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Deviance A. What is deviance? 1. Deviance is defined as the recognized violation of cultural norms a. Occur when there are normative violations in our society life is less orderly and predictable. b. Deviance: Any violation of a widely held norm. Prescriptive Norms: Dictate what is expected ("thou shalt"). Proscriptive Norms: Govern forbidden conduct ("though shalt not"). Most deviance is ignored, mildly punished, amusing, or supported by the larger society (ex. The US Constitution protects many deviant acts through the first amendment). Serious violations versus social blunders. Judgements about what is and what is not deviant are relative to the society in which the deviant act occurs. c. Deviance may exist in behavior or simply in a person's very existence d. It may be positive or negative 2. The social foundations of deviance a. Deviance varies according to cultural norms b. People become deviant as others define them that way c. Both rule-making and rile-breaking involve social power B. The Functions of Deviance: Structural Functional Analysis 1. Emile Durkheim: The functions of deviance a. Durkheim identified four distinct functions of deviance It affirms cultural values and norms Clarifies moral boundaries Deviance as boundary setting It occurs when shared norms set the limits of acceptable behavior. Confrontations test the limits of acceptable behavior Promotes social unity Deviance can be used as a unifying force by reaffirming the strength of societal norms as well as our commitment to them. A common temper or anger can be brought to bear against another group, reinforcing identity and consensus. Deviance as Safety Valve It allows controlled expression of deviance to stop any large scale deviance (ex. prostitution, Woodstock, etc.) Encourages social change

C. Deviance calls forth social control -- attempts by society to regulate the behavior of individuals 1. Because deviance may appear disruptive to social life, all societies develop some means of controlling it. a. Mechanisms that monitor behavior and penalize the violation of norms are known as social controls (from weak kinds to death). Sociologists divide them into two kinds: Internal Social Controls: Seated within the individual and are learned through socialization. We are taught that certain behaviors are normal and others are not. This socialization runs so deep we learn to really want to conform and not be deviant. Ensures conformity and predictability. External Controls: rely on social mechanisms to prevent deviance (ex. police, law, gov, family, and peers). They are societal mechanisms that monitor our behavior: they reward conformity and punish non-conformity. They are used when our internal controls are not reliable, or a social situation is too important to be left up to individual responsibility. (ex. speeding). Informal Controls: Expressions of Approval and affection by significant others -- but it also includes expression of disapproval. Formal Agents of Control: These are agents that occupy statuses specifically charged with norm enforcement.

II. What is Criminology? A. Criminology is the scientific approach to studying criminal behavior. 1. Body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon 2. Development of criminal law and its use to define crime 3. The cause of law violation 4. Methods used to control criminal behavior 5. An interdisciplinary science B. Criminology and Criminal Justice 1. Criminology explains the etiology (origin), extent, and nature of crime in society. 2. Criminal justice refers to the study of the agencies of social control: police, courts, and corrections. Criminology and Deviance 1. Deviant behavior is behavior that departs from social norms. 2. Not all crimes are deviant; not all deviant acts are illegal. Becoming Deviant 1. Criminologists study the process by which deviant acts are criminalized and how criminal acts are decriminalized and/or legalized.

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III. A Brief History of Criminology A. The study of crime and criminality is relatively recent. 1. During the Middle Ages (1200-1600), superstition and fear of satanic possession dominated thinking. B. Classical Criminology 1. During the eighteenth century, social philosophers began to embrace the view that human behavior was a result of rational thought process. a. Jeremy Benthams utilitarianism: people choose to act after weighing costs and benefits, pleasure and pain. b. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) applied Benthams principles to crime i. To deter crime, the pain of punishment must be administered in a fair, balanced, and proportionate amount to counterbalance the pleasure obtained from crime. Nineteenth-Century Positivism 1. Emergence of scientific method a. People began using observation and analysis of natural phenomena to understand the world. b. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) applied scientific methods to the study of society. i. Primitive societies consider inanimate objects as having life; in later social stages, people embrace a rational, scientific view. Comte called this final stage the positive stage and those who followed his writings became known as positivists. c. Two elements of positivism i. Belief that human behavior is a function of forces beyond a persons control ii. The use of scientific method to conduct research 2. Biological Positivism a. Physiognomists and phrenologists studied facial features, shape of the skull and bumps on the head to determine criminal behavior. b. Psychopatic personality in its early form suggested that abnormality in the human mind linked to criminal behavior. i. Early research efforts shifted attention to brain functioning and personality as the keys to criminal behavior. ii. Freuds (1856-1939) work established the psychological basis of behavior.

