CRIME AND DEVIANCE

With reference to Theories of Deviance

&
Types of Crime

By:
Madhurima Dasgupta
Amity Law School
Amity University
Kolkata
Defining Deviance:

• Deviance refers to those activities that

do not conform to the norms and
expectations of members of a particular
society.

• Deviant activities may be positively or

negatively sanctioned.
Factors contributing to deviance:

• Broken family and improper

socialization
• Lack of basic facilities and amenities
• Poverty
• Parentless child
• Mass media
• Urban slums
 Deviant Behavior Examples:

• Naked exposure in public

• Licking of ground
• Binge drinking
• Homicide
• Suicide
• Theft
• Robbery
• Rape
• Prostitution
• Murder
Examples of deviant behaviour
(Theft & Murder)
 Theories of deviance
1. Physiological and psychological theories of deviance:
This theory believes that particular individuals are
more prone to deviance than others due to their
genetic make-up.

 This theory was propounded by Cesare Lombroso, an

Italian army doctor in his book L’Uomo Delinquente.

 He pointed out that the genetic features found in

criminals are ‘large jaws, high cheek bones, large
ears and an insensitivity to pain’.
Physiological theory of deviance
 Psychological theory of deviance
• Psychological theory of deviance regards that
those individuals engage in deviant behaviour who
has undergone ‘defective socialization’ or ‘faulty
socialization’ in the mother-child relationship.

• This involves emotional disturbances which often

leads to the formation of maladjusted personality
traits. Early childhood experience can produce a
profound impact upon adolescent and adult
behaviour.
2. Structural and sub-cultural theories of
deviance
• Albert K. Cohen’s theory of delinquency:

• Albert Cohen regarded that delinquency is a

collective response.

• According to his theory based on his research,

lower working-class boys posses the success goals
of mainstream culture, but due to educational
failure and dead-end jobs which results from this,
they have little opportuynity to attain them.
 Structural and sub-cultural theories of
deviance (Contd.)
• As a result of such failure and with their
avenues to success being blocked, most
working lass boys suffer from status
frustration.

• This frustration with their lower status forces

them to engage in deviance.
3. Sutherland’s theory of Differential
Association:

• Edwin Sutherland’s theory of Differential

Association evolved from the Chicago School
of sociology, which observed that crime
occurred more frequently in areas lacking
social organization and institutions of social
control (Gomme, 37). Crime was usually
explained by multiple factors – such as social
class, age, race, and urban or rural location. 
• The theory is outlined in nine propositions.
• The first proposition posits that criminal
behaviour is learned.
• In the second proposition, Sutherland refutes
the possibility that criminals and deviants must
witness criminal behaviour in order to learn it. 
• Sutherland’s third proposition begins to explain
the observations of Shaw and McKay, who
observed that consistent high rates of crimes
within members of similar social conditions.
(Contd.)
• The fourth proposition expands Sutherland’s concept
of learning to identify what is acquired through
communication with intimate others that enables
criminal activity.

• The fifth proposition further elaborates upon the issue

of criminal motivation: ne develops opinions of the
law that either encourage or discourage action. For
example, one who drives faster than the speed limit
(“speeds”) may justify his or her actions by viewing
the law as unnecessary; he or she may view the limit
as unreasonably low, or judge that the road is clear
and safe and that a limit should not be imposed.
• In the sixth proposition, Sutherland argues that
an individual becomes delinquent only when
“definitions favourable to violation of law”
exceed “definitions unfavourable to violation of
law”.

• In the seventh proposition, Sutherland avoids

oversimplifying the social learning processes, by
describing how “excess definitions”
(associations, attitudes, patterns, etc.) are
affected by four factors: “frequency, duration,
priority and intensity” .
• The eighth proposition reiterates the logic behind
the criminal learning process. Sutherland explains
that, like any other skill or knowledge, the process by
which one attains and develops pro-criminal and
anti-criminal patterns is the same as any other
learning process.

