Values: In the process of achieving a certain degree of social life; the values serve an important function in terms of determining which attitudes and behaviors are right or wrong, fair or unfair. It is possible to define social values as basic abstract principles or generalized moral beliefs that guide our attitudes and behaviors. Everything in the life of a society is perceived according to values. Values are the principles such as freedom and equality that define the ideal principles of what is desired and right in a society or group. Values might create conflict in the same way that they provide behavioral rules.

Norms: Values gain efficiency through norms. The social norms emerge in the form of religious rules, moral rules, manners and customs, etiquette and legal rules in social life. The norms are cultural rules, which arise with the reward and punishment system and affect the individuals’ behaviors. All cultures,subcultures and groups have distinctive and specific norms that direct correct behaviors. The acts and laws, rules about clothing, games and sports, etc. all reflect social norms (Yüksel, 2015: 19; Schaefer, 2010:171; Johnson, 2000:209; Milovanovic, 2003:6).

Social norms could be basically classified into five groups; religious rules, moral rules, manners and customs, fashion rules and legal rules. The concept of anomie should be well understood to ensure a better understanding of norms.

The concept of anomie, which refers to normlessness and irregularity, was firstly used by the Durkheim, a French sociologist, in his work “Suicide.” Durkheim defined anomie as a state of irregularity that prevents the individuals, who become incapable of knowing which norms to determine as criteria when they need to act, from integrating with society.

Religious Rules: Religion could be described as the institutionalized system of symbols, beliefs, values, and practices that respond to the feelings of a certain group of people regarding the sacred one and provide answers to questions about final interpretations (Glock and Stark, 1965 cited in Andersen and Taylor, 2005: 448). Durkheim defines religion as a whole, all parts of which are comprised of interrelated beliefs and rituals (religious ceremonies) and related with sacred values and which unite their members in the same society.

Moral Rules: In a narrow sense, morality is the whole set of rules that an individual’s conscience refers to when defining certain behaviors as “right” and “good”. The conscience is the means of control in moral rules. The most important difference between morality and legal rules is the systematic and organized formation of legal rules, although moral rules are scattered and unorganized. Besides, while the sanction of morality is conscience, the law consists of material and compulsive sanctions imposed by the state power.

Manners and Customs: The manners and customs are the social norms which arise spontaneously and gradually, though they are not explicitly put in place by any society, and which manage the relations within a society. Its sanctions are social pressures. The norms that have been repeated for a long time by the majority of the population and characterized by what we have mentioned are called the customs. The social norms, which are comprised of the same qualities and are subject to a very high degree of evaluation, are called the manners. The manners may include positive obligations, but the sanction of manners is stronger than the sanction of customs.

Fashion Rules: Fashion comes from the word modus, meaning “limitless” in the Latin language. It is an expression of the appearance that the individual can get according to his/her lifestyle. The impressions that are shared with the “other” with regard to who and what are the components that also regulate social relations and build identities. The fashion is the temporary changes that are socially approved on everyday subjects with manners and customs. 

The function of law as a social concept can be listed as the following (Öktem and Türkbağ, 2014: 293-295);

a. Defines the members of the group and determines mutual relationships
b. Resolves disputes

c. Regulates the behaviors
d. Ensures that the social power is organized and legitimizes it
e. Develops the living conditions
f.  Protects from external hazards
g. Realizes the legal organization 

We can classify the functions of legal rules in three main categories in terms of their effects (Milovanovic, 2003: 14);
• Oppressive: The laws might be more or less challenging. There is physical pressures at various levels in social control systems.
• Facilitating: The laws ensure the expectations about behaviors and make them predictable.
• Ideological: As a belief system, the ideology is reflected in legal rules and it emerges, depending on certain values.

Although the Sociology of Law began to be shaped as a science in the 20th century, Grotius and many thinkers from Leibnitz and many historians, ethnolog ists, criminologists, sociologists and jurists who lived in the 19th century have made important contributions to the establishment of the sociology of law as a science. The forerunner of sociology and sociology of law is Aristotle in the first age and Montesquieu in modern times. However, the contribution made by Ibn Khaldun, to the field who was an Islamic scholar and who drew attention with his scientific and sociological views about law, society and state before Montesquieu, should not be ignored.

The sociology of law is a very young science branch and its eponym is D. Anzilotti, an Italian lawyer. Anzilotti described the task of this new branch of science, which he called “sociologia juridica” in 1892, as an empirical analysis of legal events.

The crime phenomenon encompassing legal, sociological, psychological and religious aspects is mainly a category of deviance. The crime phenomenon that emerges as a result of social life in a general sense refers to behaviors against the rules that hold the society together. In this context, crime could be defined as the violation of official criminal law in a society. This situation, which we can call criminal deviance, arises in a wide range of fields ranging from simple traffic violations to prostitution, sexual assault and murder. Those who commit these acts are called “criminals”. The word crime is of Latin origin and is derived from a root meaning “I judge, I have decided”, and the accusation means finding guilty. 

We can evaluate the approaches towards explaining the deviance mainly in three groups, namely, biological, psychological and sociological theories.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the theory of labeling became very popular. Important theorists of labeling include Edwin M. Lemert, Howard Becker from North America and Albert Cohen from Britain.

According to the theory of labeling, deviance is based on the reaction of people to this behavior, rather than what the person does. If people respond to primary deviance by stigmatization, a secondary deviance or a deviance career emerges (Macionis, 2013: 222-223).

The Chicago ècole is a symbolic interactionist approach that was firstly defined by its urban sociological studies, in general sociology, and then becomes influential in criminology and is also called the environmental approach. It is the theory arguing that the human behavior is determined not by genetic and personal factors, but by the social and physical environment.

Edwin H. Sutherland suggested that deviance is learned through interaction. He associates crime with the phenomenon that he defines as a differentiated union. While some social environments tend to encourage deviant behaviors in a society consisting of different subcultures, this tendency is not observed in others. The individuals collectively exhibit deviant behavior with individuals who adopt criminal norms.

The approaches, which are developed on the basis of Marx’s thoughts and also defined as conflict theories, emphasize the existence of a dominant class controlling the social resources and the development of institutional rules and belief systems to protect the power of this class.

The sociologists influenced by Marxism have argued that the crime is prevalent in all levels of society to a great extent. According to Snider, the corporate crimes (organized crimes), which are seen in developed industrial societies, are more harmful than the street crimes such as theft or murder, which are defined as the most serious crimes in terms of both economy and loss of lives.

The concept of social control refers to the strategies and techniques aimed at preventing the deviant human behavior in a society in order to achieve social order in a broad sense. These strategies and techniques might emerge in all levels of society. Social control is, in a sense, an attempt to regulate the thoughts and behaviors of a society and people, and everyone in a society is subject to social control.

The general view, suggesting that the crime rates have increased in recent years in Turkey, has received considerable support from the public. It is suggested that the social and economic factors play an important role in terms of an increase in the crime rate (Cömertler and Kar, 2007:1). One of the earlier studies on the factors that direct people to crime in Turkey consists of very useful data that provide an insight into today. It could be argued that these factors are still valid today as well. In Kunter’s (1951: 104 et al.) study, the factors of crime were indicated as follows; Reasons related with family: marital status, higher rate of crimes committed by singles, illegal relationships, disintegration of family and the children of divorce committing higher number of crimes. Especially in cities with high population density, the crimes related to property are committed in higher numbers.