Crime as Social Control

TLDR

Crime is legally defined and traditionally viewed separately from criminology, yet this chapter reframes it as a form of social control driven by grievances. The chapter aims to analyze the tension between law and self‑help, deterrence, and the predictability of self‑help, and to explore commonalities between crime and noncriminal behavior. The analysis shows that many crimes align with social behaviors such as gossip and vengeance, and that a sociological theory of self‑help can predict and explain them.

Abstract

The criminality of crime is defined by law, and therefore falls within the jurisdiction of a completely different theory. This chapter discusses the struggle between law and self-help, the deterrence of crime, the processing of self-help by legal officials, and the problem of predicting and explaining self-help. The approach taken in the chapter departs radically from traditional criminology. Indeed, the approach taken is not criminological at all, because it ignores the characteristics of crime as such. Instead, it draws attention to a dimension of many crimes usually viewed as a totally different—even opposite— kind of human behavior, namely, social control. Crime often expresses a grievance. This implies that many crimes belong to the same family as gossip, ridicule, vengeance, punishment, and law. It also implies that to a significant degree one can predict and explain crime with a sociological theory of social control, specifically a theory of self-help. Beyond this, it might be worthwhile to contemplate what else crime has in common with noncriminal conduct.