Sociology Crime and Deviance notes

Glossary:

Crime – The breach of rules or laws for which some governing authorities, e.g. police and courts, can prescribe a conviction.

Deviance – Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of society.

Sanctions – Penalties and rewards for conduct, concerning a social norm.

Conformity – Going along with peers who have no special right to direct behaviour.

Obedience – Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure.

Blue collar crime – Crimes committed by someone from the working or lower classes of society.

White collar crime – Crimes committed by individuals with a higher social status or upper level occupation i.e. middle class.

Nature – Inside/innate factors responsible for deviance. -

Nurture – Outside factors are responsible for deviance.

Moral panic – A sudden increase in concern about threat to our way of life that appears to reach the level of panic.

Deviance amplification – the process whereby activity labelled as deviant is ‘amplified’ – mainly by the mass media.

Folk devils – A person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviant and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems. They are labelled for most of their lives.

The hidden/dark figure of crime – also known as the ‘iceberg’ of crime. It refers to all the crime that happens in society (top of the iceberg that can be seen) compared to all the crime that happens that is either not reported, not found or ignored by the police (the bit of the iceberg that cannot be seen).

Social Control – Techniques and strategies for preventing deviant behaviour in any society.

Corporate crime – Offences committed by large companies which directly profit the company rather than the individuals.

Anomie - Lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.

Reported crime – Crime that has been detected by the police which will be investigated.

Recorded crime – Crime that has been reported, investigated and recorded by institutions such as official statistics.

Validity – How close information and/or statistics are to the true value.

Notes:

Punishments for crime

• Life sentence

• Stoning

• Prison sentence

• Fines

• Community service

• ASBO

• Probation

• Intensive supervision

• Boot camp

Social Control

Internal social controls develop during socialisation. This is your concept of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

External social controls are rewards and punishments designed to encourage desire behaviour. These sanctions can be formal or informal.

Relativity of Crime and Deviance

• Deviance only exists in relation to cultural norms and social definition.

• People become deviants because others define them that way.

• Deviance changes across situations, cultures, time, place and who performs the acts.

Time – What is deviant varies from one historical period to another or at certain times of the day.

Place – Different things are deviant in different places or situations.

Culture – What people decide is deviant depends on the country they come from.

The Typical Criminal

Official statistics show that most crime is committed:

• In urban…