ch 6

stereotype threat

a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in which the fear of performing poorly—and confirming stereotypes about their social groups—causes students to perform poorly (page 158)

crime

a violation of a norm that has been codified into law (page 167)

deterrence

an approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes (page 169)

primary deviance

in labeling theory, the initial act or attitude that causes one to be labeled deviant (page 157)

secondary deviance

in labeling theory, the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant (page 157)

differential association theory

Edwin Sutherland's hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers (page 156)

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 (page 159)

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 (page 156)

deviance

a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction (page 151)

criminal justice system

a collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that create and enforce laws (page 169)

stereotype promise

a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in which positive stereotypes, such as the "model minority" label applied to Asian Americans, lead to positive performance outcomes for Asian Americans (page 159)

outsiders

according to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from "normal" society (page 160)

positive deviance

actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic (page 171)

in-group orientation

among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity (page 160)

rehabilitation

an approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty (page 169)

retribution

an approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal (page 169)

incapacitation

an approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them (page 169)

self-fulfilling prophecy

an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true (page 158)

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 18,000 law enforcement agencies (page 167)

white-collar crime

crime committed by a high-status individual in the course of his occupation (page 168)

violent crime

crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery (page 167)

property crime

crimes that do not involve violence, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson (page 167)

innovators

individuals who accept society's approved goals but not society's approved means to achieve them (page 154)

ritualists

individuals who have given up hope of achieving society's approved goals but still operate according to society's approved means (page 154)

rebels

individuals who reject society's approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometimes revolutionary) goals using new means (page 154)

retreatists

individuals who renounce society's approved goals and means entirely and live outside conventional norms altogether (page 154)

passing

presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong to (page 159)

deviance avowal

process by which an individual self-identifies as deviant and initiates her own labeling process (page 160)

tertiary deviance

redefining the stigma associated with a deviant label as a positive phenomenon (page 158)

capital punishment

the death penalty (page 171)

social control

the formal and informal mechanisms used to elicit conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion (page 155)

cyberbullying

the use of electronic media (web pages, social networking sites, e-mail, Twitter, cell phones) to tease, harass, threaten, or humiliate someone (page 165)