Sociology Now, Census Update

So, is the question whether you are a law-abiding citizen or a criminal? To the sociolo-

gist, you’re both. The more interesting questions are when and where you are one or the

other, under what circum-

stances you obey or disobey

the law, and what are the

social and legal consequences

of your behavior. Do you get

away with it or get sent to jail?

And how do we think

about crime? What crimes

should be punished, and how

severe should those punishments be? In some respects, one might say that America is soft

on crime: Most arrests are not prosecuted, most prosecutions do not result in jail time, and

THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE THAT EVERY PERSONreading this book is a law-abiding citizen.

We don’t steal each other’s cars; we don’t open fire at the quarterback or point guard of

opposing teams; we don’t burn down dormitories, or plunder the provost’s office. We pay our

taxes and drive under the speed limit, at least most of the time.

Yet there is an equally good chance that each person reading this book is a criminal.

We may have run a red light, had a drink while underage, or gambled on a sporting event

in an unauthorized setting or while underage. We may have stolen a library book, or

plagiarized a paper. (These last few might not land you in jail, but they could get you

kicked out of school.)

Most of us probably shave the rules a little bit. But we’re also likely to get outraged,

often to the point of violence, if

someone cuts into a line for tickets

at the movie theater. Is it just

because it’s OK for us and not OK for

others? Or is it because we carry

inside us a common moral standard,

and we are willing to cheat a little to make things come out the way we think they are

supposed to but resent it when others violate that same moral contract?

Deviance

and Crime

167

So, is the question whether you are a

law-abiding citizen or a criminal?...

To the sociologist, you’re both....

The more interesting questions are

when and where you are one or the

other,....