Crime and Deviance - Episode 1

In episode 1 -

1. What is the difference between crime and deviance
2. How is crime relative and socially constructed
3. Who are the victims of crime

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to episode one of Crime and Deviants
for the Sociology Show podcast. In this episode, we're going
to think about what's the difference between a criminal and
a devian act, how is crime and deviants relative, how
is crime and deviants socially constructed? And also who is
the typical victim according to official statistics. So let's start

(00:20):
with what is the difference between a crime and a
devian act? Well, a crime is to find as something
that breaks the law and as such may follow criminal
proceedings such as a police caution, court proceedings and for
serious offenses prison. Different societies have different laws and therefore
crime can be seen as fluid and relative as a concept.

(00:41):
Examples of crimes in the UK are theft, murder or rape.
Deviance is a much broader term, and it's something that
breaks the informal rules or the norms that are accepted
by the majority of a society. For example, burping during
a meal is considered a deviant act in some societies
but is socially acceptable in others. Nevertheless, you will not

(01:02):
get a fine, or go to court or be imprisoned
if you did commit a deviant act, as these are
dealt with via informal sections, so things such as exclusion
or shame, or gossiping or a glance. These terms can
become more complicated as most crimes are deviant, however, not
all are. A crime like murder, is both against the

(01:22):
law and deviant. However, some acts such as breaking the
law to protect the environment or parking on a double
yellow line, are criminal but not always seen as deviant.
We must remember that what is socially acceptable can be subjective,
and therefore we don't all categorize acts in exactly the
same way. To clarify, some acts are just criminal, some

(01:43):
are just deviant, and others are both criminal and deviant.
The key thing for you to remember is a criminal
act is something that breaks the law, whereas a deviant
act is something that just breaks a norm of society.
So let's move on to this idea of relativity. Room
and deviants are relative, and there are three factors that
you should really try and remember for your exam, and

(02:06):
that is that crime is relative to time, place, and person.
Let's start with time. What constitutes a criminal act can
depend on the time or era in which it took place.
For example, the sociologist Fuco shows us the homosexuality was
illegal in England and Wales until nineteen sixty seven. After
that it became legal. As we go through time, it

(02:28):
also becomes more socially acceptable. In the early two thousands,
people of the same sex could have a civil partnership,
and by twenty thirteen and twenty fourteen we allowed gay
marriage in the UK. So if we were asked, is
homosexuality illegal in the UK, well, it depends what time
we're talking about. Pre nineteen sixty seven it would be.

(02:49):
Post nineteen sixty seven it wouldn't be. There are also
other areas that have changed. For example, abortion was not
legalized in England, Scotland and Wales until the introduction of
the Aborda Act in nineteen sixty seven. Driving without a
seat belt was not criminalized in the UK until nineteen
eighty three. So one way in which crime can be

(03:09):
seen as relative is due to time or when a
crime actually took place. Let's think about place in terms
of place, we can see what constitutes a crime is
relative to where you are. Fuko again talks about how
an act can change from place to place in his
discourse theory. For example, having sex under the age of

(03:30):
sixteen in Britain is a criminal offense, whereas in Germany
and Italy the age of consent is fourteen, So having
sex at the age of fifteen is a criminal act
in some places but not in others. In Saudi Arabia,
homosexual or extramarital sexual relations, including adultery, are illegal and
can be subject to severe penalties. It's also illegal to

(03:51):
be transgender in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it could also
be unacceptable for men to wear shorts in public. In
regard to deviance, it could be deviant in the UK
to be naked on the street, but not in your
own home. Therefore, the place in which the act takes
place plays a significant role in classifying what is and
what isn't deviant or criminal. Then we have the person

(04:15):
that actually commits the act. In terms of person, what
is deemed a crime may depend on who you are.
For example, drinking alcohol is illegal for under sixteens in
the UK, yet adults are allowed to drink as much
as they want. Therefore, it is relative to a person's
age or status. Interactionists such as Sigarel are interested in

(04:35):
how the status of a person may affect their chances
of being labeled as a criminal. For example, he found
that working class youths were more likely to get a
criminal record than middle class uths because of police expectations,
regardless of the fact that they were both doing the
same types of crimes or activities. In terms of deviants,
it's normal if you were to skip along the street

(04:56):
if you're a young child, but if adults started to
do it, they will be looked at a little bit oddly. Therefore,
what constitutes a crime and deviant act is relative to
who you are to So if you were to get
a question on crime being relative, try and remember those
three factors time, person, and place. All of this demonstrates

(05:17):
then that crime and deviance is what we call socially constructed,
and this means that is created and defined by society.
A common sense understanding of crime and deviants is that
certain acts are wrong and will always be this way. However,
we should open our minds beyond this idea and think
what is classified as criminal or deviant is the result

(05:39):
of society's definitions and not the actual act itself. Think
of a soldier who has to kill in the line
of duty. Some people would call them a hero or
a heroine for what they did, whereas others would say
that they were a murderer. However, some sociologists, such as
the interactionist Howard Becker, wants us to think carefully about
this and ask ourselves, is is there really any difference

(06:01):
between a soldier and a person in prison for murder.
If crime is a social construction, as sociologists believer is,
then we need a fundamental shift away from seeing acts
and people as criminal or deviant and start looking at
the role of powerful groups like the police, courts, and
media who define a person's actions as criminal or deviant.

