Crime and Deviance

Definitions “Crime” and “Deviance” are related, but not equivalent, concepts. - Deviance is the violation of norms, which are socially-shared standards of conduct. - Crime is the violation of criminal codes. - Not all crime is deviant; not all deviance is criminal, but the same theories and methods concern both categories of behaviour.

Quantifying Crime and Deviance: What We Know -Some findings regarding rates of homicide in North American cities: -US vs Canada -East vs West (in Canada) -Trends in Violent and Property Crimes -Challenges in quantifying noncriminal forms of deviance -Funding -Finding target populations -Avoiding forms of bias BUnderreporting BOverreporting

How We Know What We Know Statistics concerning crime come from one of three sources -Police reports (the UCR) Advantage: Consistency of definitions Disadvantages: Underreporting (by victims) and misreporting (by police) -Victimization surveys (from the GSS) Advantage: get around underreporting, calculate part of “dark figure of crime.” Disadvantages: not as large in scope as UCR, rely on victims’ memory/interpretation -Self-report studies Advantage: Go straight to the source Disadvantage: Rely on untrustworthy sources

What Causes Crime and Deviance? Theories can be grouped depending on their focus. -”Classical” and Rational Choice Theories: Crime=Pleasure (and Punishment=Pain, and therefore is a deterrent to crime) -Social Structure Theories: Society is to Blame -Social Process Theories: Crime is a Learned Behaviour -Conflict Theories: “Criminal” and “deviant” are means of social control against persons who threaten the status quo -Labelling Theory: Deviants are whoever those in power “label” deviant- there is no objective reality to “deviance” or “crime” (eg the Rosenberg reading).