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Crime and deviance. A crime is an act, which breaks the criminal laws of a society and is punished by the state. Deviance refers to behaviour, which does not conform to a societies norm and values and is therefore socially defined. Deviance is not rigid, it is both culturally and historically relative, the norms of groups vary from one to another. Factors affecting whether an act is deviant or not may be; time in history, society, who commits the act and the place. (O'Donnell 1981) There is a broad spectrum of deviance; an act may be deviant but legal, deviant and illegal or deviant and criminal What we see as deviant often depends on individual social position, background, context, morals or experiences. However, what is defined as deviant also depends on social factors, such as attitudes of those who control the media or politics or religion. They are in the upper...

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