SUBFIELDS OF SOCIOLOGY: DEVIANCE AND CRIME
DEVIANCE AND CRIME
By: Francis Jackson, Karl Johnson, Nansel Godswill, Nirat A Pam-Hworo
What’s the Big Deal about Deviance?
Figure 1. Model of Deviant Versus Normal Behavior
A typical dictionary definition of deviance sounds something like
this: "one that does not conform to the norm;" "one who behaves in
sharply different ways from customs;" or "one who ignores the common and
behaves in unique ways." A thesaurus might also list: "abnormal;
aberration, anomaly, weird, irregular, and even unnatural" as similarly
related words. Most references attest to the nature of deviance as being
something that violates normal behaviors, thoughts, or actions. But, is
deviance weird/cool, positive/negative, desirable/undesirable, or
good/bad?
For Sociologists the answer is found by considering exactly who has
the power and authority to define the behavior as being normal or
deviant. Throughout the history of the United States governments,
religions, education, media, and family types have influenced and shaped
what is considered "normal" or "deviant" on subjects as insignificant
as swimsuits on beaches and as significant as women having the same
rights that men have. You see, deviance is considered at both of C.
Wright Mills’ larger social and personal levels.
A personal level example might be considered with the swimsuit on
campus issue. Students back then did not need to look at university,
governmental, or media for approval on how they dressed for class. They
typically considered a source much more valuable to teenagers and young
adults—their peers. Friends who also wear swimsuits to class may have
defined the swim suit issue as being normal among students who were
their friends, yet deviant among students who run in different crowds.
Since they value their own peer evaluations the most they defer to
peer-based norms.
But, would it be acceptable to wear nothing at all to class? On
Wikipedia there is an interesting article about Andrew Martinez who
attended naked at Berkley for a few years. Berkley is considered to be a
very liberal campus in comparison to most US campuses. A controversy
developed and eventually his nakedness came before the university
leaders and the City of Berkley leaders (he often walked about town
naked). He was eventually asked to leave Berkley and both the City and
University of Berkley passed anti-nudity laws and policies to prevent
nudity (taken from Internet SOURCE
1 July 2014). Martinez would often find himself being labeled "deviant"
throughout the remainder of his life (he died in jail May 18 2006 from
an apparent suicide).
Can Deviance Be Functional?
Let’s pause here to consider Emile Durkheim’s observations about
deviance (original text from "The Division of Labour in Society" 1893).
Durkheim argued that deviance, especially extreme forms are functional
in that they challenge and offend the established norms in the larger
collective conscience. In other words extreme deviance pushes things
enough to make members of society reconsider why they even consider some
behaviors as being deviant. Building on this idea, Functionalists often
argue that: deviance reaffirms norms when the deviants are punished;
deviance promotes solidarity among those who support and those who
oppose the deviance; deviance provides a clear contrasting point of
comparison for society’s members; and deviance often stimulates social
change.
In Martinez’s naked guy case, both the City and University had to
take a serious look at why and how they defined public nudity and which
formal norms they would develop to support their position. Similar
formal evaluations of deviance occurred after Dr. "Death" Kevorkian
assisted severely ill persons in taking their own lives; after September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US (Twin Towers, Pentagon, and flight
crash in Pennsylvania) killed about 3,000 people; and more recently
after major US corporations which have been mismanaged and have deeply
shaken markets, investments, and economic stability. Extreme deviance
does make us consider "normal" behavior on the personal and larger
social level.
As a sociologist, you should strive for an objective stance when
studying deviance. It takes practice but is truly rewarding because of
the clarity it brings to your evaluation. It’s like you try to see
society and people the same way statisticians see things. Look at the
diagram below. Here you see a distribution of numbers. From a
statistical point of view you can see that the mean lowest score is 0,
the mean is 80, and the highest score is 100. Is a mean of 80 good or
desirable? That depends on what these scores represent. If these are
test scores from your first sociology test then a mean of 80 indicates
that most students did well on the test. The grey area of the diagram
indicates the First Standard Deviation is the area in the distribution
where about two-thirds of the scores fall (1/3 above and 1/3 below the
mean).
