Deviant Behavior

Adler and Adler's first "S"- Sin

-deviance is equivalent to sin and satanic influence. -Religious leaders make judgements and administer sanctions. -The afflicted are condemned and seen as contagious.

Field Research

-gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey -At one extreme, surveying people. At the other, becoming part of the population to better understand and empathize. Disadvantages:

Social Constructionist/ Relativist Conception

Assumes that the definition of deviance is constructed based on interactions of those in society; Behavior is not inherently deviant; it becomes deviant when it is defined as such

Normative/Positivist Conception

Assumes that there is a general set of norms of behavior, conduct and conditions on which we agree

Adler and Adler's "A"

Attitude -religious & political extremes, mental illness, etc.

Adler and Adler's "B"

Behavior -intentional or inadvertent actions. Is an achieved status

Disadvantages of covert/overt observations

Can be emotionally and intellectually exhausting because you get very involved in the environments and sometimes even want to become apart of that deviant behavior

Adler and Adler's "C"

Condition -may happen through social definition process, nothing has been done to cause it or can be done to prevent it. Can be ascribed status or achieved

Rate busting functionalism

Refers to the negative reaction not to under conformity but to over-conformity and constitutes the "geed phenomenon." In other words, adhering to the idealized level of the norm includes unfavorable evaluations.

strain theory

Robert Merton's theory that deviance occurs when a society does not give all of its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals

Slips

Signs that discredit Claims

Points

Signs that make claims to prestige

internal validity

When conditions are planned, controlled and carried out consistently by the researcher, no other factor should explain the results.

Stigma

a mark of shame or discredit

Symbolic Interactionism

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions

Laws

considered the strongest norm because it is backed by official sanctions

Suite Deviance

crime committed by white-collar workers in a business environment Ex: Embezzlement

Discredited

differentness is known or evident

discreditable

differentness is neither known about or immediately perceivable.

Deviance Admiration

does not conform to norm, but receives positive evaluation

ill fame

notoriety

Covert observation

observation in which the observer's presence or purpose is kept secret from those being observed

street deviance

offences committed by ordinary people against other people or organizations, usually in public spaces

Norms

rules of behavior that guide people's actions and self presentations

Disidentifiers

signs that break up an otherwise coherent picture in a positive direction desired by the actor. They do not establish a new claim, but throw doubt on the validity of the virtual identity.

Symbols

signs that convey social information that may be readily available and routinely sought and received

Stigma Symbols

signs which are effective in drawing attention to debasing identity discrepancy

C. Wright Mills

sociological imagination

Personal identity

the assumption that an individual can be differentiated from all others and, around this differentiation, a single continuous record of social facts can be attached, becoming the substance to which all other biographical facts can be attached.

Virtual Identity

assumptions about what an individual ought to be

Actual Identity

character and attributes and individual can be proved to possess.

Experiments

- have been called the "gold standard" for determining causal relationships in social sciences. -In a true experimental design, subjects are randomly assigned to one of two or more conditions that are thought to affect some outcome, usually a behavior. Random assignment ensures that any differences following the intervention or "experimental" stimulus must have been caused by the intervention.

external validity

- the ability to apply the results to outside contexts, namely the "real world."

Adler and Adler's second "S"- Sickness

-1st half of 20th century, medicalization model emerged as an explanation for deviance. -process begins when a behavior/condition defined as deviant is "prospected" by people with medical interests for potential monetary gain. (Conrad & Schneider) -The recovery and self help movement expanded this -success is fueled by the prestige of science, the lure of the "easy fix pill," and the destigmatization of some deviance.

Biographical identity

-A person is an entity about which a record can be built up. -We assume a person can only have one biography -There is a degree of "informational connectedness": -How connected are social facts to identity—to what degree do those who know some about a person, know many?

Agnew

-Agnew revisits strain theory and argues that strain may also result from negative relationships and that those who engage in deviant behavior are pressured into crime. -3 types of negative relations with others: 1)prevent or threaten to prevent the achievement of positively valued goals 2)remove or threaten to remove positive stimuli 3)Present or threaten to present negative stimuli -These negative relations will likely lead to anger and frustration, which may then lead to deviant behavior. -Also argues that some types of strain are more likely to cause crime and deviance than others.

