Chapter eight Sociology
What is a labeling approach to examining deviance <know the sex offender example from your text> (pp. 221 - 224)
These theories help us explain why some people engage in deviant acts and others don't, but they bypass the question of why certain acts committed by certain people are considered deviant in the first place. Labeling theory attempts to answer this question by characterizing a deviant person as someone—such as the preschool teacher Kelly Michaels—to whom the label "deviant" has been successfully applied (Becker, 1963; Lemert, 1972). According to this theory, the process of being singled out, defined, and reacted to as deviant changes a person in the eyes of others and has important life consequences for the individual. Once the label sticks, others may react to the labeled deviant with rejection, suspicion, withdrawal, fear, mistrust, and hatred (A. K. Cohen, 1966). A deviant label suggests that the person holding it is habitually given to the types of undesirable motives and behavior thought to be typical of others so labeled. The "ex-convict" is seen as a cold-blooded and ruthless character incapable of reforming, the "mental patient" as dangerous and unpredictable, the "alcoholic" as weak willed, the "prostitute" as dirty and immoral. Consider also the impact of the 1994 Federal Crime Bill on convicted sex offenders. This law requires states to register and track convicted sex offenders for 10 years after their release from prison and to privately notify police departments when the sex offenders move into their community. Nearly 20 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found that these registries do not violate sex offenders' constitutional rights. In fact, it is a federal crime for individuals to knowingly fail to register or update their registration when they move or change jobs (U.S. Department of Justice, 2019). The website Family Watchdog provides information on released sex offenders in all 50 states, including their names, addresses, convictions, and photographs. Many states have "sexually violent predator" statutes that give officials the power to commit violent sex offenders to mental hospitals involuntarily or to keep them in prison indefinitely after their prison terms are up. Because of laws that allow registered sex offenders to live in towns as long as their residence is more than 2,000 feet from a school or park, some communities around the country have found a new way of excluding these individuals from their midst: They've begun creating "pocket parks" out of tiny parcels of land in the community, thereby forcing sex offenders who live nearby to move. These parcels, which can be as small as 1,000 square feet, are often parks in name only, containing no playground equipment or even children. Their sole purpose is to keep sex offenders out of the neighborhood (Lovett, 2013).
What are the three critical elements in the sociological approach to deviance? (p. 216)
An expectation: Some sort of behavioral expectation must exist, a norm that defines appropriate, acceptable behavior, ideas, or characteristics. The expectations may be implicit or explicit, formal or informal, and more or less widely shared. A violation: Deviance implies some violation of normative expectations. The violation may be real or alleged; that is, an accusation of wrongdoing may be enough to give someone the reputation of being a deviant. A reaction: An individual, group, or society must react to the deviance. The reaction can take several forms: avoidance, criticism, warnings, punishment, or treatment. It may accurately reflect the facts, or it may bear little relation to what really happened, as when people are punished or ostracized for acts they did not commit.
Given the breakthroughs that have been made in pharmaceuticals, why might sociologists be concerned about their growing use? (The Pharmaceutical Personality insert and pp. 239 - 241)
But their popularity raises fundamental sociological questions about the role all sorts of prescription drugs ought to play in everyday life. Critics fear that antidepressants—as well as other drugs that can modify character—are aimed not just at "sick patients" but at people who already function at a high level and want enriched memory, enhanced intelligence, heightened concentration, and a transformation of bad moods into good ones. In a fast-paced, achievement-oriented society such as the United States, the motivations for gaining a competitive edge—whether in school, on the job, or in interpersonal relations—are obvious. Those who earn higher grades, sell more cars, or come across as more charming and attractive can reap enormous financial and social benefits.
What is a "temperance culture" and how is this connected to many Americans' attitudes towards drug use? (p. 234) Why does the text highlight the harms of alcohol and tobacco in a discussion of drug use? (pp. 234 - 235)
But when it comes to illegal drugs, U.S. attitudes change dramatically. Like the term terrorist, the term drugs is an easy and popular scapegoat on which to heap our collective hatred. The United States has been characterized as a temperance culture (Levine, 1992)—one in which self-control and industriousness are perceived as desirable traits of productive citizens. In such an environment, drug-induced states of altered consciousness are likely to be perceived as a loss of control and thus feared as a threat to the economic and physical well-being of the population.And even though it is technically a drug, alcohol rarely enters into conversations on "drug abuse." Indeed, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's website contains detailed fact sheets on drugs like heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, bath salts, ketamine, ecstasy, oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone, steroids, LSD, inhalants, and synthetic marijuana but makes no mention of alcohol. Tobacco is an even clearer health risk than alcohol—or marijuana and heroin for that matter (Reiman & Leighton, 2013). But aside from some age restrictions, it is legally available to anyone. According to the World Health Organization (2019b), more than 8.2 million people die as a result of tobacco-related causes worldwide each year.
What did we learn from Nancy Herman's study of ex-mental patients? (p. 225-226)
Herman found that these ex-patients, on release, noticed right away that friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members were responding to them on the basis of their "mental illness" label and not on the basis of their identity prior to hospitalization. Although their treatment was complete (i.e., they were "cured" of their "illness"), others still saw them as defective. They were often made to feel like failures for not measuring up to the rest of "normal" society.el common myths about mental illness or to advocate for patients' rights. But most of the former patients spent a great deal of time selectively concealing and disclosing information regarding their illness and treatment. Strategies of concealment included avoiding certain individuals, redirecting conversations so that the topic was less likely to come up, lying about their absence, and withdrawing from social interaction. Constant concern that people might "find out" created a great deal of anxiety, fear, and frustration, as described by this 56-year-old woman:The stickiness of the "crazy" label is difficult for former mental patients. However, Herman's research also shows that ex-patients are not powerless victims of negative societal reactions, passively accepting the deviant identity others attribute to them. Rather, they are strategists and impression managers who play active roles in transforming themselves from "abnormal" to "normal."
What is the sociological definition of deviance? (p. 210 and key terms) What is absolutism and why is it a position rejected by sociologists? (pp. 210-213 and key terms) What is a relativist approach to deviance? (pp. 213 - 216 and key terms)
In its broadest sense, deviance is socially disapproved behavior— the violation of some agreed-on norm that prevails in a community or in society at large.According to absolutism, there are two fundamental types of human behavior: (1) that which is inherently proper and good and (2) that which is intrinsically improper, immoral, evil, and bad. To those who subscribe to such a position, the distinction between the two is clear and identifiable. The rightness or wrongness of an act exists prior to humanly created rules, norms, and customs and independently of people's subjective judgments (E. Goode, 1994).There's another element of unfairness involved in the absolutist approach to deviance. People routinely make judgments about deviants based on strongly held stereotypes.This shortcoming can be avoided by employing a second approach to defining deviance, relativism, which draws from symbolic interactionism and the conflict perspective. This approach —which parallels the more general cultural relativism discussed in Chapter 4—states that deviance is not inherent in any particular act, belief, or condition; instead, it is socially constructed, a creation of collective human judgments and ideas.
Why do Americans seem so ambivalent to the real harms of corporate crimes? (pp. 230 - 232) What is the practice of deferred prosecution? (p. 232)
More broadly, people in the United States tend to take for granted that urban street crime is our worst social problem and that corporate crime is not as dangerous or as costly (Reiman & Leighton, 2013). However, unsafe work conditions; dangerous chemicals in the air, water, and food; faulty consumer products; and unnecessary surgery actually put people who live in the United States in more constant and imminent physical danger than do ordinary street crimes. Consider, for instance, that there are approximately 17,000 murders a year in the United States (FBI, 2018).To ease the inconvenience of prosecution for corporate wrongdoers, the U.S. Department of Justice has instituted a form of corporate probation called deferred prosecution. Several major companies that have been charged with billions of dollars' worth of accounting fraud, bid rigging, and other illegal financial schemes—including American Media, Credit Suisse Bank, PNC Financial Services Group, Merrill Lynch, AOL-Time Warner, Rite-Aid, and American Express—have agreed to deferred prosecutions, in which they accept responsibility for wrongdoing, agree not to fight the charges, agree to cooperate with investigations, pay a fine, and implement changes in their corporate structure to prevent future criminal wrongdoing. If a company abides by the agreement for a specified time—usually 12 months—prosecutors will drop all charges (Mokhiber & Weissman, 2004). Since 2007, the Department of Justice has made over 150 deferred prosecution agreements with companies accused of criminal activity (Henning, 2012).
What do we mean by the term "criminalization of deviance" (pp. 226 - 227 and key terms) How does criminalization reflect power inequalities in the society? (pp. 227 - 230)
Presumably, certain acts are criminalized—officially defined as crimes—because they offend the majority of people in a given society and pose the greatest danger.But according to the conflict perspective, the law is not merely a mechanism that protects good people from bad people; it is a political instrument used by specific groups to further their own interests, often at the expense of others' (W. Chambliss, 1964; Quinney, 1970). Law is, of course, determined by legislative action. But legislatures are greatly influenced by powerful segments of society, such as lobbying groups, political action committees, wealthy campaign contributors, and so on.Tellingly, the acts that threaten the economic or political interests of the groups that have the power to influence public policy are more likely to be criminalized (and more likely to be punished) than are the deviant acts members of these groups are likely to commit. For instance, it's against the law to fail to report income on one's annual tax return. But poor working people are far more likely to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) than wealthy people (Johnston, 2002). That's not surprising, given that the IRS looks for tax cheating by wage earners much more closely than it does for cheating by corporations or by people whose money comes from their own businesses, investments, partnerships, and trusts.
