Grand Theft Auto in Detroit, Michigan

Social deviance can be described as a violation of the culture norm. Some forms of deviance can be mild while other offences are more serious. I would categorize recidivism of jailing and release as a serious form.

Robert Merton's "strain theory" which was developed from the work of Durkheim and Merton and taken from the theory of anomie, best describes theoretical causes of social deviance. This theory has given new light to social deviance due to recent studies of criminology. "One factor that must be considered is that individuals have different reactions to certain types of strain and subjectively view different types of objective strain (Agnew, forthcoming)." In another words, people feel they have no choice or option or cave to the pure pressure and do deviant things to be accepted by others. Social deviance is not always about financial gain, however it can be.

Social Deviance and Juvenile's form of acceptance

Social Deviance can be viewed, as a form of acceptance into society and/or a way for juvenile's to get attention. This reminds me of a popular TV show called Simpson's, whereby Bart, the little boy in the show, is constantly showing off to his friends by misbehaving and looking for social acceptance into society. The more he misbehaves, the more his fellow students notice him. Many juveniles who commit crimes never enter the juvenile justice system. Unfortunately, developing a portrait of juvenile law-violating behavior from official records gives only a partial showing of the whole picture.

Crime in Detroit

2004 Total Per 100,000 People Naitonal Per 100,000 People

Overall Detroit Crime Index: 2004 Total- 73328 : Per 100,000 People-8019.7 :National Per 100,000 People -3982.6

Detroit Motor Vehicle Thefts : 2004 Total0 1734: Per 100,000 People - 2687.5: National Per 100,000 People- 421.3

References: Crime data retrieved on September 12, 2006 from http://detroit.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm

As you can see from the the data above, Detroit hits almost every category of crime above the national average. Practically Detroit Motor Vehicle Thefts, Detroit is over 5 times the national average.