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Making Connections: Sociological
Perspectives on Crime and Deviance

What is Criminology?


The phenomenon of knowledge regarding crime as a social
phenomenon. It includes such aspects as the making of laws, the
breaking of laws, and reacting to the breaking of laws. Its goal is
scientific: to develop a body of general and verified principles and
knowledge regarding law, crime, and treatment.”

—  Sutherland & Cressey, 1960


Criminology helps us understand our society: crime is a social problem. We need
to understand what social factors contribute to crime, what aspects of society
create the possibility for crime or victimization to happen, and the factors that
shape different kinds of legal outcomes. Criminologists are also interested in why
our perceptions about crime do not always align with reality. For example, people
may believe crime is getting worse, while crime statistics show some variation.

The field of criminology generally falls into three main areas. First, the sociology
of law. This stream is interested in the origin and role of the law. It also is
interested in definitions of crime and the criminal. The most common definition of
crime is legalistic, defined as an act that violates criminal law and is punishable.

Our criminal justice system includes a wide network of organizations that fall under
three main umbrellas: police, courts, and corrections. The main roles of the
criminal justice system are threefold: 
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to control crime by arresting and punishing those who commit crime;

to prevent crime by hopefully deterring people to engage in criminal acts; and
to maintain justice by attempting to balance conflicting views about what is seen to
be ‘fair’ and ‘just’ and treating all citizens equally.

Is our System Just? Getting Preferential

Treatment through the Back Door and
Front Door
A just system tries to greatly reduce,
if not eliminate, any potential for
people with various types of ‘capital’
(e.g., social, cultural or economic) to
interfere with its social institutions.
However, we can think of examples of
how these forms of capital creep in
‘through the back door’ in the criminal
justice system. In 1998, Justin
Trudeau’s brother, Michel, was in a (Weinstock, 2015)

car accident. At the wreckage, police

found a few joints and charged Michel
with possession of marijuana. Trudeau explained that his father, then prime
minister of Canada, was able to make those charges ‘go away’ through his
resources and social connections.

However, people can also influence outcomes ‘through the front door’ by
their ability to pay for excellent legal representation. According to the Law
Society of Ontario (https://lso.ca/getdoc/1a17fa67-7a08-4a5b-b945-
a3fb6ae45e9d/fee-schedule)  more senior lawyers charge between $300-
$350 per hour (). Adding research, expert witnesses, and going to trial can
add tens of thousands of dollars in expenses.

In Canada, crimes are defined (in legal terms) primarily by the Criminal Code.
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What is in the Criminal Code?

The Criminal Code includes a wide range of crimes, such as murder,
assault, theft and fraud.

The Criminal Code
defines the conduct that constitutes criminal offences;
includes rules that set out how people can be guilty of crimes if they help or
encourage others to commit crimes, and rules for how corporations and
other organizations can be found guilty of crimes;
sets out defences that a person can raise if they are charged;
establishes the kind and degree of punishment that may be imposed on
someone convicted of an offence; and
describes the powers and procedures to be followed for investigation and
prosecution of an offence.

While the Criminal Code includes most of the criminal law in Canada, it

doesn’t contain all of it. There are other federal laws that also contain
criminal law but do not form part of the Criminal Code, such as the Firearms
Act, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and the Youth Criminal
Justice Act. Some parts of the law are set out in court decisions, like some
additional defences and definitions of some elements of crimes that are
included in the Code.

Government of Canada, The Criminal Code of Canada (https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-

sjc/ccc/index.html) .

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The creation of laws and regulations in Canada involves a lengthy process of

consultation and debate that starts with introducing proposed legislation in
Parliament to a final approval process that is sent to the Governor General for
Royal Assent. 

How new laws and regulations are created. Description

(/sites/courses/SOC-101/media/transcripts/how-new-laws-and-
regulations-are-created.aspx) Full-size (/sites/courses/SOC-
101/media/images/how-new-laws-and-regulations-are-created-full-
size.jpg)
(Government of Canada, 2021)

Second, criminology looks at theories of crime causation. What causes crime

or people to engage in criminal acts and what explains the distribution of crime
and patterns of criminal behaviour? While your textbook provides some crime
statistics, here are some more up to date figures. Sexual assaults (level 1) are
trending upwards from previous years. There were just under 35,000 sexual
police-reported assaults in 2021 (or 90 per 100,000 population), a rate that was
18% higher than the previous year.

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Chart: Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3), police-reported rate, Canada,

1986 to 2021. Description (/sites/courses/SOC-
101/media/transcripts/chart-sexual-assaults.aspx)
(Moreau, 2022)

Property crimes and breaking and entering have continued to trend downward and
experienced a 10% drop in 2021. This is perhaps a function of people being more
at home during the pandemic.

Chart: Selected police reported property crimes and robbery, Canada,

1998 to 2021. Description (/sites/courses/SOC-
101/media/transcripts/chart-property-crimes-and-robbery.aspx)

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(Moreau, 2022)

The following chart shows is that while homicide rate is slightly higher than the
previous year (788 homicides in 2021, 29 more than 2020), it is overall trending
downward:

Chart: Attempted murder and homicide, police-reported rates,

Canada, 1986 to 2021. Description (/sites/courses/SOC-
101/media/transcripts/chart-attempted-murder-and-
homicides.aspx)
(Moreau, 2022)

Third, the study of criminology looks at societal reactions to crime. Hagen

(1985), one of Canada’s most famous criminologists, proposed a continuum of
crime and deviance that range from the least serious to the most serious acts. This
continuum can be assessed along three dimensions:
First, we can examine the amount of agreement. How much agreement is there
about what is ‘criminal’? For example, people disagree about whether smoking
marijuana should be considered a crime. In contrast virtually everyone agrees that
murder is a serious act.

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Second, we can
consider the
severity of the
social response:
How severely do
people think we
should punish this
act? Death
penalty? Jail?
Fines? Social
stigma?
And third, we can John Hagen's Pyramid of Crime. 
evaluate the (Hagen, 1977)
degree to which an
act is ‘harmful’ and
the criteria we
should use to
make that
determination.

References
Hagen, John. 1994 (1977). Crime and Disrepute. Sage Publications, 1st edition.

Moreau, G. (2022). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-

x/2022001/article/00013-eng.pdf?st=yCnudhVg (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-
x/2022001/article/00013-eng.pdf?st=yCnudhVg)

Sutherland, E. H. and Cressey, D. R. 1960. Principles of criminology, 6th ed., Chicago: Lippincott.

Weinstock, M. (2015, March 2). Legal Justice League library by pixbymaia. [Photograph].

Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/55779562@N00/16502923098 and used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

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