The term social control refers to techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior. Social control occurs in families, peer groups, and bureaucratic organizations. Members of society are expected to act properly. Sanctions are penalties or rewards for conduct concerning social norms. Conformity is defined as going along with peers—individuals of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior. Obedience is defined as compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchal structure. People casually, through such means as smiles, laughter, and ridicule, carry out informal social control. Authorized agents, such as police officers, physicians, school administrators, employers, and military officers, carry out formal social control. Law is defined as governmental social control, and reflects continually changing standards of what is right and wrong. Control theory suggests that our connection to other members of society leads us to conform systematically to society's norms.

Sociologists define deviance as behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. Deviance can be understood only within its social context. In most instances, those individuals and groups with the greatest status and power define what is acceptable and what is deviant. The term stigma was coined by Erving Goffman to describe the labels society uses to devalue the members of certain social groups. People are often stigmatized for deviant behaviors they may no longer engage in.

Crime is a violation of law for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties. The FBI tracks violent crimes and property crimes—known as index crimes—in their annual Uniform Crime Reports. There has been a significant decline in violent crime in the United States. The accuracy of measuring crime and tabulating crime statistics varies widely. The National Crime Victimization Survey was initiated in 1972 to question ordinary people about crime victimization. Types of crime include white-collar crime, victimless crime, organized crime, and transnational crime.

Sociologists have generated numerous theories of deviance and crime. Émile Durkheim argued that there is nothing inherently deviant or criminal in any act; the key is how sociology responds to the act. He used the term anomie to describe the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. Robert Merton took Durkheim's theory a step further. His anomie theory of deviance posits five basic forms of adaptations: (1) conformity, (2) innovation, (3) ritualism, (4) retreatism, and (5) rebellion. His theory, though popular, does not fully account for patterns of deviance and crime.

Social interaction and local context must also be considered. Edwin Sutherland drew upon cultural transmission, which emphasizes that individuals learn criminal behavior by interacting with others. He used the term differential association to describe the process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to violation of rules. Social disorganization theory attributes increases in crime and deviance to the absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions. Labeling theory emphasizes how a person comes to be labeled as deviant or to accept the label. It is also referred to as the societal-reaction approach, reminding us that it is the response to an act, not the act itself, that determines deviance. According to Richard Quinney, the criminal justice system serves the interests of the powerful, who define deviance to suit their own needs. The system treats suspects differently based on their race, ethnicity, gender, and social class background—differential justice.