Sociology Ch. 6: Deviance and Social Control
Corporate Crime, Illegitimate opportunity theory Perspectives of deviance
A special type of white-collar crime that is committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation
Social Control
Formal and informal means of enforcing its norms. At the center of social control are sanctions.
White-Collar Crime, Illegitimate opportunity theory Perspectives of deviance Sutherland
Edwin Sutherland; Crimes that people of respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations
Five Techniques of Neutralization Labeling: deviance theory Gresham Sykes & David Matza, Sociologists
1. Denial of Responsibility: "I'm not responsible for what happened because..." 2. Denial of Injury: Might acknowledge that what they did was illegal, but claim that they were "just having a little fun" 3. Denial of a Victim: Protected their self-concept by claiming that the people "deserved what they got" 4. Condemnation of the Condemners: Deny that others had the right to judge them 5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties: Consider loyalty to the gang more important than norms of society
Social Order
A group's customary social arrangements; norms bring about social order. Our lives are based on these arrangements, which is why deviance often is perceived as threatening.
Relativity of Deviance
A major point made by symbolic interactionists; because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others. This principle applies not just to cultures but also to groups with the same society. This principle also applies to norms of sexuality.
Innovation: deviant response Strain; deviance theory, Merton
Accept the goals of society but use illegitimate means to try to reach them
Conflict Perspective Perspectives of deviance
According to conflict theory, social control represents the interests of the wealthy and powerful. Social norms are built by those in power with the intention of maintaining their position and oppressing the rest of the population. For proponents of this theory, the law is an instrument of repression. Rules and legislation are designed to maintain the privileges of the powerful and keep the powerless from rebelling. The justice system focuses its energies on pursuing violations by working class members of society, while it tends to overlook harm done by white-collar workers and business owners. Law enforcement is a device by which capitalists carry out self-protective and repressive policies
Anomie Strain; deviance theory Robert Merton
Anomie is the strain that people experience when they are blocked in their attempts to achieve their goals. The most typical response to anomie is conformity, following social rules to achieve socially accepted rewards. But some people respond in deviant ways to anomie.
Sanctions Negative, Positive
Both deviance and conformity are reinforced by positive and negative sanctions. Negative Sanction: Result of deviance; an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from mild, informal reaction (frown) to a formal reaction (prison) Positive Sanction: An expression of approval for following norm Ex: smile, good grade, material reward such as a prize Whether you consider the breaking of a norm as an amusing matter that warrants no sanction or a serious infraction that does, however, depends on your perspective.
Deviant responses to Strain (Anomie) Strain; deviance theory Robert Merton
Conformity Innovation Ritualism Retreatism Rebellion
Outer Controls; Control: deviance theory
Consists of people who influence us not to deviate (family, friends, police)
Rebellion; deviant réponse Strain; deviance theory, Merton
Convinced that their society is corrupt, rebels, like retreatists, reject both society's goals and its institutionalized means
Hate Crime
Crimes motivated by bias against someone's race-ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin
Perspectives on Deviance Becker, Goffman
Deviance by society's individuals threatens normalcy and predictability. Howard S. Becker: It is not the act itself that makes it deviant; it is society's reaction to the act. Ervin Goffman: When a person is believed to have deviated from his or her culture's norms, other members of the culture may strongly disapprove. This powerful disapproval is called social stigma.
Functionalist Perspective; deviance theory Emile Durkheim, Functionalist Theorist
Deviance illuminates moral boundaries and norms. A group's standards about how people should act and think mark its moral boundaries. Deviant acts violate those boundaries and morals. Punishing deviance affirms the group's norms and clarifies the rules in the group. Deviance promotes social unity. Identifying and punishing deviants creates a "we" feeling among group members. In saying, "You can't get away with that," the group is establishing the rightness of its own ways. Deviance promotes social change. Groups do not always agree on what to do with people who push beyond their accepted ways of doing things. Sometimes a rule-breaking behavior might be acceptable. Boundary violations that gain support can become acceptable new behaviors. Society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together; a.k.a. functionalism and structural functionalism; rooted in origins of sociology; Robert Merton
Emile Durkheim, Functionalist Theorist Functionalist Perspective; deviance theory
Deviance, including crime, is functional for society, for it contributes to the social order Durkheim; 1. Clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms 2: Promotes social unity 3: Promotes social change (see detailed explanations under Functionalist; deviance theory)
Illegitimate Opportunity Structure Perspectives of deviance Cloward & Ohlin
Different social classes exhibit different styles of crime because they are exposed to different rule-breaking options. EX; woven into the lives of people in poverty-stricken urban areas are robbery, burglary, drug dealing, gambling, and prostitution. More privileged social classes find the opportunity to commit other forms of crime: white collar crimes, such as fraud and imbezzlement, misuse of corporate funds, and insider trading. Cloward and Ohlin; Robbery, burglary, drug dealing, prostitution, pimping, gambling, etc.
