102039 Crime, Deviance And Society

Crime means violation of laws, whereas deviance is an infringement of social and cultural norms, rules, and conventions.  Crimes are of serious nature with the imposition of punishment. For example, Murder, Robbery, Fraud are crimes and followed by prescribed punishments. While deviance is less serious and usually does not attract punishments rather social stigma or sanctions. For example, walking naked on the streets, picking nose in public, littering, and the like. There is often an overlap between deviance and crime, but they differ both empirically and conceptually. Moreover, the terms deviance and crime are quite often used interchangeably due to the belief that deviant behaviors lead to a criminal mindset. All criminal acts are deviance but not all deviant act is a crime. Thus, Crime is considered as a sub-category of deviance, subject to the exception of sub-cultures where criminality is the rule. Deviance is the rule-breaking by an individual who fails to comply with societal expectations and norms. Deviance and Crime are closely related since deviance is a contributory factor of mens rea, which leads to law-breaking behavior. Concisely, deviance refers to the contravention of informal societal standards and norms, and crime refers to the violation of the formal code of criminal law (Goode, 2015).

Goode, E., 2015. Deviance, Crime and. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, pp. 1-4.