This lesson distinguishes crime from deviance and introduces the ways crimes are classified. These distinctions matter because laws define formal boundaries of behavior, while societies debate what should be illegal and how it should be punished.
Deviance is behavior that violates social norms. Not every deviant act is illegal or harmful: walking to class backward may violate expectations but is not ordinarily a crime. Crime is behavior that violates an official law and can be punished through a formal sanction.
All flashcards
Deviance
Behavior that violates social norms; it is not necessarily illegal or harmful.
Violent and nonviolent crime
Violent crime involves force or threatened force against a person; nonviolent crime does not.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
An FBI system designed to collect detailed information about reported crime incidents.
Probation and parole
Probation is community supervision generally used instead of prison; parole is conditional supervised release from custody.
Victimless crime
A debated label for an illegal act in which the person committing it is not explicitly harming another person.
Quiz questions
What kind of information is the National Incident-Based Reporting System designed to collect?Answer: Detailed information about reported incidents, including context such as time and location.
What can the National Crime Victimization Survey capture that police-report data may miss?Answer: People’s accounts of crimes they experienced but did not report to police.
In many U.S. criminal trials, what roles do the jury and judge generally have?Answer: The jury determines guilt, and the judge determines the penalty.
What does civil forfeiture allow authorities to do in some circumstances?Answer: Seize property or money suspected of being connected to crime, sometimes before conviction.
How can frequent, emotionally striking crime coverage affect public perception?Answer: It can make rare events seem more common than broader data indicate.
Based on Introduction to Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.