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Ceseare Lombroso (1835-1909) believed that serious offenders inherited criminal traits. i. Concepts of born criminal and biological determinants ii. Criminals suffer atavistic anomalies physically, they are throwbacks to more primitive times. iii. Indirect heredity: criminogenic traits acquired from degenerate family whose members suffered such ills as insanity, syphilis, and alcoholism iv. Direct heredity: being related to a family of criminals

3. Social Positivism a. Scientific study of major social changes taking place in nineteenth-century society D. The Foundations of Sociological Criminology 1. Adolphe Quetelet a. Instigated the use of data and statistics in performing criminological research b. Helped develop the cartographic school of criminology c. Found strong influences of age and sex on crime and uncovered evidence that season, climate, population composition, and poverty were related to criminality. d. Quetelets findings directly challenged Lombrosian biological determinism. 2. Emile Durkheim a. Founder of sociology who defined crime as a normal and necessary event. i. Crime is normal and a part of human nature because it exists during periods of both poverty and prosperity. ii. The inevitability of crime is linked to the differences (heterogeneity) within society. b. Crime can be useful and even healthy for society. i. Crime paves the way for social change. ii. Crime calls attention to social ills. c. Described the consequences of the shift from a mechanical society to the more modern organic society i. From this shift flowed anomie, or norm and role confusion that maintained high suicide rates and, by implication, other forms of deviance.

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The Development of Sociological Criminology 1. Chicago School University of Chicago Ezra Park (1864-1944), Ernest Burgess (1886-1966), Louis Wirth (1897-1952) 2. Research on the social ecology of the city 3. Social forces operating in urban areas create criminal interactions; some neighborhoods become natural areas for crime. 4. Crime is a function of where one lives rather than individual pathologies. F. The Development of Social Process Theories 1. During the 1930s and 1940s, a group of sociologists concluded that the individuals relationship to important social processes such as education, family life, and peer relations was the key to understanding human behavior. 2. Two views, learning and control, linked criminality to the failure of socialization. a. Edwin Sutherland: Crime is a learned behavior. b. Walter Reckless: Crime occurs when children develop an inadequate self-image that renders them incapable of controlling their own misbehavior. 3. By mid-century most American criminologists had embraced either the ecological view or the socialization view of crime. The Roots of Conflict Criminology 1. Karl Marxs (1818-1883) Communist Manifesto a. The character of every civilization is determined by its mode of production. b. Described the oppressive labor conditions during the rise of industrial capitalism and the relationship between the owners of the means of production (the bourgeoisie) and the laborers (the proletariat). c. Marxs writings laid the foundation for a Marxist criminology developed by young sociologists who began to analyze the social conditions in the United States that promoted class conflict and crime.

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Contemporary Criminology 1. The various schools of criminology have evolved and continue to have impact on the field. a. Classical theory has evolved into choice and deterrence theories. b. Biological positivism has evolved into biological and psychological trait theories. c. Quetelet and Durkheims sociological criminology has evolved into contemporary social ecological theory. d. Marxist writings have evolved into critical criminology. e. Criminologists are now integrating theories linking personal, situational, and social forces. These are termed developmental theories.

IV. What Criminologist Do: The Criminological Enterprise A. Criminologists are devoted to the study of crime and criminal behavior. Several subareas of criminology comprise the criminological enterprise. B. Criminal Statistics 1. Criminologists interested in criminal statistics try to create valid and reliable measurements of criminal behavior. 2. Criminal statistics can also be used to make international comparisons. The Sociology of Law 1. Criminologists interested in the sociology of law are concerned with the role social forces play in shaping criminal law, and concomitantly, the role of criminal law in shaping society. Theory Construction 1. Criminologists who engage in theory construction view social theory as a systematic set of interrelated statements or principles that explain some aspect of social life. a. Constructed theories are based on social fact and tested by constructing hypotheses and then assessing the hypotheses using empirical research. Criminal Behavior Systems 1. The criminal behavior systems subarea involves research on specific criminal types and patterns: violent crime, theft crime, public order crime, and organized crime. 2. The criminal behavior systems subarea also involves research on the links between different types of crime and criminals; this is known as crime typology.

