Ch. 11 Crime and Deviance Flashcards
What is Deviance?
Socially defined as such; ambiguous; varies with degrees.
Central Concepts of Deviance
Any behaviour, belief, or condition that violates cultural norms in the society or group in which it occurs.
Can be understood to mean not only behaviour but also beliefs.
Social Control
Systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance.
Socialization Aspects
Norms, values, belief systems, etc.
Formal Sanctions
Through the criminal justice system.
Crime
Is an act that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions.
Juvenile Delinquency
Refers to a violation of the law by young people under the age of 18 (in Canada).
Strain Theory
People feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals. (Don’t have the means or resources)
Opportunity Theory: illegitimate opportunity structures
Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot get through legitimate channels.
Delinquent subculture forms (3 forms)
Criminal: Focus on economic gain and includes theft, extortion, and drug dealing
Conflict: groups that fight over territory and adopt a value system of toughness, courage, and status-enhancing qualities
Retreatist: Those who avoid mainstream society and adopt alternative lifestyles.
Control Theory
Deviant behaviour is minimized when people have strong bonds that bind them to families, peers, religious organizations, and other institutions.
Social Bond Theory
The probability of deviant behavior increases when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken.
Social Bonding Consists of:
-Attachment
-Commitment
-Involvement
-Belief
Differential Association Theory
Individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who favour deviance over conformity.
Labelling Theory
Deviants are those people who have been successfully labelled as such by others; directly related to the power and status of those persons who do the labelling.
Retrospective labelling
Labelling someone based on past behavior.
Primary Deviance
The initial (1st) act of rule breaking.
Secondary Deviance
Occurs when a person who has been labeled deviant accepts the new identity and continues the deviant behaviour.
Moral Entrepreneurs
People who use their own views of right and wrong to establish rules and label others as deviant. (moral judgement)
Moral Crusades
Public and media awareness campaigns that help generate public and political support for their causes.
Conflict Perspectives
Lifestyles considered deviant by political and economic elites often are defined as illegal.
Who has the power to define, enforce, and punish crime and deviance?
Feminist Perspective
Focus: to examine the relationship between gender, deviance, and crime.
Liberal Feminism
Women’s deviance and crime as a rational response to oppression and discrimination.
Radical Feminism
Patriarchy keeps women tied to family and home.
How the Law Classifies Crime:
Indictable Offenses: Serious crimes.
Summary Conviction Offenses: Minor Offenses.
How sociologists classify crime:
-Street crime
-Occupational and corporate crime
-organized crime
-political crime
Street Crime
Includes all violent crime, certain property crime, and certain moral crimes.
Occupational Crime
Consists of illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment.
Corporate Crime
Illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of a corporation.
(costly damages)
Organized Crime
A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.
Political Crime
Illegal or unethical acts involving the misuse of power by government officials or unethical acts against the government by outsiders to make a political statement.
Crime Studies
Most of our crime statistics come from the Canadian Uniform Crime Reports (CUCR)
Weakness of official statistics
Reporting of crime is inconsistent from place and time, especially crimes committed in corporate levels.
Victimization Surveys
Less than 42% of the victimizations reported by respondents had been reported to the police.
The Criminal Justice System
They are the concrete extension of the State to provide for social order.
Includes: police, the courts, and the prisons.
The Courts
They decide the guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime.
-Prosecutor: A lawyer who represents the state.
Defense Lawyer: asserts that the accused (the defendant) is innocent.
Judge (or jury): final decision as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
Punishment
Any action designed to deprive a person of things to value (including liberty), because of some offence the person is thought to have committed.
Functions of Prisons.
-Retribution: penalty on the offender.
-Social Protection: Imprisoned.
-Rehabilitation: return offenders to the community as law abiding citizens.
-Deterrence: seeks to reduce criminal activity.
Restorative Justice
The focus of the justice system to repairing the harm that has been done to a victim and the community.
-Reconciliation
Aboriginal Community Circle Sentencing
Bringing the offender, victim, and community together.
Community Corrections
Shifts responsibility for corrections back to the community and minimizes the separation of the offender from society
Deviance and Crime in the Future
The present system cannot solve the problem of crime and continued deviance.
Need more structural solutions: education, affordable housing, equality, and social openness.