• Sutherland’s final proposition makes the important

claim that the motivations for criminal and law-
abiding behaviour cannot be the same, and
therefore crime cannot be a result of general needs
and values, such as a desire for wealth or social
status.
4. Howard S. Becker’s Labelling theory:
• One of the most influential theory of deviance
was given by Howard Becker on Labelling
theory.

• According to his theory, deviant is the one to

whom the label or stigma has been
successfully applied and deviant behaviour is
behaviour that the people so label.
Howard S. Becker’s Labelling theory
(Contd):
• An act becomes deviant only when persons
perceive and define it as such.

• A label is a ‘master status’ that colors all the other

statuses possessed by an individual.

• If a person is labelled as a deviant, criminal,

homosexual, such labels override his or her status
as a parent, worker, friend and social member.
Howard S. Becker’s Labelling theory:
 Types of Crime
1. White-Collar Crime: White-collar crime refers to
financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by
business and government professionals.[1] Within 
criminology, it was first defined by sociologist 
Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a
person of respectability and high social status in the
course of his occupation". Typical white-collar crimes
could possibly include fraud, bribery, Ponzi schemes, 
insider trading, labor racketeering, embezzlement, 
cybercrime, copyright infringement, 
money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.
White-Collar Crime
2. Organized
Crime:
Organized crime is a category of 
transnational, national, or local
groupings of highly centralized
enterprises run by criminals who
intend to engage in illegal activity,
most commonly for money and profit.
Some criminal organizations, such as 
terrorist groups, are politically
motivated. Sometimes criminal
organizations force people to do
business with them, such as when a
gang extorts money from shopkeepers
for so-called "protection".[1] Gangs
 may become disciplined enough to be
considered organized.
3. Juvenile
Delinquency:
The word delinquency is derived
from the Latin word “delinquere”
meaning de i.e. away and linquere i.e.
to leave thus, meaning to leave or to
abandon. Originally, the word had an
objective meaning as it referred to
parents who neglected and
abandoned their children. In present
day, it is used and applied.

to those children who indulge in

wrongful and harmful activities.
Juvenile can be defined as a child
who has not attained a certain age
at which he, like an adult person
under the law of the land, can be
held liable for his criminal acts. The
juvenile is a child who is alleged to
have committed /violated some law
which declares the act or omission
on the part of the child as an
offence.
 Classification of Juvenile Delinquency
• Different classifications of the juvenile delinquency and
delinquents have been given by various authors. A few
important classifications are noted below.
• (1) Incorrigibility, which includes keeping late hours,
disobedience, and so on.
• (2) Truancy, which can be from home or school.
• (3) Destruction of property, which includes both public and
private property.
• (4) Violence which is perpetrated against the community by
using such means as knives and guns.
• (5) Sex offenses which can range from homosexual activity
to criminal assault and rape.
4. Corruption:
Corruption is a form of dishonest
 or unethical conduct by a person
entrusted with a position of
authority, often to acquire
personal benefit.[1] practices that
are legal in manyCorruption may
include many activities including 
bribery and embezzlement, though
it may also involve countries. [2] 
Government, or 'political', corrupti
on
 occurs when an office-holder or
other governmental employee acts
in an official capacity for personal
gain.

According to 2016 results of

Corruption Perception Index of
Transparency International, India
ranks 79th place out of 176
countries.
 Other forms of crime
• Crime or violence against women: Rape, murder, Murder of
widows, Dowry deaths.

• Corporate crime: In criminology, corporate crime refers to

crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a 
business entity having a separate legal personality from the 
natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals
acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity
(see vicarious liability and corporate liability). Some negative
behaviours by corporations may not actually be criminal;
laws vary between jurisdictions. For example, some
jurisdictions allow insider trading.
Prevention/ Control of Crime and deviance in
society:
• Crime or deviance can be mitigated or
controlled through the enforcement of
stringent law and various means of social
control.

• However, its still alarming that deviance till

persists today and its impact varies from one
society to another corresponding to the crime
rate.