Deviance and Crime

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Deviance and Crime
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What is Deviance?

• Deviance - behavior, beliefs, or conditions
  viewed as serious violations of important norms
  by relatively powerful segments of society
• Someone or something is usually defined as
  deviant depending on the seriousness of the
  violation in relation to social norms
• Does not inherently imply value judgment in this
  use of the word merely implies deviation from
  what society considers to be normal

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Deviance is Relative

• Deviance DOES NOT have an intrinsic quality that
  informs about the wrongness of something
• Deviance concerns individual judgments
• People make decisions about whether some
  behavior, thing or person/group is deviant

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Topics in the Study of Deviance

• Who decides what is deviant?
• What are the functions of deviance?
• Why do people deviate?
• How do people react to deviance and those defined
  as deviant?

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Deviance is Relative

• What is defined as deviant varies
• Over time
• Across cultures
• By group

From Lindsey Beach, 2002, Essentials of
Sociology, Figure 6.2 (p. 156).
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Research - Sociology of Deviance

• William Chambliss
• Did a study of two groups of juveniles that
  attended the same high school
• One group (Saints) came from a middle class
  background
• The other group (Roughnecks) came from a lower
  class background
• Sought to explore differences in perceptions and
  assessments of delinquent behavior

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Saints and Roughnecks (1973)

• Saints
• Monday through Friday constantly ditched school
• On weekends would got to big town
• drank heavily, drove drunk, engaged in vandalism

• Roughnecks
• Did poorly in school but attended regularly
• Engaged in drinking, fighting and theft
• More likely to have been arrested

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Saints and Roughnecks (1973)

• Saints perceived as
• Good boys sowing their wild oats
• Having bright futures
• Roughnecks perceived as
• Engaged in trouble making behavior
• Headed down wrong path

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Saints and Roughnecks (1973)

• Why the differences in perceptions?
• Visibility
• Because the Saints had cars they engaged in rowdy
  behavior outside of town
• Roughnecks lacked cars and therefore their
  delinquent conduct was contained to the areas
  where they lived
• Demeanor
• Saints perceived as being kiss-ups when
  confronted for their bad behavior (showed
  remorse)
• Roughnecks frustrated by how the community
  perceived them and refused to seek forgiveness
  and acted confrontational
• Bias
• Cannot dismiss the social class backgrounds of
  the two groups

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Who defines what is deviant?

• Law and norms are instruments designed to serve
  the interests of the societal elite
• Deviance control is administered by the societal
  elite so that some behaviors are penalized more
  severely than others
• Larceny versus Price-Fixing
• Cocaine versus crack use
• Laws presumed to serve the interests of all do
  very little because they are not effectively
  enforced
• Consumer or Environmental protection laws
• Richard QuinneyA Critique of the Legal Order
  (1974)

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Functions of deviance

• Emile Durkheim
• Deviance is not pathological
• A society exempt of deviance is impossible
• Deviance is an integral part of a healthy society
  
• According to Functionalists, deviance
• Provides the seeds of social change
• Is a source of integration/group solidarity
• Establishes moral boundaries
• Offers warning to the ill functions of a society

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Why Do People Deviate?Classical Theories

• Basic assumptions
• Individuals have free will
• Pleasure/pain principle
• Punishment used as deterrence
• Crime prevention possible through deterrence
• Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) argued that
  punishment should be certain, swift, and severe,
  and should fit the crime
• Jeremy Bentham Hedonistic Calculus

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Benthams Hedonistic Calculus

• People make free will decisions based on
  weighing advantages against disadvantages of
  action. We seek pleasure while trying to avoid
  pain.
• If advantages of crime outweigh the
  disadvantages, then person will most likely
  commit crime.
• To deter people from committing crime, the
  punishment/disadvantages must outweigh the
  advantages.

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Jeremy Bentham The Auto-Icon

• The cabinet contains Bentham's preserved
  skeleton, dressed in his own clothes, and
  surmounted by a wax head.
• Bentham request that his body be preserved in
  this way in his will, made shortly before his
  death on June 6, 1832. The cabinet was moved to
  University College in London in 1850.

