Chapter 7 : Conformity, Deviance and Crime

Deviant Behavior

  Deviant behavior refers to actions that transgress commonly held norms. What is regarded as deviant can shift from time to time and place to place; "normal" behavior in one cultural setting may be labeled "deviant" in another.

  Sanctions , formal or informal, are applied by society to reinforce social norms. Laws are norms defined and enforced by governments; crimes are acts that are not permitted by those laws.

Biological and Psychological Theories of Crime and Deviance

  Biological and psychological theories have been developed claiming that crime and other forms of deviance are genetically determined, but these have been largely discredited. Sociologists argue that conformity and deviance intertwine in different social contexts. Divergencies of wealth and power in society strongly influence opportunities open to different groups of individuals and determine what kinds of activities are regarded as criminal. Criminal activities are learned in much the same way as are law-abiding ones and in general are directed toward the same needs and values.

The Development of Human Culture

  Functionalist theories see crime and deviance as produced by structural tensions and a lack of moral regulation within society.Durkheim introduced the term anomie to refer to a feeling of anxiety and disorientation that comes with the breakdown of traditional life in modern society. Robert Merton extended the concept to include the strain felt by individuals whenever norms conflict with social reality. Subcultural explanations draw attention to groups, such as gangs, that reject mainstream values and replace them with norms celebrating defiance, delinquency, or nonconformity.

  Interactionist theories focus on deviance as a socially constructed phenomenon. Sutherland linked crime to differential association , the concept that individuals become delinquent through associating with people who are carriers of criminal norms. Labeling theory , a strain of interactionist theory that assumes that labeling someone as deviant will reinforce their deviant behavior, is important because it starts from the assumption that no act is intrinsically criminal (or normal). Labeling theorists are interested in how some behaviors come to be defined as deviant and why certain groups, but not others, are labeled as deviant.

  Conflict theories analyze crime and deviance in terms of the structure of society, competing interests between social groups, and the preservation of power among elites.

  Control theories posit that crime occurs when there are inadequate social or physical controls to deter it from happening. The growth of crime is linked to the growing number of opportunities and targets for crime in modern societies. The theory of broken windows suggests that there is a direct connection between the appearance of disorder and actual crime.

Gender and Crime

  Rates of criminality are much lower for women than for men, probably because of general socialization differences between men and women, and the greater involvement of men in nondomestic spheres. Unemployment and the "crisis of masculinity" have been linked to male crime rates. In some types of crimes, women are overwhelmingly the victims. Rape is almost certainly much more common than the official statistics reveal. There is a sense in which all women are victims of rape, since they have to take special precautions for their protection and live in fear of rape. Homosexual men and women experience high levels of criminal victimization and harassment, yet they are often seen as "deserving" of crime rather than innocent victims because of their marginalized position in society.

Types of Crime

  Popular fear about crime often focuses on street crimes-such as theft, burglary, and assault-that are largely the domain of young, working-class males. Official statistics reveal high rates of offense among young people, yet we should be wary of moral panics about youth crime. Much deviant behavior among youth, such as antisocial behavior and nonconformity, is not in fact criminal.

  White-collar crime and corporate crime refer to crimes carried out by those in the more affluent sectors of society. The consequences of such crime can be farther-reaching than the petty crimes of the poor, but there is less attention paid to them by law enforcement. Organized crime refers to institutionalized forms of criminal activity, in which many of the characteristics of orthodox organizations appear but the activities engaged in are systematically illegal. Cybercrime describes criminal activity that is carried out with the help of information technology, such as electronic money laundering and Internet fraud.

Crime, Deviance, and Social Order

  Prisons have developed partly to protect society and partly with the intention of reforming the criminal. Prisons do not seem to deter crime, and the degree to which they rehabilitate prisoners to face the outside world without relapsing into criminality is dubious. Alternatives to prison, such as community-based punishment, have been suggested.

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