Course type- UG 
                 Course- BA (Part III) 
             Title- Sociological Theories of Crime 
             Name of Teacher- Dr. Mrinal Manjari 
                Post- Assistant Professor 
                Department- Sociology 
                 J. D. Women's College 
                 Patliputra University 
                        
              Sociological Theories of Crime 
       
      Crime and deviance is studied in sociology from the perspective of a structure and 
      functions of society . In sociology crime and deviance  can easily be defined  as any 
      activity that violates the established and well accepted norms and rules of society. 
      In other words nonconformity to establish rules in society is deviance. In sociology, 
      deviance or crime is not simply seen as individual behaviour but a result of social 
      conditioning. It is necessary to first understand the meaning of crime and deviance. 
       
      Those activities which break the law of a society and are accordingly punishable by 
      law are called crime. The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology defines crime as an offence 
      which goes beyond the personal and into the public sphere, breaking prohibitory 
      rules or laws, to which legitimate punishments or sanctions are attached and which 
      requires the intervention of a public authority. An activity as a crime may change 
      over time as well as across cultures. For example, drinking alcohol was not a crime 
      in Bihar before 2016 and now a days it is a crime. similarly alcoholism is a crime in 
      Bihar and Gujarat states of India but not in other states. Therefore 'what is crime?' 
      is very difficult to be answered. 
      The terms crime and deviance are different. Although Sometimes they are used 
      interchangeably. The term deviance   Has more wide cannotation than crime. There 
      are many activities that do not follow the norms of society but are tolerable and no 
      formal  punishment is  given  by  the  law.    Such  activities  are  deviant  activities. 
      Deviant activities are relative and cannot be defined in absolute way. There are 
      particular standards that differ from society to society to define deviant behaviour. 
      For example smoking by women is deviant behaviour in Indian society but not in 
      western society. It is also not a crime either in India or western countries. However 
      all crimes are considered as deviant behaviour. 
      Sociological perspectives related to crime and deviance are given - 
       
      Functionalist perspective - Functionalist give Importance to shared norms and 
      values for establishment of order in society. Deviance is seen dysfunctional for 
      society because it is a threat to the order of society. 
       
      Emile Durkheim's view - He discussed crime in his book "The Rules of Sociological 
      Method" . For him, crime is normal aspect of society and it is functional. Crime is 
      inevitable in society. It  becomes dysfunctional only when the rate of crime is 
      extremely high. It was called pathological condition. For Durkheim, when a crime is 
      committed the criminal is punished and this ensures the effective enforcement of 
      existing law. It ensures the importance of rules and laws. In the same fashion Albert 
      Cohen also counted several functions of deviance and crime in society. 
      Structural strain theory by Robert K. Merton  - Merton developed his idea on crime 
      and deviance in his essay "social structure and anomie." He argued that deviance 
      is caused not by pathological personalities but by the  structure and culture of the 
      society.  According  to  Merton,  when  there  is  discrepancy  between  culturally 
      accepted goals and the legitimate institutional means to achieve them, then the 
      deviance occurs.  Culturally accepted goals are rewards, objectives, ambitions of 
      individuals. There are institutional means to achieve them.  Following Durkheim, 
      Merton defined anomie as a breakdown in the culture and structure. Merton 
      mentions five possible ways in which an individual responds to achieve goals. 
      Conformity - Here, a member of the society tries to achieve socially accepted goals 
      through legitimate institutional means. In other words we can say that he individual  
      totally follows the norms and values of society in all respect . 
       
      Innovation - Here, the success goal is achieved not by using legitimate institutional 
      means. Therefore, it turn to be devient behaviour.  This mostly occurs when the 
      individual found it difficult to achieve goals through available legitimate means. 
       
      Ritualism -  Here the success goal is abandoned and only the legitimate institutional 
      means are followed by individuals. This is generally with middle class people who  
      find no career advancement and continue following means that is their current job. 
       
      Retreatism - Retreatism is the way of response by those who, although strongly 
      internalized both cultural goals and legitimate institutional means even then they 
      do not get success. Therefore, they use to retreat by abandoning both. 
       
      Rebellion  - This way is adopted by those who reject both cultural goals as well as 
      institutional  means  and  replace  them  by  creating  new  goals  and  means  for 
      themselves. They want to create a new society of their own. 
       
      According  to  Merton,  the  deviant  behaviour  is  a  result  of  the  response  of 
      individuals.  It depends on how individuals identify  cultural goals for themselves 
      and institutional means to achieve goals. 
       
      Structural and subcultural theories of deviance  - Structural theories are very much 
      similar to structural strain theory of R K Merton. They see deviant activities in the 
      position of individual in  the social structure. sub-cultural theories explain deviance 
      in relation to the sub-culture of the society. According to this, a particular group in 
      the society develops a distinct culture of its own with values and norms different 
      from the mainstream society.  
       
      According  to  Albert  Cohen,  the  delinquent  sub-culture  not  only  rejects  the 
      mainstream  culture  but  also  reverses  it  completely.  In  Cohen's  word,  "The 
      delinquent sub-culture takes it's norms from the larger culture but turns them 
      upside down". therefore, the values like robbing, stealing, vandalism, that are