The social construction of crime

Question 1

What is a crime?

Answer 1

Behaviour that breaks the formal written laws of society

Question 2

What is deviance?

Answer 2

Any behaviour that goes against the norms of a society

Question 3

What is a social construct?

Answer 3

Concepts created by society that are treated as social facts which in reality have been created by people in society through shared interpretations and assumptions

Question 4

What is the difference between the normative definition of deviancy and the relativistic definition?

Answer 4

• Normative = violation of a norm held in certain social groups or by a majority of the members of a society at large
• Relativistic = deviance is socially constructed

Question 5

How does the perception of crime and deviance differ?

Answer 5

1. Age: younger people are more likely to be let off for crimes e.g. shoplifting. Recreational drugs is less stigmatised by the younger generation
2. Place: smoking is illegal in a car with children and in public venues but legal in certain areas, public nudity is legal and a norm on a nude beach
3. Situation: fighting someone in self defence is not seen as deviant
4. Culture: homosexuality is illegal and heavily stigmatised in the middle east and some african countries, polygamy is legal in some arab/muslim countries but illegal and abnormal in the west
5. Time: child labour is no longer legal but it was once the norm, Foucalt: sexual deviance and madness have changed over history e.g. women wearing trousers is now a norm
6. Social group: child abuse is seen as a ‘worse’ crime when committed by women, recreational drugs is seen as a glamorous expensive habit for the rich and ‘trashy’ for the poor

Question 6

What does Newburn say about crime?

Answer 6

Crime is basically a label - no act itself is a crime until the label to the act is applied