Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to episode one of Crime and Deviants
Speaker 1: for the Sociology Show podcast. In this episode, we're going
Speaker 1: to think about what's the difference between a criminal and
Speaker 1: a devian act, how is crime and deviants relative, how
Speaker 1: is crime and deviants socially constructed? And also who is
Speaker 1: the typical victim according to official statistics. So let's start
Speaker 1: with what is the difference between a crime and a
Speaker 1: devian act? Well, a crime is to find as something
Speaker 1: that breaks the law and as such may follow criminal
Speaker 1: proceedings such as a police caution, court proceedings and for
Speaker 1: serious offenses prison. Different societies have different laws and therefore
Speaker 1: crime can be seen as fluid and relative as a concept.
Speaker 1: Examples of crimes in the UK are theft, murder or rape.
Speaker 1: Deviance is a much broader term, and it's something that
Speaker 1: breaks the informal rules or the norms that are accepted
Speaker 1: by the majority of a society. For example, burping during
Speaker 1: a meal is considered a deviant act in some societies
Speaker 1: but is socially acceptable in others. Nevertheless, you will not
Speaker 1: get a fine, or go to court or be imprisoned
Speaker 1: if you did commit a deviant act, as these are
Speaker 1: dealt with via informal sections, so things such as exclusion
Speaker 1: or shame, or gossiping or a glance. These terms can
Speaker 1: become more complicated as most crimes are deviant, however, not
Speaker 1: all are. A crime like murder, is both against the
Speaker 1: law and deviant. However, some acts such as breaking the
Speaker 1: law to protect the environment or parking on a double
Speaker 1: yellow line, are criminal but not always seen as deviant.
Speaker 1: We must remember that what is socially acceptable can be subjective,
Speaker 1: and therefore we don't all categorize acts in exactly the
Speaker 1: same way. To clarify, some acts are just criminal, some
Speaker 1: are just deviant, and others are both criminal and deviant.
Speaker 1: The key thing for you to remember is a criminal
Speaker 1: act is something that breaks the law, whereas a deviant
Speaker 1: act is something that just breaks a norm of society.
Speaker 1: So let's move on to this idea of relativity. Room
Speaker 1: and deviants are relative, and there are three factors that
Speaker 1: you should really try and remember for your exam, and
Speaker 1: that is that crime is relative to time, place, and person.
Speaker 1: Let's start with time. What constitutes a criminal act can
Speaker 1: depend on the time or era in which it took place.
Speaker 1: For example, the sociologist Fuco shows us the homosexuality was
Speaker 1: illegal in England and Wales until nineteen sixty seven. After
Speaker 1: that it became legal. As we go through time, it
Speaker 1: also becomes more socially acceptable. In the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: people of the same sex could have a civil partnership,
Speaker 1: and by twenty thirteen and twenty fourteen we allowed gay
Speaker 1: marriage in the UK. So if we were asked, is
Speaker 1: homosexuality illegal in the UK, well, it depends what time
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Pre nineteen sixty seven it would be.
Speaker 1: Post nineteen sixty seven it wouldn't be. There are also
Speaker 1: other areas that have changed. For example, abortion was not
Speaker 1: legalized in England, Scotland and Wales until the introduction of
Speaker 1: the Aborda Act in nineteen sixty seven. Driving without a
Speaker 1: seat belt was not criminalized in the UK until nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three. So one way in which crime can be
Speaker 1: seen as relative is due to time or when a
Speaker 1: crime actually took place. Let's think about place in terms
Speaker 1: of place, we can see what constitutes a crime is
Speaker 1: relative to where you are. Fuko again talks about how
Speaker 1: an act can change from place to place in his
Speaker 1: discourse theory. For example, having sex under the age of
Speaker 1: sixteen in Britain is a criminal offense, whereas in Germany
Speaker 1: and Italy the age of consent is fourteen, So having
Speaker 1: sex at the age of fifteen is a criminal act
Speaker 1: in some places but not in others. In Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 1: homosexual or extramarital sexual relations, including adultery, are illegal and
Speaker 1: can be subject to severe penalties. It's also illegal to
Speaker 1: be transgender in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it could also
Speaker 1: be unacceptable for men to wear shorts in public. In
Speaker 1: regard to deviance, it could be deviant in the UK
Speaker 1: to be naked on the street, but not in your
Speaker 1: own home. Therefore, the place in which the act takes
Speaker 1: place plays a significant role in classifying what is and
Speaker 1: what isn't deviant or criminal. Then we have the person
Speaker 1: that actually commits the act. In terms of person, what
Speaker 1: is deemed a crime may depend on who you are.
