ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why social scientists emphasize the relativity of norms and explores the deviance and distinguishes it from crime. It analyses the several interrelated problems with the US justice system. The chapter examines how legalizing the use of recreational drugs could reduce crime. It considers how society deals with deviance—actions that society finds inappropriate—and how social science thinking about such issues might be useful in thinking about reforms in our criminal justice system. Conflicting norms and mores can cause social tension, so society needs institutions that resolve or at least limit those conflicts. There are different ways in which the rule of law can be imposed, and different societies have chosen different approaches. Three different traditions of legal systems can be found: common law tradition, civil law tradition, and socialist law tradition. The group of social scientists that has had the most to say about deviance and crime is sociologists.