Figure 2. Example of Distribution of Test Scores: Standard Deviations
A mean of 80 indicates that about two-thirds of the other scores
where between 70 and 90 in this distribution. By the way, even though
they are not indicated in the diagram, the Second Standard Deviation has
the next 28 percent of the scores (13.6% above and 13.6% below); the
Third Standard Deviation has the next 4 percent (2.1% above and below);
and the Fourth Standard Deviation has the last 0.2 percent (0.1% above
and below). You’ll learn more about deviations when you take your
statistics classes.
Back to the test scores, a higher score way above the mean is good
and desirable to most students. If the highest student score was 99 and
the lowest was 3, both would statistically be considered deviant scores.
In a sense, you’d want to deviate as high above the mean as possible,
right?
But, what if this distribution was not an indication of test scores,
but rather the frequency of times potential roommates stole food from
the private stashes of previous roommates? You’d clearly want a score
closer to 0 than 80. Likewise, what if this distribution was an
indication of how many times your boyfriend or girlfriend flirted with
others while they were dating you? Again 0 would be good and desirable.
Finally, what if this distribution indicated the number of times during a
student’s college career that they performed a "random act of senseless
kindness" for others? I hope the point makes sense—the value placed
upon the deviance depends greatly on how the deviance conforms to or
violates the norms of the community and society you live in.
Let’s consider a sensitive and sometimes controversial issue —
Homosexuality, or a sexual preference for persons of the same sex. I
often ask my student to consider this simple question, "is homosexuality
deviant or normal?" I am surprised at how passionate my students argue
that it is normal or that it is deviant. Eventually when the discussion
runs out of energy a student will ask me what I think. I answer like
this. National studies indicate that less than 5 percent of the United
States population considers itself to be exclusively homosexual.
"Does that make it more or less common and therefore more or less deviant?" I ask.
"It’s less common," they reply.
"Yet, every society in the history of the world has typically had
homosexuality among its members. That includes almost all societies with
recorded histories and almost every society in the world today," I
continue. "Is it common or uncommon, deviant or normal?"
"Common and normal," they reply. "But, how can something be deviant and normal at the same time?"
The answer is found in the complexity of modern societies. Not all
members of society agree on the same issue in the same way. We rarely
have total agreement on what’s normal. In the US we have over 320-335
million people, hundreds of religions, thousands of voluntary
organizations, thousands of political interest groups, and thousands of
personal interest groups, many of which are in striking opposition to
other groups (IE: White supremacists vs. Nation of Islam).
Many sociologists have argued that it is normal to have deviance in a
healthy society. If you regard homosexuality as being normal or
deviant, as a sociologist you can step into a more objective role and
understand the larger social level of consideration. It allows you to
become more of an analyst and less of an advocate when understanding
deviance. To build upon this idea, let’s consider how sociologists
strive for objectivity when considering cross-cultural issues of
deviance. Remember that ethnocentrism tends to burn cross-cultural
bridges while cultural relativism tends to build them. Can we study
deviance without becoming ethnocentric? Absolutely!
Deviance tends to vary on three major levels: across time; across
cultures, and from group to group. When considering deviance we must
realize that collectively people experience social levels of shifting
values. In one example, look at the I Love Lucy show which aired in the
1950’s. As a child I wondered how Little Ricky was born given that
Lucy and her real-life and TV-life husband, Dezi slept in different beds
on the TV show. Their kisses were controversial to some at the time.
Today, full sexually explicit shows are available on demand, in much
of the world’s countries, and throughout the cable, satellite, and video
on demand media. In a recent PBS Frontline interview the annual
revenues for the entire US pornography industry was estimated by one
insider as being between $4-$10 billion per year (retrieved 1 July 2014
from Frontline: How the porn business works, what it makes, and what its
future may be SOURCE ). As values shift and change over time, so eventually do laws.
How Does Culture Influence Deviance?
Deviance varies between cultures because values vary between
cultures. In Washington D.C. there is a non-profit research organization
that performs international studies (SOURCE). On their Website they discuss their mission statement and organizational purpose.
