This chapter will help you do the following:

1. Describe who is deviant and why.

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

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

4. Describe types of organized crime and crime by organizations prevalent today.

5. Give examples of crimes committed at the national and global level today.

6. Determine which theoretical perspective would be most useful in explaining the function of prisons in U.S. society today.