Speaker 1: For example, drinking alcohol is illegal for under sixteens in
Speaker 1: the UK, yet adults are allowed to drink as much
Speaker 1: as they want. Therefore, it is relative to a person's
Speaker 1: age or status. Interactionists such as Sigarel are interested in
Speaker 1: how the status of a person may affect their chances
Speaker 1: of being labeled as a criminal. For example, he found
Speaker 1: that working class youths were more likely to get a
Speaker 1: criminal record than middle class uths because of police expectations,
Speaker 1: regardless of the fact that they were both doing the
Speaker 1: same types of crimes or activities. In terms of deviants,
Speaker 1: it's normal if you were to skip along the street
Speaker 1: if you're a young child, but if adults started to
Speaker 1: do it, they will be looked at a little bit oddly. Therefore,
Speaker 1: what constitutes a crime and deviant act is relative to
Speaker 1: who you are to So if you were to get
Speaker 1: a question on crime being relative, try and remember those
Speaker 1: three factors time, person, and place. All of this demonstrates
Speaker 1: then that crime and deviance is what we call socially constructed,
Speaker 1: and this means that is created and defined by society.
Speaker 1: A common sense understanding of crime and deviants is that
Speaker 1: certain acts are wrong and will always be this way. However,
Speaker 1: we should open our minds beyond this idea and think
Speaker 1: what is classified as criminal or deviant is the result
Speaker 1: of society's definitions and not the actual act itself. Think
Speaker 1: of a soldier who has to kill in the line
Speaker 1: of duty. Some people would call them a hero or
Speaker 1: a heroine for what they did, whereas others would say
Speaker 1: that they were a murderer. However, some sociologists, such as
Speaker 1: the interactionist Howard Becker, wants us to think carefully about
Speaker 1: this and ask ourselves, is is there really any difference
Speaker 1: between a soldier and a person in prison for murder.
Speaker 1: If crime is a social construction, as sociologists believer is,
Speaker 1: then we need a fundamental shift away from seeing acts
Speaker 1: and people as criminal or deviant and start looking at
Speaker 1: the role of powerful groups like the police, courts, and
Speaker 1: media who define a person's actions as criminal or deviant.
Speaker 1: So there's another couple of terms that are really useful
Speaker 1: here to understand, and one is social order and the
Speaker 1: other is social control. Social order is defined as the
Speaker 1: general order of conformity to shared norms and values. We
Speaker 1: don't always recognize this. Look around you and you'll see
Speaker 1: examples of social order all the time, students working in
Speaker 1: the classroom, people in the street, drivers adhering to the
Speaker 1: rules of the road, and so on. Social control is
Speaker 1: defined as the process by which people are persuaded to
Speaker 1: obey rules and conform. Agents of socialization, such as the
Speaker 1: police and courts, are influential in persuading us to adhere
Speaker 1: to the rules or suffer the consequences for not doing so.
Speaker 1: You must remember that there are two forms of social control,
Speaker 1: and this is really useful to understand. We have informal
Speaker 1: social control, and this is carried out by agencies such
Speaker 1: as the media, family or friends. It's a more subtle
Speaker 1: form of control and includes both positive and negative sanctions.
Speaker 1: For example, if someone were to make a comment at
Speaker 1: your give you a little glance, they are controlling your behavior,
Speaker 1: but in no more subtle and informal way. Formal social
Speaker 1: control is carried out by agencies specifically set up to
Speaker 1: control our behavior, such as the police, the courts, and
Speaker 1: the army, and of course they can give more severe punishments.
Speaker 1: As already mentioned, the police can give fines, they can
Speaker 1: give cautions, and ultimately they can also give prison sentences
Speaker 1: as well. So let's now move on to the victims
Speaker 1: of crime. According to official statistics, who are more likely
Speaker 1: to be victims. When we analyze the data for the
Speaker 1: Crime Survey for England and Wales, we can see lots
Speaker 1: of dif different variations. For example, with gender, one variation
Speaker 1: between male and female victimization shows that males are much
Speaker 1: more likely to be victims of homicide that means murder,
Speaker 1: whereas females are much more likely to be the victims
Speaker 1: of domestic abuse. However, we also need to consider what
Speaker 1: we call intersectionality. This is a person's multiple identities such
Speaker 1: as their class, their age, their gender, ethnicity, etc. That
Speaker 1: create different levels of discrimination or privilege. To these findings,
Speaker 1: the variations within these gender trends and patterns of victimization change.
Speaker 1: So let's take victims of homicide and think about gender
Speaker 1: and age. Variations between male and female homicide rates in
Speaker 1: England and Wales show that males are sixty four percent
Speaker 1: more likely to be victims and females at thirty six percent. However,
Speaker 1: intersectionality if we apply age to these findings, we can
Speaker 1: see that female homicide victims were mostly older than males,
Speaker 1: often between the ages of twenty five to thirty four.