Kai Theodor Erikson, Sociologist
Erikson once said, "The deviant and the conformist...are creatures of the same culture, inventions of the same imagination." As Erikson implies, deviants and conformists are cut from the same cloth.
Reactions to deviance Perspectives of deviance Durkheim, Sociologist
Every culture has some sort of response when members break the rules or violate the norms. It could be ostracism, shaming, retraining, or stoning. The three primary approaches that a society might take are degradation, imprisonment, and medicalization. Durkheim; deviance is inevitable, even in a group of saints. "Imagine a society of saints, a perfect cloister of exemplary individuals. Crimes properly so called will there be unknown; but faults which appear to the layman will create there the same scandal that the ordinary offense does in ordinary society."
Inner Controls; Control: deviance theory - Travis Hirschi, Sociologist
Internalized morality (conscience, religious principles, ideas of right and wrong, fears of punishment, feelings of integrity, and desire to be a "good" person) The stronger our bonds are with society, the more effective our inner controls are (Hirshi). These bonds are based on attachment, commitments, and beliefs. This theory is really about self control.
Differential Association; deviance theory Edward Sutherland, McCarthy
From the different groups we associate with, we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms; Different groups with which we associate, give us messages about conformity and deviance. People are not mere pawns; individuals help produce their own orientation and shape their own selves.
Who is Napoleon Chagnon and what did he find in his research and introduction to Yanomamo?
He was an anthropologist that went to the rain forests of Brazil ; He saw the naked men with green mucus dripping from their noses (a hallucinogenic substance that causes this when it is smoked) and they stared at him, but they saw it as a norm; Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others; What was deviant to Chagnon was conformist to the Yanomamo
Degradation; reactions to deviance Perspectives of deviance
In some cultures, deviant behavior leads to degradation ceremonies, where the offender is forced to live with insults every day and is marked as shameful. College hazing is an example of this, as is a recent trend by some judges to force petty criminals to publically declare their deviance by holding signs on street corners describing their crimes
Institutionalized means Functionalist Perspective; deviance theory
Legitimate ways to reach cultural goals
Medicalization; reactions to deviance Perspectives of deviance
Medical professionals attempt to medicate many forms of deviance, believing that deviance comes from mental illness and is not simply a behavioral problem. From Ritalin to Haldol to Zoloft, chemical behavior control is a booming business. Medications are sometimes necessary and useful but have often been used as population control and not as treatment.
How "norms" make social life possible
No human group can exist without norms; make social life possible by making behavior predictable. We are socialized to follow norm (basic guidelines), to play our roles that society assigns us and interact with others. Without norms, we would have social chaos.
Why are social norms so important to our world, society, and culture?
Norms bring about social order, which is what our lives are based on
What makes social life possible?
Norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable
Ritualism; deviant response Strain; deviance theory, Merton
People who become discouraged and give up on achieving cultural goals but still cling to conventional rules of conduct
Explanations for Deviance
Psychologist and sociobiologists attempt to explain deviance by looking inside the person, while sociologists look outside the individual.
Psychological; explanations for deviance Psychologist: Mayer
Psychologists focus abnormalities within the individual; examine personality disorders. Study of psychological or mental disorders that may cause a person to behave in nontypical ways in society. People with personality disorders often violate social norms in significant or disruptive ways. Mayer; deviating individuals have deviating personalities and the subconscious motives drive people to deviance Researchers have never found a specific childhood experience to invariably linked with deviance. In short, there is no inevitable outcome of any childhood experience. Deviance is not associated with any particular personality.
Deviance
Refers to any violation of norms; EX: driving over the speed limit, murder; Deviance undermines predictability, the foundation of life; Becker, S: It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant. What is deviant in one religion, country, or time period may not be considered deviant in another; deviance is often beholden to context and because of this, we must consider deviance from within a group's own framework: It is their meanings that underlie their behavior.