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Penology 1. Penology involves the correction and control of known criminal offenders; it is the subarea of criminology that most resembles criminal justice. Victimology 1. Victimology is the study of victims and victimization. a. Measuring the extent of criminal victimization b. Calculating the costs of victimization c. Measuring the factors that increase the likelihood of becoming a victim d. Studying the victims role in precipitating crime e. Designing services for victims of crime

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V. How Criminologists View Crime A. The Consensus View of Crime 1. According to the consensus view, crimes are behaviors believed to be repugnant to all elements of society. a. Social harm is what sets strange, unusual, or deviant behavior or any action that departs from the social norms apart from criminal behaviors. B. The Conflict View of Crime 1. The conflict view depicts society as a collection of diverse groups who are in constant and continuing conflict. a. Groups able to assert their political power use the law and criminal justice system to advance their economic and social position. b. Criminal laws are viewed as acts created to protect the haves from the have-nots. c. Crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the poor. The Interactionist View of Crime 1. The Interactionist view holds that people, institutions, and events are viewed subjectively and labeled either good or evil according to the interpretation of the evaluator. a. Crime definitions reflect the preferences and opinions of people who hold social power in a particular legal jurisdiction. b. Criminals are individuals society has stigmatized, or chosen to label as outcasts or deviants, because they have violated social rules. c. Criminal law is seen as conforming to the beliefs of moral crusaders or moral entrepreneurs who use their influence to shape the legal process in the way they see fit. Defining Crime 1. Integrated definition: Crime is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by a criminal legal code created by people holding social and political power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of status.

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VI. Crime and the Criminal Law A. The concept of criminal law has been recognized for more than 3,000 years. 1. The Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest, established a system of crime and punishment based on physical retaliation (an eye for an eye). 2. The Mosaic Code was the foundation for Judeo-Christian moral teachings and the U. S. legal system. 3. German and Anglo-Saxon legal codes a. Compurgation: the accused person swore an oath of innocence with the backing of twelve to twenty-five oathhelpers, who could attest to his or her character and claims of innocence. b. Trial by ordeal: based on the principle that divine forces would not allow an innocent person to be harmed. B. Common Law 1. Judge-made law that emerged after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, that was based on precedents commonly applied in all similar cases. a. Mala in se inherently evil and depraved b. Mala prohibitum defined by Parliament Contemporary Criminal Law 1. Crimes divided into felonies and misdemeanors based on seriousness. 2. Acts prohibited by the criminal law constitute behaviors considered unacceptable and impermissible by those in power. 3. Social goals the government expects to achieve: a. Enforcing social control b. Discouraging revenge c. Expressing public opinion and morality d. Deterring criminal behavior e. Punishing wrongdoing f. Maintaining social order The Evolution of Criminal Law 1. Criminal law is constantly evolving in an effort to reflect social and economic conditions. a. Change may be prompted by highly publicized criminal cases. b. Change may be prompted by shifts in culture and social conventions. c. The future direction of criminal law remains unclear.

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VII. Ethical Issues in Criminology A. Involves recognizing criminologys political and social consequences B. Major ethical issues include: 1. What is to be studied? a. Criminologists select subject for study guided by their scholarly interests, social needs, or availability of data. b. More recently, the great influx of governmental funding has spurred criminological inquiry and has influenced the direction of research. i. Funded research has focused on criminal careers. ii. Conflict of interests emerge. iii. Even when criminologists maintain discretion of choice, the direction of their research efforts may not be truly objective. 2. Who is to be studied? a. Tendency of criminologists to focus on one element of the community while ignoring others: attention focused on poor and minorities while ignoring the middle-class criminal How are studies to be conducted? a. Should subjects be told the true purpose of a survey? b. It may be unethical to provide a special treatment program for one group while depriving others of the same opportunity. c. Criminologists must protect subjects from experiments that may actually cause them harm.

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