Crime and Sociology: Understanding the Nature of Crime and Contextualizing Punishment

Running head: CRIME AND SOCIOLOGY
CRIME AND SOCIOLOGY
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CRIME AND SOCIOLOGY
Introduction
The studies in criminology and deviance have largely developed along separate lines
although they are visibly overlapping at times. While criminology mostly deals with issues of
crime, legality or phenomenon related to crime, students of deviance have studied crime as one
of the deviant behaviors. The question therefore arises whether crime is the fundamental most or
the obvious most acts of deviance. Crime and deviance, both are social constructs and
sociological theories help to unearth a deeper meaning of the two. When an understanding of
crime as deviance is established, it will be easier to contextualize punishment.
The aim of this essay is to analyze the nature of crime to find answers to the above-
mentioned questioned. In addition, the essay will discuss the way sociology extends the
understanding of the intricacies of crime and provide a better context to punishment. The essay
makes the argument that crime is the most obvious of deviant acts.
Discussion
Deviance as a concept is extensively incorporated in key criminological and sociological
theories. Although the ‘crime’ and deviance’ terms possess different interpretations in
criminology and sociology; the identical use of these words in everyday discussion has made
drastic contributions towards the common misunderstanding that both terms have the same
meaning. Sociology defines deviance as behavior that breaches social norms (Jetten and Hornsey
2014). Nonetheless, this apparently simple definition obscures the complication of the
connection between social existence and vital roles of social norms. Behaviors seen as
appropriate and those that are considered deviant or unacceptable are defined by the normative
rules of a specific society. However, one of the toughest things in pointing out the appropriate

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CRIME AND SOCIOLOGY
and unacceptable behavior is that it depends on the fact that social norms vary between and
within societies and people’s perceptions keep on changing over time regarding appropriate and
inappropriate behavior. Hence, it could be stated that deviance is not an easy or simple concept
to define from the sociological perspective; it is specific to a context, variable and most
significantly it is a socially created finding of behavior, which is unrelated with the leading
norms of a particular society. Spalek (2016) states, “irrespective of social and cultural context,
crime and deviance should be considered as banned or controlled behavior which if discovered,
is likely to generate a negative public reaction in the form of sanctions, including punishment”.
The author further makes a crucial statement that all forms of deviance are not essentially
criminalized and in the same way, all forms of criminality are essentially deviant.
The legal or general definition of crime defines it as an act that affects not only an
individual but also the community, the society and the state as a whole and which is punishable
by law. The sociological definition of crime however, is quite complex than the legal definition
because it involves all aspects of an individual’s life. As discussed in the above section,
sociology defines crime as a deviant behavior that breaks the cultural and social norms that
dictate the way humans ought to behave. Now, there is some ambiguity in this sociological
definition because no one could claim with certainty as to what constitutes a deviant behavior. In
addition, it is also crucial to argue that if there is deviance in behavior, whether it is a crime in
true sense or is it just a deviance from the established social norms. Downes, Rock and
McLaughlin (2016) point out that crime as a deviant behavior is filled with shortcomings
because it does not take into account other causes of behavior change that lead to harmful acts of
violence. Jetten and Hornsey (2014) further shed light on the complexity of defining crime. The
authors state that the sociological definition of crime as an act of deviance does not fully