Chapters 6, Deviance

Which of the following is NOT considered a violent crime by the UCR (Uniform crime report)?

Burglary

Rebels

Individuals who reject society's approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometimes revolutionary) goals using new means.

Tertiary Deviance

Redefining the stigma associated with deviant label as a positive phenomenon.

Structural Strain Theory

Robert Merton's argument that in an unequal society the tension or strain between socially approved goals and an individual's ability to achieve those goals through socially approved means will lead to deviance as individuals reject either the goals or the means or both.

In order for a behavior, trait, or belief to be considered deviant, it must:

deviant behavior must be sufficiently serious or unusual to spark a negative sanction or punishment.

White Collar Crime

Crime committed by high-status individual in the course of his occupation.

Violent Crime

Crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery.

Property Crime

Crimes that did not involve violence, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Which of the following describes how deviance can be explained from the functionalist perspective?

Deviance can help society clarify its moral boundaries: what is right and wrong. Promote social cohesion(functionalists value this): people can be brought together in the face of crime or other violations.

The parents of a deviant child often want to find some way to excuse their offspring's behavior, and it's common to hear them say, "He just fell in with a bad crowd." Which symbolic interactionist theory of deviance does this explanation most closely resemble?

Differential association theory: Edwin Sutherland's hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our association through deviant peers.

Although branding is no longer used as a form of punishment in the United States, some subcultures have adopted it as a form of body art. This demonstrates that:

What is considered deviant changes over time.

Imagine that a powerful and influential person decided to heavily tattoo her own face with symbols and images that told parts of her life story. Would she be treated as a deviant?

Yes, it would be in the United States, although there are other cultures that would consider it normal or desirable.

Labeling Theory

Howard Becker's idea that deviance is a consequence of external judgments, or labels, that modify the individual's self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person.

Primary Deviance

In labeling theory, the initial act or attitude that causes one to be labeled deviant.

Secondary Deviance

In labeling theory, the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant.

Innovators

Individuals who accept society's approved goals but not society's approved means to achieve them.

Retreatists

Individuals who reject both society's approved goals and the means by which to achieve them.

How do sociologists define positive deviance?

Instances where a rule violation is, or seems to be, an admirable act, that should be supported.

What did Robert Merton call a prediction that came true only because the prediction was made?

Self-fulfilling Prophecy: an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true

Ritualists

Individuals who have given up hope of achieving society's approved goals but still operate according to society's approved means.

Chapter 6

Deviance

The idea that individuals learn to be deviant by interacting with others who are already deviant is called:

Differential association theory.

Which of the following is NOT one of the topics that is examined when sociologists study deviance?

Norms are universal and always identified as deviant across cultures and times

Passing

Presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong.

What theory argues that punishments for rule violators are unequally distributed, with those near the top of society subject to more lenient rules and sanctions than those at the bottom?

Conflict Theory

Because laws represent the interests of those in power, crimes committed by the upper classes are typically treated more leniently than crimes committed by the lower classes. This argument is consistent with

Conflict theory

Why was imprisonment such a rare type of punishment before the nineteenth century?

Earlier societies did not have sufficient resources to operate prisons.

Differential Association Theory

Edwin Sutherland's hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers.

Stigma

Erving Goffman's term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group's identity and that may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction.

Which kinds of departures from the norm can have a stigmatizing effect on an individual's identity?

Physical disability, alcohol addiction, mental illness, and having served time in jail. All of the above.

Deviance Avowal

Process by which an individual self-identifies as deviant and initiates her own labeling process.

Plifering

Stealing minor items in small amounts, often again and again.

Capital Punishment

The death penalty.

Social Control

The formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion.

Desistance

The tendency of individuals to age out of crime over the life course.

Cyberbullying

The use of electronic media(web pages, social networking sites, email, instant messengers, and cell phones) to tease, harass, threaten, or humiliate someone.

According to Jack Katz in "Seduction of Crime", why might teenagers shoplift?

They want the thrill of getting away with breaking the rules.

Deviance

A behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction.

Criminal Justice System

A collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that create and enforce laws.

Crime

A violation of a norm that has been codified into law.

Outsiders

According to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from "normal" society.

Positive Deviance

Actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic.

In-group orientation

Among stigmatized individuals, the rejection or prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity.

Rehabilitation

An approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty.

Retribution

An approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal.

Deterrence

An approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes.

Incapacitation

An approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

An inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

An official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI's official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies.