Deviance
Definition
Behaviour that violates social norms, whether or not it is also illegal. Criminology studies deviance as well as crime because the boundary between them shifts with time, place, and law, and because many harmful behaviours fall outside formal criminal law.
- Field
- Criminology
- Definition basis
- Violation of social norms, legal or not
- Contrast
- Broader than crime, which is norm violation codified in law
- Why studied
- The line between deviance and crime shifts across time and place
Common questions
Can something be deviant without being a crime, or a crime without being deviant?+
Yes to both: wearing unusual clothing in public is deviant in many settings but not illegal, while some acts that are technically illegal in a jurisdiction, such as jaywalking, may not be widely regarded as socially deviant, which is exactly why criminologists treat the two as related but separate categories.
Why does the shifting boundary between deviance and crime matter for policy?+
Behaviours move in and out of the criminal code as social attitudes change, such as changing laws around drug use or sexuality in various jurisdictions, so studying deviance broadly helps explain why criminalisation happens and shifts, rather than treating the current legal code as a fixed, natural boundary.
Related terms
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