Crime, Deviance and Social Control

Crime is simply an illegal act that's punishable by law, whilst deviance means not following society's normal expectations. What's interesting is that these definitions change over time and depend on cultural context - something that's deviant in one place might be perfectly normal elsewhere.

Society uses two main types of social control to keep people in line. Informal social control works through social pressure from family, friends, religion and school. Formal social control uses official rules that apply to everyone equally, enforced by police, courts and the government.

The stats are quite striking: over 85,900 people are in UK prisons, and 95% are male. Black people are three times more likely to be sent to prison than white people, which raises important questions about institutional racism in the justice system.

Key Point: Young people face the highest crime risk, with criminal activity peaking in the teens and early twenties before declining - this is called the age crime curve.

Marxist theory argues that capitalism itself causes crime because it creates inequality between social classes. The bourgeoisie (rich) create laws that protect their interests whilst punishing the poor. Meanwhile, feminist perspectives suggest that different socialisation of boys and girls makes male criminality almost inevitable - boys get more freedom, less controlling parenting, and face different peer pressures.