Chapter 7

Crime and Deviance

Key Terms
 Deviance
Behavior that violates norms.

 Crime
Acts of force and fraud undertaken in pursuit
of self-interest.
 Born criminals
Lombroso’s term for people whose deviance
he attributed to their more primitive biology.

 Differential association theory

A theory that traces deviant behavior to
association with other persons who also
engage in this behavior.
 Subcultural deviance
Behavior through which a person deviates
from the norms of the surrounding society by
conforming to the norms of a subculture.

 Structural strain
Frustration or discontent caused by being in a
disadvantaged position in the social structure.
 Structural strain theories
Theories that blame deviance on the stress of
structural strain; for example, one such theory
claims that people commit crimes because of
their poverty.

 White-collar crime
According to Sutherland (1983), crimes
committed by “a person of respectability and
high social status in the course of his [her]
occupation.”
 Control theory
A theory that stresses how weak bonds
between the individual and society free
people to deviate, whereas strong bonds
make deviance costly.

 Stake in conformity
Those things a person risks losing by being
detected committing deviant behavior; what a
person protects by conforming to the norms.
 Social bonds
Bonds that, as used in control theory,
consist of the following:
1. attachments Ties to other people.
2. investments The costs expended to
construct a satisfactory life and the
current and potential flow of rewards
expected.
3. involvements The amount of time and
energy expended in nondeviant activities.
4. beliefs Our notions about how we ought
to act.
 Internalization of norms
The sociological synonym for conscience;
refers to the tendency of people not simply to
learn what the norms are but also to come to
believe the norms are right.

 Anomie
A condition of normlessness in a group or
even a whole society when people either no
longer know what the norms are or have lost
their belief in them.
 Moral communities
Groups within which there is very high
agreement on the norms and strong bonds of
attachment among members.

 Social integration
The degree to which persons in a group have
many strong attachments to one another.
 Moral integration
The degree to which members of a group are
united by shared beliefs.

 Labeling theory
A theory that explains deviant behavior as a
reaction to having been socially identified as
a deviant.
 Primary deviance
In labeling theory actions that cause others to
label an individual deviant. More generally,
any deviant acts that result in the commission
of other deviant acts.

 Secondary deviance
In labeling theory actions carried out in
response to having been labeled as deviant.
More generally, any deviant acts committed
as a result of committing other deviant acts—
for example, burglaries committed to support
a drug habit.