violent and property crimes However most white-collar and corporate crimes arent reported Hartnagel degree of inequality: poverty amid affluence is a better predictor of crime than is the amount of poverty Most frequent and serious offenders come from underclass that is disadvantaged economically, educationally, and socially Race and Ethnicity and Crime Offenders from non-Aboringinal, visible ethnic minorities were underrepresented in the federal correctional systems population Black adults more likely to be imprisoned than white adults Many studies have demonstrated overinvolvement of Aboriginal people Reasons for racial and ethnic differences in crime: discrimination, less power, fewer resources Region and Crime

THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM The Police o Enforce the law, order maintenance (keeping the peace) and provision of social services o The police are open 24 hours a day o Serving clients that other agencies may not be interested in (ex. poor) o Police may not be well informed about or have access to other agencies that could handle some of their cases o Have authority to intervene in situations where something must be done immediately o The authority is backed up by non-negotiable force The Courts o Decide guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime Punishment: any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of some offence the person is deemed to have committed o It can serve 4 functions: Retribution: imposes a penalty on the offender based on the premise that the punishment should fit the crime (ex. person who murders should be punished more severely than one who steals) Social protection: results from restricting offenders so they cannot commit further crimes. If someone is in prison, he/she is no longer a threat to those on the outside Rehabilitation: seeks to return offenders to the community as law-abiding citizens Deterrence: seeks to reduce criminal activity by instilling a fear of punishment

The law does not deter as well as we might hope because the certainty of being arrested and convicted for most crimes is low o Most crimes do not result in arrests and most arrests do not result in convictions Restorative Justice o Advocates of restorative justice seek to return the focus of the justice system to repairing the harm that has been done to the victim and to the community o A key involvement of restorative justice is the involvement of the victim and other members of the community as active participants in the process in order to reconcile offenders with those they have harmed and to help communities to reintegrate victims and offenders o Circle sentencing: aboriginals brings an offender together with the victim and other community members to resolve disputes

DEVIANCE AND CRIME IN THE FUTURE The existing criminal justice system cannot solve the crime problem The best way to deal with crime is to ensure that it doesnt happen Structural solutions: ex. more and better education and jobs, affordable housing, more equality and less discrimination, and socially productive activities Working with young people before they become juvenile offenders Globalization: organized crime has spread from one country to another because the drug trade is a vast international business Much of future growth of crime lies in the internet and other new technologies