Problems with researching Deviance

-Behaviors are often shielded from public view or forced underground by mainstream society. -Studying attitudes and beliefs of people can be problematic because holding deviant attitudes and beliefs can be costly to individuals, even if they never act on them. -Researchers must be aware of the unintended consequences of their influence on individuals. -Different researchers can elicit different responses from subjects -Studying those who may be considered deviants can be very emotionally taxing. Researchers may be unable to help and also risk losing objectivity. -Human Subjects Institutional Review Boards/IRBs: developed in an effort to protect human subjects, researchers, and the university or organization.

UCR

-Developed by the FBI in the 1930's. Contains data from nearly 17000 police agencies. Includes data on violent crimes and property crimes known by the police Problems: -Gender, age and race of the offender are often not known or provided. Know little about the crimes -Data may provide a better picture of what police do than criminals -These data do not account for unreported crimes and that number is huge.

Cloward and Ohlin

-Differential Opportunity -Cloward (student of Merton) argued that just as not everyone has equal access to legitimate means, not everyone has equal access to illegitimate means -Merton described pressures and motivations that lead to deviant behavior, but not the choice of the particular type of deviant behavior. -Cloward and Ohlin (student of Sutherland) argued that this has to do with the availability of opportunities to learn about and participate in deviant acts

deductive reasoning

-General to Specific -reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)

Messner and Rosenfeld

-Institutional Anomie Theory -Attention is on the American Dream and how it contributes to crime and deviance -"American Dream" refers to a cultural commitment to the goal of economic success to be pursued by everyone under conditions of open, individual competition. -Argue that this fosters an "anything goes" mentality when pursuing personal goals.

Robert Merton

-Merton argued that anomie does not result simply from unrealistic goals, but from a faulty relationship between cultural goals and legitimate means to access them. -Americans are not simply urged to pursue a rigidly defined goal of success, but there is also a broad cultural message that everyone could seek social mobility and expect to enjoy a measure of success. -We are all socialized to desire success, but we do not all have the same opportunities to become successful (remember the salad bar analogy).

Prices of Passing

-People infer other things Ex: cerebral palsy=drunk -Learning what others "really think" of your kind -Risk of blackmail -They can find themselves in a "showdown" with people who have learned the secret and confronted them. -This can be informal or formal Ex: mental health hearings, criminal trials

Strategies of covering

-Reducing their appearance Ex: Blind wearing glasses or relearning movement -Restricting the display of failings Ex: Blind not reading -Learning to adapt to social situations Ex: blind looking toward speaker, though they cannot actually see them.

inductive reasoning

-Specific to general -A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.

Passing

-The management of undisclosed discrediting information about their real social identity -presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong to

Cyber Deviance

-a clear example of how time and context can alter deviance. -As new technology developed, new forms of deviance have taken shape (or become obvious) -cyberbullying, movie and music piracy/illegal downloading, the online pedophile subculture and, according to your text, sexting -Adler & Adler study of self injury

3 types of stigma

-abominations of the body: physical deformities -blemishes of individual character: perceived as weak will, domineering or unnatural passions, treacherous & rigid beliefs, and dishonesty -tribal stigma: Can be transmitted through lineages and equally contaminate all members of a family

Physical deviance

-generally thought to be of two types: (1) violating norms of what people are expected to look like and (2) physical incapacity or disability -Ideas of what is acceptable or desirable in terms of physical appearance vary by context -Setting an unattainable standard for ideal physical appearance can lead to deviant behavior

Pure observation

-only observing, without people being aware of it or observing the researcher at all -Benefit: researcher presence is unlikely to affect behavior.

