The Core8e Sociology Michael Hughes Carolyn J. Kroehler

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. chapter 5 Deviance and Crime Chapter Outline  Deviance and Crime  The Nature of Deviance  Social Control and Deviance  Theories of Deviance  Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Whether something is deviant depends on who is evaluating it. When important norms (rules) are violated, norms and social control function to maintain social organization, social relationships, and the meanings that underlie them. Deviance and Crime

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Deviance is behavior that a considerable number of people in a society view as reprehensible and intolerable. The Nature of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Properties of Deviance Deviance is relative and context- dependent –Example: Etoro of New Guinea –Example: Tattoos and body piercings Deviance is defined through power Definitions of deviance in a society change over time The Nature of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Properties of Deviance Dysfunctions –Interferes with operations of institutional life –Can affect morale of non-deviants negatively –Erodes societal trust The Nature of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Properties of Deviance Functions –Promotion of conformity –Censuring deviance clarifies boundaries –Censuring deviance strengthens the censuring group –Classifying and observing deviance can warn non-deviant majority The Nature of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social control regulates behavior within a society Functionalists see it as indispensable Conflict theorists see it as a tool of powerful groups Social Control and Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Control Processes Internalization of society’s normative expectations –Within individual personalities Limitation of social experience –Culture-boundedness Formal and informal sanctions –Hostility, expulsion, imprisonment Social Control and Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Theories of Deviance Why do people violate social rules? Why are some acts defined as deviant? Why is deviance inconsistent and relative? Five specific sociological theories: 1.Anomie 2.Cultural transmission 3.Conflict 4.Labeling 5.Control Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Anomie Theory Émile Durkheim anomie – a social condition in which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms that they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting Examples: gold rush, economic collapse Can be seen in Merton’s structural strain Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Theories of Deviance Merton’s Typology of Modes of Individual Adaptation to Anomie Source: Adapted from Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure. The Free Press, 1949, 1957.

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cultural Transmission Theory Edwin Sutherland Differential association – an individual’s cultural conditions help determine his/her likelihood of and attitudes towards deviance Examples: gang influences, college binge drinking, prison populations Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Conflict Theory Karl Marx, Richard Quinney Key question: Which group will dominate a culture’s sense of deviance? Quinney: “ Law… Criminal law, in particular, is a device… used by the ruling class to preserve the existing order.” Crimes of: domination, government, survival, resistance Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Labeling Theory How do some individuals come to be labeled as deviants, identify with that label, and solidify in that role? Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Labeling Theory Lemert, Becker, Erikson No act is inherently deviant Every person engages in primary deviance “Deviance” is society-defined by selective enforcement of rules Labeling people as deviants locks them into outsider status, inducing secondary deviance A deviant label stigmatizes a person and pushes him/her into a deviant subculture Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Control Theory Why don’t people deviate? Travis Hirschi’s study (1969) of juvenile delinquency in California Societal bond is crucial 1.Attachment to others 2.Involvement in the society’s conventional activities 3.Commitment to other people 4.Belief in the host society’s values Theories of Deviance

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. A crime is an act of deviance that is prohibited by law. The Criminal Justice System consists of the reactive agencies of the state, including the police, courts, and prisons. Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Forms of Crime Violent and property crime –8 index crimes (people, property) Murder  Rape Robbery  Assault Burglary  Theft Motor vehicle theft  Arson Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Crime and the Criminal Justice System Numbers of Violent Crimes, Violent Crimes Reported to Police, and Arrests for Violent Crimes in the U.S., Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Forms of Crime (continued) Juvenile crime –Peak ages (property), (violent) –Crime percentage drops with age –6% of students report being crime victim (2001) Organized crime –Large-scale bureaucratic organizations –Illegal goods and services –Italian (Mafia), Chinese gangs, Columbian Cuban (drugs), southern white moonshiners Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Forms of Crime (continued) White-collar and corporate crime –Affluent people, business activities Crime committed by the government –Genocide  Arms shipments –Bribery and corruption Victimless crime Technology and crime –Industrial espionage  Identity theft Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Measuring Crime Limitations –Most crimes are undetected, unreported, or unrecorded –Sense of crime varies by community Uniform Crime Reports (FBI) National Crime Victimization Survey (Bureau of Justice Statistics) Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Drugs and Crime Obvious links between drugs and crime –Drug dealing associated with illegal guns –Drug violations largest arrest category in % of U.S. adults will use drugs illegally “War on Drugs” raises questions about dealing with drug abuse Drug abuse in college students on the rise Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Race and Crime African-Americans in US: –12% of population –27% of arrests for index crimes –45% of prison population –6.5 times more likely to do time than whites –33% more likely to be stopped by police Peterson and Krivo: structural disadvantage Societal ramifications are familial, employment, and political Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Women and Crime 24% of all arrests in 2004: 18% of violent, 32% of property Majority of runaway and prostitution arrests are of women 50% of arrests of women are theft or running away from home; sexual abuse often a significant factor Females more likely to be victims of rape and sexual assault Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Criminal Justice System The police –First agents of the state –Dealing directly with crime: 15% of their time –Community-based policing The courts –Adversary system – defendant and prosecutor –Of the 2 million serious criminal cases filed each year in the U.S., less than 20% go to trial Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Criminal Justice System Prisons –Population steadily increasing –U.S. has highest incarceration rate in world (3.1% of adult population in 2004) –Purposes of imprisonment Punishment  Rehabilitation Deterrence  Incapacitation Crime and the Criminal Justice System

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Crime and the Criminal Justice System The Operation of the Criminal Justice System in the United States Sources: (a) Bureau of Justice Statistics; (b) and (c) Pastore and Maguire, 2005.

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Crime and the Criminal Justice System The United States Imprisons a Larger Share of Its Population than Does Any Other Nation Sources: Walmsley, 2005, available at www. prisonstudies.org; project.org

©2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Criminal Justice System Capital Punishment –Offenses include murder, kidnapping, rape, drug trafficking, and treason –58 executions in 2004 –Governor George Ryan of Illinois Other penalties and approaches –Probation  Parole –Home confinement Crime and the Criminal Justice System