compare criminal behavior and deviance

defining deviance

deviance is behaviour that differs from the normal.

acts that are considered unusual, uncommon or out of the ordinary.

it could be unusual in on of three ways:

- behaviour thats unusual and good

- behaviour that is unusual and eccentric or bizzarre

- behaviour that is unusual and bad or disapproved

this last type of deviance is the most interesting to criminologists it involves breaking a rule or norm of some kind, and leads to a critical, hostile or disapproving reaction from others

defininf crime

it is a form of deviant behaviour that involves serious, harmful acts that are wrong against society.

an act regarded as so distruptive that the state must intervene on behalf of society to forbid them and punish them by law.

a legal definition

in law, criminal behaviour is forbidden by the criminal law. for a court to consider an action as crime, the action must normally have two elements

actus reus - a guilty act(the act of commiting crime)

mens rea - an element of criminal responsibility, a guilty mind (they have acted with bad intentions)

in some cases mens rea is not needed (for example health and saftey laws or an assault on the grounds of self defence)

- not all harmful acts are criminal (pollution laws set emission limits - but the legal emission level is still harming the enviroment)

- not all criminal acts are particularly harmful, especially some trivial or victimless crimes

- the oublic often have a differant view of what are 'really' crimes, as compared with legal definitions

- not all criminal laws are enforced by the police

subject matter of the offence

- violence against the person

- sexual…