1. Chapter 7
Deviance and Crime

2. Chapter Outline What Is Deviance?
Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
Postmodernist Perspectives on Deviance

3. Chapter Outline Crime Classifications and Statistics
The Criminal Justice System
Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future
The Global Criminal Economy

4. 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

5. Question
I believe that underage drinking is an important social problem in our society.
Strongly agree
Agree somewhat
Unsure
Disagree somewhat
Strongly disagree

6. 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.

7. How Much Do You Know About Peer Cliques, 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.

8. How Much Do You Know About Peer Cliques, Youth Gangs,and Deviance?
True or False?
Juvenile gangs are an urban problem; few rural areas have problems with gangs.

9. How Much Do You Know About Peer Cliques, 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.

10. Defining Deviance Deviance is relative.
An act becomes deviant when it is socially defined as such.
Definitions of deviance vary widely from place to place, from time to time, and from group to group.
Deviant behavior ranges from mild transgressions of folkways, to serious infringements of mores, to very violations of the law.

11. Crime and
A crime is a behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and/or other negative sanctions.
Juvenile delinquency, refers to a violation of law or the commission of a status offense by young people.
The criminal justice system, which includes the police, the courts, and the prisons, is the primary mechanism of external social control.

12. Question The text defines deviance as any: aberrant behavior.
behavior, belief, or condition that violates social norms.
serious violation of consistent moral codes.
perverted act.

13. Answer: b
The text defines deviance as any behavior, belief, or condition that violates social norms.

14. What Is Social Control?
Practices that social groups develop to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance.
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.

15. Criminology
The systematic study of crime and the criminal justice system, including the police, courts, and prisons.
When sociologists study deviance, they attempt to determine:
What types of behavior are defined as deviant
Who does the defining
How and why people become deviants
How society deals with deviants.

16. Functionalist Perspective
Deviance serves three functions:
Deviance clarifies rules.
Deviance unites a group.
Deviance promotes social change.

17. 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.

18. Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
Mode
Method
Retreatism
Abandons approved goals and approved means.
Rebellion
Challenges approved goals and approved means.

19. Functionalist Perspectives
Theory
Key Elements
Strain theory
Deviance occurs when approved means of reaching approved goals is blocked.
Opportunity theory
Lower-class delinquents subscribe to middleclass values they can’t attain. They may achieve goals illegitimately.

20. 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.

21. Interactionist Perspectives
Theory
Key Element
Differential association
Deviant behavior is learned in interaction with others.
Social Control/ Social bonding
Social bonds keep people from becoming criminals. When ties to family and friends become weak, individuals are likely to engage in criminal behavior.

22. Interactionist Perspectives
Theory
Key Element
Labeling theory
Acts are deviant because they have been labeled as such.
Primary /secondary
A person accepts the “deviant” label and continues to engage in “deviant” behavior.

23. Conflict Perspectives
Theory
Key Elements
Critical approach
The powerful use the criminal justice system to protect their interests.
Feminist approach
Liberal- deviance arises from discrimination.
Radical- focuses on patriarchy Socialist - focuses on capitalism and patriarchy

24. Postmodern Perspective
Theory
Key Element
Knowledge is power
Power, knowledge, and social control are intertwined. Example: In prisons, methods of surveillance make prisoners think they are being watched all the time, giving officials a form of power over the inmates.

25. Question
According to _____ theory, people are sometimes exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.
containment
status inaccessibility
strain
conflict

26. Answer: c
According to strain theory, people are sometimes exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.

27. Question
Differential Association theory suggests that people will become criminal in their behavior:
when they have frequent, intense, and long-lasting interactions with others who violate the law.
simply by associating with other people.
when they learn the rationalization and neutralization techniques for such behavior.
when they learn the techniques for committing the crimes.

28. Answer: a.
Differential Association theory suggests that people will become criminal in their behavior when they have frequent, intense, and long-lasting interactions with others who violate the law.

29. Question
Drug addicts are an example of what type of adaptation in Strain Theory?
conformity
innovation
retreatism
ritualism

30. Answer: c
Drug addicts are an example of the retreatism adaptation in Strain Theory.

31. Arrests by Type of Offenses, 2003

32. How the Law Classifies Crime
Crimes are divided into felonies and misdemeanors.
A felony is a serious crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment ranges from more than a year’s imprisonment to death.
A misdemeanor is a minor crime that is typically punished by less than one year in jail.

