SOC 101- Chapter 7- Deviance, Crime, & Social Control

Hate Crime

A criminal offense committed because of the offender's bias against a race, religion, ethnic group, national origin, disabilities-both physical and mental, or sexual orientation. Also referred to as bias crime. Hate crimes are not only defined by the perpetrator's actions, but by the purpose of their conduct. Some jurisdictions impose harsher sanctions for hate crimes than other crimes.

Stigma

A label used to devalue members of certain social groups. Term created by Interactionist Erving Goffman.

Sanction

A penalty or reward for conduct concerning a social norm.

Professional Criminal

A person who pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation, developing skilled techniques & enjoying a certain degree of status among other criminals.

Victimization Survey

A questionnaire or interview given to a sample of the population to determine whether people have been victims of crime. Fraud, income tax evasion, & blackmail are examples or crimes that are unlikely to be reported.

Cultural Transmission

A school of criminology that argues that criminal behavior is learned through social interactions. fails to explain the conduct of a first time shoplifter etc.

Victimless Crime

A term used by sociologists to describe the willing exchange among adults of widely desired by illegal goods & services.

Differential Association

A theory of deviance that holds that violation of rules results from exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts. Directs our attention to the paramount role of social interaction in increasing a person's motivation to engage in deviant behavior.

Control Theory

A view of conformity & deviance that suggests that our connection to members of society leads us to systematically conform to society's norms.

Crime

A violation of criminal law for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties.

Labeling Theory

Also known as the societal-reaction approach. An approach to deviance that attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants while others engage in the same behavior or not. Does not focus on why some individuals come to commit deviant acts. Instead it attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants, delinquents, bad kids, losers, and criminals, whereas others whose behavior is similar are not seen in such harsh terms. Emphasizes how a person comes to be labeled as deviant or to accept that label. It is important to remember that in a society police officers, judges, teachers and other people of authority help in the labeling of people as deviant. Some groups of people or individuals have the power to define labels and others have the power to apply them onto a person.

Social Constructionist Perspective

An approach to deviance that emphasizes the role of culture in the creation of the deviant identity. We have always had rapist, murders, deadbeat dads, etc but the they have at time become the major social concern of policymakers because of intensive media coverage.

Edwin Sutherland

An individual undergoes the same basic socialization process in learning conforming and deviant acts. He drew on cultural transmission. Used the term differential association. Maintained that through interactions with a primary group and significant others, people acquire definitions of proper and improper behavior. Used the example of the sociable boy living in an area with a high rate of delinquency. Views improper behavior as the result of the types of groups to which one belongs and the kinds of friends they have.

15. _______________ is a state of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound social change and disorder, such as time of economic collapse.

Anomie

Societal- Reaction Approach

Another name for labeling theory. Reminds us that it is the response to an act, not the behavior itself that determines the deviance.

Deviance

Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. Deviance involves the violation of group norms, which may or may not be formalized into law. It is subject to social definition within a particular society ans at a particular time. In most instances, those individuals and groups within the greatest status and power define what is acceptable and what is deviant. Deviance, then, is a complex concept. Sometimes is is trivial, sometimes profoundly harmful. Sometimes is is accepted by society and sometimes soundly rejected.

Saints & Roughnecks

Both groups of high school male students who were continually engaged in excessive drinking, reckless driving, truancy, petty theft, & vandalism. Observed by William Chambliss Saints were never arrested because they came from good families, they did well in school, planned on attending college, etc. Roughnecks were always in trouble with the police because they drove around in beat up trucks, unsuccessful in school, and aroused suspicion no matter what they did.

Obediance

Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure.

Summary Points

Conformity and deviance are two ways in which people respond to real or imagined pressure from others. In this chapter we examined the relationships among deviance and conformity, crime and social control. We studied the mechanisms societies use, both formal and informal, to encourage conformity and discourage deviance, paying particular attention to the law and how it reflects our social values. 1. Deviant behavior violates social norms. Some forms of deviance carry a negative social stigma, while other forms are more or less accepted. 2. A society used social control to encourage the acceptance of basic norms. 3. Stanley Milgram defined conformity as going along with one's peers; obedience is defined as compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure. 4. Some norms are so important to a society, they are formalized into laws. Socialization is a primary source of conforming and obedient behavior, including obedience to law. 5. From a functionalist point of view, deviance and its consequences help to define the limits of proper behavior. 6. Some interactionists maintain that people learn criminal behavior by interacting with others (cultural transmission) . To them, deviance results from exposure to attitudes that are favorable to criminal acts (differential association). 7. Other interactionists attribute increases in crime and deviance to the absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions, such as the family, school, church, & local government (social disorganization theory). 8. An important aspect of labeling theory is the recognition that some people are viewed as deviant, while others who engage in the same behavior are not. 9. From the conflict perspective, laws and punishments are a reflection of the interests of the powerful. 10. The feminist perspective emphasizes that cultural attitudes and differential economic relationships help to explain gender differences in deviance and crime. 11. Crime represents a deviation from formal social norms administered by the state. 12. Sociologists differentiate among victimless crimes (such as drug use and prostitution), professional crime, organized crime, white-collar crime, hate crimes, and transnational crime. 13. Crime statistics are among the least reliable social data, partly because so many crimes are not reported to law enforcement agencies. Rates of violent crime are higher in the Unites States than in other Western societies, although they have been dropping. 14. Gun violence has become a major problem not just in the United States, but around the world. Yet gun control legislation is extremely controversial, opposed by powerful interest groups whose members see it as abridgment of their constitutional right to bear arms.

