Chapter 5 Summary

Chapter 5 discusses deviance, and the different forms the violation of social norms takes, including norms of appearance, sexual behaviour, and substance use. A specific subset of deviance is that of crime.

Sociological approaches to deviance move beyond individual explanations of deviance, looking at the ‘three Cs’: careers, cultures, and communities. Conflict theories examine unequal creation and application of the law, reflecting powerful interests and subjecting marginalized populations to strain. Feminist theories examine the gendered nature of crime and victims, with particular insight into the underreporting of sexual assault. Functionalist theory accounts for deviance’s solidarity function via deviance and how people can be incentivized to follow social norms. Symbolic interactionists examine the framing of crime and deviant individuals, and how labelling takes on a life of its own through deviant identities.

Sociologists of deviance focus on crime because of its social significance, the seriousness of its harms, and the consequences for perpetrators and victims. All crime, including both nonviolent and violent crime, has been decreasing for several decades. This may reflect both actual changes as well as changes in how crime is reported and documented.

Technology-related crime such as cybercrime has become more widespread. Police keep pace, using technology to predict and manage crime. More broadly, technologies such as face recognition AI can map and regulate human behaviour.

Certain populations are overrepresented in media depictions of crime and others are underrepresented, reinforcing negative stereotypes about victims. When crime victim statistics indicate the overrepresentation of Indigenous people, this is linked to histories of colonization and systemic discrimination, a summary of which is included in the 2019 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report.

Victimization follows patterns as does the perpetration of crime. Victimization can be explained as a function of routine activity, where patterns of behaviour expose people to risk at different rates. This also results in ‘hot spots’ of criminal activity, where crime is concentrated relative to other areas. Sometimes institutions themselves are or contain hot spots of crime: the family, the prison, the school, the workplace.

When offenders are punished, it is often for deterrence, rehabilitation, and restorative justice. These goals are not always met, when prisons, for example, have unintended consequences of inducing or reinforcing recidivism. Crime and the social response to it are not settled but reflect competing interests about what justice consists of.