Speaker 1: Male victims were comparatively younger, with higher proportions within the
Speaker 1: age of sixteen to twenty four. Therefore, males are more
Speaker 1: likely to view victim of murder, but this is more
Speaker 1: likely to happen between the ages of sixteen and twenty four,
Speaker 1: whereas female murder victims are less frequent but more likely
Speaker 1: to be slightly older between the ages of twenty five
Speaker 1: to thirty four. Let's compare that to victims of domestic violence.
Speaker 1: The variation between males and females and domestic violence shows
Speaker 1: that the proportion of females experiencing domestic violence is around
Speaker 1: seven point three percent of the population. That is around
Speaker 1: double that of males at three point six percent. Is
Speaker 1: therefore clear that females experience domestic violence more than males. However,
Speaker 1: with intersectionality, there seems to be clear variations within these
Speaker 1: statistics based on age and social class. Women aged twenty
Speaker 1: to twenty four years were significantly more likely to be
Speaker 1: victims of any domestic abuse in the last twelve months
Speaker 1: than women in Ana any other age group. Therefore, younger
Speaker 1: females are statistically more likely to experience domestic violence. When
Speaker 1: we look at social class, females with a lower household
Speaker 1: income were around twenty one percent of all domestic violence victims.
Speaker 1: More middle class women are around twelve point five percent,
Speaker 1: and with high income around four percent. These figures show
Speaker 1: us that age and social class are very important factors,
Speaker 1: and this intersectionality gives us a better understanding of patterns
Speaker 1: and trends of domestic violence among female victims. So for yourself,
Speaker 1: it's really important if you were giving examples in relation
Speaker 1: to gender, to remember that men are more likely to
Speaker 1: be victims of being attacked or being a victim of homicide,
Speaker 1: whereas females are more likely to be a victim of
Speaker 1: domestic violence. Let's think about some statistics in terms of
Speaker 1: victimization and ethnicity. First of all, we have what's called
Speaker 1: interracial crime rates. This is between different racial or ethnic groups.
Speaker 1: These statistics that people of mixed ethnicity are more likely
Speaker 1: to be the victim of crime. In twenty twenty, the
Speaker 1: figure for ethnic groups and victimization where mixed twenty percent,
Speaker 1: Asian fifteen percent, Black groups fourteen percent, and white thirteen percent.
Speaker 1: Home Office figures also show that black people are five
Speaker 1: times more likely to be murdered than white people in
Speaker 1: the UK. That's clear evidence of interracial victimization. We also
Speaker 1: have what's called intra racial crime rates. This is within
Speaker 1: racial or ethnic groups, and these statistics shasts that the
Speaker 1: most violent crime is interracial. That means black on black
Speaker 1: or white on white, etc. Home Office intraracial figures show
Speaker 1: that one third of gun murder victims and suspects were black.
Speaker 1: So all of these figures show us there are clear
Speaker 1: variations between different social groups, i e. Males are more
Speaker 1: likely to be victims of murder, females are more likely
Speaker 1: to be victims of domestic violence, Mixed ethnicity groups are
Speaker 1: more likely to be the victims of crime in general. However,
Speaker 1: it's also important to pinpoint these variations within these trends
Speaker 1: and patterns ies. Social class can play a huge significant
Speaker 1: role in domestic violence, age can play a role in homicide.
Speaker 1: Social class plays a role in differing ethnic levels of victimization.
Speaker 1: This intersectionality provides a deeper understanding of patterns and trends
Speaker 1: of victimization. However, it is also important to note that
Speaker 1: the Crime Survey for England and Wales is only one
Speaker 1: way of measuring crime, and this method does have some weaknesses.
Speaker 1: It's also important to keep in mind that different sociological
Speaker 1: perspectives have differing and sometimes contrasting views on crime and
Speaker 1: victims of crime. For example, Marxists would point out that
Speaker 1: all proletariats are victims of crime because of the bourgeoisie
Speaker 1: and due to capitalism, whereas feminists would argue that patriarchy
Speaker 1: victimizes all females in ways that can be seen as
Speaker 1: criminal in today's society. So just to recap have a
Speaker 1: think about these areas. Can you now define what is
Speaker 1: meant by crime? Can you define what is meant by deviants?
Speaker 1: Could you give an example of a criminal act? Could
Speaker 1: you give an example of a deviant act? Could you
Speaker 1: name the three factors which make crime and deviance relative?
Speaker 1: Could you name at least three different patterns in relation
Speaker 1: to victimization and crime. Thank you for listening to part one.
Speaker 1: In part two, we will look at how crime is measured.
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