(06:21):
So there's another couple of terms that are really useful
here to understand, and one is social order and the
other is social control. Social order is defined as the
general order of conformity to shared norms and values. We
don't always recognize this. Look around you and you'll see
examples of social order all the time, students working in
the classroom, people in the street, drivers adhering to the

(06:43):
rules of the road, and so on. Social control is
defined as the process by which people are persuaded to
obey rules and conform. Agents of socialization, such as the
police and courts, are influential in persuading us to adhere
to the rules or suffer the consequences for not doing so.
You must remember that there are two forms of social control,

(07:04):
and this is really useful to understand. We have informal
social control, and this is carried out by agencies such
as the media, family or friends. It's a more subtle
form of control and includes both positive and negative sanctions.
For example, if someone were to make a comment at
your give you a little glance, they are controlling your behavior,

(07:25):
but in no more subtle and informal way. Formal social
control is carried out by agencies specifically set up to
control our behavior, such as the police, the courts, and
the army, and of course they can give more severe punishments.
As already mentioned, the police can give fines, they can
give cautions, and ultimately they can also give prison sentences

(07:45):
as well. So let's now move on to the victims
of crime. According to official statistics, who are more likely
to be victims. When we analyze the data for the
Crime Survey for England and Wales, we can see lots
of dif different variations. For example, with gender, one variation
between male and female victimization shows that males are much

(08:07):
more likely to be victims of homicide that means murder,
whereas females are much more likely to be the victims
of domestic abuse. However, we also need to consider what
we call intersectionality. This is a person's multiple identities such
as their class, their age, their gender, ethnicity, etc. That
create different levels of discrimination or privilege. To these findings,

(08:28):
the variations within these gender trends and patterns of victimization change.
So let's take victims of homicide and think about gender
and age. Variations between male and female homicide rates in
England and Wales show that males are sixty four percent
more likely to be victims and females at thirty six percent. However,

(08:50):
intersectionality if we apply age to these findings, we can
see that female homicide victims were mostly older than males,
often between the ages of twenty five to thirty four.
Male victims were comparatively younger, with higher proportions within the
age of sixteen to twenty four. Therefore, males are more
likely to view victim of murder, but this is more

(09:12):
likely to happen between the ages of sixteen and twenty four,
whereas female murder victims are less frequent but more likely
to be slightly older between the ages of twenty five
to thirty four. Let's compare that to victims of domestic violence.
The variation between males and females and domestic violence shows
that the proportion of females experiencing domestic violence is around

(09:33):
seven point three percent of the population. That is around
double that of males at three point six percent. Is
therefore clear that females experience domestic violence more than males. However,
with intersectionality, there seems to be clear variations within these
statistics based on age and social class. Women aged twenty
to twenty four years were significantly more likely to be

(09:55):
victims of any domestic abuse in the last twelve months
than women in Ana any other age group. Therefore, younger
females are statistically more likely to experience domestic violence. When
we look at social class, females with a lower household
income were around twenty one percent of all domestic violence victims.
More middle class women are around twelve point five percent,

(10:18):
and with high income around four percent. These figures show
us that age and social class are very important factors,
and this intersectionality gives us a better understanding of patterns
and trends of domestic violence among female victims. So for yourself,
it's really important if you were giving examples in relation
to gender, to remember that men are more likely to
be victims of being attacked or being a victim of homicide,

(10:42):
whereas females are more likely to be a victim of
domestic violence. Let's think about some statistics in terms of
victimization and ethnicity. First of all, we have what's called
interracial crime rates. This is between different racial or ethnic groups.
These statistics that people of mixed ethnicity are more likely
to be the victim of crime. In twenty twenty, the

(11:05):
figure for ethnic groups and victimization where mixed twenty percent,
Asian fifteen percent, Black groups fourteen percent, and white thirteen percent.
Home Office figures also show that black people are five
times more likely to be murdered than white people in
the UK. That's clear evidence of interracial victimization. We also

(11:26):
have what's called intra racial crime rates. This is within
racial or ethnic groups, and these statistics shasts that the
most violent crime is interracial. That means black on black
or white on white, etc. Home Office intraracial figures show
that one third of gun murder victims and suspects were black.
So all of these figures show us there are clear

(11:48):
variations between different social groups, i e. Males are more
likely to be victims of murder, females are more likely
to be victims of domestic violence, Mixed ethnicity groups are
more likely to be the victims of crime in general. However,
it's also important to pinpoint these variations within these trends
and patterns ies. Social class can play a huge significant

(12:10):
role in domestic violence, age can play a role in homicide.
Social class plays a role in differing ethnic levels of victimization.
This intersectionality provides a deeper understanding of patterns and trends
of victimization. However, it is also important to note that
the Crime Survey for England and Wales is only one
way of measuring crime, and this method does have some weaknesses.

(12:34):
It's also important to keep in mind that different sociological
perspectives have differing and sometimes contrasting views on crime and
victims of crime. For example, Marxists would point out that
all proletariats are victims of crime because of the bourgeoisie
and due to capitalism, whereas feminists would argue that patriarchy
victimizes all females in ways that can be seen as

(12:57):
criminal in today's society. So just to recap have a
think about these areas. Can you now define what is
meant by crime? Can you define what is meant by deviants?
Could you give an example of a criminal act? Could
you give an example of a deviant act? Could you
name the three factors which make crime and deviance relative?

(13:18):
Could you name at least three different patterns in relation
to victimization and crime. Thank you for listening to part one.
In part two, we will look at how crime is measured.
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