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Crime, Deviance, and Social Control

Learning Intentions
In this unit, you will learn:

The difference between crime and deviance and the relativity of crime and
deviance.
The difference between formal and informal social control.
Agencies of social control, how they control individuals, and prevent crime and
deviance.
Debates about the effectiveness of agencies of social control and their methods.
Types and examples of crime.
How crime is measured.
Patterns of crime and victimization.
Explanations for crime and deviance based on age, ethnicity, gender, and social
class.
Debates about the importance of these explanations.
Sociological theories on crime and deviance.
The aims of punishment and the effectiveness of different types of punishment.
The effectiveness of different types of policing and law enforcement.

Introduction
Sociologists of crime and deviance are interested in how rules and laws are made
and kept orbroken. They study who makes the laws, who breaks them, and what
happens as a result. It's interesting to sociologists that most people break laws and
norms at some time without being labeled 'criminal' or 'deviant'. There are clear
patterns regarding who is most likely to be labeled ‘criminal’ or ‘deviant’ and who is
most likely to be a victim of crime.

What are Crime, Deviance, and Social Control?

The Difference Between Crime and Deviance

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Deviance: Behavior that goes against the norms and expectations of a

social group.

Crime: Actions that break formal written laws.

Deviance is a broader category than crime, including acts that go against social
norms but do not involve breaking a law. Most crimes are also deviant because
countries make laws to criminalize behavior they want to prevent. However,
sociologists often study deviance that is not necessarily criminal, such as using a drug
that is disapproved of but not illegal.

Examples of deviance that are not criminal:

Wearing inappropriate or shocking clothing.

Behaving rudely or offensively.

Not all crimes are necessarily seen as deviant. For example, most people agree that
speeding is a crime, yet many drivers break speed limits regularly.

Deviance and crime are relative; what is considered deviant or criminal varies from
time to time and place to place. Culture is relative, meaning that norms and values
vary between societies. Since deviance is behavior that goes against society’s norms,
it is also relative.

Formal and Informal Social Control

This section discusses formal and informal social control, as well as the agencies of
social control and how these agencies control individuals and prevent crime and
deviance.

Social control can be informal, using persuasion by family, friends, colleagues, and
the media. It can also be imposed formally by institutions like social work
departments, medical authorities, and the police.

Formal Social Control: Social control enforced by governments or their

agencies e. g. , policeandcourts or by people in positions of authority.

Informal Social Control: Ways of controlling behavior imposed by people

without a formal role e. g. , peers.

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Agencies of Social Control: People or organizations who carry out social

control.

Sub-culture: A group of people within a larger culture which has its own
distinctive norms and values

Formal Social Control

Formal social control is enforced by governments or their agencies, such as the police
and courts, or by people in other positions of authority. These agencies can impose
formal sanctions punishments, such as fines or imprisonment. Formal agencies of
social control may also use more informal sanctions.

The formal agencies of social control are:

The police: Responsible for investigating criminal acts and catching offenders.
The courts: Hear charges, decide guilt, and impose punishments.
The armed forces: Play a part in some countries and situations.
The government: Responsible for social control, ensuring law and order.
The penal system: Responsible for carrying out punishments imposed by the
law courts.

Policing: The ways in which the police carry out their work, such as
investigating crimes and arresting offenders.

Penal System: The formal system responsible for enforcing punishment

for crimes.

Prison: A building where criminals are forced to live as punishment.

Informal Social Control

Informal social control is an important way of controlling people’s behavior, and it is
very powerful. Methods of informal control include critical comments, ridicule,
sarcasm, and disapproving looks as negative sanctions, and words of praise as
positive sanctions rewards. It also includes socialization into values that guide
individuals toward socially acceptable behavior.

The main agencies of informal social control are also the main agencies of
socialization:

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Family: Relationships create obligations and expectations that limit individual

actions.
Education: Socializes individuals into values that guide their behavior.
Workplaces: Have formal rules and norms enforced by sanctions.
Peer groups: Exercise informal social control through comments and exclusion.
Traditional and digital media: Report about criminal behavior and court cases,
reinforcing shared feelings about right and wrong.
Religions: Have rules about behavior for their followers.

Socialization: The process of learning the norms and values of a culture.

Debates About the Effectiveness of Agencies and Methods of

Social Control
Functionalists and Marxists agree that informal social control is essential for the
smooth running of societies. However, functionalists see this as beneficial, while
Marxists argue that social control prevents the working class from recognizing and
rebelling against their exploitation.

