This presentation includes slides on the definition of crime and distinction between crime and deviance. It also includes slides on types of criminals. Imran Ahmad Sajid University of Peshawar

1. Crime and Deviance?
Dr. Imran Ahmad Sajid
IPCS, University of Peshawar
imranahmad131@uop.edu.pk

2. Deviance
• Any action that departs from the social norms of society
(Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1973)

3. Crime
• Deviance becomes a crime when it is deemed socially
harmful or dangerous;

4. • Not all crimes are deviant and not all deviant acts are illegal
or criminal.
– e.g. using recreational drugs, such as smoking marijuana is crime
but not deviance
– Not helping someone who is drowning is deviance but not a
crime
• Many criminal acts, but not all, fall within the concept of
deviance.
• Some deviant acts, but not all, are considered crime

5. Defining Crime
• Crime is the violation of law (Sutherland)

6. 1. Crime is violation of criminal laws regulating human action
(Theft)
2. Crime is omission or commission of an act forbidden by
law (reckless)
3. Behaviour, when it crosses normal limits and comes to the
official notice, becomes crime. (reckless)
4. Crime is a learned behaviour that equates E+I=C
(Environment + Individual=Crime) . A man learns crime
from his criminal environment (Sutherland)

7. Defining Crime
• Crime is violation of societal rules of behaviour as
interpreted and expressed by the criminal law, which
reflects public opinion, traditional values, and the
viewpoint of people currently holding social and political
power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to
sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of
status (Larry, Siegel, 2005:15).

8. Perspectives on Crime
• Consensus Perspective
• Conflict Perspective
• Interactionist Perspective

9. Elements of Crime
1. Actus Reus (bad act itself) can be either an aggressive act
or it can be a failure to perform a legal duty’
2. Mens Rea (Guilty Mind) is an individual’s state of mind at
the time of the act or the INTENT of an individual to
commit crime.
– Both Actus Reus and Mens Rea must be present in the actor for
the violation to constitute crime. Thoughts alone do not fall
within this definition of crime.

10. Who is a criminal?
• A criminal is someone who breaks the law.

11. Types
1. Born Criminals
2. Criminoloids
3. Psychopaths

12. Born Criminals
• A person’s bodily constitution
indicates whether or not an
individual is a "born criminal."
• The physical characteristics that he
used to identify prisoners included
1. an asymmetry of the face or head,
2. large monkey-like ears,
3. large lips,
4. a twisted nose,
5. excessive cheekbones,
6. long arms, and
7. excessive wrinkles on the skin.

13. Criminoloids
• A criminaloid (criminal-like)
is a person who projects a
respectable, upright facade,
in an attempt to conceal a
criminal personality.
• occasional criminals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminaloid

14. Psychopaths
• A psychopath is a person who
suffers from a mental disorder that
makes them incapable feeling
sympathy or empathy, usually, take
no responsibility for his/her
actions, and often act out in very
dangerous and violent manners
• Psychopath criminals are affected
with a personality disorder marked
by aggressive, violent, antisocial
thought and behavior and a lack of
remorse or empathy.
http://criminalminds.wikia.com/wiki/Psychopath