"The project provides to journalists, academics, policymakers and the public a unique, comprehensive, internationally comparable series of surveys. Since its inception in 2001, the Pew Global Attitudes Project has released 21 major reports, as well as numerous commentaries and other releases, on topics including attitudes toward the U.S. and American foreign policy, globalization, terrorism, and democratization (taken from Internet 1 July 2014)."
One such study is called the "Pew Global Attitudes Project" which is a
series of worldwide public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad
array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives
to their views about the current state of the world and important issues
of the day. More than 175,000 interviews in 54 countries have been
conducted as part of the project's work."
Based on 91,000 of these surveys from 50 different countries, Kohut
and Stokes (2007) wrote an insightful book comparing US to other
cultures and explaining how we are perceived. America Against the World:
How We are Different and Why We Are Disliked (Holt Publishing, 2007).
These authors talk about the perception of non-Americans about the
United States. In this book American values, culture, economic
influence, and military activities have led to a singular notion about
what America does to the world. Many have misguided ideas from TV and
news reports. Most see the need for another superpower to keep the US in
check. In sum, the average non-American views Americans much
differently from how they view themselves.
How might a value compare between countries of the world? Pew also
studied the concept of trust between countries and found that Eastern
Europe has lower levels of Trust than did the US when asked "Most People
in Society are Trustworthy." Among the 47 countries included in this
survey, wars, famine, economic downturns, street and organized crime,
and other local social influences have contributed to higher or lower
levels of trust over time. National issues play an important role in
how a society collectively feels a sense of trust for other people. In
this study, China (79%), Sweden (78%), and the US (71%) reported over 70
percent feeling that people in society can be trusted. The report
identified other key values that were found to be associated with
trusting others including perceptions of crime perceptions of corruption
within the country itself ( see more details at "Since Communism’s
Fall, Social Trust Has Fallen in Eastern Europe", originally released 15
April, 2008, retrieved 24 July 2014). SOURCE.
Values also vary between groups (group to group). When I was a
research professor at Case Western Reserve University, I arranged for a
former Folks gang member to come and speak to my Social Problems class.
He was a larger man, 6 foot 3, about 275 pounds, and also a black belt
in martial arts. He explained that when he was much younger he had to go
through an initiation ritual called a beat down in order to be admitted
to the gang.
He eventually converted to Christianity and chose to leave the gang
(he qualified his comments by saying "no one ever leaves the gang").
Typically to go on an inactive status with the gang there is another
beat down. Because of his stature and fighting skills it was decided to
forego his beat down for the overall benefit of everyone involved. The
point of this story is that in most social groups a beat down would be
considered deviant. In a gang it’s very much normal. Yet, in this
situation, not beating him down was deviant within his gang, yet a wise
choice.
Not only do values vary over time, between cultures, and between
groups, it also varies a great deal between individuals. If you
interviewed 11 people you personally know and asked them when abortion
should be available to American women, you’d probably find some very
strong opinions that change from person to person. Another Pew study
from 2014 asked individuals this question "Do you personally believe
that having an abortion is morally acceptable, morally unacceptable, or
is it not a moral issue?"
The respondents could choose either acceptable, morally unacceptable,
or is not a moral issue. (retrieved 1 July 2014 from Global Views on
Morality: Abortion, SOURCE
). In the US, 49 percent chose acceptable, 17 percent chose
unacceptable, and 23 percent chose not a moral issue. The question was
asked in 40 nations and 26 of the 40 reported that it was morally
unacceptable (ranges were 52% in Senegal up to 93% in the Philippines).
The report also stated that there were few gender differences in their
findings.
The Absolutist Perspective claims that deviance resides in the very nature of an act and is wrong at all times and in all places.
The Normative Perspective claims that deviance is only a violation of a specific group's or society's rules at a specific point in time.
The Reactive Perspective claims that behavior does not become deviant unless it is disapproved of by those in authority (laws).
Perspectives on Deviance
An absolutists would probably fall among the 1 in 4 who feel that
abortion is always wrong, because it is an unacceptable act. A normative
individual would consider the circumstances (rape, incest, diagnoses,
or health of mother) while a reactive would consider the legality of
abortion.
