1. Crime and Deviance Beliefs in Society
1 hour 30 minutes; 60 marks; 20% of total A Level marks
Crime and Deviance &Theory and Methods.
2 hours; 90 marks; 30% of total A Level marks
Crime Paper; 4 questions
Q1 & 2- on crime and deviance 21m & 21m
Q3- methods in context 15m
Q4- theory and methods 33m

2. Section 1) Defining crime and deviance
Crime: an act which breaks the law e.g. shoplifting
Deviance: an act which breaks the norms and values of society e.g. a man wearing high heels [and/or] shouting in a library

3. Crime, deviant or both? Look at the following images:
For each, decide whether you think it is a crime, deviant or both?

4. Running naked across a football pitch
Smoking cannabis
Cheating in exams
Running naked across a football pitch

5. Parking on a double yellow line
Smoking at home in the presence of children

6. Swearing when with your friends
Crime
Deviance
Both
Swearing when with your friends   
Lesbianism
Attempting suicide
Adultery
Driving at 5mph above the 30mph speed limit
A man living in Devon with 2 wives
Stealing penny mix sweets
A sexual assault
A woman killing her husband in self defence, who had been physically abusing her for years
Downloading porn off the internet
Drinking alcohol in Saudi Arabia
A woman wearing a mini skirt during Victorian times
A man forcing his wife to have sex
A 13 year-old drinking beer at her parent’s house party

7. Is all deviance criminal?
Are all crimes deviant?
Is all deviance criminal?

8. Deviant acts An act can be criminal and deviant:
Breaking both legal and social laws e.g. murder
An act can be deviant but not criminal:
Someone talking loudly in the cinema/theatre. Such instances show how delicately balanced our social order can be; minor transgressions of behaviour (acceptable in our private realm) become very different when occurring in public
Acts can be criminal but not deviant:
You might think all crimes are deviant but consider the following: speeding, not paying TV license, parking on double yellow lines. These are crimes but they are not always subject to social disapproval (because a lot of people do it?

9. Moral and social code broken:
Crime
Deviance
Moral and social code broken:
Murder
Parking on yellow lines
Smiling at strangers
Legal code broken
Moral code broken

10. The relativity of crime and deviance
Crime and deviance are relative to time, place and culture i.e. what counts as crime and deviance varies between different times, places and cultures.
E.g. which of these would be considered deviant?

11. Reality of Crime and Deviance
Ken Plummer (1979) distinguishes between societal deviance, and situational deviance
Societal deviance refers to behaviour which breaks the law, or which is seen as deviant by most members of society at all times.
Situational deviance refers to the effect of the context or situation on the classification of deviance. In one situation an act may be seen as deviant, but in another not.

12. Questions: Give two examples of societal deviance *
Give two examples of situational deviance

13. Ken Plummer
Accepts that the beliefs and values of the wider society affect views on situational deviance
Argues that in certain contexts people either neutralise or reject the societal version of deviance

14. Culture and Deviance
As cultures change, so do definitions of deviance and crime.
There was a time when it was seen as deviant for a women to wear make up or drink alcohol.
In the same way, definitions of crime change.
Deviance therefore is culturally determined and socially constructed

15. Check your understanding
Define the following terms:
Crime
Situational deviance
Societal deviance

16. Section 2) Social Control
Method of making people stick to the rules and laws of society.
Ensures that most of the people conform most of the time.
Enforcing conformity means discouraging deviant and criminal behaviour.

17. Formal Methods of Social Control
Institutions set up to enforce social control
Institutions which create and enforce the law
E.g. parliament enacts laws, police, judiciary and prison service enforce it
So what are they more relevant to?

18. Informal Methods of Social Control
Involves institutions and social groups which are not directly concerned with enforcing social control.
E.g. Family, schools, religious organisation
Family teaches norms and values of wider society
Religion reinforces values of society
Significant others (friends, neighbours) who people are concerned about what they think of them

19. Check your understanding
Define the following terms:
Social control
Formal methods of social control
Informal methods of social control