Introduction to Deviance and Punishment

This essay discusses the adversarial system of justice, criminal justice system, and the relationship between deviance and crime. It explains the difference between deviance and crime with examples. The essay also references a book by Rowland Atkinson on the same topic.

INTRODUCTION TO
DEVIANCE AND
PUNISHMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The adversarial system of justice can be defined by understanding the concept of it.
When two interested opposing parties has a conflict on some issue and in the search of justice
they debate on that issue, bring their own evidence before the impartial person or a group of
people usually a judge or jury, who determine the truth and pass judgement according to it. This
system of adversarial is governed by strict rules of evidence and procedure which gives equal
opportunity to both the parties to make an argument against each other. The final decision made
by the impartial person that will be based only up on the evidence presented by the parties. There
are two parties in the case who argued for their grievances, one is Plaintiff who present best
argument & evidence which makes the defendant guilty. on the other-hand defendant present the
same and give their best to win the argument and prove the plaintiff guilty.
Every country has its own criminal justice system and its procedure similarly United Kingdom
also have the collective body which is responsible for administrating justice in UK. The criminal
justice system of UK consist of Police, its Crown prosecution service and the United Kingdom's
prison system (Bossler, 2019). The crime rate of UK got increased from the last six to seven
years, and for that court has been responsible for serious crimes in England & Wales. There are
many serious cases which are pending in the crown court and it got increase faster at the time of
Coronavirus Pandemic, its dramatically increases cases from the year of 2020. The crime rate of
England is increase by 14%, in which 47% increasing in cyber crime. But in other field of crime,
the rate got diminished like there is decrement by 18% in theft offences. In this essay, discussion
will be made on the adversarial system and the criminal justice system. The relationship between
Deviant & Crime along with examples will get discuss and the difference will be made between
the two terms and how deviant would get differ from criminal will also got discuss.
MAIN BODY
In the eyes of the law, every act of any person which hurt the person or group of persons
physically or mentally can be said that there is breaching the laws. In this world various types of
wrong get considered, and according to their capacity of wrong done it will get decide whether
an act which done is a crime or not. To understand the meaning of crime it is better to go through
with the definition of it. According to the Merriam-Webster, “crime is an illegal act for which a
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person who committed crime can be punished by the government”. Crime is an act which
happened in the public places and it would affect the government (Braun,2019). The criminals
are punishable by public authorities because criminals didn't obey the laws and perform that act
which would declared illegal by the government in the Criminal Law Act of 1967. For example;
In UK, if any person committed murder it means, that act was considered wrong against the
whole community, rather than only an individual would get affected. On the other-hand there is
an another wrong done known as Deviance. The wrong-done in deviance would not consider as
a crime because, deviant act is not so serious as much the act of criminal. A person can be known
as deviant if they wandering from the accepted norm. It is also a wrong done by the person
which violates the norms of society. Deviance is a big term which covers all the wrong done,
whether it is a minor wrong such as traffic violation or it can be something major or illegal such
as murder (Davies,2019).
All crimes are deviances, but not all deviances are crimes. A person can be called Deviant by the
behaviour which are not accepted socially and morally. Wrong-done in deviance is a behaviour
of a person which disturb the society. It is really difficult to identify the deviances because it can
be identify by the behaviour of a person and each one has its own behaviour, for this reason not
everyone will agree on committing the deviance. Social and moral values are different in every
individual and it depends on their cultures. This is called the situation-dependency, it refers to
different approach of behaviours and only the behaviour can decide whether the action
committed is deviant or not. For example; In most of the countries an adultery is illegal, and
without any social or moral perception the person who commit adultery will get punished by
their relevant laws. But, in UK an adultery is not illegal. Many people didn't agree with this
behaviour they have their own perceptions that, it ruin the purity of marriage. It goes against the
norms and social values of those who believes in stay faithful to their spouse. This is the reason
in UK adultery is a deviant behaviour. The main difference between deviance and crime is that,
crime is the violation of laws, on the other hand deviance is the violation of social norms and
values. Both the concepts can be study together as, somewhere they have similar meanings both
are wrong done which harms the society and disturb culture. Both concepts overlap each other,
deviant behaviour is just like as criminals and the crime also violates the social norms in addition
to violation of law. Because of this reason it is very difficult to identify the difference between
deviance and crime (Halder,2021).