In every society when deviance is considered it is most often controlled. Social Control is formal and informal attempts at enforcing norms. There are a few basic concepts that help to understand social control. The Pluralistic Theory of Social Control claims that society is made up of many competing groups whose diverse interests are continuously balanced. Social Order
is the customary and typical social arrangements which society's
members use to base their daily lives on. Control is easier if
attachments, commitment, involvement, and beliefs are stronger. Studies
have shown the following to influence social control: attachments
which are strong social mutual bonds that encourage society's members
to conform; commitments which mean the stronger our loyalty to
legitimate opportunity, the greater the advantages of conforming;
involvement or the more a person participates in legitimate activities,
the greater the inhibition towards deviance; and or beliefs which are
strong understanding in values of conventional morality promote
conformity. Society’s members use informal and formal sanctions to
reinforce control efforts. Negative Sanctions are punishments or negative reactions toward deviance. Positive Sanctions are rewards for conforming behavior. (see Table 1).
Table 1. Types of Groups and Their Sanctions
| Group | Sanction-Negative | Sanction-Positive |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Spanking | Praise |
| Religious | Excommunication | Recognition |
| Work | Fired | PayRaise |
| School | Expulsed | Awarded |
Finally one of the harshest forms of controls comes when intense
labels are given to a person because of their actions. A Stigma is an
attribute which is deeply discrediting and that reduces the person from a
whole and usual person to a tainted or discredited one. The very
accusation of a man having sexually misbehaved, molested a child or
elderly person, or assaulted/raped someone else can be personally
devastating to the individual, his family and friends. A false
allegation of any severe act of deviance is defined as an accusation
where the accused did not commit the act and or the act never
transpired. The accused is changed by the stigma associated with the
accusation (true or false). The Salem Witch trials included countless
false accusations that devastated families, congregations and entire
communities. Sometimes these things happen when a society is
experiencing a moral panic. A moral panic is a collective fear of the
social order being under threat and society’s members use radical means
to maintain social order. In sum, deviance is a violation of a norm,
simply not behaving in expected ways given the social circumstances. But
what is the difference in conformity, crime, deviance, and both
deviance and crime combined?
Robert Merton On Deviance
Look at Table 2 below to see Robert Merton’s typology of deviance
matrix. When an actor complies with group norms and the law it’s called Conformity
or an adherence to the normative and legal standards of a group in
society. An example might be the clothes you wore to class today—legal
and normal. When an actor violates group norms but
complies with the law, it is deviance. An example might be if you wore
your Halloween costume to class…in July. If an actor complies with group
norms yet breaks the law, it’s called crime. Crime is
behavior which violates laws and to which governments can apply negative
sanctions. An example of this might be when you drove 10 miles over the
speed limit just to avoid being rear-ended on the freeway today. If
everybody speeds and you do too, it’s still "normal crime."
Over–reporting deductions and under-reporting income is also "normal
crime." Finally, if the actor violates norms and breaks the law, then
it’s Deviant and Criminal behavior. An example might be when a man or
woman was accused of the molestation of a child and was guilty of the
charge.
Table 2. Robert Merton’s Deviant and Criminal Behaviors
| Actor complies with legal code | Actor violates legal code | |
|---|---|---|
| Actor complies with group norms | Conforming behaviors | Criminal behaviors |
| Actor violates group norms | Deviant behaviors | Deviant and criminal behaviors |
Like deviance, crime is often found in every society. Why?
Functionalists point out that: crime exists because members of society
find it very difficult to reach total agreement on rules of behavior; no
society can force total conformity to its rules or laws; people are
normative, we continuously categorize behaviors into "right" or "wrong";
crime/deviance function as a warning light indicating an area that
needs attention or consideration; crime/deviance often brings about
solidarity or togetherness in society ; and there is a vital
relationship between crime/deviance and societal progress. As mentioned,
deviants and criminals make us reassess our values and make new rules
and laws (Google search Emile Durkheim or Robert K. Merton with
functionality of deviance).
