Crime and Deviance

Definitions“Crime” and “Deviance” are related, but not equivalent,

concepts.

- Deviance is the violation of norms, which are socially-shared standards of conduct.- Crime is the violation of criminal codes.- Not all crime is deviant; not all deviance is criminal, but the same theories and methods concern both categories of behaviour.

Quantifying Crime and Deviance: What We Know

-Some findings regarding rates of homicide in North American cities:

-US vs Canada-East vs West (in Canada)

-Trends in Violent and Property Crimes-Challenges in quantifying noncriminal forms of deviance

-Funding-Finding target populations-Avoiding forms of bias

BUnderreportingBOverreporting

How We Know What We KnowStatistics concerning crime come from one of three sources

-Police reports (the UCR)Advantage: Consistency of definitionsDisadvantages: Underreporting (by victims) and

misreporting (by police)

-Victimization surveys (from the GSS)Advantage: get around underreporting, calculate part

of “dark figure of crime.”Disadvantages: not as large in scope as UCR, rely

on victims’ memory/interpretation

-Self-report studiesAdvantage: Go straight to the sourceDisadvantage: Rely on untrustworthy sources

What Causes Crime and Deviance?

Theories can be grouped depending on their focus.

-”Classical” and Rational Choice Theories: Crime=Pleasure (and Punishment=Pain, and therefore is a deterrent to crime)

-Social Structure Theories: Society is to Blame

-Social Process Theories: Crime is a Learned Behaviour

-Conflict Theories: “Criminal” and “deviant” are means of social control against persons who threaten the status quo

-Labelling Theory: Deviants are whoever those in power “label” deviant- there is no objective reality to “deviance” or “crime” (eg the Rosenberg reading).