4. Which sociological theory suggests that our connection to members of our society leads us to conform systematically to society's norms?

Control theory

Transnational Crime

Crime that occurs across multiple national borders. In the past, international crime was often limited to the clandestine shipment of goods across the border between two countries. International crime now spans the globe.

5. Which of the following statements is true of deviance?

Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.

Differential Justice

Differences in the way social control is exercised over different groups.

Crime Trends

Due to the increase of media, crime is being reported more than ever before giving off the appearance that crime rates are increasing. In reality crime rates are down significantly compared to recent years. Possibilities for why both index crimes and victimization rates are down: 1. community-oriented policing & crime prevention programs 2. New gun control laws 3. A massive increase in the prison population, which at least prevents inmates from committing crimes outside prison. 4. New surveillance technologies 5. Better residential & business security 6. The decline of the crack cocaine epidemic, which soared in the late 1980's. 7. The aging of the population, as the number of people in their 50s increased & the number in their 20's decreased. The proportion of major crimes committed by women has increased.

Anomie

Durkheim's term for the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. A state of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound social change & disorder.

8. Which sociologist first advanced the idea that an individual undergoes the same basic socialization process whether learning conforming or deviant acts?

Edwin Sutherland

19. Daniel Bell used the term __________________ ________________ to describe the process during which leadership of organized crime was transferred from Irish Americans to Jewish Americans and later to Italian Americans and others.

Ethnic Succession

Freda Alder & Meda Chesney-Lind

Feminist Perspective. Suggested that many of the existing approaches to deviants and crime were developed with only men in mind.

12. Police officers, judges, administrators, employees, military officers, and managers of movie theaters are all instruments of ____________________ social control.

Formal

17. _______________ theorists view standards of deviant behavior as merely reflecting cultural norms, where as _________________ & ______________ theorists point out that the most powerful groups in a society can shape laws and standards and determine who is (or is not) prosecuted as a criminal.

Functionalist, conflict, labeling

Conformity

Going along with peers-individuals of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior.

Law

Governmental social control. Laws are not merely handed down from generation to generation. Rather they reflect continually changing standards of what is right and wrong, of how violations are to be determined, and of what sanctions are to be applied.

White-Collar Crime

Illegal acts committed by affluent, "respectable" individuals in the course of business activities.

Kai Erikson

Illustrates the boundary-maintenance function of deviance in his study of 17th century New England Puritans.

Erving Goffman

Interactionist who coined the term 'Stigma'.

6. Which sociologist illustrated the boundary-maintenance function of deviance in his study of Puritans in 17th- century New England?

Kai Erikson

13. Some norms are considered so important by a society that they are formalized into _______________ controlling people's behavior.

Laws

Richard Quinney

Leading exponent of the view that the criminal justice system serves the interest of the powerful. Crime, according to Quinney, is a definition of conduct created by authorized agents of social control-such as legislators and law enforcement officers- in a politically organized society. He and other conflict theorists argue that lawmaking is often an attempt by the powerful to coerce others into their morality.

Functionalist

Maintain that people must respect social norms if any group or society is to survive. In their view, societies literally could not function if massive numbers of people defined standards of appropriate conduct. See standards of deviant behavior as merely reflecting cultural norms.

Clifford Shaw & Henry McKay

Mapped the distribution of social problems in Chicago. They found high rates of social problems in neighborhoods where buildings had deteriorated & the population had declined. The patterns persisted over time despite the changes in the neighborhoods' ethnic and racial composition.

Robert Merton

Merton's theory of deviance. Adapted anomie to explain why people accept or reject the goals of a society, the socially approved means of fulfilling their aspirations, or both. Wealth is the basic symbol of success in the United States. Anomie theory of deviance. 1. Conformity- opposite of deviance. Acceptance of both the overall societal goal and the approved means. Without which societies could only exist as collectives of people rather than as unified cultures, and might experience continual chaos. 2. Retreatist- from both the goals and the means of the society 3. Innovator- accepts the goals of society but pursues them with means that are regarded as improper. 4. Ritualist- abandoned the goal of material success and become compulsively committed to the institutional means. 5. Rebel- attempts to create a new social structure. feels alienated from the dominant means and goals and may seek a dramatically different social order.

