Chapter 7: Crime and Deviance

Table of Contents

1. What Is Deviance?
2. Functionalist Perspectives On Deviance
3. Interactionist Perspectives On Deviance
4. Conflict Perspectives On Deviance
5. Crime Classifications And Statistics
6. Criminal Justice System
7. Deviance And Crime In The Twenty-First Century

I. What Is Deviance?

1. All societies have norms that govern acceptable behaviour and mechanisms of social control-systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance.
   
   
2. Deviance is relative and it varies in its degree of seriousness: some forms of deviant behaviour are officially defined as a crime-a behaviour that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions.

II. Functionalist Perspectives On Deviance

1. Strain Theory: Goals and Means to Achieve Them
   1. According to strain theory, people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.
      
      
2. Opportunity Theory: Access to Illegitimate Opportunities
   1. According to Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, for deviance to occur people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures-circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.
      
      
   2. Three different forms of delinquent subcultures-criminal, conflict, and retreatist-emerge based on the type of illegitimate opportunities available in a specific area.
      
      
3. Control Theory: Social Bonding
   1. According to Walter Reckless, people are drawn to deviance by poverty, unemployment, and lack of educational opportunity; however, many people do not turn to deviance because they are "insulated" by outer containments and inner containments.

2. Travis Hirschi developed social bond theory, which holds that the probability of deviant behaviour increases when a person's ties to society are weakened or broken.

III. Interactionist Perspectives On Deviance

1. According to interactionists, deviance is learned in the same way as conformity-through interaction with others.
   
   
2. Differential association theory states that individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who are more predisposed toward deviance than conformity.
   1. According to Edwin Sutherland, people learn the necessary techniques and the motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes of deviant behaviour from people with whom they associate.
      
      
   2. People are more likely to engage in criminal activity if they have frequent, intense, and long-lasting interactions with others who violate the law.

3. Labelling theory suggests that deviants are those people who have been successfully labelled as such by others.
   1. The process of labelling is directly related to the power and status of those persons who do the labelling and those who are being labelled.
      
      
   2. Behaviour is not deviant in and of itself; it is defined as deviant by others. Moral entrepreneurs use their own views of right and wrong to establish rules and label others as deviant, and then these rules are enforced on persons with less power.

3. Primary deviance is the initial act of rule-breaking; secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labelled a deviant accepts that new identity and continues the deviant behaviour.

IV. Conflict Perspectives On Deviance

1. According to conflict theorists, people in positions of power maintain their advantage by using the law to protect their own interests.
   
   
2. The Critical Approach
   1. The way laws are made and enforced benefits the capitalist class by ensuring that individuals at the bottom of the social class structure do not infringe on the property or threaten the safety of those at the top.
      
      
   2. According to critical theorists, the affluent commit crimes because they are greedy and want more than they have; the poor commit economic crimes in order to survive.
      
      
   3. Critical conflict theorists suggest that street crimes are committed by persons who are more heavily impacted by poverty, unemployment, and racism and that bias against the poor contributes to the greater likelihood of their arrest and conviction than of the more affluent.
      
      
3. Feminist Approaches
   1. While there is no single feminist perspective on deviance and crime, three schools of thought have emerged:
      
      1. Liberal feminism-women's deviance and crime is a rational response to gender discrimination experienced in work, marriage, and interpersonal relationships.
         
         
      2. Radical feminism-women's deviance and crime is related to patriarchy (male domination over females), which keeps women more tied to family, sexuality, and home, even if women also have full-time paid employment.
         
         
      3. Socialist feminism-women's deviance and crime is the result of women's exploitation by capitalism and patriarchy (e.g., their overrepresentation in relatively low-wage jobs and their lack of economic resources).
         
         
   2. Feminist scholars from ethnic minority groups have pointed out that these schools of feminist thought do not include race and ethnicity in their analyses. As a result, some recent studies have focused on the simultaneous effects of race, class, and gender on deviant behaviour by some women of colour.

V. Crime Classifications And Statistics

1. Crimes are divided into indictable and summary conviction offences based on the seriousness of the crime.
   1. An indictable offence is a serious crime such as homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and break and enter. Punishment can range up to life imprisonment.

