Sociological Explanations Of Crime And Deviance

Crime is defined an act that breaks the law established by a society and is punishable by the legal system in that region. Deviance, on the other hand, is considered to be behaviour that is unaccepted or frowned upon by the society or culture an individual belongs to. There are many explanations to what causes crime and deviance. However this essay will expound the main three theories and critically evaluate them to provide an overall conclusion. The first explanation is the sociological theory. This theory implies that the faults of society are to blame for the crime and deviance that exist in it. While in contrast the biological and psychological theories place blame on the individual and claim that criminal and deviant characteristics and values are inherited and inevitable. These theories attempt to provide the reason of why individuals commit crimes or deviate from social norms. The sociological explanation commonly referred to as the functionalist perspective emphasizes societies and how the rules and values of a certain society shapes the individuals in that society. How any problems that occur in that society arrive
Merton’s strain theory suggests that the origins of deviance is caused by the problems of reward systems in societies . Often people work hard and strive whilst getting low incomes while others perhaps don’t even go to work, but are highly rewarded due to many different reasons such as social status , race, or possibly even gender. Very often societies do not provide or do not want to provide opportunities for these underprivileged individuals to succeed in order to keep themselves rich. Furthermore this theory blames inequality for the cause of crime and