Week 6 — Deviance, Crime & Social Control

Why this matters

A shift manager deciding whether a broken store rule is worth a warning and a neighbor reading a headline that says crime is up both meet this week's ideas.

In plain language

Every group you belong to has rules, and someone in every group breaks them. This week asks what counts as breaking the rules and who gets to decide. You will meet deviance (breaking a group's norms) and crime (breaking a law), and see that they differ. You will learn how groups use social control (the ways a group keeps people in line), how three perspectives explain rule-breaking, and how to read crime data by rate and by source.

• Already covered: Week 1 gave you the three perspectives and rates versus counts. Week 2 showed how to read a study four ways. Week 3 named norms and sanctions, Week 4 the self, and Week 5 the pull of a group.
• This week: what happens when people break a group's rules, how groups respond, how three perspectives explain rule-breaking, and how to read crime data.
• How they connect: deviance breaks Week 3's norms, social control uses its sanctions, and a label can reshape Week 4's self. Week 1's rates and Week 2's questions read the crime figures.
• Where we're going next: Week 7, Social Stratification & Class, asks how a society ranks people into layers, read with the same care as this week's crime figures.

Focus

Who decides what counts as breaking the rules, how do groups respond, and what does a crime number really measure?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] tell deviance from crime and informal from formal control
• [ ] sort a case into Merton's five responses
• [ ] tell primary from secondary deviance
• [ ] compare crime rates and read the 2024 victimization survey

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 6 (about 40 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Sociology in Action Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: explain why a rise in police-reported crime does not by itself show that crime rose.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if you get stuck.

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