1. Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?.

2. Accessibility Statement
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3. Objectives of Chapter 1 Following this Slide Show you should:
Be able to define deviance and crime.
Be aware that both deviance and crime are social constructions.
Be aware that deviance and crime can vary between cultures.
Be aware that deviance and crime can vary across time.
Be aware of Howard Becker's view that no action in itself is deviant until defined as such.
Be aware that deviant and criminal behaviour are controlled by rules, social mores and sanctions.

4. Questions to Think About in this Topic
How are crime and deviance defined?
How some people are more likely to acquire a criminal identity?
How are some groups more powerful and able to define behaviour of others as deviant or criminal?
Do criminal and deviant identities result from natural or social factors?
Do social processes, and institutions like the media, shape our picture of crime and criminals?

5. What is Deviance? Deviant behaviour is: Behaviour Behaviour Behaviour
that incurs
public
disapproval.
Behaviour
subject to
some form of
sanction.
Behaviour
that differs
from the
normal.

6. Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?
Anthony Giddens
‘Non-conformity to a given norm, or set of norms, which are accepted by a significant number of people in a community or society’ (Anthony Giddens 1993).
Deviance Chapter 1: Social Construction of Crime and Deviance?

7. Becker and Labelling TheoryNo
action in
itself is deviant.
It has to excite some social reaction from others.
Howard Becker (above) highlights the social construction of deviance by stating:
It depends upon who commits it, who sees it, and what action is taken about it.

8. Copyright © Harry Venning, Guardian Newspapers Ltd.

9. Deviance is Relative
Definitions of deviance will clearly vary between:
Cultures
Time
Periods
Sub-cultures

10. Are These Acts of Deviance?
Look at the pictures on the next few slides. Identify in what ways they may be viewed as deviant.
Note deviance does not need to be criminal, have any laws been broken in these pictures?

11. ?

13. ?

15. ?

17. Deviance Controlled by Sanctions
Deviant behaviour is effectively controlled by sanctions that promote conformity.
Sanctions may be:
Informal
Formal or

18. Legal Definitions of Crime
The OED defines
crime as: ‘an act
punishable by law,
as being forbidden
by statute’.
Crime is therefore
a specific act of
deviance that
breaks society’s
formal rules or laws.
The process of
law-making is
a social one since
laws are human
products.

19. Normative Definitions of Crime
Besides
the legal
definition
Mooney et al. (2000)
suggest a
normative definition
of crime.
Hence society is largely unsympathetic to criminals who have been caught – e.g. “they get what they deserve”.

20. Before industrialisation
Religious Crimes
Before industrialisation
the most serious
crimes were typically
religious in nature:
Heresy
Sacrilege
Blasphemy

22. ‘Just’ and ‘Unjust’ Laws
Some people
regularly
flout laws.
Dog
licences
were withdrawn
because so
few bought
them.
For example, many people ignore 30 mph laws in towns or 70 mph on motorways

23. Middle-class Criminals?
Steal
stationery
Middle-class Criminals?
Respectable people may:
Put
private letters
through office
mail
Make private
phone calls
at work
Fiddle
expenses

24. White Collar Crime
Marxists argue there is an enormous amount of white-collar and corporate crime.

25. Crime is not Fixed or Permanent
Homosexuality and abortion are no longer crimes in most societies.
During the period of ‘prohibition’ in the USA the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal.
Cannabis
was recently
declassified to
a Class C
drug.

26. Conclusions
Deviance is behaviour by individuals or social groups that fails to conform to culturally expected norms of behaviour.
It is a relative concept – no act in itself is deviant per se.
Labelling theory makes the important point that it is the social reaction or label that defines an act as ‘deviant’.
Sanctions can be positive or negative, formal or informal.
Deviance is distinct from crime, although crimes tend to be deviant behaviour, not all deviance is criminal.

27. Conclusions (continued)
Deviance is controlled by sanctions.
Crime is a formal act of deviance that violates statute law.
Besides this legal definition, it carries normative judgements – criminals are not viewed sympathetically.
In pre-industrial society most crimes were religious in nature, or acts of theft against the aristocracy.
According to people’s value judgements crimes can be ‘just’ or ‘unjust’.