Chapter 6: Deviance

central thesis of labeling theory

"All social groups make rules and attempt, at some times and under some circumstances, to enforce them" -when a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group

witch hunt

campaigns to identify, investigate , and correct behavior that has been defined as dangerous to the larger society

corporate crime

committed by a corporation in the way that it does business as it competes with other companies for market share and profits

white-collar crime

consists of "crimes committed by person's of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupations

examples of claims-making activities

demanding services, filling out forms, lodging complaints, filing lawsuits, calling press conferences, writing letters of protest

examples of white-collar and corporate crimes

engaging in risky lending practices, manufacturing and marketing unsafe products, tax evasion, money laundering

differential association

exposure to criminal patterns and isolation from non-criminal influences as factors that put people, especially juveniles, at risk of becoming criminals

positive sanctions

expressions of approval for compliance

negative sanctions

expressions of disapproval

conflict perspective

focus on laws that protect the interests of some advantaged group at another group's expense.

Referee's

include parents who correct their kids behavior, children who censor their parents' behavior, teachers who watch students as they take exams, police officers who arrest people

mixed contacts

interactions between stigmatized persons and so-called normals

surveillance

involves monitoring movements, conversations and associations with the intent of catching people in the act of doing something wrong

retreatism

involves the rejection of both culturally valued goals and the legitimate means of achieving them

rebellion

involves the rejection of both the valued goals and the legitimate means of attaining them and seek a new set of goals and means of obtaining them

ritualism

involves the rejection of the cultural goals but a rigid adherence to the legitimate means society has in place to achieve them

panopticon

pan means a complete view and optic means seeing

examples of claims makers

parents, children, government officials, advertisers, scientists and professors

pure deviants

people who have engaged in offending behavior and are caught, punished and labeled as outsiders

conformists

people who have not engaged in offending behavior and treated accordingly

methods of social control

positive and negative sanctions, censorship, surveillance, authority and group pressure

formal sanctions

reactions backed by laws, rules or policies specifying the conditions under which people should be rewarded or punished for specific behaviors

sanctions

reactions of approval or disapproval to behavior that conforms to or departs from group norms

illegitimate opportunity structures

social settings and arrangements that offer people the opportunity to commit specific types of crime

informal sanctions

spontaneous, unofficial expressions of approval not backed by the force of law or official policy

mechanisms of social control

strategies people use to encourage, often force, others to comply with social norms

Stanley Milgram

studied the commands of recognized authority figures as a mechanism of social control -designed an experiment to see how far people would go before they would refuse to conform

examples of surveillance

tapping phones, intercepting letters, e-mail and documents, videotaping/recording and electronic monitoring

conformity

the acceptance of cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through legitimate means -ex: those who play by the book

innovation

the acceptance of cultural goals but the rejection of legitimate means to achieve them ex: evading taxes, selling drugs, identity theft, or embezzlement

prison-industrial complex

the corporations and agencies with an economic stake in building and supplying correctional facilities and in providing services

claims makers

those who articulate and promote claims and who tend to gain in some way if the targeted audience accepts their claims as true

secret deviants

those who have engaged in the offending behavior but no one notices or, if it is noticed, no one applies sanctions

falsely accused

those who have not committed crimes but are treated as if they have

symbolic interactionist perspective

when focusing on the role of laws in shaping interaction and presenting the self -interested in acts of resisting laws and in actions taken to change laws or influence the way they are written

crime

a behavior that violates a law

groupthink

a phenomenon that occurs when a group under great pressure to take action achieves the illusion of consensus by putting pressure on its members to suppress expression of doubt and ignore the moral consequences of their actions

structural strain

a situation in which there is an imbalance between culturally valued goals and the legitimate means to obtain them

disciplinary society

a social arrangement that normalizes surveillance, making it expected and routine

carceral culture

a social arrangement under which the society largely abandons physical and public punishment and replaces it with surveillance as the method of controlling people's activities and thoughts

claims-making activities

actions taken to draw attention to a claim

censorship

an action taken to prevent information believed to be sensitive, unsuitable, or threatening from reaching some audience

stigma

an attribute that is deeply discrediting

deviance

any behavior or physical appearance that is socially challenged and/or condemned because it departs from the norms and expectations of some group

feminist perspective

attuned to how laws are used to maintain and perpetuate inequalities or to mandate behavior and opportunities based on gender

functionalist perspective

attuned to the ways in which laws (and ordinances) contribute to order and stability -laws are in place to protect society -laws exist to ensure order and stability

Labeling theory is guided by what two assumptions?

1. rules are socially constructed 2. rules are not enforced uniformly or consistently

3 broad categories of stigmas

1. stigma of the body or physical conditions that some audience defines as an imperfection, a deformity, or a disability 2. related to behavior/behaviors some audience considers deviant 3. stigmas that an audience has defined as racial, ethnic, religious or national