33. Question Have you ever stolen little things worth between $2 and $50?
Yes No

34. Question
Have you ever stolen things worth more than $50?
Yes No

35. How Sociologists Classify Crime
Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offenses:
conventional (street) crime
occupational (white-collar) and corporate crime
organized crime
political crime

36. Question
Have you ever been arrested?
Yes No

37. GSS National Data Yes 2% 3% 0.4% 4.5% 7.7% No 98% 97% 99.6% 95.5%
Lib. Protestant
Con. Protestant
Catholic
Jewish
None
Yes 2% 3%
0.4%
4.5%
7.7% No
98%
97%
99.6%
95.5%
92.3%

38. FBI Crime Clock

39. Conventional Crime
Includes violent crime, property crimes, and certain morals crimes.
Violent crime - actions involving force or the threat of force, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
Property crimes - robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
“Morals” crimes - prostitution, illegal gambling, use of illegal drugs, and illegal pornography.

40. Occupational and Corporate Crime
Occupational (white-collar) crime - illegal activities committed by people in their occupation or financial affairs.
Corporate crime - illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.
Examples: antitrust violations; tax evasion; misrepresentations in advertising; infringements on patents, copyrights, and trademarks; price fixing; and financial fraud.

41. Organized Crime
A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.
Premeditated, continuous illegal activities of organized crime include drug trafficking prostitution, loan-sharking, money laundering, and large-scale theft such as truck hijackings.
Organized crime thrives because there is great demand for illegal goods and services.

42. Political Crime
Illegal or unethical acts involving usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/ unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine or overthrow the government.

43. Question
Which of the behaviors below is referred to as a morals crime?
illegal gambling
illegal drugs
prostitution
all of these choices

44. Answer: d
The following behaviors are referred to as a morals crime: illegal gambling, illegal drugs and prostitution.

45. Four Types of Political Deviance
Secrecy and deception designed to manipulate public opinion.
Abuse of power.
Prosecution of individuals due to their political activities.
Official violence, such as police brutality against people of color or the use of citizens as unwilling guinea pigs in scientific research.

46. Arrest Rates by Sex, 2003

47. Arrest Rates by Race, 2002

48. Discretionary Powers in Law Enforcement

49. Criminal Justice System
Refers to more than 55,000 local, state, and federal agencies that enforce laws, adjudicate crimes, and treat and rehabilitate criminals.
Includes police, courts, corrections facilities, and employs more than 2 million people in 17,000 police agencies, nearly 17,000 courts, more than 8,000 prosecutorial agencies, about 6,000 correctional institutions, and more than 3,500 probation and parole departments.

50. Discretion
Refers to the use of personal judgment by police officers, prosecutors, judges, and other criminal justice system officials regarding how to proceed in a given situation.
Example: The police have the power to selectively enforce the law and have on many occasions been accused of being too harsh or too lenient on alleged offenders.

51. Punishment and Corrections
Punishment is any action designed to deprive a person of things of value because of some offense the person is thought to have committed.

52. Functions of Punishment
Retribution - the punishment should fit the crime.
Social protection - restrict offenders so they can’t commit further crimes.

53. Functions of Punishment
Rehabilitation - return offenders to the community as law-abiding citizens.
Deterrence - reduce criminal activity through a fear of punishment.

54. Question
From the following list, what do you feel should be the most important function of prison?
Punish people for crimes they committed.
Rehabilitate people who committed crimes.
Protect society by locking away criminals.
Serve as a warning.
Make people pay back society for the crimes they have committed.
Don't know

55. The Death Penalty
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, has been used in the United States as an appropriate and justifiable response to very serious crimes.
In 2002, 71 inmates were executed and more than 3,500 people awaited execution.
2/3 of those on death row are in southern states, including Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas.

56. Death Row Census January 1, 2005

57. Global crime
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.

58. Global Crime
Reducing global crime will require 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.

59. Quick Quiz

60. 1. ________ is any belief, behavior, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs.
Deviance
Mores
Taboos
Crime

61. Answer: A
Deviance is any belief, behavior, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs.

62. 2. The "good worker" is often an example of what type of adaptation in Strain Theory?
innovation
ritualism
retreatist
conformity

63. Answer: b
The "good worker" is often an example of ritualism in Strain Theory.

64. 3. Punishment is seen as serving four functions
3. Punishment is seen as serving four functions. Which item below is NOT one of those functions?
innovation
deterrence
retribution
social protection

65. Answer: a
Punishment is seen as serving four functions. Innovation is NOT one of those functions.

66. 4. ________ refers to the systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws, and to discourage deviance.
Criminal justice
Deviance
Law enforcement
Social control

67. Answer: d
Social control refers to the systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws, and to discourage deviance.

68. 5. A felony is a serious crime such as rape, and homicide for which punishment means imprisonment from one year to death.
False.
True.

69. Answer: b
A felony is a serious crime such as rape, and homicide for which punishment means imprisonment from one year to death.

70. 6. Control Theorists suggest that deviance is more likely to occur when social bonds are strongest.
False.
True.

71. Answer: a
Control Theorists suggest that deviance is less likely to occur when social bonds are strongest.