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,....