Conformity: Behavior that follows the usual standards expected by a

group or society.

Stanley Cohen identified several ways in which social control has changed over the
last 200 years:

The state is increasingly involved in social control.

Detailed classification systems for criminals and deviants have been developed.
Criminals and deviants are increasingly segregated from the rest of society.
A greater range of punishments has been developed.
Families, schools, and local communities are increasingly expected to help
enforce conformity.
Video surveillance has increased.

Surveillance: Observing and monitoring people’s behavior as a form of

social control.

Ostracism: The exclusion of someone from a community or group

Different Types and Examples of Crimes

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There are many different types of crime. Some crimes fit into more than one category,
and within each category, there are many more specific crimes.

Type of Crime Description Examples

Involves the use or threat of physical force Murder, assault,

Violent Crime
which will harm the victim. rape
Stealing thef t,
Property Crime Involves a threat to private property. robbery, burglary,
arson
Fraud,
White-Collar Non-violent crimes that middle-class people are
embezzlement,
Crime able to commit because of their occupation.
bribery
Bribery, false
Corporate Offenses committed by corporations or
advertising, tax
Crime organizations, usually in pursuit of profit.
evasion
Death, injury, and disease caused by working,
Crimes Against
sexual and racial discrimination, violations of
Workers
wage laws.
Expressive Involves emotions, such as strong anger or Domestic violence,
Crime frustration. some assaults
Instrumental Have a clear goal Theft, burglary,
Crime e. g. , moremoneyorpossessions. fraud
Criminal activities carried out collectively by Violent crime, drug-
Gang Crime
members of a gang. dealing, vandalism
Illegal logging, toxic
Green Crime Offenses that damage the natural world.
waste dumping
Offenses which are worldwide, for example Illegal trade, people
Global Crime
involving international networks. trafficking
Hacking, spreading
Cybercrime Crime involving the use of new technologies.
viruses, fraud

Property Crime: Theft of or intentional damage to things owned by an

individual, group, or organization.

White-Collar Crime: Non-violent crime committed by middle-class

people for financial gain.

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Corporate Crime: Offenses committed by corporations or organizations,

usually in pursuit of profit for the corporation.

Expressive Crime: Offenses involving emotions, such as strong anger or

frustration, which are usually unplanned.

Instrumental Crime: Offenses which have a clear goal from the point of
view of the criminal.

Gang Crime: Criminal activities carried out by a group of of tenyoung

people, who have a territory and a defined leadership and internal
organization.

Organized Crime: Criminal activities which are planned and carried out by
powerful groups

Green Crime: Offenses which damage the natural world, with resulting
harm to humans, other living things, and the environment.

Global Crime: Offenses which are worldwide, for example involving

international networks.

Cybercrime: Crime involving use of new technologies, such as computers.

Internet Crime: Any crime or illegal activity committed on, through or

using the internet

Cybercrime & Anonymous

Cybercrime is global due to the internet's nature, with crimes ranging from hacking
to spreading malware.

One example of global cybercrime is the hacking group Anonymous:

A decentralized group of hacktivists who use their hacking skills as a form of

activism or protest.
They claim to defend internet freedom, opposing surveillance and censorship.
Have hacked Russian television channels to show viewers what was happening
in Ukraine, replacing Russian propaganda with real news.

Anonymous is a constantly changing collective of hackers without leaders.

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Hate Crime
Offences in which the victim is targeted because of certain characteristics,
such as their ethnicity, faith or sexual orientation.

Hate crimes may be motivated by:

Racism
Prejudice against a religion
Prejudice against people with disabilities
Homophobia or transphobia

The police and courts will look for evidence that the offender specifically chose the
victim because of their characteristics. The offender will usually be charged with
another offense suchasthef torassault, but the courts may impose a harsher
sentence.

Domestic Crime
Also referred to as domestic abuse.

When one person tries to control and manipulate another, usually within
a family. The abuse can include controlling and threatening behavior, and
often violence. It can also include neglect, especially with young children.

The offender is usually male; the victims are usually his female partner and children.

Domestic offenses are underreported for many reasons:

The victim may be afraid of further abuse if they report the offender.
The victim may see it as a private matter.
The victim may feel they are to blame; domestic abusers often manipulate their
victims into believing this.
The victim may believe the police will not be able to help or will not believe
them.
The victim may not want the offender to be punished.
The victim may have no other way to support themselves and their children.
The victim may feel that the criminal justice system will not help them.

