PowerPoint Presentation
prepared by
Terri Petkau, Mohawk College
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Deviance and Crime
Julian Tanner
INTRODUCTION
• Will examine:
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Types of crime and deviance
 Approaches to understanding crime and
deviance
 Crime data sources, including official
crime statistics, self-report surveys, and
observation
 Correlates of crime
 Theories of crime and deviance
 Gender and crime
 Youth, crime, and deviance
 Responses to crime and deviance*
14-3
CONCEPTIONS OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
• All known human societies have
norms (i.e., generally accepted ways
of doings things) about appropriate
behaviour
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Deviance involves breaking a norm
• Crime involves breaking a law*
14-4
NORMS AND
ENFORCEMENT
• Norms are enforced in many ways, both
formally and informally
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• At the formal level, norms are enforced
with laws regulated by a criminal justice
system that includes police, courts,
prisons, etc.
• At the informal level, norms may be
enforced with shaming, communal
pressure, etc.*
14-5
NORM VIOLATIONS
•
Hagan distinguishes between diverse kinds of
rule breaking behaviour by suggesting norm
violations be differentiated according to different
measures of seriousness, which include the
following:
1. How harmful the act in question is deemed to be
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
2. How much agreement there is that the behaviour
in question is wrong
3. Severity of the sanction (or punishment) imposed
on that behaviour…*
14-6
NORM VIOLATIONS:
TYPES OF DEVIANCE AND CRIME
•
Hagan employs his conception of
“seriousness” to identify four different
kinds of deviance as follows:
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
1. Consensus crime: Acts deemed very
harmful and wrong, and for which the
harshest criminal sanctions are reserved
 Examples: Homicide, attempted homicide,
violent assault with a weapon, violent
sexual assault, armed robbery,
kidnapping, & theft…*
14-7
NORM VIOLATIONS:
TYPES OF DEVIANCE AND CRIME
2. Conflict crime: Where members of
the community disagree over
whether behaviours in question are
harmful, wrong, or deserving of
severe criminal sanction
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Examples: Euthanasia, gambling,
prostitution, drug use, and public
drunkenness (often referred to as
“morality offences”)…*
14-8
NORM VIOLATIONS:
TYPES OF DEVIANCE AND CRIME
3. Social deviation: Norm-violating
behaviour that is not illegal but
nevertheless may be subject to social
stigma through condemnation,
ostracization, and medicalization
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Examples: People who are mentally
ill, who are homosexual, or who are
alcohol- or drug-dependent…*
14-9
NORM VIOLATIONS:
TYPES OF DEVIANCE AND CRIME
4. Social diversion: Minority heterosexual &
homosexual activities as well as forms of
symbolic or expressive deviance involving
adolescents
 Examples: Particular clothing, hairstyles,
musical choices, etc.
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Generally speaking, the more serious the form
of deviance, the less likely it is to occur
•
Conversely, other deviant acts can occur so
routinely some question whether they
characterize deviance…*
14-10
TYPES OF DEVIANCE AND
CRIME
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-11
NORM VIOLATIONS
• Hagan’s typology is subject to change though given
the relativity of deviance: Acts, behaviours, and
conditions that constitute various categories can
vary over time  Examples:
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Impaired driving – not originally regarded as a
serious offence - was inconsistently enforced and
rarely punished with a prison sentence
 Marijuana use, once regarded as a serious offence,
is now considered by some to warrant
decriminalization*
14-12
THE
RELATIVITY OF
DEVIANCE
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-13
LABELLING THEORY
• Labelling theory recognizes relativity of crime and
deviance, and argues the following:
 Crime and deviance may be universal, but there are
no universal forms of crime and deviance
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 What counts as deviant or criminal behaviour varies
by time and place including…
 Killing (acceptable in time of war or in line of duty)
 Opiate-use in Canada (was once legal)
 Incest (are significant variations across cultures in
what constitutes incest)…*
14-14
LABELLING THEORY
• Labelling theory recognizes relativity &
argues the following: (cont’d)
 Publicly recognizing somebody as criminal
or deviant is important cause of criminal or
deviant behaviour
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Application of label of criminal or deviant
often linked to lower social class (e.g., the
lower the status of the user, the more likely
the drug will be criminalized)*
14-15
SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTIONISM
• Differs from labelling theory only in its broad
concern with all kinds of social problems rather than
solely crime and deviance
• Both theories argue crime & deviance become
problematic because some people - usually the
most powerful - define them as such
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Both theories focus on activities & claims that result
in new crimes being defined
• Are more likely to ask the question, “Why do we
care more about youth crime than corporate crime?”
