Sociology 1020 Study Guide - Relativism
Document Summary
The loose relationship between crime and deviance accentuates that there can be an intense political dynamic to decisions about what types of behaviour become classified as crimes: various groups have vested interests in defining the actions of other individuals as deviant or in criminalizing (e. g. downloading free music) Crime is not a rare phenomenon undertaken by a few notorious individuals (cid:224) instead, crimes of various stripes are very common: not every commits heinous forms of violent crime, but many have engaged in more everyday behaviours for which they could be prosecuted if they were caught (tax evasion, illegal drug use etc. ) Both are not perfect, like all surveys: study only a sample of the population, some crimes are also not reported because individuals are unaware that they have been victimized, these problems are compounded by the fact that participants often forget prior victimization or cannot remember exactly when a crime occurred, people lie about their criminal behaviour.
