CH 7 Deviance and Criminology Flashcards
define crime
deviance that breaks the law
true or false: in a sociological perspective, everyone is deviant in one way or another
true
informal vs formal punishment
informal: some kind of gesture that indicates someone feels someone else did something deviant (shaming, raising eyebrows, stigmatization)
formal: being penalized for breaking a law
3 varying criteria of deviance and crime
- severity of social response
- perceived harmfulness
- degree of public agreement as to whether an act should be considered deviant or criminal
4 types of deviance and crime
social diversions
social deviations
conflict crimes
consensus crimes
social diversions
minor acts of deviance that are usually perceived as harmless, usually only evoke a mild societal reaction
social deviations
more serious acts usually considered somehow harmful by at least 1 large group of people (think about how some people’s thoughts on gender identity)
conflict crimes
acts that are deemed illegal but whose definition is controversial in the wider society (think marijuana legalization)
consensus crimes
little controversy surrounding the seriousness of the crime, majority agree there should be punishment
stigmatization
the act of describing someone as disgraceful or disapproving
victimless crimes
violations of the law in which no victim is identified/no one steps forward as a victim
2 shortcomings of crime statistics
-much crime is not reported to police (victimless)
-wider public and cops decides which acts to report and ignore
how are self-report surveys useful in crime stats?
allow respondents to anonymously indicate their involvement in criminal activity
victimization rates in canada since 2004
have declined; a fifth of the population says they’ve been a victim of crime in the past year
Uniform crime reporting survey generates which 2 official estimates of crime in Canada
police-reported crime rate and crime severity index
what does the crime severity index do
gives more weight to more serioius crimes
4 explanations for long term decline in crime rate since 1992 in canada
- increasing number of better trained cops
- number of young people in canada is declining and young men are most prone to crime
- better economic conditions than in the past (unemployment rate is strongly correlated with crime rate; less unemployment today)
- legalization of abortion (there were more “unwanted” children being brought into the world before legalization and kids with less parental supervision were more prone to committing crimes)