What is Crime and Deviance?
Crimes are things that break the
law, whereas deviance is going
against the norm. All crimes are
deviant as all are going against
the norm, but not all deviant acts
are criminal - such as smoking. If
you do not conform, you are
therefore deviating
Crime is relative. It is relative to time and location. For
example, what was illegal 100 years ago may not be illegal
now such as gay marriage. Location is also relative to location
- in Qatar and Saudi Arabia it is still illegal to be gay
Durkheim argues that some levels of crime are functional.