Offences in which the offender and the victim live in the same family
home or are in a relationship.

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Feminists see the causes of domestic crime in the patriarchal nature of society and
the family.

Measuring Crime
This section considers the ways in which crime is measured, as well as their
strengths and limitations.

The three ways discussed here are official statistics, self-report studies, and victim
surveys.

Official Statistics
Official figures showing the number of crimes and offenders recorded in a
country during a specific time period.

The main sets of official statistics on crime are:

Police figures showing the total numbers of different types of offenses recorded
by the police in a specific time period.
Court records showing the total number of convictions for different offenses.
Records showing the offenders’ characteristics, such as their age, gender and
ethnic group, and their previous convictions if any.

Strengths of official statistics:

Provide information to understand crime patterns and trends.

Show what types of people offenders and victims are.
Freely available for the public and researchers.

Limitations of official statistics:

Are socially constructed and need to be treated with caution; assumptions may
be based on inaccurate and misleading data.
Tell us more about the decisions made by the people who compile them than
about the actual extent of crime.

Reporting

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Most crimes that are recorded in official statistics are reported to the police, either by
the victim or by a witness. Few crimes are uncovered by the police.

Various factors influence whether or not victims and witnesses report crimes to the
police:

People do not report crimes they regard as trivial or when they do not believe
the police can do anything to help.
Victims may only report crimes if it will benefit them.
Some crimes are seen as private matters between individuals, in which the
police should not be involved.
Victims may not report a crime because they do not want the offender to be
punished, or because they are embarrassed.
Witnesses may not report a crime because they do not want to get involved.
Victims and witnesses may be concerned about their safety if they report an
offense.
Some communities distrust the police and may be reluctant to have any contact
with them.

Invisible Crime
Some white-collar crimes and corporate crimes are unlikely to come to the attention
of the police.

Unreported and unrecorded crimes are known as the dark figure of crime:
they are not known, and it is impossible to estimate how many there may
be.

Other ‘invisible’ crimes include crimes with no obvious victim to report them, such as
drug-taking, underage offenses, and speeding.

Interpretation and Application of the Law

The police play a crucial role in interpreting and applying the law and deciding which
incidents should be recorded as crimes.

The police have discretion when deciding whether to arrest someone and what to
charge an offender with.

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There are differences between police forces depending on the priorities of senior
police officers.

Police forces are often under pressure to achieve targets and to ‘solve’ a high
proportion of crimes. Some use a practice known as cuffing to manipulate the
statistics.

Recording of Crime
The recording of crime is shaped by the media and political pressures. For example,
police forces may be under pressure to clear up particular crimes or to act on
something which is causing a moral panic.

Exaggerated social reaction to deviance, usually fuelled by the media, that

creates a demand for action

This increased police focus will lead to the statistics for that particular crime
increasing, even though the actual number of offenses is not changing.

Self-Report Studies
Research that asks people what crimes or deviant acts they have
committed

These are confidential questionnaires or interviews asking respondents whether they

have committed listed criminal acts.

Participants are informed that they cannot be identified and that no information will
be passed to the police or other authorities.

Strengths of self-report studies:

They provide information that cannot be gathered in any other way, from the
offenders themselves.
They can uncover hidden crimes.
They can provide information about victimless crimes, such as drug-taking.

Limitations of self-report studies:

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There are concerns about the validity and accuracy of the responses.
Most self-report studies ask about relatively trivial criminal offenses.
Respondents are unlikely to give honest answers to questions about serious
offenses.
Most self-report studies have been carried out on young people.
Self-report studies are carried out on individuals, so are not appropriate to
investigate corporate crime.

Victim Surveys LocalandN ational

Research that asks people what crimes they have been victims of.

Victim surveys uncover unreported crimes and can show new patterns.

Strengths of victim surveys:

They reveal crimes that have not been reported to the police or recorded
elsewhere.
They provide the most accurate estimates of total amounts of crimes that have
victims.
They can reveal trends in crime.

Limitations of victim surveys:

They cannot uncover all types of crime.

The data may not be valid.
Victim surveys rely on the memories of respondents, which may be faulty.
People are not always aware that they have been a victim of a crime.
There is no way of checking the validity of what respondents say.
Victim surveys are carried out on a sample of respondents, rather than the
whole population.

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