2. A summary conviction offence is a minor crime such as fraudulently obtaining food from a restaurant, causing a disturbance, or wilfully committing an indecent act. Summary conviction offences are punishable by a fine of up to $2000 and/or six months in jail.
2. Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offences.
   1. Street crime or conventional crime includes all violent, certain property, and certain morals crimes.
      1. Violent crime-actions involving force or the threat of force against others.
         
         
      2. Property crimes-in most property crimes, the primary motive is to obtain money or some other desired valuable.
         
         
      3. "Morals" crimes-illegal action voluntarily engaged in by the participants, such as prostitution, illegal gambling, and private use of illegal drugs.
         
         
   2. Occupational or white-collar crime consists of illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.
      1. White-collar crime often includes a violation of positions of trust in business or government.
         
         
      2. While some white-collar offenders act for their own financial benefit, others become involved in corporate crime-an illegal act committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.
         
         
   3. Organized crime is a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.
      1. Organized crime thrives because there is great demand for illegal goods and services, and some police and government officials are corrupted through bribery, campaign contributions, and favours intended to buy them off.

2. Apart from their illegal enterprises, organized crime groups have infiltrated the world of legitimate business.
   
   
4. Political crime refers to illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it.
   
   
3. Official crime statistics provide important information on crime; however, the data reflect only those crimes that have been reported to the police.
   1. People are more likely to report a crime when they believe that something can be done about it, and the number of crimes reported to the police represents only the proverbial "tip of the iceberg" when compared with all offences actually committed.
      
      
   2. Victimization surveys and anonymous self-reports of criminal behaviour have made researchers aware that the incidence of most crimes is substantially higher than reported in the CUCR (Canadian Uniform Crime Reports). The accuracy of the CUCR is greatest for very serious crimes such as homicide, which is almost always reported, and for crimes like auto theft where a significant loss can be replaced by insurance if the crime is reported.

3. Crime statistics do not reflect many crimes committed by persons of upper socioeconomic status in the course of business because they are handled by administrative or quasi-judicial bodies.
   
   
4. Street Crimes and Criminals
   1. Age and Crime
      1. Arrest rates for property crimes are relatively high for youth aged 12-17 and peak during the ages of 18-24. Arrest rates for violent crimes are highest for those aged 25-34. After age 34, rates for both violent and property offences decline quite dramatically.
         
         
      2. This relationship is remarkably consistent across societies and for different types of offences.
         
         
   2. Gender and Crime
      1. While arrest rates for women are growing at a higher rate than those for men, men still make up 81 percent of those charged, compared with only 19 percent for women.
         
         
      2. The increase in female crime over the past two decades has been the greatest for property crimes such as theft and fraud. These two categories include offences commonly committed by females such as shoplifting, credit card fraud, and passing bad cheques, which are among the least serious property offences. This likely reflects the feminization of poverty. Women who are economically marginal may commit these crimes in order to support themselves and their children.
         
         
      3. There is a proportionately greater involvement of men in major property crimes and violent crime.
         
         
      4. There are very large differences in the sex ratios of criminal involvement in different parts of the world. The ratios are the highest (meaning male rates of crime are much higher than female rates) in countries having the greatest differences between the roles of men and women.
         
         
   3. Social Class and Crime
      1. Individuals from all social classes commit crimes. Research suggests that the relationship between class and crime is not strong. However, those who engage in frequent and serious offending are most likely to come from the very bottom of the class ladder.
         
         
      2. Persons from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be arrested for violent and property crimes; only a very small proportion of individuals who commit white-collar or elite crimes will ever be arrested or convicted.
         
         
      3. Canada's poorest provinces have the lowest rates of crime. The evidence suggests that the degree of inequality is more important than the absolute level of wealth in determining crime rates.
         
         
   4. Race and Crime
      1. In societies with culturally heterogeneous populations, some ethnic and racial groups will have higher crime rates than others. For example, Aboriginal people are overrepresented in Canada's crime statistics and African Americans and Hispanics are overrepresented in the U.S.
         
         
      2. While Canadian data on crime and ethnicity are very limited, it appears that non-Aboriginal visible ethnic minorities and immigrants are underrepresented in prison populations.
         