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Why Do People Deviate?Biological Theories

• Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
• A small number of individuals exhibit primitive
  instincts (evolutionary throwbacks)
• Criminals are born rather than made (born
  criminals)
• William Sheldon (1898-1977)
• Argued that personality was related to body type
• Body type dictates type and frequency of deviant
  behavior
• Three fundamental physiques or somatotypes
• Mesomorphs (muscular, athletic builds) most
  likely to be deviant

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Why Do People Deviate?Sociological Theories

• Social Ecology (Park Burgess, Shaw McKay)
• Strain Theory (Merton)
• Lower-Class Focal Value Theory (Miller)
• Differential Association (Sutherland)
• Social Control Theory (Hirschi)
• Drift Theory (Sykes Matza)

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Social Ecology

• Started at University of Chicago in the 1920s
• Robert Park and Ernest Burgess began mapping
  Chicago based on social characteristics and
  noticed a pattern of concentric circles
• The 5 concentric zones

• Central Business District
• Zone of transition
• Working mans zone
• Residential zone
• Commuter zone

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Social Ecology

• Shaw and McKay - adapted work of Park and
  Burgesss concentric zone theory
• Zone two, the zone of transition, demonstrated
  the highest rates of crime
• Crime in this zone is dependent upon structural
  elements such as
• Poverty
• Illiteracy
• Lack of schooling
• Unemployment
• Illegitimacy

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Strain Theory

• Robert Merton (1910-2003)
• Deviance is the product of a disjuncture between
  the culturally prescribed goals of a society and
  the legitimate means for their achievement
• Deviant behavior is an ordinary response to
  prevailing structural conditions
• When there is a cultural emphasis on achievement
  there is pressure to succeed at any cost

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Strain Theory
From Lindsey Beach, 2002, Essentials of
Sociology, Table 6.1.
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Lower-Class Focal Value Theory

• Walter Miller's Focal Concerns Approach (1958)
• Juvenile delinquency is rooted in the value
  system of the lower class
• Delinquent boys are socialized in a habitat that
  views UNLAWFUL behavior favorably
• Six Focal Concerns Thought to be Unique to the
  Lower Class
• TroubleExcitementSmartness
• FateAutonomyToughness

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Lower-Class Focal Value Theory
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Differential Association Theory

• Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950)
• Deviants and conformists hang around people like
  themselves
• Deviance is learned directly through intimate
  interaction or indirectly through media sources
• A person becomes deviant due to exposure to an
  excess of definitions favorable to violation of
  norms
• Definitions are transmitted in different
• Frequencies, durations, priorities, and
  intensities

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Social Control Theory

• Travis Hirschi
• Deviance is the product of weak or broken bonds
  to society
• The big question is NOT why do we deviate but
  why dont we deviate more often than we do?
• Identifies four primary bonds that work to
  control and direct our behavior

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Four Types of Social Bonds
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Drift Theory (Sykes Matza)

• Anyone can commit an act of deviance.
• Sykes and Matza's model is based on four
  observations
• Delinquents express guilt over their illegal
  acts.
• Delinquents frequently respect and admire honest,
  law-abiding individuals.
• A line is drawn between those whom they can
  victimize and those they cannot.
• Delinquents are not immune to the demands of
  conformity.

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Drift Theory (Sykes Matza)

• People neutralize their feelings of guilt by
  invoking one or more techniques of
  neutralization
• Denial of responsibility - delinquent is a victim
  of circumstance and was pushed or pulled into
  situations beyond his/her control. ("It wasn't my
  fault!")
• Denial of injury - delinquents acts really do
  not cause any harm, or the victim can afford the
  loss or damage. ("Why is everyone making a big
  deal about it they have money!")
• Denial of the victim - delinquent views the act
  as not being wrong, that the victim deserves the
  injury, or that there is no real victim. ("They
  had it coming to them!")
• Condemnation of the condemners - condemners
  viewed as hypocritical or are reacting out of
  personal spite. ("They probably did worse things
  in their day!")
• Appeal to higher loyalties - rules of society are
  secondary to the demands and loyalty to important
  others. ("My friends depended on me, what was I
  going to do?")
• Adapted from http//home.comcast.net/ddemelo/crim
  e/sykes_matza.html

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Social Reactions to Deviance

• What is defined as deviant?
• Who is defined as deviant?
• What are the consequences of being labeled
  deviant?
• Some acts of deviance are most serious than
  othersdepends upon the importance of the norm we
  violate

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There is a difference between crime and deviance

• Deviance - a violation of social norms that
  define appropriate behavior under a particular
  set of circumstances
• Crime conduct in violation of a criminal law of
  a state, the federal government, or of a local
  jurisdiction for which there is no legally
  acceptable justification or excuse

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Deviant does not equal criminal
The Relationship Between Deviance and Criminality
From Lindsey Beach, 2002, Essentials of
Sociology, Figure 6.1 (p. 154).
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Sources of Crime Data