than “What causes youth crime & corporate
crime?”*
14-16
OBJECTIVIST ACCOUNTS
OF CRIME AND DEVIANCE
• Objectivist accounts of crime and deviance focus
on the behaviour itself
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Researchers working in this tradition are likely to
pose the following kinds of questions:
 Are rates of crime and deviance increasing?
 What kinds of people become bank robbers,
prostitutes, or murderers?
 What factors predict rampage school shootings,
corporate crime, youth gang activity, etc.?
 Do people who break one kind of rule also break
other kinds of rules?*
14-17
UNDERSTANDING CRIME
AND DEVIANCE
• Can combine both objectivist &
constructivist approaches by asking
different but complimentary questions
about the phenomenon
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Full understanding of crime &
deviance requires both the normviolation and labelling/constructionist
approaches*
14-18
CRIME IN THE NEWS
• The media does not report all criminal incidents
that it can report
 Violent crime is reported more regularly than
property or white-collar crime (.i.e., crime
conducted by high-status individuals in the course
of their occupation or profession)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• News organizations do not just report facts but
rather they shape how readers, viewers, & listeners
feel and think about crime & deviance
 Example: Canadians overestimate crime &
recidivism (repeat offending) rates & underestimate
severity of criminal sanctions for crimes*
14-19
OFFICIAL STATISTICS
• Most accounts of crime & deviance are
made persuasive by use of data collected
by the police, the courts, & other
governmental agencies
 The more serious the norm violation, the
more comprehensive the data collection
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Virtually every important theory of deviant
behaviour (especially criminal behaviour)
relies on information about offences &
offenders collected by or on behalf of the
government…*
14-20
OFFICIAL STATISTICS
• Since 1962, a system of uniform crime
reports (UCR) has provided the basic count
of criminal infractions in Canada
 UCR system is designed to produce
consistent, comparable, nationwide crime
statistics
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• For crime to become known to the police,
one of two things must happen:
 Either members of the public experience or
observe a criminal incident and pass that
information on to the police – or
 The police themselves detect the incident…*
14-21
OFFICIAL STATISTICS
• UCR underestimates the actual amount of crime
occurring in any jurisdiction given inconsistent
reporting to police by the public
 The number (deemed large) of criminal incidents
that remain unknown to the police often is
referred to as the dark figure of crime
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• 2007: In Canada, were 2.3 million crimes known
to the police
 However, overall crime rate was lower than at any
time since 1977 - with violent crime at its lowest
level in nearly two decades*
14-22
CRIME RATES IN CANADA,
1962 TO 2007
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-23
REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN
CRIME RATES
• Generally speaking, provinces and cities in western
part of Canada have higher crime rates than those
in the east
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Contributing factors:
 The West’s “frontier mentality” that favours
individualism, independence, and risk-taking
 More migrants (anonymity loosens social controls)
 Younger population (crime associated with youth)
 Proportionately higher Aboriginal population (group
with crime rates higher than non-Aboriginal
population)*
14-24
HOMICIDE RATES
• In 2007, were 594 homicides in Canada - 1.8
homicides per 100 000 Canadians
 Rate has been decreasing since 1975
• Males are more likely than females to be both
victims and perpetrators of homicide
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Rates are higher in the West than in the East
• Black people are five times more likely than white
people to become homicide victims, and also are
more likely to be perpetrators*
14-25
HOMICIDE RATES IN SELECTED
COUNTRIES, 2005–2007
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-26
HOMICIDES
• Sociologists of homicide are interested in the
relationship between murderers and their victims
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Statistics demonstrate the following:
 Most victims know their killer  Acquaintances kill
about one-third of homicide victims, family members
another third
 In comparison to men, women are at greater risk
from the violent attentions of former spouses and
are 4 times more likely to be victims of intimate
partner homicide
 Child victims of homicide are rare, and children are
killed primarily by women*
14-27
HOMICIDES: CANADA AND
THE UNITED STATES
• Although Canada’s homicide rate is similar
to that of many European nations, it is
much lower than the U.S. rate (i.e., roughly
1/3)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• While non-urban homicide rates are fairly
