6.1 Describe who is deviant and why.

6.2 Compare key ideas in the differential association, labeling, rational choice, structural-functional, and conflict perspectives on deviance.

6.3 Provide possible explanations for why the crime rate has fallen in recent years.

6.4 Describe the types of organized crime prevalent today.

6.5 Give examples of the crimes committed at the national and global levels today.

6.6 Discuss why you think either the structural-functional or the conflict perspective would be more useful in explaining the function of prisons in U.S. society today.

Key Points:

• Deviance—the violation of social norms, including those that are formal laws—has both positive and negative consequences for individuals and for society.
• We can use many different sociological theories to explain deviance—rational choice (including social control); symbolic interaction’s anomie and label­ing theories at the micro level; structural-functional theory’s differential association and strain theory; and conflict and feminist theory at the meso and macro levels.
• Many of the formal organizations concerned with crime (such as the FBI and the media) focus on crimes involving individuals—predatory crimes, crimes without victims, and hate crimes—but the focus on these crimes may blind us to occupational crimes that actually are more harmful and more costly to society.
• At the meso level, organized and occupational crimes may cost billions of dollars and pose a great risk to thousands of lives. Occupational crime may be against the company, employees, customers, or the public.
• At the macro level, national governments sometimes commit state-organized crimes, sometimes in viola­tion of their own laws or in violation of international laws. These crimes may be directed against their own citizens (usually the minorities) or people from other countries.
• Also at the macro level, some crimes are facilitated by global networks and by global inequities of power and wealth.
• Controlling crime has generated many policy debates, from the use of prisons to the death penalty and even to alternative approaches to the control of deviance.

Summary:

Deviance is socially constructed and varies across time and societies. What is considered deviant now may not be con­sidered deviant in another place or time. All societies must fashion responses to deviant behaviors, which can threaten their stability and safety. The criminal justice system tends to be a conservative force in society because of its focus on ensuring social conformity.

To make our society run more smoothly, we must under­stand why deviance and crime happen. Good policy must be based on accurate information and careful analysis of the information. We must also understand that devi­ance and conformity operate at various levels in the social world: micro, meso, and macro. In addition, it is important to understand that there may be positive aspects of devi­ance for any society, from uniting society against deviants to providing creative new ways to solve problems.