Retreatism; deviant response Strain; deviance theory, Merton
Reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them (alcohol/drugs)
Medicalization of Deviance
Sigmund Freud; Deviance, including crime, is a sign of mental sickness; EX: Rape, murder, stealing, cheating are external symptoms of internal disorders, consequences of a confused or tortured mind
Biosocial; explanations for Deviance Sociobiologists: Lombroso; Wilson and Herrnstein; Barnes and Jacobs Therioes
Sociobiologists try to explain deviance by looking for answers within individuals. Study is focused on genetics, and heredity. (genetics: the study of heredity and variation in organism heredity; transmission of a particular quality or trait from parent to offspring) Lombroso; Wilson & Herrnstein; Barnes &Jacobs: Assume that genetic predispositions lead people to such deviances as juvenile delinquency and crime. (genetic predisposition: inborn tendencies) Theories: 1. Intelligence (low intelligence leads to crime) 2: XYY theory (an extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime) 3: Body type (people with squarish, muscular bodies are more likely to commit street crime
Sociological; explanations for deviance
Sociologists search for factors outside the individual. Focusing on social influences that "recruit" people to break norms. (Social influences: Factors in society that affect our behavior and interactions.) To account for why people commit crimes, for example, sociologists examine such external influences as socialization, membership in subcultures, and social class. (Social class, refers to peoples relative standing in terms of education, occupations, and especially income and wealth.)
Cultural goals Functionalist Perspective; deviance theory
Success of some sort, such as wealth or prestige
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Symbols, things to which we attach meaning, are the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another (Cooley, Thomas, and Mead)
Capital Punishment
The death penalty; the most extreme measure the state takes
Control; deviance theory Walter Reckless
The idea that two control systems, inner controls and outer control, work against our tendencies to deviate
Conflict Perspective Perspectives of deviance Marx
The key to human history is class conflict; Karl Marx
Recedivism Rate
The percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested; 62 % of those imprisoned for violent crimes were rearrested just 3 years after their release and 52 % went back to prison
Criminal Justice System
The police, courts, and prisons that deal with people who are accused of having committed crimes
Bonds: further defined (inner) Control: deviance theory
The stronger our bonds are with society, the more effective our inner controls are; based on attachments (our affection and respect for people who conform to mainstream norms), commitments (having a sake in society that you don't want to risk, such as a respected place in your family, good standing in college, good job), involvements (participating in approved activities), and beliefs (convictions that certain actions are morally wrong); Theory can be summarized as self control (Hirschi)
Labeling; deviance theory
The view that the labels people are given affect their own and other's perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity. Focuses on the significance of reputations, how they help set us on paths that propel us into deviance or that divert us away from it
Social Stigma - Erving Goffman
To be considered deviant, a person does not even have to do anything. Erving Goffman; refers to characteristics that discredit people; EX: Violations of norms of ability (blindness, deafness, mental handicaps), norms of appearance (facial birthmark, huge nose), and involuntary memberships (AIDS victim, brother of a rapist); The stigma can become a person's master status, defining him or her as deviant
Three sociological perspectives for deviance:
To explain deviance, sociologists apply the three sociological perspectives; interactionism, functionalism, and conflict theory
Imprisonment; reactions to deviance Perspectives of deviance
Today, some deviants are considered unfit to live among law-abiding citizens and are imprisoned. A private-corporation business in building and maintaining prisons and jails thrives in the United States as a result.
Deviance, Sociologist use as a neutral term
Unlike the general public, use of the term deviance, non-judgmentally, to refer to any act to which people respond negatively. It does not mean that they are saying that an act is bad, just that people judge it negatively. To sociologists, all of us are deviants of one sort or another, since we all violate norms from time to time.
Conformity; deviant response Strain; deviance theory, Merton
Using socially acceptable means to try to reach cultural goals
Biosocial; explanations for deviance Sociobiologists: Walsh & Beaver; Wiebe; Barnes & Jacobs
Walsh & Beaver; Wiebe:Biosocial explanation is that over the millennia, people with certain characteristics were more likely to survive than were people with different characteristics. As a result, different groups today inherit differ propensities (tendencies) for empathy, self-control, and risk taking. i.e. characteristics: crime by sex, race-ethnicity, social class and age (juvenile delinquency). Barnes & Jacobs; Behavior, whether deviant or conforming does not depend on only genes. Our inherited propensities (bio) are modified and stimulated by our environment (social). Biosocial research holds the potential of opening a new understanding of deviance.
Degradation ceremony, form of shaming -coined by Harold Garfinkel Labeling; deviance theory
a term to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone's self by stripping away that individual's self identify and stamping a new identity in its place.
Crime; definition Street Crime; definition
act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act Violation of the social norms that have been written into law. Each society has its own written laws, so behavior that are considered criminal depend on a society's legal standards. Street Crime: Mugging, rape, and burglary
Symbolic Interactionsists
examine how people's definitions of the situation underlie their deviating from or conforming to social norms. They focus on group membership (differential association) how people balance pressures to conform and to deviate (control theory) and the significance of people's reputations (labeling theory).
