Crime and Deviance

Define situational and societal deviance. (Plummer)

Deviance as a social construction.

1. Happens at a certain stage of life for many people.

• A non-deviant crime? There are mnay illegal acts that people don't regard as particularly deviant, such as speeding, underage drinking, pinching office stationary. These are all extremely common, but because everyone does at one point, it is difficult to see it as deviant.
  

2. Time

• Definitions of deviance can change over time in the same society. For example, smoking used to be popular and was socially acceptable, but is now becoming increasingly deviant. Since July 2007, when it was made illegal to smoke in public places, it is seen as a deviant and socially unacceptable thing to do.
• Homosexuality was illegal in the UK before 1967, but since then it is legal and widely accepted

3. The Society or Culture

• Deviance is culturally relative. For example, what is regarded as deviant in one society of culture may not be in another. E.g. consumption of alcohol is often seen as deviant and illegal in many Islamic countries, but is seen as normal in Britain.
  

4. The Social Group

• As like above, what may be accepted in one social group, may be seen as deviant in another. For example, smoking cannabis is acceptable among Rastafarians in Britain and among many young people who are not Rastafarian, although it is regarded as deviant by many adults and it is illegal.
  

5. The Place

• It is seen as deviant if people have sex in public, but not among couples in the bedroom.
  
• Killing someone can be seen as heroic, manslaughter, self-defence, murder, a 'crime of passion,' justifiable homicide or euthenasia (mercy killing).