SOCIOLOGY LLB PART 1 SABIR HUSSAIN GILL

What is deviance? And what is the relationship between deviance and crime?

According to sociologist William Graham Sumner, deviance is a violation of

established appropriate, cultural, or social norms, whether folkways, mores, or
codified law (1906). Folkways are norms based on everyday cultural customs
concerning practical matters like how to hold a fork, what type of clothes are
appropriate for different situations, or how to greet someone politely. Mores are
more serious moral injunctions or taboos that are broadly recognized in a society.
Codified laws are norms that are specified in explicit codes and enforced by
government bodies. A crime is therefore an act of deviance that breaks not only a
norm, but a law. Deviance can be as minor as smoking or as major as committing
murder.

John Hagen (1994) provides a typology to classify deviant acts in terms of their
perceived harmfulness, the degree of consensus concerning the norms violated, and
the severity of the response to them. The most serious acts of deviance
are consensus crimes about which there is near-unanimous public agreement. Acts
like murder and sexual assault are generally regarded as morally intolerable,
injurious, and subject to harsh penalties. Conflict crimes are acts like prostitution
which may be illegal but about which there is considerable public disagreement
concerning their seriousness. Social deviations are acts like abusing serving staff
or behaviours arising from mental illness and addiction, which are not illegal in
themselves but are widely regarded as serious or harmful. People agree that they
call for institutional intervention. Finally there are social diversions like riding
skateboards on sidewalks, overly tight leggings, or violate norms in a provocative
way but are generally regarded as distasteful but harmless, or for some, cool.

It is not simply a matter of the events that lead authorities to define an activity or
category of persons deviant, but of the processes by which individuals come to
recognize themselves as deviant. In the process of socialization, there is a “looping
effect” (Hacking 2006). Once a category of deviance has been established and
applied to a person, that person begins to define himself or herself in terms of this
category and behave accordingly. This influence makes it difficult to define
criminals as kinds of person in terms of pre-existing, innate predispositions or
individual psychopathologies. As we will see later in the chapter, it is a central
tenet of symbolic interactionist labelling theory, that individuals become
criminalized through contact with the criminal justice system (Becker 1963). When
we add to this insight the sociological research into the social characteristics of
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those who have been arrested or processed by the criminal justice system—
variables such as gender, age, race, and class— it is evident that social variables
and power structures are key to understanding who chooses a criminal career path.

The process of classifying kinds of people is a social process that Hacking calls
“making up people” and Howard Becker calls “labelling” (1963). Crime and
deviance are social constructs that vary according to the definitions of crime, the
forms and effectiveness of policing, the social characteristics of criminals, and the
relations of power that structure society. Part of the problem of deviance is that the
social process of labelling some kinds of persons or activities as abnormal or
deviant limits the type of social responses available. The major issue is not that
labels are arbitrary or that it is possible not to use labels at all, but that the choice
of label has consequences. Who gets labelled by whom and the way social labels
are applied have powerful social repercussions.

Social Control

When a person violates a social norm, what happens? A driver caught speeding can
receive a speeding ticket. A student who texts in class gets a warning from a
professor. All societies practise social control, the regulation and enforcement of
norms. Social control can be defined broadly as an organized action intended to
change people’s behaviour (Innes 2003). The underlying goal of social control is to
maintain social order, an arrangement of practices and behaviours on which
society’s members base their daily lives. Think of social order as an employee
handbook and social control as the incentives and disincentives used to encourage
or oblige employees to follow those rules. When a worker violates a workplace
guideline, the manager steps in to enforce the rules. One means of enforcing rules
are through sanctions. Sanctions can be positive as well as negative. Positive
sanctions are rewards given for conforming to norms. A promotion at work is a
positive sanction for working hard. Negative sanctions are punishments for
violating norms. Being arrested is a punishment for theft. Both types of sanctions
play a role in social control.

