SOCI 4432: Chapter 6 (Social Structure Theory), Module 11

Street Efficacy

- a concept in which more cohesive communities with high levels of social control and social integration foster the ability for kids to use their wits to avoid violent confrontations and to feel safe in their own neighborhood. - adolescents with high levels of street efficacy are less likely to resort to violence themselves or to associate with delinquent peers (185).

Status Frustration

- a form of culture conflict experienced by lower-class youths because social conditions prevent them from achieving success as defined by the larger society (195).

Black Lives Matter (BLM)

- a movement whose aim is to reduce institutional violence and perceived systematic racism toward black people (174).

Culture of Poverty

- a separate lower-class structure, characterized by apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust of social institutions such as schools, government agencies, and the police, that is passed from one generation to the next (174).

Subculture

- a set of values, beliefs, and traditions unique to a particular social class or group within a larger society (177).

Delinquent Subculture

- a value system adopted by lower-class youths that is directly opposed to that of the larger society (195).

Social Ecology School

- an interdisciplinary approach to the study of interdependent social and environmental problems that cause crime (180).

Negative Affective States

- anger, frustration, and adverse emotions produced by a variety of sources of strain (189).

Transitional Neighborhood

- areas undergoing shifts in population and structure, usually form middle-class residential to lower-class mixed-use (178).

Concentration Effect

- as working-class and middle-class families flee inner-city poverty-ridden areas, the most disadvantaged population is consolidation in urban ghettos (182).

Social Disorganization Theory

- branch of social structure theory that focuses on the breakdown in inner-city neighborhoods of institutions such as the family, school, and employment (177).

Cultural Deviance Theory

- branch of social structure theory that sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts the conventional social norms (177).

Strain Theory

- branches of social structure theory that sees crime as a function of the conflict between people's goals and the means available to obtain them (177).

Relative Deprivation

- envy, mistrust, and aggression resulting form perceptions of economic and social inequality (187).

Stratified Society

- grouping according to social strata or levels. - American society is considered stratified on the basis of economic class and wealth (172).

Reaction Formation

- irrational hostility evidenced by young delinquents, who adopt norms directly opposed to middle-class goals and standards that seem impossible to achieve (197).

Cultural Transmission

- process whereby values, beliefs, and traditions are handed down from one generation to the next (193).

Social Classes

- segments of the population whose members are at a relatively similar economic level and who share attitudes, values, norms, and an identifiable lifestyle (172).

Collective Efficacy

- social control exerted by cohesive communities and based on mutual trust, including intervention in the supervision of children and maintenance of public order (183).

Strain

- the anger, frustration, and resentment experienced by people who believe they cannot achieve their goals through legitimate means (177).

White Privilege

- the assumed societal privileges that benefit Caucasians and provide them with opportunities not available to non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances (147).

American Dream

- the goal of accumulating material goods and wealth through individual competition. - the process of being socialized to pursue material success and to believe it is achievable (187).

Underclass

- the lowest social stratum in any country, whose members lack the education and skills needed to function successfully in modern society (175).

Middle-Class Measuring Rods

- the standards by which authority figures, such as teachers and employers, evaluate lower-class youngsters and often prejudge them negatively (196).

Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT)

- the view that anomie pervades US culture because the drive for material wealth dominates and undermines social and community values (187).

Anomie Theory

- the view that anomie results when socially defined goals (such as wealth and power) are universally mandated but access to legitimate means (such as education and job opportunities) is stratified by class and status (187).

Social Structure Theory

- the view that disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime (175).

Differential Opportunity

- the view that lower-class youths, whose legitimate opportunities are limited, join gangs and pursue criminal careers as alternative means to achieve universal success goals (197).

General Strain Theory (GST)

- the view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual's emotional traits and responses to produce criminality (189).

Focal Concerns

- values, such as toughness and street smarts, that have evolved specifically to fit conditions in lower-class environments (193).