AC1.1: compare criminal behaviour and deviance

Question 1

what is deviance?

Answer 1

Any behaviour that is different to the norm for most people within a society
Can be behaviour that is different and disapproved of but not generally harmful
Goes against values and norms of a society, often includes rule breaking and leads to sanctions and punishment from others
Can be serious, most criminal acts are seen as deviant

Question 2

Examples of deviance:

Answer 2

unharmful-
>keeping loads of cats
>queue jumping
>stealing
Harmful
>murder
>attacking someone

Question 3

What are formal sanctions?

Answer 3

Those imposed by institutions and official bodies for breaking of written rules and laws, penalties that can be imposed on a person committing a crime and vary according to the nature of the crime

Question 4

Who imposes formal sanctions?

Answer 4

courts or the police

Question 5

what are informal sanctions?

Answer 5

not formalised consequences e.g people tutting at queue jumping, people giving ‘dirty looks’ etc.

Question 6

what is a social definition?

Answer 6

refers to what people within a society consider criminal which may not match the legal definition of criminal