Crime and Deviance

Crime and Deviance

1. What is Crime and Deviance? Crimes are things that break the law, whereas deviance is going against the norm. All crimes are deviant as all are going against the norm, but not all deviant acts are criminal - such as smoking. If you do not conform, you are therefore deviating

2. Crime is relative. It is relative to time and location. For example, what was illegal 100 years ago may not be illegal now such as gay marriage. Location is also relative to location - in Qatar and Saudi Arabia it is still illegal to be gay

3. Durkheim argues that some levels of crime are functional.