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Being a deviant is not the same thing as criminal, because their mind set is really different one is
not so serious in nature but another one is very serious behaviour. Even their meaning get similar
while studying only otherwise it has a big gap which determine the difference between both of
them. Being a deviant means, the behaviour which disturb the social norms and culture like;
listening loud music in public place which is disturbing the surroundings but, not so serious.
Deviance are divided into two categories i.e. formal and informal deviance. Formal deviance is
much similar to crime because it violates the laws for example; sexual assault, theft, rape,
robbery etc. Informal deviance is very less serious in nature they just breakdown the unwritten
rules and regulation of the society. For example; loud noise in public, breaking traffic rules etc.
Being a criminal means, the nature which harms the society and even the people of the society.
It is very serious in nature and society as well as government will not accept them to be a part of
the society (Hall, 2019). The behaviour of the criminals got damaged and they have different
perception towards the society. Criminals have a mind set to harm others whether physically
like; murder or can be hurt mentally like; Rape, fraud etc. Crimes are also of two types i.e.
Felonies and Misdemeanours. Felonies are counted in serious crimes like murder, rape, robbery
& dacoity etc. person got serious punishment in felonies. In comparison to felonies,
misdemeanour are less serious and can be considered as minor crimes, in this person would got
less punishment. For example; vandalism, indecency in public places ( Scalia,2019).
Both the wrong done are not same but, they have some relationship in between like; deviance
includes the violation of social norms and rules similarly, in crime there is a violation of social
and moral values. Similarly, the kind of deviance which is known as formal deviance includes
that behaviour which is same to the crime or criminal. In formal deviance, punishment will be
same as crime as it is punishable by law. Whereas, informal deviance there is no punishment
there may be some sanctions or restrictions (Singh,2021).
These are some relationship between deviance and crime which make them similar while
studying but, there are many differences between them which can be find out with the help of a
book name as “Shades of Deviance”. The author of that book is Rowland Atkinson” who studies
the theories of crime and also give knowledge about theoretical criminology. In the book, the
difference is also discuss between the deviance and crime thoroughly. The various factors behind
crime and what act would consider as crime and what consider as deviance. In the book the
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writer also give a space of some pages about the behaviour of deviant and the punishment under
both i.e. crime and deviance.
CONCLUSION
In the above essay, there is a discussion on adversarial system of justice, which is a
process of solving the dispute between the parties with the help of an impartial person and the
criminal justice system would also got discussed at the starting of the essay. Apart from that, the
relationship as well as the difference between the criminal and deviant would got discussed. In
the end, the reference of a book wrote by Rowland Atkinson on the same topic would given.
Whether it is crime or deviance both are not acceptable in society, as both will harm the society
and its culture. As per the relevant extract it is evident to conclude that, there is a huge difference
between crime and deviance. Both the terms sound similar at some places but, when it would
read thoroughly, the main difference will come out and then, the society can judge the behaviour
of deviant or the criminal.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bossler, A.M., 2019. Perceived formal and informal sanctions on the willingness to commit
cyber attacks against domestic and foreign targets. Journal of Crime and Justice, 42(5),
pp.599-615.
Braun, K., 2019. Victim participation rights: Variation across criminal justice systems. Cham,
Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Davies, J., 2019. From severe to routine labour exploitation: The case of migrant workers in the
UK food industry. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 19(3), pp.294-310.
Halder, D., 2021. Charge Sheet to Charging: A Comparative Analysis of Case Management by
Police and Prosecution Between India and the UK With Special Reference to
Cybercrime. In Global Perspectives on Reforming the Criminal Justice System (pp.
246-257). IGI Global.
Hall, T. and Scalia, V. eds., 2019. A research agenda for global crime.
Singh, G., 2021. The Indian Adversarial System of Criminal Justice. Issue 4 Int'l JL Mgmt. &
Human., 4, p.2763.
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