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Crime and Deviance

Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on defining crime and deviance, acts that are deviant but not criminal, social order, formal and informal social control, and the relativity of crime and deviance over time, between societies and within a single society.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

How can crime and deviance be relative within a single society?

Key term

Define the term deviance.

Key term

Give one act that is deviant but not criminal, and one that is criminal but rarely treated as deviant.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define the term crime.

    Model answer

    A crime is an act that breaks the criminal law of a society and is punishable by the state through the criminal justice system.

  2. 2

    Define the term deviance.

    Model answer

    Deviance is behaviour that departs from the norms of a social group and attracts disapproval, negative sanctions or attempts to correct it.

  3. 3

    Give one act that is deviant but not criminal, and one that is criminal but rarely treated as deviant.

    Model answer

    Talking loudly to yourself in a quiet carriage is deviant but lawful, while driving a few miles per hour over the speed limit is criminal yet widely tolerated.

  4. 4

    What do sociologists mean by social order?

    Model answer

    Social order is the stable, predictable patterning of everyday social life that results from people largely sharing and following the same norms and expectations.

  5. 5

    Define the term social control.

    Model answer

    Social control refers to the processes by which members of a society are persuaded or compelled to conform to its norms and laws.

  6. 6

    Distinguish between formal and informal social control, with an example of each.

    Model answer

    Formal social control is exercised by official agencies with written rules and legal sanctions, such as the police and courts, while informal social control operates through everyday approval and disapproval from family, peers and colleagues.

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.
BAbuse in the home has historically been treated as a private matter.
CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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TrueFalse

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Every question in Crime and Deviance, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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