Stanley Migram

Milgram experiment. "Behavior that is unthinkable in an individual .... acting on his own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders."

Philip Zimbardo

Mock Prison Experiment that demonstrated the power of communal relationships. He abandoned two cars in two very different neighborhoods, leaving the hood up and removing the hubcaps. In one neighborhood people immediately started to strip the car and in the other neighborhood it wasn't touched for weeks except for someone putting the hood down when it rained.

William Chambliss

Observed the Saints & Roughnecks Concluded that social class played an important role in the varying fortunes of the two groups.

Travis Hirschi

Our bonds to family members, friends, and peers induce us to follow the mores and folkways of our society. Goes along with Control Theory.

Howard Becker

Popularized the approach of labeling theory. "Deviant behavior is behavior that people so label"

7. Which of the following is an example of innovation as defined in Robert Merton's anomie theory of deviance?

Rather than writing an original essay, a student copies his submission from the Internet.

Gary Schulman

Recreated The Milgram Experiment with black and white students and started that white students are more likely to shock black students than fellow white ones. w

Anomie Theory of Deviance

Robert Merton's theory of deviance as an adaption of socially prescribed goals or of the means governing their attainment, or both.

11. If we fail to respect and obey social norms, we may face punishment through informal or formal _________________.

Sanctions

1. Society brings about acceptance of basic norms through techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior. This process is termed _________.

Social Control

Formal Social Control

Social control that is carried out by authorized agents, such as police officers, judges, social administrators, & employers.

Informal Social Control

Social control that is carried out casually by ordinary people through such means as laughter, smiles, & ridicule.

9. Which of the following theories contends that criminal victimization increases when communal relationships and social institutions break down?

Social disorganization theory

14. It is important to underscore the fact that _________ is the primary source of conformity and obedience, including obedience to law.

Socialization

16. Labeling theory is also called the _____________________ ____________________ approach.

Societal-reaction

Elliot Currie

Suggested that our society places greater emphasis on individual economic achievement than other societies.

Index Crimes

The eight types of crime tabulated each year by the FBI in the Uniform Crime Reports murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, & arson. It's hard to track these crime as sometimes racial minorities tend to distrust law enforcement and women do not report rape or spousal abuse for fear or being blamed.

2. Which sociological perspective argues that people must respect social norms if any group or society is to survive?

The functionalist perspective

Emile Durkheim

The punishments established within a culture (including both formal and informal mechanisms of social control) help to define acceptable behavior and this contribute to stability. If improper acts were not sanctioned, people might stretch their standards of what constitutes appropriate conduct. Introduced the term Anomie

Social Control

The techniques & strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society.

Social Disorganization Theory

The theory that crime & deviance are caused by the absence or breakdown of communal relationships & social institutions. Developed by the University of Chicago in the early 1900's to describe the apparent disorganization that occurred as cities expanded with rapid immigration and migration from rural areas. To some this theory seems to "blame the victim" leaving larger societal forces, such as the lack of jobs or high-quality schools unaccountable. some critics argue that even troubled neighborhoods have viable, healthy organizations, which persist despite the problems that surrounds them.

Organized Crime

The work of a group that regulates relations among criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities, including prostitution, gambling, & the smuggling & sale of illegal drugs.

Conflict Theorists

They contend that the successful functioning of society will consistently benefit the powerful and work to the disadvantage of other groups. Points out that the most powerful groups in a society can shape laws and standards and determine who is or is not prosecuted as a criminal.

Daniel Bell

Used the term ethnic succession to describe the sequential passage of leadership from Irish Americans in the early part of the 20th century to Jewish Americans in the 1920's and then to Italian Americans in the early 1930's. Ethnic succession has become more complex, reflecting the diversity of the nation's latest immigrants. Colombian, Mexican, Russian, Chinese, Pakistani, & Nigerian immigrants are among those who have begun to play a significant role in organized crime activities.

18. Feminists contend that prostitution and some forms of pornography are not ________________ crimes.

Victimless

Milgram Experiment

Where people were asked to comply with the experimenters instructions to administer increasingly painful electric shocks to an individual.

Susan A Phillips

While studying graffiti in Los Angeles, she discovered that writers learned from each other. They have a stable focus over time. She also noted how other ethnic groups built on the models of the African American & Chicago gangs, superimposing Cambodian, Chinese, or Vietnamese symbols.

20. Consumer fraud, bribery, and income tax evasion are considered ________________ ______________ crimes.

White-collar

10. Which of the following conducted observation research on two groups of high school males (the Saints and the Roughnecks) and concluded that social class played an important role in the varying fortunes of the two groups?

William Chambliss

3. Stanley Milgram used the word conformity to mean ___________.

going along with peers.