Sociology (9690) | Deviance, harm and crime

Welcome to Deviance, Harm, and Crime!

Hi there! This chapter is really exciting because we move from looking at how society keeps us in line (social control) to looking at what happens when people break those rules. We will explore the difference between simply breaking a norm and committing a serious crime, and why these definitions change depending on where and when you live.

Don't worry if these concepts seem a little vague at first. Sociology teaches us that what counts as 'bad' is often decided by people in power, not by some universal rule.

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1. Defining the Core Concepts: Deviance, Crime, and Harm

These three terms are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but in Sociology, they have distinct meanings.

a) Deviance

Deviance is any behaviour that violates social norms or widely accepted standards within a society or group.

• Key Point: Deviance is not necessarily illegal. It is simply behaviour that causes others to react negatively.
• Example: In most formal workplaces, wearing beach clothes is deviant but not criminal.
• Relativity: What is deviant in one culture (e.g., eating with your left hand) might be normal in another.

b) Crime

Crime is any act that breaks the formal, written laws of a society and is subject to official penalties (sanctions) by the state or the criminal justice system.

• Crime is a form of deviance, but not all deviance is crime.
• Example: Stealing a car is both deviant (breaking the norm of respecting property) and criminal (breaking the law).

c) Social Harm

Social Harms are actions that cause significant damage, injury, or loss to individuals or society, even if those actions are not technically against the law.

• This is a crucial concept! Sociologists argue that focusing only on 'crime' (which is legally defined) ignores much greater damage.
• Example: A massive factory polluting a local river, causing widespread illness. This is harmful, but if the company followed existing weak environmental laws, it might not be a ‘crime’.

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2. The Social Construction of Crime and Deviance

When sociologists say crime is socially constructed, they mean that it is created and defined by human interaction, culture, and law, rather than being naturally fixed.

a) Differences Between Societies

Laws reflect the norms and values of the dominant groups in power. Because cultures vary wildly, so do definitions of crime.

• Example: Adultery (extramarital affairs) is a criminal offence in some countries but is purely a private, non-criminal matter in many others.
• Example: The legal drinking or voting age varies significantly around the world.

b) Differences Over Time

What was criminal yesterday may be legal today, and vice versa. As societal values change, laws evolve.

• Example: In the UK, homosexuality was once a serious crime but is now legally protected.
• Example: Historically, failing to wear a seatbelt was not an offence; now, it is a crime in many countries.

Key Takeaway: If crime were universal (like gravity), it would be the same everywhere. Since it changes constantly, we know it is a social construct, reflecting power and morality.

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3. Types of Crimes and Examples

The syllabus requires you to know about several different types of crime, moving beyond simple violent and property offences. These types highlight how social class and power often influence which crimes receive the most police attention.

a) Traditional Crimes

• Violent Crimes: Offences against the person (e.g., assault, murder, robbery).
• Property Crimes: Offences against property (e.g., theft, burglary, vandalism).

b) Crimes of the Powerful

These crimes often involve less direct violence but cause enormous financial or societal harm.

• White Collar Crimes: Crimes committed by individuals in the course of their professional occupation.
  • Example: An employee stealing money from their company (embezzlement).
• Corporate Crimes: Crimes committed by or on behalf of large companies or businesses, usually to increase profit.
  • Example: A pharmaceutical company hiding evidence that their medication causes serious side effects.
• State Crimes: Crimes or harmful acts committed by states (governments) or state agencies (like the military or police).
  • Example: War crimes, torture, or mass surveillance of the public.

c) Other Categories

• Green/Environmental Crimes: Crimes involving damage to the environment.
  • Example: Illegal dumping of toxic waste by corporations; illegal logging (deforestation).
• 'Victimless' Crimes: Acts considered illegal but where the primary 'victim' is often the offender themselves, or where there is no direct identifiable victim.
  • Example: Illegal drug use, some forms of gambling, or prostitution (depending on local laws).
  • Note: These are in quotation marks because sociologists argue there are rarely truly 'victimless' crimes, as drug use, for instance, affects families and communities.
• Cybercrimes: Crimes committed using digital networks or computers.
  • Example: Hacking, identity theft, online financial fraud, and cyber-bullying.

