Before I start to define, measure and contrast both crime and deviance I believe it only appropriate to firstly clarify what the actual words mean. Crime is typically described as someone or something which violates or breaks criminal law, as opposed to deviance that can often have a wider spectrum to determine. Deviance itself can be construed as something illegal that is against social norms.
Examples of these we can use is that of murder, this is most definitely a crime and not socially acceptable, nor is it to be related to the offence in its entirety. Whereas speeding, something which is illegal and is policed, yet is performed by the clear majority of drivers on the road today, making this a crime as you may be prosecuted for the offence however as the potential to be caught is drastically lower than the actual outcome; people tend to push boundaries to increase their speed when they see fit. These are not set in stone, and are subject to change, maybe a deviant act becomes an actual crime and that of a crime just raises itself through society to make it more acceptable hence becoming more …show more content…
A renowned criminologist who elaborated on this approach was Cesare Lombroso. He studying dead bodies in the mid 1800’s and looked for physiological reasons and similar criminal behaviours which may have been coherent throughout the study. He then published his findings and “born criminals” were seen to posess similar facial features such a low-sloping foreheads, large jaws and large canine teeth. He then coined the term ‘criminaloid’ to classify those who were not born into crime but had external factors create them. With this he then claimed that those who were classed a ‘criminaloid’ or not born a criminal were more likely to commit less severe crimes than those who were classed as
Examples of these we can use is that of murder, this is most definitely a crime and not socially acceptable, nor is it to be related to the offence in its entirety. Whereas speeding, something which is illegal and is policed, yet is performed by the clear majority of drivers on the road today, making this a crime as you may be prosecuted for the offence however as the potential to be caught is drastically lower than the actual outcome; people tend to push boundaries to increase their speed when they see fit. These are not set in stone, and are subject to change, maybe a deviant act becomes an actual crime and that of a crime just raises itself through society to make it more acceptable hence becoming more …show more content…
A renowned criminologist who elaborated on this approach was Cesare Lombroso. He studying dead bodies in the mid 1800’s and looked for physiological reasons and similar criminal behaviours which may have been coherent throughout the study. He then published his findings and “born criminals” were seen to posess similar facial features such a low-sloping foreheads, large jaws and large canine teeth. He then coined the term ‘criminaloid’ to classify those who were not born into crime but had external factors create them. With this he then claimed that those who were classed a ‘criminaloid’ or not born a criminal were more likely to commit less severe crimes than those who were classed as