Sociologists also classify sanctions as formal or informal. Although shoplifting, a

form of social deviance, may be illegal, there are no laws dictating the proper way
to scratch one’s nose. That doesn’t mean picking your nose in public won’t be
punished; instead, you will encounter informal sanctions. Informal sanctions
emerge in face-to-face social interactions. For example, wearing flip-flops to an
opera or swearing loudly in church may draw disapproving looks or even verbal
reprimands, whereas behaviour that is seen as positive—such as helping an old
SOCIOLOGY LLB PART 1 SABIR HUSSAIN GILL

man carry grocery bags across the street—may receive positive informal reactions,
such as a smile or pat on the back.

Formal sanctions, on the other hand, are ways to officially recognize and enforce
norm violations. If a student plagiarizes the work of others or cheats on an exam,
for example, he or she might be expelled. Someone who speaks inappropriately to
the boss could be fired. Someone who commits a crime may be arrested or
imprisoned. On the positive side, a soldier who saves a life may receive an official
commendation, or a CEO might receive a bonus for increasing the profits of his or
her corporation. Not all forms of social control are adequately understood through
the use of sanctions, however. Black (1976) identifies four key styles of social
control, each of which defines deviance and the appropriate response to it in a
different manner. Penal social control functions by prohibiting certain social
behaviours and responding to violations with punishment. Compensatory social
control obliges an offender to pay a victim to compensate for a harm
committed. Therapeutic social control involves the use of therapy to return
individuals to a normal state. Conciliatory social control aims to reconcile the
parties of a dispute and mutually restore harmony to a social relationship that has
been damaged. While penal and compensatory social controls emphasize the use of
sanctions, therapeutic and conciliatory social controls emphasize processes of
restoration and healing

Types of Crimes

Crimes against Persons

Crimes against persons also called personal crimes include murder, aggravated
assault, rape, and robbery. Personal crimes are unevenly distributed in the United
States, with young, urban, poor, and racial minorities both more often affected by
these crimes and arrested for them than white, middle- and upper-class people are.

Crimes against Property

Property crimes involve the theft of property without bodily harm, such as robbery,
stealing, theft, and arson. Like personal crimes, young, urban, poor, and racial
minorities are arrested for these crimes more than others.
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Hate Crimes

Hate crimes are crimes against persons or property that are committed while
invoking prejudices of race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual
orientation, or ethnicity. The rate of hate crimes in the U.S. remains fairly constant
from year to year, but there have been a few events that have caused surges in hate
crimes. In 2016, the election of Donald Trump was followed by an uptick in hate
crimes.

Crimes against Morality

Crimes against morality are also called victimless crimes because there is
no complainant or victim. Prostitution, illegal gambling, and illegal drug use are all
examples of victimless crimes.

White-Collar Crime

White-collar crimes are crimes committed by people of high social status who
commit their crimes in the context of their occupation. This includes embezzling
(stealing money from one’s employer), insider trading, tax evasion, and other
violations of income tax laws.

White-collar crimes generally generate less concern in the public mind than other
types of crime, however, in terms of total dollars, white-collar crimes are even
more consequential for society. For example, the Great Recession can be
understood as in part the result of a variety of white-collar crimes committed
within the home mortgage industry. Nonetheless, these crimes are generally the
least investigated and least prosecuted because they are protected by a combination
of privileges of race, class, and gender.

Organized Crime

Organized crime is committed by structured groups typically involving the

distribution and sale of illegal goods and services. Many people think of the Mafia
when they think of organized crime, but the term can refer to any group that
exercises control over large illegal enterprises (such as the drug trade, illegal
gambling, prostitution, weapons smuggling, or money laundering).
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A key sociological concept in the study or organized crime is that these industries
are organized along the same lines as legitimate businesses and take on a
corporate.

Drug crimes

The drug‐crime category encompasses a range of offenses connected with the use,
transportation, purchase, and sale of illegal drugs.

Street crime

The most common forms of predatory crime rape, robbery, assault, burglary,
larceny, and auto theft occur most frequently on urban streets. Racial minority
citizens account for a disproportionately high number of the arrests for street
crimes.

Political crime

The political‐crime category contains both crimes by the government and crimes
against the government. Political goals motivate political criminals.