How does Merton's strain theory explain deviance? (pp. 219 - 220) How did Edwin Sutherland explain why people commit deviance? (p. 220)
Sociologist Robert Merton's strain theory (1957) argues that the probability of committing deviant acts increases when people experience a strain or contradiction between these culturally defined success goals and access to legitimate means by which to achieve them. The despair and hopelessness that accompany sudden economic hardship can sometimes evoke anger and blame, leading to violence. Some criminologists noted an unprecedented spike in mass murders in 2009 during the height of the economic recession. For instance, in the span of one month, there were eight mass murders that took the lives of 57 people (cited in Rucker, 2009).Another sociologist, Edwin Sutherland, based his theory of deviance on the symbolic interactionist principle that we all interpret life through the symbols and meanings we learn in our interactions with others (Sutherland & Cressey, 1955). Sutherland argues that individuals learn deviant patterns of behavior from the people with whom they associate on a regular basis: friends, family members, peers. Through our associations with these influential individuals, we learn not only the techniques for committing deviant acts (e.g., how to pick a lock, how to snort cocaine) but also a set of beliefs and attitudes that justify or rationalize such behavior (Sykes & Matza, 1957). To commit deviant acts on a regular basis, we must learn how to perceive those acts as normal.
How did the clergy sexual abuse scandals challenge our thinking about deviance? (pp. 218 - 219)
The 2002 story pointed out that Church officials had known of this particular priest's behavior since 1984, 9 years before he was finally removed from his last parish. Further investigation revealed that the Archdiocese of Boston had quietly settled suits against 70 priests over the preceding decade, often stipulating that in exchange for financial settlement, the victims were not to discuss the cases publicly (Jost, 2002). Under mounting public pressure, the Boston archdiocese agreed to give prosecutors the names of 100 other priests who had been accused of sexual molestation. What happened next is, by now, well known. Similar stories began appearing all over the country. Since 2002, tens of thousands of priests have faced allegations of sexual abuse. The majority of victims (51%) were between the ages of 11 and 14 at the time of the abuse, and 81% were male (Terry, 2004). Often the most vulnerable children make the easiest victims. One Wisconsin priest molested as many as 200 deaf boys from the 1950s to the 1970s.
What does our text mean when it states that individualizing deviance also "depoliticizes" deviance? (pp. 241 - 242)
The process of individualizing social problems robs deviant behavior of its power to send a message about malfunctioning elements in society. Disruptive behaviors or statements automatically lose their power to prompt social change when they are seen simply as symptoms of individual defects or illnesses. We need not pay attention to the critical remarks of an opponent if that opponent is labeled as mentally ill.F
What is the deterrence approach to examining deviance <know the capital punishment example from your text> (pp. 220-221)
Their concern is with the mechanisms society has in place to control or constrain people's behavior. Deterrence theory assumes that people are rational decision-makers who calculate the potential costs and benefits of a behavior before they act. If the benefits of a deviant act (e.g., money, psychological satisfaction) outweigh the costs (e.g., getting caught and punished), we will be inclined to do it. Conversely, if the costs exceed the benefits, the theory predicts that we'll decide it's not worth the risk (van den Haag, 1975).The controversy surrounding capital punishment is, essentially, a debate over its true capacity to deter potentially violent criminals. According to deterrence theory, a punishment, to be effective, must be swift as well as certain and severe. However, capital punishment is anything but swift. Currently, about 2,700 inmates are on death row in the United States, but only 1,499 prisoners have been executed since 1977, when the death penalty was reinstated (Death Penalty Information Center, 2019a). On average, death row inmates spend 15½ years awaiting execution, a figure that has been growing steadily for three decades (Snell, 2014; see Exhibit 8.1). In addition, opponents of the death penalty argue that violent offenders are often under the influence of drugs or alcohol or are consumed by passion when they commit an act of violence; their violence is more or less spontaneous. Hence, they may not be thinking rationally (weighing the potential benefits of the act against the costs of punishment) at the time of the crime. The threat of being condemned to death may not deter such people when they are committing the act.
What do we mean by the term "medicalization of deviance" (p. 236 and key terms)? Why is a medical approach to rule breaking so appealing? (p. 237)
This trend, what sociologists call medicalization, is the process through which deviant behavior is defined as a medical problem or illness and the medical profession is mandated or licensed to provide some type of treatment for it (Conrad, 2005). Each time we automatically refer to troublesome behavior or people as "sick," we help to perpetuate the perception that deviance is like an illness. Many physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and insurance agents, not to mention the entire pharmaceutical industry, benefit from a medicalized view of certain deviant acts.