Chapter 7

Conformity,
Deviance,
and Crime

Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
 The Study of Deviant Behavior

What Is Deviant Behavior?

– Norms are the do’s and don’ts of society
– Deviance is nonconformity to a set of norms
• What’s considered deviant shifts from time to time
• Normal behavior in one culture may be deviant in
another
• Most people are deviant sometimes
 The Study of Deviant Behavior

Norms and Sanctions

– Sanctions are applied by society to reinforce
social norms
• Can be formal or informal
– Laws are norms defined and enforced by
governments
• Crimes are acts that break laws
 The Study of Deviant Behavior

The Biological View of Deviance

– Theories that try to link biological factors with
deviant behavior
• Some studies link physical characteristics to
delinquency
• Aggression is connected to factors present at birth
– No decisive evidence that any personality
traits are inherited
 The Study of Deviant Behavior

The Psychological View of Deviance

– Some crimes are associated with particular
personality types
– Traits associated with psychopaths don’t have
to be negative or lead to crime
– Though certain criminals possess abnormal
personality traits, majority of criminals don’t
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories

Functionalist Theories
– See crime and deviance as produced by
structural tensions and lack of moral
regulation within society
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories
Durkheim
– Anomie refers to feeling of anxiety and
disorientation that exists when no clear
standards exist to guide behavior in social life
• Regarded crime and deviance as inevitable and
necessary to society
• Deviance introduces new ideas, brings about
change
• Clarifies social norms
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories
Merton
– Modified anomie to include strain put on
individuals when accepted norms conflict with
social reality
• These five types of individuals react to tensions
between social values and the limited means to
achieving them:
 Conformists accept conventional means even if they are
not successful
 Innovators accept values but use illegitimate or illegal
means to follow them
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories

Merton (cont)
Ritualists conform but have lost sight of underlying
values
Retreatists reject dominant values and means of
achieving them
Rebels reject values and work to replace them with
new ones
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories

Interactionist Theories
– Focus on deviance as socially constructed
phenomenon
• Edwin Sutherland linked crime to differential
association—the concept that individuals become
delinquent through associating with people who
are carriers of criminal norms
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories
Labeling Theory
– Labeling theory assumes labeling someone
as deviant will reinforce deviant behavior
• Primary deviation: initial act of transgression
• Secondary deviation: individual accepts the label
and sees oneself as deviant
– No act is intrinsically criminal (or normal)
– Labeling theorists are interested in how
behavior is defined as deviant and why
certain groups, but not others, are labeled
deviant
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories

Conflict Theories
– Conflict theories analyze crime and deviance
in terms of structure of society, competing
interests between social groups, and
preservation of power among elites
Society and Crime: Sociological
Theories
Control Theories
– Control theories posit that crime occurs when
inadequate social or physical controls exist
– Growth of crime linked to increasing
opportunities and targets for crime in modern
societies
– Theory of broken windows suggests direct
connection between appearance of disorder
and actual crime
 Crime and Crime Statistics

Crime Surveys
– Surveys like the National Crime Victimization
Survey is one of main ways sociologists track
crime trends
• Many crimes (maybe half) are never reported
• Crime rates have declined since their peak in early
1990s due to strong economy and declining crack
market
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime
Gender and Crime
– Rates of criminality are much lower for women
than for men
• Socialization differences
• Greater involvement of men in nondomestic
spheres
– Unemployment and crisis of masculinity linked
to male crime rates
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime
Gender and Crime (cont)
– Women are overwhelmingly the victims of
rape by men
• Rape much more common than official stats show
• All women are victims of rape because they live in
fear and take special precautions for their
protection
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime

Crimes against Gays and Lesbians

– Gays and lesbians experience high levels of
criminal victimization and harassment
– Because they are stigmatized, they are seen
as “deserving” of crime rather than innocent
victims
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime
Youth and Crime
– Popular fear about crime focuses on crimes
committed by young, working-class males
– Official statistics reveal high rates of crime
among young people but we should be wary
of moral panic about youth crime
• Much deviant behavior among youth, such as anti-
social behavior and nonconformity is not criminal
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime

