Crime, Deviance and Social Control - PDF

Here's the converted text from the images, formatted using Markdown: # Unit 6: Crime, Deviance and Social Control ## Learning Intentions In this unit you will learn how to: - Understand the difference between crime and deviance and the relativity of crime and deviance - Understand the difference b...

Here's the converted text from the images, formatted using Markdown: # Unit 6: Crime, Deviance and Social Control ## Learning Intentions In this unit you will learn how to: - Understand the difference between crime and deviance and the relativity of crime and deviance - Understand the difference between formal and informal social control - Describe agencies of social control, how they control individuals and prevent crime and deviance - Understand debates about the effectiveness of agencies of social control and their methods - Describe types and examples of crime - Understand how crime is measured - Describe patterns of crime and victimisation - Understand explanations for crime and deviance based on age, ethnicity, gender and social class - Understand debates about the importance of these explanations ## Introduction All societies and cultures have expectations and rules for the behaviour of their members. In a society, behaviour has to be controlled; people cannot just do what they like. When these expectations and rules are broken, the social group may punish the rule breakers. Sociologists of crime and deviance are interested in how rules and laws are made and how they are kept or broken. They are interested in who makes the laws, who breaks them and who decides what happens as a result. Modern industrial societies have many laws. They have police forces and legal systems of courts and judges; they also have a series of punishments, including prison, for people who break the law. Governments and the media express concern about rising crime rates. For sociologists, it is interesting that most people break laws and norms at some time, without being called criminals or deviants. There are very clear patterns regarding which types of people are most likely to be labelled 'criminal' or 'deviant', and which types of people are most likely to be victims of crime. This unit explores some of the research and discussion about crime, deviance and social control. ## 6.1 What are crime, deviance and social control? ### The difference between crime and deviance __Deviance__ refers to any act that does not follow the norms and expectations of a social group. __Crime__ involves acts that break a law set by the government or rulers. Deviance is a wider category of behaviour than crime, because it includes acts which go against social norms but do not involve breaking a law., The term deviance is usually used to describe behaviour that is disapproved of by others because it goes against the norms and values of society. Because countries make laws to criminalise behaviour they wish to prevent, most crimes are also deviant. However, sociologists have often studied deviance that is not necessarily criminal, such as taking a drug which is disapproved of but not illegal. For example, in most European countries today, cigarette smoking is still allowed in some public places but is generally disapproved of. Other examples of deviance which are not criminal include wearing inappropriate or shocking clothing, or behaving in a rude or offensive way. People may negatively sanction this behaviour by showing their disapproval or outrage but such behaviour is not a criminal offence in most countries. Not all crimes are necessarily seen as deviant, either. For example, most people agree that speeding (driving faster than the speed limit) is a crime, yet a large minority of drivers in many countries break speed limits regularly. This could suggest that speeding is not 'deviant', despite being criminal, because it is part of the social norm of driving. There are also outdated criminal laws in some countries which are rarely obeyed or punished. Deviance and crime are both relative: what is considered to be deviant or criminal varies from time to time and place to place. In Unit 2, we looked at the idea that culture is relative, meaning that norms and values vary between societies. Because deviance is behaviour which goes against society's norms, it can also be seen as relative. Different countries make their own laws, so crimes also vary in relation to culture. This means there are no acts which are criminal or deviant by their nature. ### Key Terms - **Deviance**: behaviour that goes against the norms or values of a group - **Crime**: actions that break formal written laws ## 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, Ideas about informal and formal social control were introduced in Unit 2. Social control can be informal, using various techniques of persuasion by family, friends, colleagues and the media. It can also be imposed more formally by a wide range of institutions, such as social work departments, medical authorities and the police. Some groups feel the force of social control more than others, especially young people. ### 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. For example, if a person commits a minor offence, the police may explain to them why it was wrong and warn them against doing it again, without making an official record. ### Key Terms - __Formal Social control__: social control imposed by people or organizations who have the authority to implement rules or laws. - __Informal Social Control__: ways of controlling behaviour imposed by people without a formal role to do this (such as peers). - __Agencies