1. Why do people commit deviant acts?
Deviance
Why do people commit deviant acts?

2. Three Competing Explanations
1. Sociobiology
2. Psychology
3. Sociology

3. 1. Sociobiology
Having a genetic predisposition to commit deviance (internal)
Intelligence – lower intelligence leads to crime
The “XYY” Theory – an extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime
Body type – people with “squarish, muscular” bodies are more likely to commit crime

4. Challenges to Sociobiology
Intelligence:
The IQ test measures middle-class knowledge and values (minority groups and the poor score lower on the test)
These same groups also commit proportionately more crime because they suffer structural disadvantages such as poverty and discrimination.

5. Challenges to Sociobiology
“XYY” Theory:
Most men who commit crimes have the normal XY chromosomes
No women have this combination genes, therefore this theory cannot apply to females who commit crime
Based on the study of inmates – “Super-male”
There were more inmates who had the XYY than those that did not – Most likely reason is upbringing and not extra chromosome

6. Challenges to Sociobiology
Body Type:
Early studies were racially motivated
Criminals exhibit a full range of body types

7. 2. Psychology Focus on abnormalities within Personality disorders
Deviating individuals have deviating personalities
Subconscious motives drive people to commit deviant acts

8. Insanity Plea
The M'Naghten Rule (1843) states a person was not legally insane unless he is "incapable of appreciating his surroundings" because of a powerful mental delusion.
A person who is insane is not capable of forming willful intent.
The defense must prove that there is a sever mental disease or defect.

9. 3. Sociology Search for factors outside the individual Such as
Socialization
Subculture membership
Social class

10. Socialization
Farrington and West traced the development of 411 working-class London boys
Their teachers identified some as particularly difficult and aggressive.
Social workers visited the homes of the boys in 1961
1974 boys were labeled as criminal or noncriminal
Families were quarrelsome, provided little supervision, and/or included a parent with a criminal record.
Parental cruelty
In studying the impact of family on delinquency, long-term studies are particularly helpful, providing information for judging whether parental rejection and unfair discipline precede or follow antisocial behavior. For two decades, David Farrington and Donald West traced the development of 411 working-class London boys born between 1951 and When the boys were between eight and ten years old, their teachers identified some as particularly difficult and aggressive. Social workers visited the homes of the boys in 1961 and gathered information on the parents' attitudes toward their sons, disciplinary techniques used, and compatibility between the parents. In 1974, as the boys reached maturity, each was classified as noncriminal (if there were no convictions) or, according to his criminal record, as a violent or a nonviolent criminal. Farrington and West found that the families most likely to produce criminals had been quarrelsome, provided little supervision, and included a parent with a criminal record. Furthermore, boys whose parents had been harsh or cruel in 1961 were more likely than their classmates to acquire records for violent crimes. Parental cruelty was actually a more accurate selector of boys who would become violent criminals than was the child's early aggressiveness.

11. Subculture Membership
Gangs
Drug users
Requiem for a Dream
Other Deviant groups

12. Social Class
Cycle of Poverty
Street crimes