Robert Merton was a Functionalist who studied why
people conform or deviate (see Merton, Robert K. (1938). "Social
Structure and Anomie", American Sociological Review, Vol. 3 No 5,
October 1938). Using Durkheim’s concept of anomie (remember that Anomie
is a state of social normlessness which occurs when our lives or society
has vague norms). Merton devised a theory of deviance that brings in
the concept of materialism. The average American sees the "American
Dream" as a goal of monetary success. They typically desire to have the
dream but realize that they often lack the means to attain it. How do
they respond to this goal---means gap? Merton claimed in 1 of 5 ways
(see Table 3).
- 1. Conformity-
- People live with what they have and get by (they accept and pursue their goals with socially accepted means—Average US Citizen)
- 2. Innovation-
- People commit crime to attain their goals (they accept and pursue their goals by replacing legitimate with deviant/criminal means to attain them—Criminals)
- 3. Ritualism-
- People try but fail and lower their goals (they appear to pursue goals but confuse means and goal—someone who focuses on following rules, fitting in, or conforming instead of attaining the dream)
- 4. Retreatism-
- People withdraw and reject most of the goals (they reject and don’t pursue their goals—Street people, bag ladies, and hoboes)
- 5. Rebellion-
- People reject both the goals and the means to attain them (They reject socially approved goals and replace with deviant goals—Terrorists and freedom fighters)
Theories of Deviance and Crime
Conflict theories of deviance and criminality of course focus on
issues of power and powerlessness. It’s about who has the power and how
they attempt to force their values and rules upon those who don’t have
it. The wealthier, more educated, and elite of society typically have
the most power. The Power Elite are the political, corporate, and military leaders of a society that are uniquely positioned to commit White-Collar or Elite Crimes,
or crimes of insider nature that typically are difficult to punish and
have broad social consequences upon the masses. These types of crime are
rampant and increasing, and they are the underlying cause of the
economic crises of the years 1998-present. In white-collar crime,
crimes are committed in the elite suites of corporate offices. These
could include insider trading, safety violations where employees are
injured or killed, environmental destruction, deception and fraud, and
inappropriate use of corporate funds.
To commit a white-collar offense one would have to be very well
educated, wealthy, and somewhat powerful—a position most in society
cannot claim for themselves. When caught, laws (which were created by
society’s elite) rarely punish the elite criminal with the same type of
justice street criminals face. One inmate said, "I walk into a bank with
a gun and get 50 years. I go to college and do my stealing using a
computer or some secret technique that I can’t be caught with, I get 15
months in a cushy security prison with nuptial visitation rights" (my
interview with ex-con who spoke to my Introduction to Sociology
students).A few recent examples of this might include corporate
mismanagement, embezzlement, and fraud which lead to massive Federal
bailouts and prosecutions. A 2010 article reported on the top 10 most
notorious white collar criminals in the US (see 10 Famous White collar
criminals 22 March 2012 retrieved 1 July 2014 from SOURCE).
Another key conflict issue in studying crime is the
disproportionately high level of non-whites in 2013 who ended up among
the 731,208 incarcerated in city or county jails according to the Bureau
of Justice Statistics. (http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/jim13st.pdf
"Jail Inmates at Midyear 2013"taken 19 May, 2014). Of these vast
majority were males (82%), non-white (59%), convicted (32%), and
awaiting trial (68%). As far as the entire state and federal prison
system, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 1978-2009
the number of state and federal prisoners in the US increased 430%
because admissions exceeded releases. Since 2009 releases have exceeded
admissions and the numbers have declined (See Figure 3 below). States
and federal budgets have been heavily burdened and concerted policy
designed to reduce state and federal prison populations have been
implemented, leading to the visible declines in total admissions since
2005-6.
Figure 3. Sentenced State and Federal Prison Admissions and Releases and year-end Sentenced Prison Population, 1978-2012*
This has cost US taxpayers a whopping $53.3 billion dollars in 2013
compared to only $6.7 billion in 1985 (Carson, E.A. & Golinelli
(2013). Prisoners in 2012: Trends in Admissions and Releases, 1991-2012.
