“Deviance is crime”, so the argument goes. In the world today, there are many forms of deviance and crime. Sadly, those who have not been vividly exposed to the concepts of deviance and crime fail to recognize that, in fact, they are two separate notions. As a result, many tend to overlook various aspects of deviance and crime that make these two ideas differ.

Firstly, crime is a subcategory of deviance. Majority of the people believe that crime and deviance are similar because they both involve the breaking of rules. Nevertheless, these people are unaware of the definitions of deviance and crime. Deviance refers to the violation of a society’s expected behaviour. It encompasses a wide range of acts of nonconformity. Crime refers a violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law. Hence, crime falls under the category of deviance.

Secondly, all deviant behaviour is not criminal. Many have maintained that since most crimes are considered deviant, therefore, deviance must be criminal. However, this argument does not hold water as it consists of a logical fallacy begging the question. This means that the argument is simply restated without any support. It is just like saying that since all ants are insects, thus, all insects must be ants, which is not true. Likewise, the argument stated for the second point can be proven to be untrue. For example, being handicapped is deviant but not criminal. This is because although being handicapped is not common in a society, it does not break the law. Another example is that murder is deviant and criminal. This is due to the fact that murdering someone is uncommon in society, and it breaks the law. Therefore, an act can be both deviant and criminal or deviant but not criminal.

Lastly, criminal laws are usually fixed across the world, whereas deviance is relative to time and place. It has been argued that deviance influences laws and vice-versa. For example, when homosexuality was deemed deviant, homosexuality between consenting adults became a serious criminal offence. After law amendments were made and homosexuality was no longer criminal, society began to accept homosexuality. By then, homosexuality was not considered deviant. This shows that deviance creates an impact on the law, just as law alters the perception of societal norm. However, the effects of law on deviance are only applicable to certain societies like Canada (in this case). It is not representative of all societies in the world. While laws across the world may have been altered to legalise homosexuality, certain societies still do not consider homosexuality a norm. Other societies like Singapore are beginning to accept homosexuality. With time, these societies may even consider homosexuality a norm. This suggests that deviance is influenced by place and time. Thus, the perception of deviance does not influence crime, and crime does not influence the perception of deviance.

Overall, I think that people should be more exposed to the concepts of deviance and crime. In this way, they would be able to give a more holistic comparison between the two ideas. Finally, if you ask me, “Is deviance crime?” I don’t believe so.