crime and deviance
- Created by: Molly
- Created on: 27-11-12 16:17
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- crime and deviance
- agencies of social control
- formal social control
- formal social control is carried out by agencies specifically set up to ensure that people conform to particular norms.
- e.g police, courts and prisons force people to obey the law by means of formal sanctions.
- informal social control
- carried out by institutions whose primary purpose is not social control but still play an important role in it.
- e.g family, education system, religion, mass media, workplace and peer groups.
- formal social control
- Social construction of crime
- NEWBURN (2007) suggested crime is basically a label attatched to certain forms of behaviour which are prohibbited by the state.
- an act as only become a crime when a particular label of 'crime' has been applied to it.
- e.g killing someone in a knife fight out side pub= crime. killing an enemy soldier with a knife in wartime= not a crime
- interpret/ judge whether it is a crime or not= CRIME IS SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED
- social construction of deviance
- rule breaking or non conformist acts
- ambiguity, context, uncertainty, who the perosn is, motives etc...
- depends on social expectations about what constitutes as 'normal' behaviour
- e.g swearing at your mates in peer group unlikely to be defined as deviant, swearing at a teacher is.
- societal and situational deviance
- PLUMMER (1979) discusses two aspects of defining deviance
- societal deviance
- refers to acts that are seen by most members of society as deviant
- situational deviance
- refers to acts that are only defined as deviant in particular contexts.
- societal deviance
- non deviant crimes? e.g parking and speeding, under- age drinking, soft drug use, very common difficult to see as deviant.
- the time: ciggarette smoking, since july 07 illegal to smoke indoors.
- society/ culture: e.g smoking weed acceptable to some (rastafarians) but in britain its regarded deviant.
- PLUMMER (1979) discusses two aspects of defining deviance
- media and crime
- provide knoledge about crime.
- agenda-setting: influence over the issues people think about, cant report every crime or deviant act.
- peoples perceptions of crime and deviance in society are influenced by what the media chooce to include or leave out
- agencies of social control
- media and crime
- provide knoledge about crime.
- agenda-setting: influence over the issues people think about, cant report every crime or deviant act.
- peoples perceptions of crime and deviance in society are influenced by what the media chooce to include or leave out
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