NCJ 243920 Retrieved 1 May 2014 from SOURCE
). Based on the findings in this same report the lifetime likelihood of
a US man being imprisoned during his adult lifetime is 1 in 9 (only 1
in 56 for women). The odds of a Black man being imprisoned are 1 in 3
(only 1 in 17 for White men and 1 in 6 for Hispanic men). The odds of a
Black woman being imprisoned are 1 in 18 (only 1 in 111 for White women
and 1 in 45 for Hispanic women).
Figure 4. US State and Federal Total (100%), New (67%), and Parole Violations (33%) Prisoner Admissions in the United States between 1991-2011*
*Carson, E.A. & Golinelli (2013). Prisoners in 2012:Trends in
Admissions and Releases, 1991-2012. NCJ 243920 Retrieved 1 May 2014 from
SOURCE
Among Symbolic Interactionists who study crime and deviance a few core theoretical approaches are used. The Labeling Theory
claims that the labels people are given affect their perceptions and
channel their behaviors into deviance or conformity. Perhaps people grow
up and self-fulfill the expectations others have for them…they grow
down to low expectations. Edward Lemert studied deviant identity
formation and identified Primary Deviance (when an
individual violates a norm), becomes identified by others as being
deviant while maintaining a self-definition of being a conformist; and Secondary Deviance
- when the individual internalizes the deviant identity others have
placed upon him/her. In the Movie, Boyz n the Hood (1991 film directed
by John Singleton), Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character, Tre is faced with a
tremendous amount of pressure when his best friend is gunned down by
street gang members and he has a profound urge to retaliate. Tre is
deeply supported by his father who helps him to reject both the
opportunity and label of street thug and to remember his own potential.
This film was nominated for an Academy Award and was listed on the
National Film Registry.
One final consideration is when someone is given a Master Status,
or a social position that is so intense it becomes the primary
characteristic of the individual (ex-con, gang banger, etc.).
Understanding how powerful a master status can be as a labeling
influence helps to understand why so many criminals reoffend and end up
incarcerated again. Recidivism is being arrested again after having
served a sentence for another crime. Recidivism rates
indicate that the majority of US prisoners have been in prison before.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that about 75 percent of all
released prisoners between 2005 and 2010 were arrested again within 5
years of their release date (retrieved 1 July 2014 from "Recidivism Of
Prisoners Released In 30 States In 2005: Patterns From 2005 To 2010"
press release original 22 April 2014 from SOURCE ).
Social Learning is an approach that studies how people learn
behaviors through interactions with others. In studying crime Edwin
Sutherland taught the concept of Differential Association,
or the process of learning deviance from others in your close
relationships who provide role models of and opportunities for deviance.
There’s a useful formula to remember:
Definitions favorable to breaking the law
Definitions unfavorable to breaking the law
I used this theory to understand the neighbors who started the Meth
lab. They were young, high school drop outs who had: a sports boat,
Sea-Doos, jet skis, new truck and car, all new furniture. The only catch
is that his brother’s best friend had them employed in the Meth
business. Both men served time in prison, but the wife who was expecting
their next child was not charged. It was a group of family and friends
who saw criminal behavior as being worth the risks and acceptable given
the tough economy.
During the 1800’s various scientists attempted to explain deviant and
criminal behavior by searching for common patterns of shapes and bumps
on the skull. Phrenology is an outdated scientific approach of studying
the shape and characteristics of the skull. Of course the scientific
data did not support the assumptions of phrenology. Other biological
attempts have included body shape and size, racial-group membership, and
most recently genetic factors. To date no branch of science has been
able to identify universal biological predictors of unwanted behavior.
Other than white-collar crimes, there are two other classifications that need to be mentioned: Street Crimes are crimes committed by average persons against members, groups, and organizations; and Hate Crimes
are acts of racial, religious, anti-immigration, sexual orientation,
gender, and disability motivated violence. Street crimes typically fall
into a few sub-categories—misdemeanors tend to be less severe and have
less-severe punishments associated with them; felonies tend to be very
serious and often change the standing of a citizen, permanently denying
rights such as voting, owning a gun, and having social interactions with
other felons.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations uses two categories of crimes:
Violent and Property. Violent crimes include: forcible rape, murder,
robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. In 2007 there were
1,408,377 violent crimes reported to police or 467 crimes/100,000
population. Property crimes include: burglary, larceny, theft, motor
vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. The table from the US
Department of Justice below shows the trend in increasing violent crimes
in comparison to property crimes. Figure 5 shows the trends of these
crimes from 1960-2012. All of these crime rates have been in decline
since 1992.