• Uniform Crime Reports
• 1929, the FBI began the Uniform Crime Reporting
  (UCR) system
• A voluntary programlaw enforcement agencies
  submit data
• Coverage is 96-97 of the country
• Data provided includes
• Offenses reported to the police
• Cleared crime arrest made

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Index Crimes

• Violent Crime
• Homicide
• Forcible Rape
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault

• Property Crime
• Burglary
• Larceny/Theft
• Vehicle Theft
• Arson

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Summary of the UCR

• Monthly aggregate crime counts for the eight
  index crimes are emphasized
• Over 17,000 police agencies voluntarily submit
  summarized reports each month
• The UCR records one offense per incident as
  determined by hierarchy rule
• Hierarchy rule suppresses counts of lesser
  offenses in multiple-offense incident
• Records rape of females only

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Crime Trends Since 1960
Rates Per 100,000 population
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime
Trends from the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports.
Generated by K. Bausman, Using Crime Justice
Data Online System. http//149.101.22.40/dataonli
ne/Search/Crime/State/StateCrime.cfm
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Problems with the UCR

• Offenses are not always reported (dark figure of
  crime)
• Offense reporting does not tell us about the
  characteristics of the offender
• Arrest statistics only measure those caught
• Arrest statistics are accused of containing bias

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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Largest national forum for victims to describe
  the details of their experience and provide
  information regarding the traits of their
  offenders
• Begun in 1972 and redesigned 1992
• Primary Objectives
• To develop detailed information about the victims
  and consequences of crime
• To estimate the number and types of crimes not
  reported to police

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Who is Sampled by the NCVS?

• Victimization data from a nationally
  representative sample of about 100,000
  individuals living in about 50,000 households
• Persons 12 years of age and older interviewed in
  each household sampled
• Once in the sample, respondents are interviewed
  every 6 months for a total of seven interviews
  over a 3-year period
• The first and fifth interviews are face-to-face
  the rest are by telephone when possible

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What Type of Information is Collected by the NCVS?

• Demographic information is collected, such as
  age, sex, race, education, employment, median
  family income, marital status, and military
  history
• Additional data include
• type and severity of crime
• injuries or losses
• time and place of occurrence
• number, age, race, and sex of offender(s)
• relationship of offender(s) to the victim

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Violent Crime Trends Recorded by the NCVS
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics. Key Crime
Justice Facts at a Glance http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov
/bjs/glance.htmCrime
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Critiques of the NCVS

• Potential for memory errors
• Telescoping
• Events thought to occur more recently, when in
  fact may have occurred earlier
• Errors of deception
• Caused by embarrassment of victimization

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Where does the money go in our criminal justice
system?
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics. Expenditure
Facts at a Glance http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gl
ance/exptyp.htm
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Police

• 600,000 full-time sworn officers in the U.S.
• 24 sworn officers per 10,000 population
• Majority of time spent engaged in public order
  activities
• Approximately 20 of their time spent engaged in
  crime control
• Highly stressful occupation
• Rates of marital violence, divorce, suicide and
  alcoholism higher among police officers than the
  general population

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Courts

• Courts in the U.S. grounded in common law
  tradition
• Law develops over timebased on precedentguided
  by previous rulings
• Structure of court system is adversarial
• A contest between the defense and the prosecution
  with a neutral judge
• What problems might arise from such a system?
• The vast majority of criminal cases are minor
  felonies and misdemeanors handled in assembly
  line fashion
• Accomplished through plea bargaining

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Corrections

• In 2000, 6.5 million Americans were living under
  correctional supervision
• 1 in 150 citizens
• Major growth in the incarceration numbers since
  1980
• Consequences
• Overcrowding (cruel and unusual punishment?)
• More violence
• More dollars needed

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Why do we punish?

• Retribution
• Eye for an Eye
• Not meant as a means to reduce crime
• Deterrence
• Specific deterrencePunishment is meant to keep
  an individual from repeating their violation
• General deterrencePunishment is meant to keep
  other people from committing violations
• Rehabilitation
• Sanctioning should protect society but at the
  same time reform the criminal
• Incapacitation
• Removal from society is seen as the only way to
  protect society from law violators

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Who Are the Offenders?
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Who Are the Offenders?
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Who are the victims?
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Who are the victims?
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Capital Punishment in the U.S.
Source Bureau of Justice Statistics. Capital
Punishment Statistics at a Glance
http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/exe.htm
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Capital Punishment in the U.S.
Source Deterrence States Without the Death
Penalty Fared Better Over Past Decade (n.d.).
Retrieved May 25, 2003, from http//www.deathpena
ltyinfo.org/article.php?scid12did168