Victimless crime

Victimless crime Consensual acts (in which people are willing participants) and
violations in which only the perpetrator is hurt, such as the personal use of illegal
drugs, are called victimless crimes.

Criminal Justice System of Pakistan

In a country like Pakistan, knowledge is seldom celebrated. It is more so in

different fields of study that affect the lives of public at large. The extant material
focuses on reform or improvements without stating clearly what the system is and
how it operates. The knowledge gap qua justice sector is acute. A point of
departure can be a brief elucidation of the criminal justice system, which this
overview will try to provide in topical manner.

1. Constitution of Pakistan and Judicature

The constitution of a country constitutes its basic organs i.e. the legislature,
executive and judicature. The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, like its predecessor
constitutional instruments, provides for the three organs. As Pakistan is a
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Federation, its constitution provides for executive, legislature and judicature at

both federal and provincial levels. It must be noted that the concept of judicature is
often confused with the term judiciary; while judicature means the administration
of justice, the judiciary is the system of courts in a country.
2. Judicature and the Criminal Justice System
The Constitution of Pakistan provides for the separation of judiciary from the
executive, and this constitutional dictate has yet to witness execution. The
traditionally strong executive has remained central to power and has kept the
legislature and the judicature nonessential by controlling the purse. Since 2007, the
judiciary has gained some space by using its suo motu powers to enforce
Fundamental Rights coupled with its power to punish contempt or non-observance
of its orders; the legislature has not been able to assert its power through its
conventions, privileges and rules, and due to its supporter nature. The Constitution
establishes constitutional courts including the Supreme Court, High Courts,
Federal Shariat Court, and provides for jurisdictions of different courts relating to
constitutional, civil, criminal and service matters. The cumulative reading of the
competence of federal and provincial legislatures, the jurisdictions of constitutional
courts, and the fundamental rights provides for the constitutional basis of the
criminal justice system in Pakistan.
3. Role of Federal and Provincial Governments and Criminal Justice System

Under the Constitution, law and order is the responsibility of the provinces that
discharge it through their provincial governments. In the provinces, the criminal
justice system is managed through the Home and Prosecution Departments. The
responsibility of the federation is concurrent to the provinces and extends to
federally administered territories of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), the
Gilgit Baltistan (GB), and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The federal
government is also responsible for dealing with inter-provincial coordination in
criminal matters that it carries out through the Ministry of Interior (MoI). In
addition, the federal government has power over the Federal Investigation Agency
(FIA), which functions as a federal police that investigates and prosecutes
organized crimes of illegal immigration, human trafficking, cybercrime etc. The
federal and provincial governments use their respective rules of business to
exercise superintendence of the criminal justice system; this use of delegated
legislation to counterweight the primary legislation is an important mechanism that
must be researched thoroughly to bring about any reform in the system of
governance of the criminal justice system.
4. Criminal Justice System
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Ontologically, the study of crimes is styled as Criminology and the study of the
agencies that control or respond to crime is called Criminal Justice (CJ). The US
has a rich tradition in the production of Criminal Justice knowledge, and offers
distinct degree programmes. Based on the US pedagogical practice, the criminal
justice system of Pakistan may be divided into five components: (i) Police, (ii)
Prosecution, (iii) Courts; (iv) Prisons, and (v) Corrections. Each component has its
own functions, organization, budget, working and legal framework. In practice, a
typical provincial criminal justice system is managed by the Home Department
under which the police and prisons work as its attached departments. A brief
introduction to each component has been discussed below.
• Police:
According to the Oxford Handbook on Criminology, the police is an organization,
whereas policing is the function of preventing and detecting crime. In Pakistan,
insofar as the organizational aspect is concerned, each province has its own police
organization, like the Punjab Police, Sindh Police, KP Police and Baluchistan
Police. The total number of police personnel in Pakistan is about half a million.
Each province has its own organizational law. The Police Order, 2002 is the
organizational law of the Punjab Police; the KP Police Act, 2017 is the
organizational law of the KP Police; the Sindh Police works under the Sindh
(Repeal of the Police Act, 1861 and the Revival of the Police Order, 2002)
(Amendment) Act, 2019, and the Baluchistan Police employs the Baluchistan
Police Act, 2011. The powers of policing are provided by the Code of Criminal
Procedure 1898, and all police organizations derive their police powers from it.
The legal framework of policing primarily supports the detection model of policing
by providing the legal basis of investigation and subsequent processes; it provides
very limited powers of preventing crime to the police organizations.
• Prosecution:
The function of the prosecution is to evaluate the evidence collected by the police,
and to filter the quality and quantity of cases to be sent up for trial. Historically, it
was part of police organizations. Following the example of the UK where the UK
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was founded in 1986, the prosecution was
separated for the first time from police organizations in 1986, but the arrangement
was reversed in 1991. Thereafter, since 2003, separate prosecution
departments/attached departments have been established in all the provinces of
Pakistan. The organization and functions of prosecution departments are governed
by separate provincial laws. Punjab Prosecution Department was established in
2006 under the Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and
Powers) Act, 2006; the Sindh Prosecution Service works as an attached department
of the Sindh Law Department and its working law is the Sindh Criminal
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Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and Powers) Act, 2010. Likewise,

