Difference Between Criminal Behavior And Deviant Behavior

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How does deviant behavior relate to criminal activity? How has criminal behavior change over the years and how is this kind of behavior going to affect the future. What are the various types of theories of crime causation and societal response? Well reading this paper you will find out answers, it will state examples of each topic. It will state the difference between each theory.

Deviant behavior is a behavior that does not approve of social norms and values. Deviant behavior most of the time causes a negative response to individuals. But, this behavior can be formal or informal, voluntary or involuntary. This difference between involuntary deviance and voluntary is the involuntary is a much greater offensive than a voluntary violation of a formal norm. An example of deviant behavior informal is if someone is belching loudly or picking their nose when they are around their peers. Deviant acts will be easier and more rewarding according to Osgood (Wayne, 1996) because the lack of police lowers the potential for social control responses to deviance (Wayne,1996). Deviance is looked at in terms of group processes, definitions, and judgments, and nor as an individual act. Criminal activity is an act harmful to an individual or to a community. Criminal activity relates to deviant behavior because they …show more content…

These theories are different from each other because each of the focus on different features of the social environment, why the social environment causes crime, why individuals see differences in crime while others attempt to explain group differences in crime. So the first one is the strain theory. Strain theory is the belief that individuals who participate in crime are because they are experiencing some type of strain or stress, and they become upset, and when they reach a breaking point they result into engaging into some type of a criminal

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