What Is Crime and Deviance?

Sociologists in the notes define deviance as:

• Behaviour that breaks society’s norms and values and attracts disapproval

• Any action punished by law

• Rule-breaking that is always harmful

• Behaviour that is rare but admired

Being stopped for speeding shows that some acts are:

• Deviant but not illegal

• Criminal but not usually regarded as deviant because they are common

• Neither criminal nor deviant

• Punishable only by informal criticism

Heavy daytime drinking illustrates an act that is:

• Legal and respectable

• Criminal and deviant

• Deviant but not criminal

• Socially approved behaviour

When crime is described as “socially constructed,” this means:

• All societies share identical laws

• Crime rates are created by the media

• Biological factors decide what is criminal

• Different societies—and different eras—define crimes in different ways

According to the notes, a man openly carrying a gun while pushing a pushchair would be both illegal and deviant in the:

• United Kingdom

• United States

• Netherlands

• Czech Republic

The term the notes use for reactions like fines, criticism or imprisonment is:

• Laws

• Sanctions

• Deviance

• Social control agents

Sanctions mainly exist to:

• Reward hard work in school

• Eliminate all inequality

• Punish rule-breakers and warn the wider society of consequences

• Measure public opinion

An example given of laws changing over time is:

• The abolition of income tax

• Raising the school-leaving age

• Legalising Sunday trading

• Women gaining the right to vote in the UK in 1918

Which term does NOT appear in the key-terms list of the hand-out?

• Conformity

• Sanctions

• Socially constructed

• Laws

Pushing in front of someone in a queue would most likely attract:

• A formal police caution

• An informal negative sanction from those around you

• No reaction at all

• A prison sentence