Crime and society

Related Concepts
Deviancy: In sociology, deviancy describes an action or behavior that
violates social norms, including a formally enacted rule (e.g., crime), as well

as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores).

Definition
 Wickman: Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of
conduct or expectations of a group or society.
  Horton and Hunt: Behavior which is defined as a violation of social
norms of a group or society is called deviance

Types of deviancy
1-Crime: Violation law is called crime

2-Evil: violation of informal social norms (Folkways and Mores) is

called evil.

3-Sin: Violation of religious norms is called sin.

Vice

Vice is a practice, behavior, or habit generally

considered immoral, depraved, or mortifying in the associated society. In
more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a
defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhealthy habit. Vices are usually
associated with a transgression in a person's character or temperament
rather than their morality.

Definition
 Legal Definition: Activities that are made illegal because they offend
the moral standards of the community banning them.
 A vice is a moral failing or a bad habit. Traditional examples
of vice include drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and gambling in
card games.
Crime and Vice
Vices are often included in the category of crimes, but many of them, sometimes
are not regarded as crimes. There is a lot of difference in their aims.

The crimes cause harm to others while vice causes harm to individual only. For
example, the vices like gambling, drinking, prostitution. As the harm to the
individual indirectly effects the society, the latter therefore prohibits the vices and
generally gives punishment for them.

Sin
Sin is a violation of God's will, the punishment of sin is given after death. God will
forgive sin if you repent. To repent means more than just say you're sorry or to
ask for forgiveness. You must turn away from sin, which means to make things
right as best you can, you must feel sorry for what you have done, and you must
ask God for forgiveness.

Definition

 In a religious context, sin is an act of transgression against divine

law.
 Anything that goes against the commands of God (Allah), a breach of
the laws and norms lay down by religion. 
Crime and Sin
All the acts against religion are considered sins. Thus, sin can be defined as the
transgression of divine laws. Its very base is religion, while the crime is based
upon laws. The concept of sin is traditional, based on orthodoxy and rigidity. The
final decision in sin is taken on the basis of religious books while in the matter of
crime; it is taken by law court.
Darrow has defined sin in a most suitable manner. In his words, “Sin……is an
offence against God, a transgression against the divine law and any thought, desire,
word, an act or omission against that law”.
Conclusion:
Simply we can say, all crime is sin but all sin is not crime and some crime are
crime not a sin in the society. If we commit any crime and given the punishment
according to Islamic law so that is not sin because the punishment are given
already with Islamic law.

Causes of deviancy
1. Inadequate socialization
2. Role conflict
3. Frustration theory
4. Economic problems
5. Anomie
6. Poverty

7. Cheap movies and literature

8. Political group

9. Lack of religious tolerance

10. Marriage and family
11. Peer group
12. Broken homes

Crime as a social phenomenon

 Criminal law is a social phenomena, and crime itself a social product.
Behavior defined as crime in one society may occur in a different society
but not be regarded as suitable for punishment there.

Variation in the legal definition of theft in different societies.

In Norway, petty theft from a relative with whom the thieves live is not
treated as a crime.

In Colombia, theft (with out any violence) in a pressing need (no legal way
to meet those needs) for food or clothing is exempted from criminal
sanctions

In industrial societies, taking a neighbor’s property for personal use is

generally regarded as a crime.

In some tribal/ traditional societies one may actually be expected to take

and use a neighbor’s property in time of need.

To understand why one society permits such behavior while another

treated it as a crime requires a careful study of the social structure, values,
and level of economic development of each society.

Crime as a social problem

Crime is considered by people to be one of the most alarming social
problems. However, most people are more familiar with myths about crime
rather than about its realities. Furthermore, the general public tends to have
a narrow conception of crime, one that is limited to acts of “street crimes,”
such as physical assaults and robberies that occur in public places.

Crime is a social problem because it cannot exist without society. Society

decides what actions are and which are not. For example, abortion is legal
in some countries but in others it is not. Crime is not just a lower-class
issue. There are many crimes committed by the wealthy and powerful too,
including sex crimes, financial crimes and environmental crimes, like
illegally dumping toxic waste, or insider trading.

Crime effects society. Murder of one man by other impacts the entire
region where it occurs, impacts the personal security of everyone in the
area even if they are in no danger themselves. A serial offender often
causes panic. On the other hand, a scheme like Michael Farnese’s Gas Tax
Fraud to profit the Colombo Crime Family in New York was not even on
social radar for years. Nonetheless it stole millions of tax dollars from New
York and Florida, taxes WE paid for OUR benefit, not to benefit a mafia
gang. This was money we didn’t have to repair roads and bridges and...

