Norms, deviance and crime
A norm is a shared rule about how to act. Social norms come from custom and manners (greeting elders, queueing). Legal norms are laws written and enforced by the state.
- Deviance: breaking a norm the group expects.
- Crime (or delinquency, often used for young people): breaking a law.
Not all deviance is crime (shouting in a library), and some crime is hardly seen as deviant (crossing an empty road at the wrong place). Deviance can even be positive, like a whistle-blower or an athlete who breaks a record.
Deviance is relative
What counts as deviant depends on place, time and group.
- Place: eating with hands is normal in many homes in South Asia but may surprise diners elsewhere.
- Time: tattoos and women wearing trousers were once frowned upon in many societies; now they are common.
- Group: a habit admired in one friendship group may be mocked in another.
So sociologists say deviance is a social judgement, not a fixed quality of an act.
Social control and sanctions
Social control is every way a society keeps people within its norms.
- Informal control: family, friends, neighbours, colleagues. Gossip, teasing, a cold look, or praise.
- Formal control: official bodies with written rules: police, courts, prisons, school discipline, employers.
- Sanctions can be negative (punish: a fine, being left out) or positive (reward: a smile, a medal).
Most people follow most norms because they were socialised to accept them, not because they fear punishment.
Theories: why do people deviate?
- Functionalist view (Durkheim): some deviance is normal and useful. Reacting to it reminds everyone of the rules and can lead to change.
- Strain (Merton): society praises goals like wealth, but not everyone has fair means (good school, jobs). The gap pushes some to illegal ways.
- Learning / subcultures: deviance is learned from people we spend time with; some groups share values different from the mainstream.
- Control (Hirschi): strong bonds to family, school and work keep people in line; weak bonds free them to deviate.
- Conflict views: powerful groups make the rules, so crimes of the poor are watched more than crimes of the rich.
Labelling, stigma and the deviant career
Labelling theory (Becker): an act becomes deviant when others successfully label it so.
- Primary deviance: a first rule-break, often small.
- A label is applied: 'thief', 'troublemaker'.
- Stigma (Goffman): a mark of shame that makes others avoid the person.
- Secondary deviance: the person accepts the label as their identity and joins others with the same label. This path is a deviant career.
A self-fulfilling prophecy can follow: the reaction produces the very behaviour it feared.
Measuring crime is difficult
Official crime statistics count only crimes that are reported and recorded.
- Victims may not report: fear, shame, the crime seems small, or distrust of police.
- Police may not record every report, and priorities change.
- The unseen part is the dark figure of crime.
Researchers add victim surveys (asking people what happened to them) and self-report studies (asking people what they did). Each method has its own bias.
Key formulas and definitions
- Norm: a shared rule for behaviour.
- Deviance: breaking a group norm.
- Crime / delinquency: breaking a law.
- Social control: ways to keep people within norms (formal, informal).
- Sanction: a reward (positive) or punishment (negative).
- Stigma: a mark of shame that spoils identity.
- Deviant career: path from first act to a deviant identity.
- Dark figure: crime never reported or recorded.
Worked examples
1. A student wears sports shoes to a formal wedding. Is it deviance, crime, both or neither?
Deviance only. It breaks a social norm about dress but no law.
2. Give one informal and one formal sanction for skipping school.
Informal: parents scold the child. Formal: the school gives a detention or a warning letter.
3. A boy from a poor area wants a smartphone like his friends but has no fair way to earn it, so he steals one. Which theory fits best?
Strain theory: the goal is shared, but legal means are blocked.
4. A crime survey finds three times more burglaries than police records show. Why?
Many victims do not report, and some reports are not recorded: the dark figure of crime.
Common mistakes
- Thinking deviance always means crime. Many deviant acts are legal.
- Thinking deviance is the same everywhere. It changes with place, time and group.
- Mixing up formal and informal control: police and courts are formal; family and friends are informal.
- Treating official crime statistics as the full truth. They miss unreported and unrecorded crime.