Conceptual Difficulties: Crime
- only examines illegal acts and ignores important non-criminal but socially significant behaviors
- what counts as harm is subjective + contested
Conceptual Difficulities: Deviance
- very broad, varies across time + place, is subjective, and depends on how people define situations
- how deviance is defined shapes theory; even talking about it can label behaviour as deviant—some argue the term should be eliminated
Marxists: Deviance
perceive deviance as liberating acts of rebellion against capitalism; conformity as collusion
Functionalist and Control theorists: Deviance
perceive institutional restraint as vital to social harmony
Definitions of crime and deviance…
vary across space and time
Debate Over a Single Theory of Deviance
- Deutschmann claims that one theory cannot explain all forms of deviance
- Downes and Rock suggest there may be one true explanation or multiple valid interpretations
Clarke and Cornish/James Wilson
simply dismiss theories of crime with no suggestions for controlling it
Schur, Becker and Szaz
would likely argue that state interference often leads to more deviance
Epistemology
ideas about how best to study society
Ontology
claims about what is the nature of social reality
Causality
- variables should covary
- temporal sequence
- covariance should be nonspurious
- research should be theoretically based
Variables should covary
- they change together in a related way
- when one variable increases or decreases, the other also changes (in the same or opposite direction)
Temporal sequence
- the cause must happen before the effect
- the independent variable (cause) must come before the dependent variable (effect)
Covariance should be nonspurious
ensures that the observed relationship between two variables is genuine and not caused by a third, confounding variable
Research should be theoretically based
there should be a clear explanation or theory for why one variable might cause another
Reliable
consistent findings
Valid
accurate + precise findings; the study actually measures what it claims to measure
Representative
how far may we generalize?
Covariance
means that variables are associated with one another
Variables researchers consider important in studying crime and deviance:
- age
- socio-economic status (SES)
- sex
- visible-minority status
Nonspurious Relationships
real relationship between two variables that is not caused by a third (hidden) variable