of social control__: people or organizations who carry out social control. For example, killing someone is not always considered a crime or even a deviant act: it is not a crime for soldiers to kill enemy soldiers in wartime, and some countries impose the death penalty on serious criminals. Another example which shows how deviance and crime are relative to time and culture is homosexuality. Same-sex relationships were illegal in many countries in the past but, in much of the world today, homosexuality has been decriminalised. In many countries, same-sex relationships are no longer seen as deviant and, as discussed in Unit 4, same-sex marriage is now legal in many parts of the world. However, homosexual relationships are still criminalised in over 70 countries, punisments vary from two years imprisonment and a time in Chad, to the death penalty in several african and asian countries. In sociology, most early research and theory was about crime. From the 1960s onwards, there was a greater interest in deviance, especially in some deviant youth subcultures, Sociologists were often sympathetic to the deviant sub-cultures they studied; they wanted to understand how and why the behavior of certain groups was labelled as deviant, rather than assuming that it was deviant or wrong. They argued that there was nothing about the actions of these sub-cultures that made them deviant; rather, it was the reactions of other that led to them being called deviant __Tip:__ The words deviance and deviancy are used interchangeably. There is no difference in their meaning. Be sure, however, not to confuse crime and deviance: although they may overlap, they do refer to different things. __Key Term__: *Sub-culture: a froup of people within a larger culture which has its own distinctive norms and values* ### The formal agencies of social control are: - __The Police__: by policing, they are responsible for investigating criminal facts and catching offenders. - __The Courses__: The law courses hear charges brought against people, decide withether ther are guilty and impose punishments. - __The armed forces__: In come countries and situations, the armed forces play as apart in formal and social control. For example, , government may use the armed forces in situations where the police are enable to cope; The Armed Forces often have more resourcs then the police for situations such as riots; for example, they may be able to use tear gas, water cannons and even guns. - __The Government__: The government is ultimately resposible for social control. It has to esure law and order so that businesses can operate governments that control the police, the courts, the armed forced and the penal system. - __The penal system__: The penal system is responsible for carrying out the punishments imposed on offernders by the law. It includes prisions and other institutations such as detention. ### Informal social control Informal social control is an important way of controlling people behaviour. Althought it may be less obvious or threatening than formal control, it is very powerful. Methods of informal. Control include critical comments, ridicule, sarcasm and disaproving looks as negative sanctions, and words of praise as positive sanctions (rewards). Informal social control includes socialsiation into values, and the individual and socially behaviour. Through socialisation, people internalise norms and learning to control their own behaviour, conforming even when they are alone __Top__. Remember that the main agencies of informal social control are also the main agencies of socialisation ### The main agencies of formal socail contorl are: * __family__: close realtionships beetween and giving family members a sense of belonging, but this alos creates obligations and expactations that limit and an individuals can do. disaprovmal and family members. people learn withoin their farmililes that what behaviour its acceptabel and what this is not * __education__: through the education system, inidvidusals are soicaliesad into values that guide their behaviour. within schools, a range of sanctions are education control. * __workplace__: These usally have foraml rules, such as what worksers can times too start and fishn. there are along norms which and new workers and socail, employees range and the employees by colleagues. * __peer groups__: Therese have powerful ways and the eserciseing, informal social social control such as making. commentand that group * __tradional__:and digtial media. reporting, about criminal behaviour and all the. ### Key Terms * ____Policing__: the ways to the the police cary work such as investigateing crimes and arresting offences * ____Penal System__: the form social responsible, the crime system. * ____Prison__: a building with where criminals are forced to live as punishment * ____Socialisation__: the process of learning forms and values of a cultrue ### Debates about the effectiveness of agencies and methods of social control in achieving conformity and preventing crime functionalistics adn mazisms end and the foraml and soicla conrol and s smooth capitalism for soicail however functionalistics sesess that work in everyone's intrestat, while mananizs argue that social controll prevents with working class fromm recognisiting and tebbelling against their reportation, fruncitnolisitics reportation and through soricl conditon for both francialisms and narizm s with formal soclaizitonal and socals ### Key term * __Conformity__: behaviour that follows the usual standards exprected by a group or society a few hundred years ago. 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