This paper presents a discussion of criminal deviancy in the United States. As used in this study, criminal deviancy refers to criminal anti social behavior.
Criminal anti social behavior in the United States in the 1990s is shockingly high and increasing in frequency (Steffensmeier and Streifel, 1991, pp. 869 894). A wide variety of explanations are offered for this phenomenon. Unfortunately, these explanations are all too often offered in support of some pet prejudice of the proponent. Advocates of prayer in public school, as example, cite declining moral values as the cause of the increase in crime (Dunaway and Cullen, 1991, pp. 536 554). The solution, according to these people, is to improve moral values by reintroducing prayer in public schools. The real agenda in such instances, of course, is the pursuit of a particular brand of religion, not the reduction of crime. Civil rights groups often contend that socio economic deprivation and discrimination are the underlying causes of criminal behavior, and that, to reduce crime, a more equitable society must be constructed (Phillips, 1991, pp. 555 574). The real agenda in these instances is income redistribution, not the reduction of crime. Then, of course, there is the lobby for the application of harsh justice on all criminal offenders as a means of reducing the crime rate (Cohn, 1991, pp. 287 296). The proponents of this action, however, are very careful to delineate exactly what they mean by crime, because, in most instances, they do not want harsh criminal justice for white collar crime, corporate crime, or alcohol related driving offenses (however violent), because the application of harsh punishment for these crime might just catch them in the net.
Defining crime, thus, is in itself important in the determination of what constitutes criminal deviance in society, and in the development of strategies to reduce the frequency of criminal deviance. If one person s...