similar in Canada and the U.S., urban
differences are enormous
• While some claim violent media
consumption in the U.S. is contributing
factor, Canadians watch similar
programming*
14-28
HOMICIDES IN CANADA,
1961–2007
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-29
OTHER DATA SOURCES:
SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
• Self-report studies used mainly to conduct research
on deviance among young people, particularly those
in high school
• Statistics Canada also conducts surveys of adult
victimization periodically
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•



Concerns of self-report studies:
Cannot ensure truthfulness of accounts
Self-disclosure much higher than in police records
Those charged by police and prosecuted differ from
“hidden” delinquents*
14-30
OTHER DATA SOURCES:
DIRECT OBSERVATION
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Researchers use observational studies to
collect information about crime and
deviance by watching it happen, either as
outside observers or as participant
observers
 Many gang researchers have engaged in
observational studies
• Concern of observational studies:
 Observing people can sometimes change
their behaviour*
14-31
CORRELATES OF CRIME
•
A correlate is a phenomenon that is
associated with another phenomenon
 Factors associated with criminal and
deviant activity are correlates of crime
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
1.
2.

Important correlates of crime:
Age (i.e., people in teens & early 20s)
Gender (i.e., males)
Both age & gender are universal
correlates of crime…*
14-32
CORRELATES OF CRIME
•
Important correlates of crime: (cont’d)
3. Lower social and economic standing (is
disputed though because is not reflected
in self-reports)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
But street crime (i.e., robbery, burglary,
and the like) involves mainly people from
low-status backgrounds
•
White-collar or business crime is more
likely to involve people from more
privileged backgrounds…*
14-33
CORRELATES OF CRIME
•
Important correlates of crime: (cont’d)
4. Race
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Aboriginals and blacks are overrepresented in
Canada’s prison population
•
Overrepresentation of Aboriginal people explained
by both (i) racial bias in treatment of Aboriginal
offenders, and (ii) greater criminal activity by
Aboriginal people
•
Overrepresentation of Black people explained by
racial profiling (i.e., targeting by police officers of
members of particular racial or ethnic groups)*
14-34
THEORIES OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
1. Strain theory (proposed by Robert Merton)
• Holds that crime & deviance are result of societal
pressures to break rules because of incompatible
demands of cultural goals and social structural
opportunities
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Lack of fit between cultural goals & social
structural opportunities results in anomie
 Those who experience anomie respond by:
 Withdrawing from conventional society
 Finding deviant (including criminal) means of
achieving goals*
14-35
THEORIES OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
• Variant of strain theory  Learning perspective and
differential association (Edwin Sutherland)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Holds that if people experience more non-deviant
than deviant associations as they grow up, they are
likely to not engage in crime and deviance later in
life
 More association with deviant than non-deviant
lifestyles teaches people skills of the criminal trade
as well as rationalizations for it
 Learning can continue later in life as well through
time spent in prison with other inmates*
14-36
THEORIES OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
2. Control theory (Travis Hirschi)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Holds that a set of ties bind young people to the
conventional world, and when those ties are
weak, deviance & crime occur
•
No special motivation is required because we all
have natural inclination for rule breaking that is
only kept in check because of our (i) attachments
to family and friends; (ii) commitments to
conventional ambitions and activities in school
and work;
(iii) prosocial values &
beliefs; and (iv) conventional activities at school
and work*
14-37
THEORIES OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
• Variant of control theory  General Theory of
Crime
• Argues that all deviance has a common cause in
low self-control
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Personality characteristics of individuals with low
self-control include impulsivity, a taste for risk, an
action orientation, and short-term thinking
 Low self-control presumably originates in early
socialization because of lack of parental
involvement or attention to deviant behaviour*
14-38
THEORIES OF
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
• Routine activities theory
• Argues that much criminal behaviour is not
dependent on complex causation
