Chinese, Mandarin

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek, Modern

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Sociology

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Not all crimes are given equal weight. Society generally socializes its members to view certain crimes as more severe than others. For example, most people would consider murdering someone to be far worse than stealing a wallet and would expect a murderer to be punished more severely than a thief. In modern U.S. society, crimes are classified as one of two types based on their severity. <OpenstaxTerm>Violent crimes</OpenstaxTerm> (also known as “crimes against a person”) are based on the use of force or the threat of force. Rape, murder, and armed robbery fall under this category. <OpenstaxTerm>Nonviolent crimes</OpenstaxTerm> involve the destruction or theft of property but do not use force or the threat of force. Because of this, they are also sometimes called “property crimes.” Larceny, car theft, and vandalism are all types of nonviolent crimes. If you use a crowbar to break into a car, you are committing a nonviolent crime; if you mug someone with the crowbar, you are committing a violent crime. 
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	When we think of crime, we often picture <OpenstaxTerm>street crime</OpenstaxTerm>, or offenses committed by ordinary people against other people or organizations, usually in public spaces. An often overlooked category is <OpenstaxTerm>corporate crime</OpenstaxTerm>, or crime committed by white-collar workers in a business environment. Embezzlement, insider trading, and identity theft are all types of corporate crime. Although these types of offenses rarely receive the same amount of media coverage as street crimes, they can be far more damaging. Financial frauds such as insurance scams, Ponzi schemes, and improper practices by banks can devastate families who lose their savings or home.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	An often-debated third type of crime is <OpenstaxTerm>victimless crime</OpenstaxTerm>. Crimes are called victimless when the perpetrator is not explicitly harming another person. As opposed to battery or theft, which clearly have a victim, a crime like drinking a beer when someone is twenty years old or selling a sexual act do not result in injury to anyone other than the individual who engages in them, although they are illegal. While some claim acts like these are victimless, others argue that they actually do harm society. Prostitution may foster abuse toward women by clients or pimps. Drug use may increase the likelihood of employee absences. Such debates highlight how the deviant and criminal nature of actions develops through ongoing public discussion.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Big Picture </OpenstaxNoteTitle> <OpenstaxH3> Hate Crimes </OpenstaxH3>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Attacks based on a person’s race, religion, or other characteristics are known as <OpenstaxTerm>hate crimes</OpenstaxTerm>. Hate crimes in the United States evolved from the time of early European settlers and their violence toward Native Americans. Such crimes weren’t investigated until the early 1900s, when the Ku Klux Klan began to draw national attention for its activities against Black people and other groups. The term “hate crime,” however, didn’t become official until the 1980s (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2011).
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		The severity and impact of hate crimes is significant, but the different crime reporting methods mentioned earlier can obscure the issue. According to the Department of Justice, an average of approximately 205,000 Americans fall victim to hate crimes each year (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2021). But the FBI reports a much lower number; for example, the 2019 report indicates 7,314 criminal incidents and 8,559 related offenses as being motivated by bias (FBI 2020). The discrepancy is due to many factors: very few people actually report hate crimes for fear of retribution or based on the difficulties of enduring a criminal proceeding; also, law enforcement agencies must find clear proof that a particular crime was motivated by bias rather than other factors. (For example, an assailant who robs someone and uses a slur while committing that crime may not be deemed to be bias-motivated.) But both reports show a growth in hate crimes, with quantities increasing each year.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		The majority of hate crimes are racially motivated, but many are based on religious (especially anti-Semitic) prejudice (FBI 2020). The murders of Brandon Teena in 1993 and Matthew Shepard in 1998 significantly increased awareness of hate crimes based on gender expression and sexual orientation; LGBTQ people remain a major target of hate crimes.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		The motivation behind hate crimes can arise quickly, singling out specific groups who endure a rash of abuses in a short period of time. For example, beginning in 2020, people increasingly began committing violent crimes against people of Asian descent, with evidence that the attackers associated the victims with the coronavirus pandemic (Asian American Bar Association 2021).
	</OpenstaxParagraph><OpenstaxFigure id="import-auto-id2689318" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/3ed88cd7a3d6a5ed86204678aaf651c18f274bc1" alt="This is a pie chart showing the percentage of bias motivation categories for victims of single-bias incidents in 2019. They are as follows: Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry/Bias, 57.6%; Religion 20.1%;; Sexual Orientation, 16.7%; Gender Identity, 2.7%; Disability, 2.0%; Gender, 0.9%." mediaType="image/png" width="1507" height="1047" />
	<OpenstaxFigureText width="1507">
		<strong>Figure 7.9</strong> Bias Motivation Categories for Victims of Single-bias Incidents in 2019. The FBI Hate Crimes report identified 8,552 victims of hate crimes in 2019. This represents less than five percent of the number of people who claimed to be victims of hate crimes when surveyed. (Graph courtesy of FBI 2020)
	</OpenstaxFigureText>
</OpenstaxNote>

