The Sociology of Crime and Deviance

The Sociology of Crime and Deviance
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Task 1- 1500 words
Links to(LO1. AC. 1.1, 1.2, LO2, 2.1, 2.2, L03, AC 3.1)

Work Book
This workbook highlights a need to understand how crime impacts upon the individual and society. It
looks at various reasons why crime and deviance exist and how it is explained through sociological
research. The resulting factors may be that some groups are demonised/marginalised and excluded
from society. This could impact upon a person’s mental health and life chances.
The workbook consists of a variety of questions, in which you are required to answer all of them in
complete form. You should use your own research skills to enhance understanding. Type your answers
clearly paying attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation.Cite and reference any sources you may
use, both in text and within the bibliography.
1. Expand on the notion of deviance. How may it be defined by sociologists, - give examples.
The concept of deviance is multifaceted because norms tend to vary significantly across groups,
times, and places. Sociologists have distinguished between deviances at diverse levels of analysis.
Jetten and Hornsey (2014) have stated that social stigma in deviance is the condemnation of an
individual due to their inability in fitting into the social norms existing in society. The intensity of
social stigma typically tends to subdue constructive social feedback related to the way in which the
same individual adheres to other social norms. For example, an individual might be stigmatized
because of having a limp. Stigma attaches usually attaches individuals and overshadows the ways in
which that the individual might be social normative. Additionally, differential‐association theory
applies to many types of deviant behaviour. For example, juvenile gangs provide an environment
whereby minors tend to develop into criminals. These groups further define themselves as
countercultural and elevate violence, revenge as well as crime in order to attain social status (Leiva,
Parmentier and Andrés 2015).
2. Define crime giving examples. Add depth and breadth to your work by demonstrating independent
research by citing laws/policies/guidelines which are in force to prevent/manage such behaviours.

Belknap (2014) has provided a typology in order to categorize deviant acts in
relation to their perceived harmfulness the extent of consensus related to the norms which
have been violated in addition to the criticality of the response towards them. The most
severe acts of crime are regarded as consensus crimes where why there is near unanimous
public agreement. Criminal acts such as murder and sexual violence are typically considered
as morally intolerable detrimental and subject to stringent penalties. Meanwhile according
to Jetten and Hornsey (2014), conflict crimes are regarded as acts like prostitution or
smoking marijuana which may be illegal but comprises a substantial public disagreement is
related to its severity. Lastly there can be identified social deviations related to criminal acts
such as passing abusing comments arising from mental illness and addiction which are not
perceived as illegal but typically reflect certain degree of severity.
Foucault has described discipline as a key mechanism in forming a normalizing
society. The establishment of norms and significant development of disciplinary procedures
in order to correct deviance and crimes from norms have developed into an increasingly
fundamental determinant to the organisation as well as operation of institution from the
19th century. Lane (2017) has noted that to the extent that sociological norms have been
used in order to govern the lives of individuals' more than laws and legislations society can
be said to be regulated through normalization along with disciplinary procedures. However
the use of formal legislations quotes and law enforcement agencies have its significance
when there is an infringement in law whereby disciplinary strategies facilitate the
continuous and engineering social control of and extending range of activities functioning in
the lives of individuals to surveillance, observation and normalization (Belknap 2014).
3. Analyse the concept of blue collar crime – give examples especially with regards to recent trends,
include statistics to support your answer. How do sociologists explain this phenomenon? Are there
environmental factors associated with such behaviour?
Blue-collar crime is considered as any crime committed by an individual from a lower social class in
opposition to White-Collar Crime in relation to crime committed by individuals of a higher social
class. Reports of Munro (2014) have revealed that law enforcement agencies in the U.K reported a
decline of 5.4% in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for the initial 6 months of
2013. However, the issue remains that several blue collar crimes have not been accounted to law
enforcement agencies. Thus, has led one of the all aggressive crime and around 40% of property
crime to remain unreported annually (Leiva, Parmentier and Andrés 2015). Majority of blue collar
workers have been paid a low hourly wage, though the income primarily varies greatly relying upon
the specific occupation and the worker's level of skill. For example, crimes against the individual,
crimes against property along with several forms of victimless crime such as prostitution tend to be
classified as blue-collar crime. Blue-collar crimes have been those which tend to cause an abrupt and
highly visible injury to society, so have been typically punished much more rapidly and severely than
white-collar crime. Furthermore, citizens of lower social class cannot generally pay for high-quality
legal assistance thus implying to suffer far more brutal punishment in comparison to white-collar
criminals (Hirschi 2017).