Crime and Deviance Soc 101 PDF

Wednesday November 20th 2024: Deviance and Crime “The body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the process of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting towards the breaking of laws Why do we need laws? What functions do laws serve? - To resolve confl...

Wednesday November 20th 2024: Deviance and Crime “The body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the process of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting towards the breaking of laws Why do we need laws? What functions do laws serve? - To resolve conflict (conflict resolution) - To keep order and social structure - Gives the illusion of quality, and us being under one Study of law concerned with: - Values - Interactions - Patterns - Ideologies Sociology and law: - Norms - Social control - Human rights - Power arrangements Crime: - Certain behaviours and actions that require social control and intervention - Codified in law - Criminal code - Murder - Assault - Theft Most crimes are considered deviant but not all deviance is considered criminal Crime and Deviance: Deviance: - Actions that violate social norms - How do we define what is deviant - Eg: Photography vs pornography - May or may not against the law Tattoos: - Was looked at differently 20-25 years ago than it is today Drinking: - Normal in western culture Smoking: - Yes it is deviant Smoking while pregnant: - Yes it is deviant Drugs: - Others think it is okay, I do not Relationships: - Professor having a relationship with a student - Age gaps Carrying a Weapon: Deviance: - Any acts that involve the violence of social norms: - Includes our appearance, relationships, our sexuality, where we live, our jobs, how we treat our bodies, etc Howard becker (1966) - Not act itself but people's reaction to the act that makes it deviant Who defines deviance: - Politicians/governments, scientists, religious institutions, media - Informal and formal social controls Explaining Crime: - Theories of crime Causation - What causes crime? - Why does crime happen - Who commits crime - Who is a victim - Where does crime occur - What types of crime do people commit Explaining crime: Demonology - Criminal behaviour attributed to supernatural forces - Emphasis on witchcraft, evil spirits, demonic possession - The devil made me do it - Witch hunts - Extensive use of torture, death penatly Explaining crime: Classical Theories - Key question - Why do particular people commit crimes? - Free will and rational choice - The cause of all behaviours - Felicific calculus: - Jermey bentham - Latin for happy - Calculating the probability of pleasure and pain to determine the utility of an action Explaining crime: Biological Determinism: - Human behaviour - including criminality is physiologically based or inherited - Gall: Phrenology/Craniology (early 1800s) - Skull morphology or bumps in the head - Study of the shape of the skill to determine a persons character and mental capaity - Human behaviour - including criminality is physiologically based of inherited - Lombroso: The Criminal Man (1867) - People are born criminals - “Atavistic man”: criminals physiological throwbacks to early stages of human evolution - Sheldon (1954) Atlas of Men - Somatotypes - Body type/shape determined human behaviours Problems with early and biological theories: - Focus on the individual - Crime is not rational - Assume punishment deters - Can't explain patterns in crime - Bias and discriminatory - All largely discredited Explaining crime: sociological approaches: - Assumptions - Utilizes a macro perspective - Explores behavioural tendencies of group members - Not individuals - Crime is a result of different components of social life - 3 areas: - Social structure theories - Social process theories - Social conflict theories Social strcuture theories: Assumptions: - Structure of society contributes to frequency of crime - Groups are the casual factors in crime Ecology - Social Disorganization: - SD major case of criminality/victimization - Breakdown of ‘collective efficacy’ - Neighbourhood characteristics can increase/decrase crime rates Social process theories: - Focuses on interactions between people and society - Socialization primary cause of learning - All behaviour is learned - Learn crime the same way Labelling theory: - Primary - Infrequent, disappears - norm violations or crimes that have little influence on the actor - Secondary - Deviant event comes to attention of social control agents who apply a negative label - Adopt deviant self image Conflict theory: - Control of the political and economic system affects the administration of criminal justice - Definitions of crime favour those who control the criminal jusitcr system - Justice in society is skewed so that those who deserve to be punished the most are punished the leat - Crimes that are relatively minor and committed out of economic necessity receive stricter sanctions Law as an Agent of social control: - Reflected in our type of laws: - Laws against rape - Unequal enforcement of laws: - Treatment of white collar crime/offenders - Reflection for those who make/enforce/benefit from laws - Reflection of priority in enforcement - Reflected in our punishments - Overrepresentation of indigenous peoples at all levels of justice Street crime Vs Suit crime - More likely to go undetected - More likely to affect a greater number of people - Has a greater economic and social impact - Receive less harsh sanctions