True Crime or Moral Panic? Evaluate and Apply Sociological Theories Related to Crime and Deviance Crime and Deviance Explanations Crime - an action or omission that constitutes a crime and is punishable by law.Deviance-the fact or state of divergence from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior. Crime and deviance are seemingly effortlessly defined by the Oxford dictionary. However, sociological perspectives have divergent views on crime and its explanations. Starting from the postmodernists who are criticized for their denial of the existence of crime. This is because postmodernists tend to reject all "meta narratives" provided by other perspectives. Postmodernism argues that these explanations of crimes are obsolete, but tends instead to argue that society has changed. There are new crimes that are not explained by other perspectives. Crimes such as cyber theft, terrorism, racism etc. Postmodernists prefer to focus on the individual, crime is a unique event that expresses whatever identity an individual chooses. While functionalism mainly focuses on society as a whole. Crime is seen as inevitable, as well as expected. Furthermore, the functionalist Durkheim argued that crime is an element of a healthy society. He said: (crime is an) “integral part of all healthy societies.” cited by Harman, 1995, p.38. Consequently this may explain why many functionalists such as Durkheim believe that the existence of crime indicates that society does not overly control its citizens. Furthermore, functionalism recognizes that everyday crime (e.g. shoplifting) is not a threat to social order. Indeed, society needs criminal behavior (and legal reactions to it) to function properly, Reason being the... center of the card... ict theory does not allow for a positive outcome. Conflict will always be present because the norms of society function without it. Works Cited Cohen, S (2011), Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Routledge, Oxon, UKGoode and Ben-Yehuda (2009), Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Second edition, Blackwell publishing, Chichester, UKPadhy, P (2006) Crime and Criminology, Isha Books, IndiaWalsh and Hemmens (2011) Introduction to Criminology: A Text/Reader. Second edition, SAGE Publications, California USA Harman, (1995), Deviance: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach, Genral Hall, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Boston, USA Freeman, C The Guardian (February 2014) [online] http:// www .telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10649851/Ukraine-protests-a-timeline-of-the-crisis.html last accessed on (23/02/2014)