Figure 5. US Department of Justice Crime Trend Data 1960-2012*
Hate crimes have become much more concerning in the US over the last
decade. These numbers give the impression that not many occur each year,
but the FBI emphasizes that not all hate crimes are reported to police
agencies and therefore are excluded from this table. Race, religion, and
sexual orientation continue to dominate the reported hate crime
categories (see Figure 6 Below). There were 7,254 reported hate crimes
in 2011 most were based on one a single bias toward the victim. Most
were also intimidations (45.6%), simple assaults (34.5%), aggravated
assaults (19.4%), and 4 murders and 7 forcible rapes.
Figure 6. Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation US 2011*
Finally a word about Organized Crime, or crime perpetrated by covert
organizations which are extremely secretive and organized, devoted to
criminal activity. The core principle behind organized crime venture is
the pursuit of wealth using socially approved and disapproved of means,
that allow murder, rape, extortion, assault, street, White-collar, and
even hate crime activities if profitable.
Organized crime includes: 1) a complex hierarchy; 2) territorial
division of authority and practice; 3) tendency towards violence at any
degree; and 4) capacity to corrupt public officials at any level of
government. The reason organized crime works so well is that it
typically: 1) is highly organized; 2) deals with services in high
demand; 3) involves lots of political corruption; 4) very little
organized opposition; and 5) uses lots of violence and intimidation.
Organized crime has become rooted on every continent and in almost every
country of the world. It undermined the former USSR; it brought the
world super power to its knees and left only a skeleton of a powerful
nation in the current Russian Federation.
Organized crime-type of economic pillaging is developing dramatically
with the mainstream US economy. Unlike formally organized crime types
such as Mafia, national Biker gangs, yakuza, Dugan Hands Bank, Triads,
etc. current organized crime is more "mom and pop" small time operator
such as Madoff and others like him that, even though small, can render
tremendous devastation to a national economic system. The FBI has a
report on US organized crime concerns which includes issues with:
Russian mobsters who fled the former USSR to come to the US; Nigerian
scam organizations; Chinese tongs; Japanese Boryokudan; and other
Eastern European organized crime syndicates
Additional Reading
- Check out a fun Website called Dumb Laws to see if your home state had some rather bizarre laws (values) back in the day.
- For an example of false accusations at a large scale see the article on satanic ritual abuse located at SOURCE
- 10 notorious white collar criminals who are still at large CNBC LINK.
- FBI famous cases files LINK Wikipedia article on white collar crime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-collar_crime
- Animation for US states 1978-2012 LINK
- Wikimap State by State LINK
- FBI’s International Organized Crime page LINK
- Wikipedia LINK
- genetic predisposition
- differential association
- control theory
- degradation ceremony
- labeling theory
- institutionalized means
- strain theory
- illegitimate opportunity structure
- white-collar crime
- recidivism rate
- capital punishment
- serial murder
- police discretion
- medicalization of deviance
- corporate crime
- organized crime
- crimes against the person
- crime against property
- due process
- plea bargaining
- deterrence
- criminal recidivism
- community-based corrections
- cybercrime
- the Milgram Experiment
- informal social control
- formal social control
- anomie theory of deviance
- social disorganization theory
- societal-reaction approach
- social constructionist perspective
- differential justice
- victimless crime
- professional criminal
- hate crime
- transnational crime
- index crimes
- crime trends
- victimization surveys
- international crime rates
- Durkheim’s theory of deviance
- Merton’s theory of deviance
- social disorganization theory
- gender and crime
- Retreatists
- Social control agents
- Primary deviance
- Secondary deviance
- Rule creators
- Rule enforcers
- Moral entrepreneurs
- Moral panic
- Stigma
- Discredited stigma
- Discreditable stigma
- Criminology
- Specific deterrence
- Tertiary deviance
- Deviance Avowal
- Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
- Retribution
- Incapacitation
- Capital Punishment
- Positive Deviancwe
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