Crime & Deviance

1. Defining Crime and Deviance

In sociology, crime and deviance are distinct yet overlapping concepts. Crime is any act that violates the formal written laws of a country, making it punishable by the state. For example, theft, assault, and tax evasion are crimes in Pakistan as they break the Pakistan Penal Code.

Deviance, on the other hand, is behaviour that violates the unwritten rules, or social norms and values, of a particular group or society. It is behaviour that is considered 'abnormal' or 'unacceptable'. Deviance is socially constructed, meaning it varies across cultures and time periods. For instance, a woman choosing not to marry might be considered deviant in a conservative rural community in Pakistan, but not in a liberal urban one.

These concepts can overlap:

• Criminal and Deviant: Murder is illegal and violates the strong social norm against taking a life.
• Criminal but not Deviant: Minor speeding on an empty motorway is illegal, but many people would not consider it morally wrong or deviant.
• Deviant but not Criminal: Having extensive facial tattoos might be seen as deviant by many in Pakistan but is not against the law.

2. Social Control: Enforcing Conformity

Societies use social control to regulate behaviour and ensure people conform to norms and laws. There are two main types:

• Formal Social Control: This is based on written laws and rules, enforced by official state agencies. Its purpose is to punish and deter criminal behaviour. The key agencies include:
• The Police: Enforce laws, investigate crimes, and arrest suspects.
• The Judiciary (Courts): Determine guilt or innocence and pass sentences.
• The Prison System: Punishes convicted offenders through incarceration.

In Pakistan, agencies like the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) tackling cybercrime or the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) are examples of specialised formal social control.

• Informal Social Control: This is based on unwritten rules and social pressure, enforced by people in our daily lives. It operates through informal sanctions like praise, disapproval, gossip, or social exclusion. Key agencies include:
• Family: Parents teach children right from wrong through rewards and punishments.
• Peer Groups: Friends influence behaviour through approval or ridicule.
• Community & Religion: Religious leaders and community elders set moral guidelines and expectations.

Family pressure on young people to pursue specific careers like medicine or engineering is a powerful form of informal social control in Pakistan.

3. Sociological Explanations for Crime

Sociologists have developed several theories to explain why crime occurs.

A. Functionalism: Merton's Strain Theory

Robert Merton argued that crime is a response to a 'strain' between socially accepted goals and the legitimate means to achieve them.

1. Cultural Goals: Society, particularly capitalist society, promotes goals of wealth and material success (e.g., a large house, a new car).
2. Legitimate Means: The acceptable ways to achieve these goals are through education and hard work.
3. Strain: Not everyone has equal access to these means. The working class, for example, may have limited educational and job opportunities, creating a strain or 'anomie'.
4. Responses to Strain: Individuals adapt in different ways. Innovation is a key criminal response, where individuals accept the goal of success but use illegitimate means (like theft or fraud) to achieve it.

B. Marxism: Crime and Capitalism

Marxists see crime as an inevitable outcome of a capitalist system that is based on inequality and exploitation.

• Criminogenic Capitalism: The system's emphasis on competition, greed, and consumerism encourages crime across all classes. The poor may commit utilitarian crimes (theft) to survive, while the rich commit corporate crimes to maximise profit.
• The Law as a Tool of the Ruling Class: Laws are created by the **bourgeoisie** (ruling class) to protect their private property and interests. For example, laws against trespassing protect landowners, not the homeless.
• Selective Law Enforcement: The police and courts tend to focus on the crimes of the poor and powerless (**working class**), while crimes of the rich and powerful, such as **white-collar crime** (e.g., tax evasion, fraud), are often ignored or treated leniently. This creates the impression that crime is mainly a working-class problem.

C. Interactionism: Labelling Theory

Howard Becker argued that no act is inherently criminal or deviant. It only becomes so when it is successfully labelled as such by a powerful group. The focus is on the social reaction to the act.

• The Labelling Process: An individual commits an act. An agent of social control (e.g., police officer, teacher) labels the person as 'deviant' or 'criminal'.
• Master Status: This label can become the person's **master status**, overriding all their other statuses (like 'student' or 'son'). They are seen first and foremost as a criminal.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The individual may internalise this label and start to live up to it. This can lead to a **deviant career**, where the person is excluded from legitimate opportunities and pushed further into crime.

4. Patterns of Crime

Official crime statistics show clear patterns, but sociologists are cautious about them. Many crimes go unreported or unrecorded, creating a dark figure of crime.

• Social Class: Official statistics show that working-class people commit more crime. Sociologists argue this is due to factors like Merton's strain theory and Marxist selective policing, not because they are inherently more criminal. **White-collar** and **corporate crime** committed by the middle and upper classes often goes undetected and is absent from these statistics.
• Gender: Males commit significantly more recorded crime than females globally. Explanations include different **gender socialisation** (boys encouraged to be tough and risk-taking), different opportunities, and the **chivalry thesis**, which suggests that the predominantly male police force and judiciary may treat female offenders more leniently.
• Age: Crime rates peak in the late teens and early twenties. This is often attributed to peer pressure, a desire for excitement, and a lack of adult responsibilities. Most young offenders 'grow out' of crime as they get older, get married, and find jobs.