Crime and Deviance are two different things, you may commit a deviant crime or a non-deviant crime, or something that is not a crime but is
considered deviant. Crime is an action or an omission (not doing something) which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. An example
of this is euthanasia. Euthanasia is a moral crime, as assisted suicide can be because someone that is loved or cared about by the perpetrator is
terminally ill and sees no other way out. This is considered a crime that is not deviant as the social norms would not consider this as
unacceptable. Deviance is an act or behaviour that diverges away from unusual or accepted standards of behaviour, especially in social or
sexual behaviour. In simple terms, it is something that contrast the norms of society. An example of this is smoking whilst pregnant, as it is not
punishable by law, meaning it is not a crime, but it is frowned upon by society.
Crime has broadly three categories. The first category is personal, in the case of domestic violence, an individual may not report the crime for
personal reasons. For example, they may fear the consequences of what might happen when their partner finds out they have been reported to
the police. They may fear it would lead to further violence which would make it more painful and terrifying for the victim and they may believe
that it will not be handled in the correct way by the authorities- they believe that the perpetrator would not be detained but would just be
spoken to, increasing the level of rage against the already terrified victim. The second category is societal, in the case of hate crime, an
individual may not report a hate crime committed against them because they might believe that society will not care, or police may not take it
seriously. The final category is cultural, in the case of an individual becoming a victim of honour crime, the victim may believe that this is part of
their cultural background and see it as normal behaviour.
The personal reasons that crime goes unreported are, fear, this category contains victims who personally knew the perpetrator and sought to
protect them from the police or consequences, for example domestic abuse, often the victim is manipulated to believe that it is their fault that
they are being abused and love or have so many strong feelings for the perpetrator that they do not want to report them and cause
consequences. Victims of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence often don’t report these crimes to the police because of this fear. The next
reason is shame, the Justice Department in 2013 stated that only 67% of rape and sexual assault victims of any age avoid contacting the police.
Many victims of these crimes want to maintain their anonymity to protect their privacy or cited embarrassment or shame or reasons to keep
quiet. One example of not reporting the crime due to shame is in the case of domestic violence, the victim is ashamed of themselves as they
believe that they should have been able to protect themselves and be stronger, they feel weak and don’t want other people to see them in this
way. Another example is in the case of rape or sexual assault the victims are ashamed because they believe that people will view them in a
different way before or treat them like they are fragile so not talking about the same things that they used to talk about with them anymore.
Following this, disinterest is another reason that crimes go unreported. This is because some people believe that it is not worth reporting a
crime because the police would not have any interest in investigating this. Some examples of this are when people park on double yellow lines,
litter or if there is a shop lifting situation, as victims or witnesses do not think that it will be prioritised or even investigated a little bit. There are
also people who do not report a crime because they are not affected. Some examples of this are vandalism, smoking weed, public drunkenness,
homelessness and attempted robbery. Finally, crimes which have no direct victim or are behaviours that individuals voluntarily engage in are
called victimless crimes. For example, drug use, traffic citations, public drunkenness, gambling and trespassing. Trespassing does not have a
victim as it is the land itself so the perpetrator is not likely to be reported unless the owner of the land feels the need to report it and they can
only report the crime if they have seen it committed.
The societal reasons that crime goes unreported are, lack of knowledge, individuals may not know that they are a victim of crime as they may
not realise that the action is a crime, or they may not know who to report it to. One example of this is one person in a marriage raping their
partner, this goes unreported as the victim may not realise that it is a crime as they are married, they may believe that it means the perpetrator
can do what they want and when they want to. Another example is human trafficking, the victim may not know who to report it to as they are
not familiar with the environment, or there may be language barriers making it hard for the victim to report. Cyber bullying is another example
as it is not viewed of a crime by lots of society and if the victim is aware that this is a crime, they may not know who to report it to. The final
example is child abuse, this could go unreported as the child has grown up with abuse being used against them, they may have also witnessed it
happen to their siblings, making it seem like a normal thing. The next reasons is complexity, some crimes are so complex that individuals may
not realise they are victims of it, for example: cybercrime, embezzlement and fraud. The Ponzi scheme would fall under this category as most
people who are aware that it is a thing find it extremely difficult to understand which means they could be a victim and wouldn’t be able to tell
that this was the thing that they had heard/read about before. The final reason is lack of public concern, everyone knows that these crimes are
committed but they don’t care about them, these crimes are things like smoking drugs, downloading illegal content, fake IDs and parking in
disabled spaces without having a blue badge. The public lack this concern as it is not affecting them, and it is normalised, so they overlook it.
There is only one cultural reason for not reporting a crime and that is that behaviour found within certain cultures is illegal in the UK, this
means that the crime is normalised in their culture, so they don’t feel the need to report it as the victim does not see it as a crime. More than
11,000 incidences of honour crime were recorded by UK police forces during 2010-2014. These honour crimes ranged from forced marriage and
honour killing to female genital mutation (FGM)- all of which are illegal in the UK, even if FGM takes place abroad and the victim comes back to
the UK that is still illegal.
Immoral Crimes are also known as moral turpitude crimes, these are crimes like rape, pedophilia, slavery, incest bestiality and torture, these
are considered criminal and deviant crimes. They are crimes involving moral turpitude leave an inherent (permeant, essential) quality of
vileness, depravity or evil against individuals or society in general. Anyone may be a victim of immoral crime, however, when looking at serious
immoral crimes such as pedophilia, slavery, rape and forced prostitution, the most likely victims are vulnerable groups in society. Primarily
woman and children are victims of rape, forced prostitution and slavery. The people with a lower socio-economic background are more likely to
