1. Crime and Deviance Unit 3
Part 1: Presentation
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

2. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Objectives of Chapter 1
Following this lesson you should:
Must: Be able to define deviance and crime.
Should: Explain how both deviance and crime are social constructions.
Explain how deviance and crime can vary between cultures and across timeframes .
Could: Analyse Howard Becker's view that no action in itself is deviant until defined as such.
Analyse how deviant and criminal behaviour are controlled by rules, social mores and sanctions.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

3. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Consider this..
"All crime is, by definition deviant behaviour, but not all forms of deviance is crime” (Sociology central, 2012)
Now do the following exercise P258
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

4. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
What is Deviance?
Deviant behaviour is:
Behaviour
that incurs
public
disapproval.
Behaviour
subject to
some form of
sanction.
Behaviour
that differs
from the
normal.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

5. Anthony Giddens: definition of deviance
‘Non-conformity to a given norm, or set of norms, which are accepted by a significant number of people in a community or society’ (Anthony Giddens 1993).
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

6. Becker and Labelling Theory: page 259 TaskNo
action in
itself is deviant.
It has to excite some social reaction from others.
Howard Becker (above) highlights the social construction of deviance by stating:
It depends upon who commits it, who sees it, and what action is taken about it.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

7. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Question: can what is seen has ‘deviant’ change over time? Consider this example:
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

8. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Copyright © Harry Venning, Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

9. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Deviance is Relative
Definitions of deviance will clearly vary between:
Cultures
Time
Periods
Sub-cultures
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

10. Are These Acts of Deviance?
Look at the pictures on the next few slides. Identify in what ways they may be viewed as deviant.
Note deviance does not need to be criminal, have any crimes been broken in these pictures?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

11. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

12. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

13. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

14. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

15. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

16. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

17. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

18. Deviance Controlled by Sanctions
Deviant behaviour is effectively controlled by sanctions that promote conformity.
Sanctions may be: or
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

19. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Formal Sanctions
Sanctions that are a part of institutions
Police
Courts
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

20. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Informal Sanctions
Disapproval
Public shaming
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

21. Legal Definitions of Crime
The OED (oxford English
dictionary)
defines
crime as: ‘an act
punishable by law,
as being forbidden
by statute’.
Crime is therefore
a specific act of
deviance that
breaks society’s
formal rules or laws.
The process of
law-making is
a social one since
laws are human
products.
For example:
Racism
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

22. Normative Definitions of Crime
Besides
the legal
definition
Mooney et al. (2000)
suggest a
normative definition
of crime.
Hence society is largely unsympathetic to criminals who have been caught – e.g. “they get what they deserve”.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

23. Religious Crimes Before industrialisation the most serious
crimes were typically
religious in nature:
Heresy
Sacrilege
Blasphemy
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

24. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

25. ‘Just’ and ‘Unjust’ Laws
Some people
regularly
flout laws.
Dog
licences
were withdrawn
because so
few bought
them.
For example, many people ignore 30 mph laws in towns or 70 mph on motorways
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

26. Middle-class Criminals?
Steal
stationery
‘Respectable’ people may:
Put
private letters
through office
mail
Make private
phone calls
at work
Fiddle
expenses
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

27. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
White Collar Crime
Marxists argue there is an enormous amount of white-collar and corporate crime.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

28. Crime is not Fixed or Permanent
Homosexuality and abortion are no longer crimes in most societies.
Cannabis
was recently
declassified to
a Class C
drug.
During the period of ‘prohibition’ in the USA the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal.
Sexism is now illegal
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

29. Conclusions on Chapter 2
Deviance is behaviour by individuals or social groups that fails to conform to culturally expected norms of behaviour.
It is a relative concept – no act in itself is deviant per se.
Labelling theory makes the important point that it is the social reaction or label that defines an act as ‘deviant’.
Sanctions can be positive or negative, formal or informal.
Deviance is distinct from crime, although crimes tend to be deviant behaviour, not all deviance is criminal.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

30. Conclusions (continued)
Deviance is controlled by sanctions.
Crime is a formal act of deviance that violates statute law.
Besides this legal definition, it carries normative judgements – criminals are not viewed sympathetically.
In pre-industrial society most crimes were religious in nature, or acts of theft against the aristocracy.
According to people’s value judgements crimes can be ‘just’ or ‘unjust’.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

31. Social construction of crime
WARM-UP: IT’S CRIMINAL . . .
Imagine (it’s easy if you try) you are walking in a forest and you chance upon a large, recently uprooted tree. If nobody heard it, what sort of sound did it make as it fell to the ground?
Now, imagine you have committed a crime
– but nobody saw you do it. Identify,
explain and discuss some arguments for
and against the idea that you are ‘a
criminal’.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

32. Becker and Labelling Theory:No
action in
itself is deviant.
It has to excite some social reaction from others.
Howard Becker (above) highlights the social construction of deviance by stating:
It depends upon who commits it, who sees it, and what action is taken about it.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

33. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Master Labels
Master labels. Becker (1963) suggests these are such powerful labels that everything about a person is interpreted in the light of the label
Can you give an example?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

34. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

35. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

36. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
3 points of his theory
1. breaking a rule may not always be defined as deviant
2. someone has to draw attention to the act and label it as deviant- normally has a vested interest in doing so
3. If a person is successfully labelled then consequences happen.
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

37. Evidence for labelling theory
Mental illness
Being sane in insane places
Glaser and Strauss (1965) – study of dying Page 261
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) – labelling in the classroom page 263
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

38. Criticism of labelling theory
Sunday, 16 April 2017
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?