 Rather, presence of a suitable target & absence
of capable guardians suffice
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Crime rates vary not just because of number of
individuals in the population willing and prepared
to commit crime, but also because of presence or
absence of capable guardians, and because of
the daily routines that people follow*
14-39
GENDER AND CRIME
• Major difference between males and
females is largely one of volume:
 Males are (i) more inclined than females to
crime and deviance (especially violent
crime); (ii) start their deviant activities
earlier; and (iii) end them later
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• However, female crime increasingly
recognized as growing problem:
 Women and girls are becoming more
violent as well as more involved in gang
activity…*
14-40
GENDER AND CRIME
• Some analysts suggest female wrongdoing can
be best explained by same concepts and theories
used to explain male wrongdoing
 But then generic theories would need to explain
lower level of deviance and criminality among
females than males
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Sociologists influenced by feminist ideas are
more likely to argue for gender-specific theories
of crime and deviance
 Is supported by research on role of depression in
female rather than male delinquency*
14-41
YOUTH, CRIME, AND
DEVIANCE
• Young people are at heart of most people’s
concerns about crime & deviance
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Concern, fed by media coverage, gives rise to
moral panics, which are extreme reactions to
deviance and crime that suggest behaviour
constitutes threat to core values and well-being of
society; e.g., school shootings and youth gangs
 Most moral panics involve young people for two
main reasons: (i) Are considered vulnerable to
corrupting influences; and (ii) they represent the
future (which becomes cause for concern)*
14-42
RESPONDING TO
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
1. Incarceration: Prison is chief means - albeit
ineffective - by which we seek to control crime
•
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
Deterrence theory holds that getting tough on crime
will lead to its eradication or at least reduce its
probability
 Suggests law-violating behaviour will be low when
severity, certainty, and speed of punishment are
high
 But is challenged by certainty principle, which holds
that potential offenders are more often deterred by
thought of certain but moderate punishment than by
guarantee of severe punishment for act they think
they can get away with*
14-43
RATE OF INCARCERATION IN
SELECTED NATIONS
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-44
RESPONDING TO
CRIME AND DEVIANCE
2. Intervention: Interventionist policies assume that
we can most effectively tackle crime by
weakening motivations and minimizing
opportunities for lawbreaking
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Interventions include recreational programs for
neighbourhood youth, counselling sessions, and
assignment of youth workers to neighbourhood
street gangs
•
Problems: Expensive and limited proper
evaluation of effectiveness*
14-45
RESPONDING TO CRIME AND
DEVIANCE: PREVENTING CRIME
• Public policy debates about crime rarely
discuss non-legal solutions despite our
knowledge of risk factors associated with
serious and repetitive criminality among
youth
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Is not surprising given criminal justice
policies are driven by political ideology, not
criminological research (is particularly true
for juvenile justice policy)…*
14-46
RESPONDING TO CRIME AND
DEVIANCE: PREVENTING CRIME
•
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
Much if not most of controversy surrounding
criminal justice policy in Canada centers on young
people
• Over past century, young people in trouble with the
law have fallen under the following provisions:
1. Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908 (based on
welfare model of juvenile justice)
2. Young Offenders Act of 1984 (welfare model but
also drew on due process & crime control models)
3. Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) of 2003
(emphasized getting tough on serious, repeat
young offenders while adopting less punitive
strategies for the far more numerous minor
offenders)*
14-47
RATES OF YOUTH FORMALLY
CHARGED WITH A CRIME SINCE
INCEPTION OF THE YOUTH CRIMINAL
JUSTICE ACT (YCJA)
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
14-48
RESPONDING TO CRIME AND
DEVIANCE: PREVENTING CRIME
• Under the YCJA, minor offenders receive warnings
and community-based diversionary programs
• Most recent youth crime statistics suggest that, as
intended, occasional & non-serious young
offenders are being diverted in manner intended
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• While number of youths charged by the police has
declined significantly, offences most likely to result
in a charge under the YCJA are same offences that
brought criminal charges under its predecessor**
14-49