Crimes of the Powerful

– White-collar crime refers to crime of affluent
people
• Efforts to detect are limited
• Those caught rarely go to jail
• Can affect more people than lower-class
criminality
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime

Crimes of the Powerful (cont)

– Corporate crime describes offenses
committed by large corporations
• Many corporations to not adhere to legal
regulations
• Disadvantaged are disproportionately affected
 Victims and Perpetrators of
Crime

Crimes of the Powerful (cont)

– Organized Crime
• Involves institutionalized form of criminal activity
• Many characteristics of organizations appear
orthodox, but activity is illegal
– Cybercrime
• Criminal activity carried out with help of
information technology
• Global reach of crime challenges law enforcement
 Crime-Reduction Strategies

Are Prisons the Answer?

– Prisons developed in part to protect society
and in part to reform criminal
• Do not seem to deter crime
• Degree to which they rehabilitate prisoners to face
outside world without relapse is dubious
– Policing
• Can be reassuring to public
• Sociologists argue now less about controlling
crime and more about detecting and managing
risks
 Crime-Reduction Strategies

Crime and Community

– Rebuilding communities and preventing crime
are closely linked
– Community-based punishment is an
alternative to prison
 Review Questions

1. Which of the following people can be

considered deviant?
a) someone who doesn’t put money in the parking meter
b) a person who chooses to live in an isolated area with no water,
electricity, or other modern conveniences
c) a mentally ill person who has frequent outbursts and makes
inappropriate comments in public
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
 
 Review Questions

2. What is the irony of the relationship between

deviance and a well-ordered society?
a) Most deviant behavior is learned through socially acceptable
institutions such as schools, the family, and the media.
b) The more a society punishes deviance, the more the unaccepted
behavior is repeated.
c) Deviance helps hold societies together by uniting people in
opposition to behavior that is deemed unacceptable.
d) Definitions of deviance change over time thus frustrating
society’s efforts to enact formal sanctions.
 
 Review Questions

3. Anomie can be defined as ________.

a) a sense of disorientation or anxiousness that develops when
there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of
social life
b) a mild form of depression brought on when a person loses his
sense of self
c) a sort of paralysis that overcomes a whole community when
levels of deviance have been steadily increasing
d) a sense of aimlessness or despair that develops when an
individual is not well integrated into a community
 
 Review Questions
4. A child struggles to learn how to read and is
frequently teased about it by his siblings and is
referred to as “slow” by his parents and teachers.
He underperforms in school and never thinks
about going to college. Ultimately he drops out
before graduating from high school, telling the
school counselor that he’s just not a smart guy
who can learn from books. This is an example of
which theory of deviance?
• labeling theory

• strain theory

• reflection theory

• role theory
 
 Review Questions

5. According to some interactionist and conflict

theorists, the way deviance is defined reveals a
great deal about __________.
a) how social norms evolve over time
b) the strength of a society’s social capital
c) how much a society values conformity
d) power structures in society
 
 Review Questions

6. What is paradoxical about the relationship

between criminal behavior and prisons?
a) For some criminals, incarceration provides a way to make new
contacts in the criminal world that will be useful when they are
released.
b) The threat of a long prison sentence does not seem to act as a
deterrent for most criminals.
c) Contrary to their stated purpose, prisons may actually reinforce
deviant behavior rather than rehabilitating criminals and turning
them away from a life of crime.
d) The longer a person is in prison, the more difficult it is to reintegrate
him or her into society upon release.
 
 Review Questions

7. In recent years there has been a significant

shift in police work from _________ to _________.
a) focusing on violent crimes; community policing
b) relying more and more on technology; increasing the number of
officers on the streets
c) preventing crime; building community resources
d) controlling crime; detecting and managing risk