Crime and Deviance

1
Chapter 7

• Crime and Deviance

2
What is Deviance?

• Behavior that violates a norm
• Behavior that is successfully labeled deviant

3
Is Deviance wrong, immoral, sinister?

• Not really the point
• E.g., is Homosexuality wrong? Again, not the
  point Is it deviant behavior?
• At this point in history, in this country.
• Yes violates a norm AND successfully labeled

4
Criminal Acts some deviance becomes law

• The majority of criminal acts
• Lack planning
• Are performed incompetently
• Tell Stark story of escaped convict in carpool
  lane
• Result in trivial gains
• average robbery of a service station 546.

5
Book examples

• Robbery taking from another by force
• Burglary unlawful entry and theft
• both a young persons game, a male game - 91 of
  those arrested of robbery males under the age of
  25.
• Burglary 5 times more common than robbery

6
Homicide

• Rate today high or low?
• 50s and 60s about 5 per 100,000
• 1980 peak 10.2 per
• Today about 5.5 per
• US Rate high or low compared to other
  countries?
• High, but less so than 20 years ago
• Killers often quite similar to victims (in race,
  age, sex)
• Today more than 50 killed by stranger (up from
  1990s)
• For women victims well over 50 killed by
  non-stranger
• In fact, over 50 female victims killed by
  intimate

7
Drugs

• Legalize?
• Use up or down? (tracks in arm story)
• In general, peak in 1979, down in 80s, up through
  mid-90s, down recently
• True of alcohol, smoking, marijuana and many more
  serious
• E.g., marijuana
• In 2003, 21 HS seniors last 30 days, 48
  lifetime
• 1979, 37 HS seniors last 30, 60 lifetime

8
Theory can focus on two things

• Etiology. Study of causes. why do they do it?
• How does something come to be seen as deviance in
  the first place How are deviance categories
  constructed

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Etiology - Why do they do it?

• Biological theories
• E.g., gender
• Psychological theories
• E.g., Mental illness, Personality Theories
• Sociological theories
• E.g., learning, structural strains

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Bio factors do matter

• IQ related to crime
• Gender and age powerful social structural
  predictors of crime. Why?
• Gender, some say only socialization
• But why gender stronger predictor of violent
  crimes than property?
• Probably also has to do with strength
• A man more likely to be physically capable of
  violent crime
• Strength and energy decline with age

11
Behavioral Genetics

• A study in Denmark examined 3,586 twin pairs.
• Identical twins - if one twin had a serious
  criminal record, odds were 50-50, the other twin
  did, too.
• Fraternal twins - if one twin was a criminal, the
  odds were only 1 in 5 that the other twin also
  was a criminal.

12
Gottfredson and Hirschi Elements Of
Self-control (A personality theory)

• People with low self-control
• unwillingness or inability to defer
  gratification.
• prefer actions that are simple and easy.
• thrill seekers
• indifferent, or insensitive to the suffering and
  needs of others.

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Sociological theories

• Learning/subcultural/deviant attachment
• Structural strain
• Control
• Integration
• Labeling

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Learning/attachment theories

• Subcultures reinforce deviance norms for one
  group may be deviance for another
• Socialization always successful
• Differential Association (Edwin Sutherland) most
  famous
• Explains White-collar crime?
• Policy implications?

15
Merton Structural Strain

• Cultural goals uniform (American Dream)
• Means to achieving goals not (social structure
  variation in life chances)
• disadvantaged will not be able to achieve their
  goals at all, or as easily as people better
  placed in the system.
• Policy implications?
• Problems?
• Most crime not utilitarian
• Rich also commit crimes
• Status Aspirations negatively to crime

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Control Theories

• Replaces the question Why do they do it? with
  Why dont they do it?
• Durheim says moral and social
• Travis Hirschi more micro stakes in
  conformity social bonds
• attachments
• Investments
• Involvements
• beliefs

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Labeling Theory

• Looking glass self, W.I. Thomas Theorem,
  Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Primary deviance is the behavior a person engages
  in that causes others to label him or her as
  deviant.
• Secondary deviance is behavior that is a reaction
  to having been labeled a deviant.

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Liska Three Ways Labels Cause People to Deviate

• A deviant label, such as burglar, alcoholic, or
  prostitute, limits legitimate economic and
  occupational opportunities.
• A deviant label will impact attachments
• Being labeled a deviant can affect self concept.
  (If others see us as deviants, we may come to
  accept their judgments.)