Analogy: White collar and corporate crimes are like quiet, surgical strikes. They cause massive financial damage and affect thousands of people, but they lack the dramatic immediacy of violent street crime, so they often receive less media and police attention.

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4. Issues in Measuring and Researching Crime

A central problem in sociology is knowing how much crime actually exists. The truth is, we don't know the exact figure. This is often referred to as the dark figure of crime (unreported or unrecorded offences).

Sociologists use three main methods to try and capture the reality of crime, but all have limitations:

a) Official/Police Statistics (OPS)

These are the figures collected and published by the police and government about reported and recorded crimes.

• Strengths: They are systematic, easy to compare year-on-year, and cover the whole nation.
• Limitations (The Dark Figure):
  1. Underreporting: Victims may not report crimes due to fear, shame, or lack of trust in the police.
  2. Underrecording: Police may decide not to officially record a reported crime (e.g., classifying an assault as a minor disturbance).
  3. Bias: Statistics reflect police decisions about who to target (e.g., focused policing in certain areas might inflate numbers for specific groups).

b) Victim Surveys

These surveys ask a random sample of people what crimes they have experienced over a specific period (e.g., the last 12 months), regardless of whether they reported it to the police.

• Strengths: They capture some of the dark figure of crime (especially minor offences) and reveal victimisation patterns.
• Limitations:
  1. People may forget minor or repeated crimes.
  2. They don't cover "victimless" crimes or corporate crimes.
  3. They exclude certain groups (e.g., people living in children's homes or prisons).

c) Self-Report Studies (SRS)

These surveys ask respondents (usually young people) to state anonymously what offences they have committed, even if they were never caught.

• Strengths: They reveal that many people commit minor offences but never show up in official statistics. They challenge the idea that only poor people commit crime.
• Limitations:
  1. People may lie, exaggerate, or minimise their crimes.
  2. They often focus only on minor, common offences like speeding or drug use.
  3. They are not good for researching serious crimes like murder or corporate fraud.

Key Takeaway: All crime statistics are socially constructed data. They tell us as much about how the police and society react to crime as they tell us about the actual crime rate.

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5. Patterns of Offending and Victimisation

Crime is not randomly distributed across the population. There are distinct patterns linked to social characteristics like gender, class, age, and ethnicity. Sociologists use these patterns to understand the underlying causes of crime.

a) Gender

• Offending: Official statistics consistently show that males commit significantly more crimes than females, particularly violent and serious crimes.
• Victimisation: Women are disproportionately likely to be victims of crimes committed by someone they know, such as domestic violence and sexual assault.

b) Social Class

• Offending: Working-class individuals are overrepresented in official statistics for crimes like theft and property offences. However, middle and upper classes are responsible for most white collar and corporate crime (Section 3), which is often under-prosecuted.
• Victimisation: Poorer individuals often live in higher-crime areas and may face higher rates of victimisation, especially from violent and property crime.

c) Age

• Offending: Offending rates peak in the late teens and early twenties before declining rapidly as people get older, find jobs, and settle down (a process called maturation).
• Victimisation: Young people (16-24) are generally the most victimised age group, though older people (especially the very elderly) are often victims of specific crimes like fraud or neglect.

d) Ethnicity

• Offending: In many Western societies, certain ethnic minority groups (e.g., Black or Minority Ethnic groups) are statistically overrepresented in arrest and prison statistics compared to their proportion in the general population.
• Sociological Debate: This pattern raises questions: Is this because of genuine differences in offending rates, or is it a result of discriminatory policing, stereotyping, and 'othering' (where certain groups are unjustly singled out by control agencies)?
• Victimisation: Ethnic minority groups may also face higher rates of victimisation, including hate crimes.

Final Key Takeaway: Understanding deviance, harm, and crime requires looking beyond simple definitions. We must critically examine who makes the rules, who breaks them, and how sociological methods attempt (often imperfectly) to measure the scale of the problem.