SOC101Y Introduction to Sociology Professor Robert Brym Lecture #10 Crime and Deviance 23 Nov 2011

Hair “Crimes” Deviant or criminal actSocial reaction Dyeing your hair purple in Toronto today (2011) None; possibly raised eyebrows Letting your hair grow too long in John Lie’s high school, Hawaii (~1975) Public hair cut; detention Growing a beard too long in Tsar Peter the Great’s Russia (~1700) Tax Peasant wearing samurai hairstyle in medieval Japan (~1500) Possibly death penalty

Deviance and Crime  Deviance involves breaking a norm.  Crime involves breaking a norm that has been codified in law.  Both deviance and crime typically elicit a negative reaction from others, ranging from mild (e.g., an individual raising his or her eyebrows) to severe (e.g., a state invoking capital punishment).

 Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his or her own will despite resistance.  White ‑ collar crime refers to illegal acts committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his or her occupation.  Street crimes include arson, burglary, robbery, assault, and other illegal acts. They are committed disproportionately by people from lower classes. Power, White-Collar Crime, Street Crime

 Victimless crimes, such as prostitution and illegal drug use, involve violations of the law in which no victim steps forward and is identified.  Self-report surveys are especially useful. In such surveys, respondents are asked to report their involvement in criminal activities, either as perpetrators or victims. Victimless Crime, Self-Report Surveys

Victimization: Percent of Offences by Type of Crime, Seven Countries, 2000 Percent of offences Note: Contact crimes include robberies, sexual incidents, and assaults and threats. Horizontal lines indicate international average for each type of crime for all 17 countries in the survey. Thirty-eight percent of the population of all 17 countries were victimized in the year preceding the survey. Percent of population victimized by all crimes

Crime Rate, Canada, by Province and Major City, 2008 Crimes per 100,000 population Territorial crime rates are extraordinarily high: about 21,805 in the Yukon, 34,867 in Nunavut and 43,509 in the Northwest Territories.

Graph excludes traffic crime, the rate of which has been stable at about 375. Between 1991 and 2006, total crime was down 27%, violent crime was down 10%, property crime was down 42%, other (mainly drug-related) crime was down 5% Crimes per 100,000 population

Total and Violent Crime Rate, Canada, Frequency per 100,000 population Year Total crime rate Violent crime rate

Homicide Rate, Canada, Homicides per 100,000 population

Homicide Rate by Gun Ownership, 1990s Thousands of guns owned per 100,000 population Homicide rate per 100,000 population Note: About 30% of Canadian homicides and 70% of American homicides involve firearms. USA Canada New Zealand Australia UK Japan

Police Officers per 100,000 Population, Canada, Officers/100,000 population As the crime rate fell from , there were more police officers per 100,000 population; as the crime rate continued to fall after 1998, there were fewer police officers per 100,000 population. Thus, the correlation between crime and density of police officers is weak.

Persons Charged in Criminal Incidents, Canada, Thousands of charges

World Prison Population, 2008 Prisoners per 100,000 population United States (756) CountryPercent of World’s Prisoners Percent of World’s Prisoners / Percent of World’s Population China* USA Russia France Germany Canada Other Total100.0 Canada (116) Russia (629) World (145) China* (155) France (96) England/Wales (153) Germany (89) Share of Prisoners per Country * Includes 850,000 people in “administrative detention.”

Total Crime Rate and Unemployment Rate, Canada, Total crime rate Unemployment rate Year

Abortions and Crime, USA,

The Ratio of Female to Male Offenders, Canada, Homicide Total crime Youth crime Ratio of female to male offenders Year

The percentage of sentenced Aboriginal adults increases with the log of the percentage of Aboriginal adults in a population ( ) Nunavut NWT Yukon Aboriginal adults as percent of adult population Aboriginals adults sentenced as percent of adults sentenced Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba BC logarithmic function

Why the Crime Rate for Aboriginals and Blacks is Higher than the Crime Rate for Whites in North America  Racism exists in the criminal justice system (e.g., age, class, and lack of criminal activity act as prophylactics against stops and searches for whites and Asians, but not blacks).  Aboriginal and black men experience relatively high discrimination, high unemployment, and low per capita income as a result of their race.

Arrest by Race, USA, 2009 Racial group % of Pop. % of Arrests White Black American Indian Asian