Sexual Deviance

-sex, sexual orientations, and sexual practices -Gay marriage, prostitution, -Societal norms shape our conceptions of appropriate sexual behavior, but those boundaries are continuously tested by trends, businesses and subcultures. -Our society is largely (and legally) monogamous, so polygamy is a discredited form of relationship

Phases of learning for the stigmatized

1)an individual is born with a stigma and socialized into their disadvantaged situation while learning and incorporating the standards they fall short of. 2)the family and neighborhood constitute a protective capsule for the young. Information control makes the child think they are normal until protection can no longer occur. 3)the individual is stigmatized late in life or learns late in life that they have always been discreditable. They learned about normal and stigmatized long before they had to see themselves as deficient. 4)socialized in an alien community, inside/outside geographical boundaries of normal society and then must learn a 2nd way of being, which is felt by those around them to be the real and valid one.

Adler and Adler's work on self-injury reflects which of the three major sociological approaches

3 categories of "S"

Ascribed status

A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person's unique talents or characteristics.

Reliability

Ability of a test to yield very similar scores for the same individual over repeated testings

sociological imagination

Ability to see the connection between the larger world and our personal lives

Participant Observation

Actively Participating with the group you're researching

Ethnographies

Detailed descriptive studies of human societies. In cultural anthropology, an ethnography is traditionally the study of a non-Western society.

Critiques of Normative/Positivist Conception

Ignores people who do not agree

Critiques of Critical Conception

Ignores that laws also apply to people in power as well as people not in powers

Critiques of Social Constructionist/ Relativist Conception

Ignores things that are universally inherent deviance

Strain theory: macro or micro level?

Macro

Commitment Ceremonies

Mark the announcement about the nature of ones deviancy, and place that person in a particular role which is thought to neutralize the harmful effects of his misconduct.

Critical Conception

Normative understanding of deviance is established by those in power in an effort to maintain and enhance that power. Critiques the social system that exists.

Kai Erikson

Norms are not fixed, but are subject to evolving and shifting ◦Interactions between deviants and agents of social control locate the margins between deviance and respectability ◦Once individuals are identified as deviant, they undergo "commitment ceremonies" ◦During commitment ceremonies, individuals are negatively labeled, experiencing a status change that is difficult to reverse. ◦Criminal trials, verdict announcements and imprisonment would be examples of commitment ceremonies. They are highly public and dramatic and there is no exit ceremony when people leave this role (release from prison).

Overt observation

Participants' behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge and consent.

Adler and Adler

People can be labeled deviant through the ABC's of Deviance

Normals

People who do not depart negatively from expectations

Erving Goffman

Stigma

Heckert and Heckert

The popular conception of deviance has been an underconformity to societal norms of acceptability that is negatively received. ◦By these standards, deviants either fail to meet societal standards or intentionally violate them. ◦Heckert & Heckert's ideas regarding deviance were controversial because they proposed that: ◦People, at times, admire deviance ◦Over conforming can also be a type of deviance. Negative Deviance: Under-conformity that results in negative reactions Deviance Admiration: under/non-conformity that is positively appraised Rate Busting: Over conformity that is negatively evaluated Positive Deviance: over-conformity that receives positive reactions.

Anomie

a social condition in which norms are weak, conflicting, or absent

Achieved Status

a social position a person takes on voluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort

Positive Deviance

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

Content Analysis

applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand

Status/Prestige Symbols

establish prestige that might not otherwise be given or automatically granted

Folkways

everyday norms that do not generate much uproar if violated. Based on customs, tradition, etiquette, etc

3 Categories of Norms

folkways, mores, laws

Adler and Adler's third "S"- Selection

intentional, within control

Operationalization

means that items can be selected and categorized consistently and replicated by others

Mores

moral" norms that may generate more outrage if broken.

Emile Durkheim

often considered the father of sociology -Studied suicide - Argued that characteristics of communities influence suicide rates. -He felt that suicide was related to the amount of regulation in a society and the degree of group unity -Durkheim felt that social integration and social change were the key components in deviant behavior. -When society undergoes rapid change, norms will be unclear and a state of anomie will result.

Secondary data

previously collected data that are already available for the study of crimes and other deviance

Surveys

research in which a representative sample of people are asked (often anonymously) questions about their attitudes or behavior Disadvantages: -Expensive -Response rate -Appropriate sample size

Infamy

the state of being well known for some bad quality or deed