with some variations, the KP Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and
Powers) Act, 2005 and the Baluchistan Prosecution Service (Constitution,
Functions and Powers) Act, 2003 establish prosecution organizations in KP and
Baluchistan.
• Courts:
The courts that deal with criminal matters are magistrate and sessions courts.
Contrary to the constitutional courts that are established under the constitution and
have a binding effect on the executive, the magistrate and sessions courts are
products of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, and essentially decide facts. The
magistrates have charge of different police stations and their working is as
important as of police stations. Owing to their significance, the Chief Justice of
Pakistan, Mr. Asif Saeed Khosa, termed the police and courts ‘conjoined twins’.
The courts adjudicate upon criminal matters by conducting trials in accordance
with the law. The courts of magistrates and additional sessions are present at the
level of tehsil/taluka in every district of the country. All the accused individuals
have to be produced before them within twenty-four hours in accordance with the
Constitution (Article 10). The courts follow an adversarial system of adjudication.
Criminal cases are required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, and the accused
is treated as innocent unless proven guilty.
• Prisons and Corrections:
Prisons work as an attached department to the Home Departments of the provinces.
Maintaining an incarceration-based prison system is a very expensive project for
any economy. All over the world, the trend is to minimize the burden on prisons.
In Pakistan, conceptually, every district should have a district prison and for every
division, there should be a central prison; however, in practice, the district and
central jails have not been provided to all districts and divisions of the country. The
legal framework of prisons is very old in the entire country; prisons in all the
provinces are constituted and function under the Prisons Act, 1894, except Sindh,
where the Sindh Prisons and Corrections Services Act, 2019 has been enacted
recently. The prison departments in Pakistan also contain corrections facilities that
are aimed at providing skills to the prisoners so that they can rehabilitate
themselves in society upon their return. Unfortunately, due to a lack of investment
in corrections, the results of the corrections system are limited and their facilities
are virtually merged into prisons establishments. The regime of parole and
probation that work as alternatives to imprisonment were introduced in 1927
through the Directorates of Parole and Probation under Home Department. After
independence, such directorates were introduced in all provinces within the Home
Departments. For the sake of knowledge and in the context of Pakistan, the
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definitions of three key terms related to rehabilitation and reintegration must be

noted:
• Corrections: “…services and programs aimed at correcting the criminal conduct
of the Prisoners in order to rehabilitate and integrate them in the society”
• Probation: The term probation is based on two laws titled as the Good Conduct
Probationer’s Release Act, 1926 and the Probation of Offenders Ordinance,
1960. The concept of probation is that first time offenders may be released by the
court on surety. Probation may be applied as an alternate to imprisonment.
• Parole: The term parole is not defined in the law. The Good Conduct
Probationer’s Release Rules, 1927 refer to Parole Officers who supervise the
prisoners on ‘parole’. The concept is that the provincial governments may
suspend the sentence of a prisoner and release him under a licence owing to his
good behavior.