         
      3. Race and ethnicity are not causes of crime. Rather the explanation for the overrepresentation of some minorities is due to factors such as poverty, discrimination, and the destruction of cultural supports.

VI. Criminal Justice System

1. The criminal justice system includes the police, the courts, and prisons. This system is a collection of bureaucracies that possesses considerable discretion-the use of personal judgment regarding whether to take action on a situation and, if so, what kind of action to take.
   
   
2. The police are responsible for crime control, the maintenance of order, and the provision of some social services.
   1. The police have this diverse range of responsibilities for a number of reasons, including:
      1. They are open 24 hours a day.
      2. They serve clients no other agencies wish to serve.
      3. They may not know about, or have access to, other agencies.
      4. Historically, they have had the role of maintaining the peace since the time of Sir Robert Peel, who established the first municipal police force in London, England.
         
         
   2. Two important dimensions of the police role are: they have the authority to intervene in situations where something must be done immediately; and this authority is backed by non-negotiable force.
      
      
   3. The issue of police discretion is extremely important. Police managers determine how the police will operate through their administrative discretion over how they organize their department and use their resources. Individual police officers exercise individual discretion in that they have to decide which rules to apply and how to apply them in each situation they encounter. This discretion has very low visibility. Discretion is unavoidable. However, if it is based on extra-legal factors such as race or class it can be considered discriminatory and is an abuse of police powers.
      
      
3. The courts determine the guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime. Discretion is exercised by prosecutors and judges in the court system: about 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried in court; they are resolved by plea bargaining instead. Our system is adversarial; prosecution and defense each puts its case forward and tries to raise doubts about the other's arguments. Proponents feel this is the best way to deal with questions of guilt or innocence. There are, however, other approaches; some European countries use an inquisitorial system, and many Aboriginal societies use a more holistic approach.
   
   
4. Punishment is any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of something the person is thought to have done.
   1. Punishment is seen as serving four functions:
      1. Retribution imposes a penalty on the offender and is based on the premise that the punishment should fit the crime.
      2. Social protection is served by restricting offenders so that it is impossible for them to commit further crimes.
      3. Rehabilitation seeks to return offenders to the community as law-abiding citizens, but most prison programs are understaffed and underfunded.
      4. Deterrence seeks to reduce criminal activity by instilling a fear of punishment.

2. Disparate treatment of the poor, racial minorities, and women is evident in the prison system.
   
   
5. Restorative justice is an alternate means of addressing the effects of crime. Restorative justice seeks to return the focus of the justice system to repairing the harm that has been done to the victim and to the community. This tactic often involves the active involvement of the victim and members of the community in the process.
   1. While Canada imprisons people at a rate far below that of the United States, we have a rate of incarceration that is higher than that of most other industrialized countries. Because of this, some have suggested that Canada make greater use of community corrections, which is cheaper than incarceration and which may be more effective for minor offenders.
      
      
   2. Community corrections, an important component of the restorative justice approach, shifts responsibility back to the community. A key goal of community corrections is to reduce the number of people in prison.

VII. Deviance And Crime In The Twenty-First Century

1. Although many people in Canada agree that crime is one of the most important problems facing this country, they are divided over what to do about it.
   
   
2. The existing criminal justice system cannot solve the "crime problem." If the majority of crimes do not result in arrest, and the majority of those arrested are not convicted, and if most of those convicted are not sent to jail, the "lock 'em up and throw the key away" approach has little chance of succeeding.
   
   
3. The high rate of recidivism among those who have been incarcerated does not speak well for the rehabilitative efforts of our existing correctional facilities.
   
   
4. Rather than focusing on what happens to the offender after a crime has been committed, the best way to deal with crime is to prevent it from happening. The best approach for reducing delinquency and crime ultimately is prevention: to work with young people before they become juvenile offenders, so as to help them establish family relationships, build self-esteem, choose a career, and get an education that will help them pursue that career.
   
   
5. Globalization will continue to have a major impact on the type of crime we will see in the future. The international drug trade is one example of the global linkages among criminals. The globalization of the economy will also have an impact on crime if it leads to job losses and income inequality.

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