Crime is considered a social problem because, irrespective of social class, it

has a negative effect on members of society. Thieves deprive citizens of
their property. Armed robbers steal the profits of businesses. Drug dealers
destroy the lives of those who steal and prostitute themselves to buy the
drugs. Gangsters murder and injure others, depriving families of their loved
ones, employers lose their employees, and governments lose those who
contributed to the community in many ways. It affects all of society
negatively.

Because it costs society in many ways. By way of example: victims are killed,
injured, psychologically scarred and suffer economic loss, and much of this
is paid for by society. It costs billions in tax dollars to find, arrest and
(hopefully) convict perpetrators and billions more to hold them in prison to,
among other things, separate them from the society upon which they have
visited harm.

Crime is a social problem because it affects multilayers and aspect of the

social construct. Feeling of safety is affected right to own property is
twisted financial liability is a factor the ability to pursue a stable future is
corrupted.
 Crime and social Structure
In the field of sociological criminology, social structure theories emphasize the relation
between social structure and criminal behaviour, asserting that disadvantaged
economic conditions are primary influential factors in criminal activity.

Sociological theories explore relationships among groups and institutions

and see crime as the result of social processes. As the natural consequence
of characteristics of social structure, or as the result of economic and class
struggle. Social structure theories, has mostly been concerned, are only one
of three types of sociological explanations for crime. Social structure theories
emphasize poverty, lack of education, absence of marketable skills, and
subculture values as fundamental causes of crime.

Three subtypes of social structure theories can be identified: social

disorganization theory, strain theory, and culture conflict theory. Social
disorganization theory based on the concept of social pathology, which sees
society as a kind of organism and crime and deviance as a kind of disease.
Theories of social disorganization are often associated with the perspective
of social ecology and with the Chicago School of criminology, which
developed during the 1920s and 1930s. Strain theory points to a lack of fit
between socially approved goals and the availability of socially approved
means to achieve those goals. As consequence individuals unable to succeed
through legitimate means and turn to other means that assure his economic
and social recognition. Culture conflict theory suggests that the root cause of
criminality can be found in a clash of values between differently socialized
groups over what is acceptable or proper behavior.

Because theories of social structure look to the organization of society for

their explanatory power, intervention strategies based on them, typically
seek to improve the social conditions that are thought as reasons of crime.
Social programs based on social structure assumption frequently seek to
enhance socially acceptable opportunities for success and to increase the
availability of meaningful employment.

Crimes and social organization (institutions)

Crimes are often viewed as atomistic events which, committed by individuals in
specific places, can be fully understood through the analysis of event-level
information and ecological correlations. Although the location of criminals in
families, schools, peer groups and places is widely acknowledged. Responses to
crime whether, in the form of interventions to prevent crime, to decrease the risk
of criminality, to deter or rehabilitate offenders are often similarly treated as
isolated undertakings. This view of crime as a problem of individuals, rather than
organizations or social networks, has shaped much of our thinking about crime,
criminality and the criminal justice system.

A second area of concern is the social organization is the background of crime.

Crime does not consist of an isolated act involving a simple interchange between
offender(s) and victim(s). Rather, it occurs in the context of multidimensional
social organization, including family, neighborhood, place, formal organization
and social situation, all of which can be understood as providing essential long-
term and immediate elements in the unfolding of specific criminal events and,
then, to the immediate and long-term consequences of such events (Reiss and
Tonry, 1986; Reiss and Tonry, 1993; Clarke, 1992).

The organized responses of social organizations to crime is another important area

of inquiry. Community organizations, advocacy groups, and non-profit and for-
profit service providers are assigned the task of controlling, measuring and
responding to crime, criminals and crime victims. How these organizations
separately and collectively define and provide society's reactions to these
categories is a separate and influential dimension of social organization (Sherman
1992: 106-109). To what extent do these organizations share interests and how
much competition is there between them? What are their institutional
characteristics? What environmental factors-- including regulation and dependency
on other organizations for funding, clients, research access and other resources --
influence the operation of these organizations (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) ? A
variety of formal organizations, including various government agencies.

Social institutions specify the “rules of the game” that regulate social life
and facilitate the functioning of social systems.
 Crime is a normal property of social systems that reflects the basic
features of the institutional order. Differing institutional orders will have
different levels and forms of crime. The concept of the normal crime rate
also implies that crime rates cannot fall to zero, and crime can fall too low
for the effective functioning of a society.
Three interrelated dimensions of social institutions are particularly relevant
to the study of crime, institutional structure, institutional regulation or
legitimacy, and institutional performance.