Deviance and Crime

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Deviance and Crime
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Overview

• Theories of deviance
• Examine one form of deviance -- crime
• Societal reactions to crime in the U.S.
• Crime prevention

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Deviance

• Deviance Violation of cultural norms
• Crime
• Sometimes they overlap, sometimes not.

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All of us are deviants

• Even deviants conform to most expectations most
  of the time

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Deviance is Relative

• Culturally based
• Context sensitive

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Theories of Deviance

• Biological
• Medicalization of deviance
• Psychological
• Sociological
• Structural functionalism
• Conflict
• Symbolic interactionism

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Structural Functionalist Theories

• Deviance performs important functions for society
• Innovation and social change (Coser)

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It is also dysfunctional

• Unpunished deviance encourages more deviance

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Strain Theory (R. Merton)

• Within every society there are desired goals and
  accepted means for obtaining goals.
• When
• then.deviance or ritualism

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U.S. Society

• Goals
• Means

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Strain Theory

• Helps explain
• Role of poverty and discrimination
• White collar crime, terrorism

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• Does not explain some kinds of deviance

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Symbolic Interactionist Theories

• Social Bond Theory
• T. Hirschi

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Symbolic Interaction Theories

• Communal to associational forms of control
• Juvenile delinquency
• (U. Bronfenbrenner, Split Level Family)

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Symbolic Interaction Theories

• Differential association (Sutherland and Cressy)
• The role of subcultures
• Labeling theory
• Stigma

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Percent of Soc. 134 Students Who Report
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• Think about how those who were arrested differ
  from those who were not arrested
• Behavior the same, but

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Conflict Theory

• The definition of deviance and who is labeled
  deviant
• If prisoners were counted as unemployed, U.S.
  would have the highest rate of unemployment among
  industrialized countries

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Society under Siege(CNN)Crime in the U.S.

• Trends in crime in U.S.
• Who is arrested for crime
• Who are the victims of crime
• Social control of crime

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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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FIGURE 8-2 Crime Rates in the United States,
1960-2001
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Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007
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Number of Murders in Iowa 1960 to 2005 (Iowa
Dept of Public Safety, 2000 to 2005 D.M.
Register)
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Reasons for Decrease in Crime

• Tough on crime legislation
• Demographics
• Combination of factors

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Who Is Arrested for Crime?

• Not the same as who commits crime
• All offenses
• Young (age 15-24) (39)
• Whites

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Who Are the Victims of Crime?

• You are more likely to be a victim if you are

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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Societal Responses to Crime
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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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• U.S. spent almost 100 billion in total justice
  system expenditures in 2004, up from less than
  20 billion in 1982 (Bureau of Justice Statistics
  2007).
• It cost an average of 23,876 to imprison someone
  in 2005, (45,000 a year for each inmate in Rhode
  Island to just 13,000 in Louisiana)

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Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Prisoners per 100,000 pop. 2006(National Council
on Crime and Delinquency)
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Social Control of Crime

• Goals
• Deterrence
• Rehabilitation
• Retribution (punishment)
• Prevention of crime

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Deterrence

• Certain and swift punishment

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Rehabilitation

• Recidivism rate in U.S. is
• Labeling and social control theories add to
  understanding of why recidivism high

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Retribution

• Criminals make amends, pay back for crime
• State seeks and receives retribution

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Crime Prevention

• The research of David Olds at the Prevention
  Research Center, Univ. of Colorado
• 1985- first study in Appalachian NY, 2000 revisit
  
• Children most at risk for criminal behavior,
  mental illness, substance abuse are those born to
  unmarried, poor, teenage women
• Bolster mothers self esteem, provide education

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• Women pregnant with first baby volunteered for
  study
• Low income, unmarried, under 19 years
• Randomly assigned to 4 groups
• Experimental treatment
• Home visits from nurses starting in pregnancy and
  continuing for first 2 years of babys life

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• Nurses provided prenatal information, nutrition
  and program assistance information, risky
  behavior counseling, parental training and
  counseling
• Visit approximately once a month for an hour to
  an hour and one half

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• 15 years later
• Children in experimental group compared to
  control groups

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• Since Elmira, NY study replicated in two other
  states with similar findings