7.3.1 Types of Crimes

1 An Introduction to Sociology

1.1 What Is Sociology?

1.1.1 What Are Society and Culture?

1.1.2 Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View Society

1.1.3 Studying Part and Whole: How Sociologists View Social Structures

1.2 The History of Sociology

1.2.1 Creating a Discipline: European Theorists

1.2.2 Applying the Discipline: American Theorists and Practitioners

1.3 Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology

1.3.1 Functionalism

1.3.2 Conflict Theory

1.3.3 Symbolic Interactionist Theory

1.3.4 Sociological Theory Today

1.4 Why Study Sociology?

1.4.1 Sociology and a Better Society

1.4.2 Sociology in the Workplace

2 Sociological Research

2.1 Approaches to Sociological Research

2.1.1 The Scientific Method

2.1.2 Interpretive Framework

2.1.3 Critical Sociology

2.2 Research Methods

2.2.1 Surveys

2.2.2 Field Research

2.2.3 Experiments

2.2.4 Secondary Data Analysis

2.3 Ethical Concerns

3 Culture

3.1 What Is Culture?

3.1.1 Cultural Universals

3.1.2 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

3.2 Elements of Culture

3.2.1 Values and Beliefs

3.2.2 Norms

3.2.3 Symbols and Culture

3.2.4 Language and Symbols

3.2.5 Language and Culture

3.3 High, Low, Pop, Sub, Counter-culture and Cultural Change

3.3.1 High, Low, and Popular Culture

3.3.2 Subculture and Counterculture

3.3.3 Cultural Change

3.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Culture

4 Society and Social Interaction

4.1 Types of Societies

4.1.1 Preindustrial Societies

4.1.2 Industrial Society

4.1.3 Postindustrial Society

4.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Society

4.2.1 Émile Durkheim and Functionalism

4.2.2 Karl Marx and Conflict Theory

4.2.3 Max Weber and Symbolic Interactionism

4.3 Social Constructions of Reality

4.3.1 Roles and Status

4.3.2 Presentation of Self

5 Socialization

5.1 Theories of Self-Development

5.1.1 Psychological Perspectives on Self-Development

5.1.2 Sociological Theories of Self-Development

5.2 Why Socialization Matters

5.2.1 Nature versus Nurture

5.3 Agents of Socialization

5.3.1 Social Group Agents

5.3.2 Institutional Agents

5.4 Socialization Across the Life Course

5.4.1 Resocialization

6 Groups and Organization

6.1 Types of Groups

6.1.1 Defining a Group

6.1.2 Types of Groups

6.1.3 In-Groups and Out-Groups

6.1.4 Reference Groups

6.2 Group Size and Structure

6.2.1 Dyads, Triads, and Large Groups

6.2.2 Group Leadership

6.2.3 Conformity

6.2.4 The Bystander Effect and Diffusion of Responsibility

6.3 Formal Organizations

6.3.1 Types of Formal Organizations

6.3.2 The McDonaldization of Society

7 Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

7.1 Deviance and Control

7.1.1 Deviance, Crime, and Society

7.1.2 Social Control

7.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance and Crime

7.2.1 Functionalism

7.2.2 Conflict Theory

7.2.3 Symbolic Interactionism

7.3 Crime and the Law

7.3.2 Crime Statistics

7.3.3 Public Perception of Crime

7.3.4 The U.S. Criminal Justice System

8 Media and Technology

8.1 Technology Today

8.1.1 What Is Technology?

8.2 Media and Technology in Society

8.2.1 Categorizing Technology

8.2.2 Types of Media and Technology

8.2.3 Product Advertising and the Attention Economy

8.2.4 Homogenization and Fragmentation

Question	Answer
crime committed by white-collar workers in a business environment	corporate crime
attacks based on a person’s race, religion, or other characteristics	hate crimes
crimes that involve the destruction or theft of property, but do not use force or the threat of force	nonviolent crimes
crime committed by average people against other people or organizations, usually in public spaces	street crime
activities against the law, but that do not result in injury to any individual other than the person who engages in them	victimless crime
crimes based on the use of force or the threat of force	violent crimes