Chapter 6: Deviance
central thesis of labeling theory
"All social groups make rules and attempt, at some times and under some circumstances, to enforce them" -when a rule is enforced, the person who is supposed to have broken it may be seen as a special kind of person, one who cannot be trusted to live by the rules agreed on by the group
witch hunt
campaigns to identify, investigate , and correct behavior that has been defined as dangerous to the larger society
corporate crime
committed by a corporation in the way that it does business as it competes with other companies for market share and profits
white-collar crime
consists of "crimes committed by person's of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupations
examples of claims-making activities
demanding services, filling out forms, lodging complaints, filing lawsuits, calling press conferences, writing letters of protest
examples of white-collar and corporate crimes
engaging in risky lending practices, manufacturing and marketing unsafe products, tax evasion, money laundering
differential association
exposure to criminal patterns and isolation from non-criminal influences as factors that put people, especially juveniles, at risk of becoming criminals
positive sanctions
expressions of approval for compliance
negative sanctions
expressions of disapproval
conflict perspective
focus on laws that protect the interests of some advantaged group at another group's expense.
Referee's
include parents who correct their kids behavior, children who censor their parents' behavior, teachers who watch students as they take exams, police officers who arrest people
mixed contacts
interactions between stigmatized persons and so-called normals
surveillance
involves monitoring movements, conversations and associations with the intent of catching people in the act of doing something wrong
retreatism
involves the rejection of both culturally valued goals and the legitimate means of achieving them
rebellion
involves the rejection of both the valued goals and the legitimate means of attaining them and seek a new set of goals and means of obtaining them
ritualism
involves the rejection of the cultural goals but a rigid adherence to the legitimate means society has in place to achieve them
panopticon
pan means a complete view and optic means seeing
examples of claims makers
parents, children, government officials, advertisers, scientists and professors
pure deviants
people who have engaged in offending behavior and are caught, punished and labeled as outsiders
conformists
people who have not engaged in offending behavior and treated accordingly
methods of social control
positive and negative sanctions, censorship, surveillance, authority and group pressure
formal sanctions
reactions backed by laws, rules or policies specifying the conditions under which people should be rewarded or punished for specific behaviors
sanctions
reactions of approval or disapproval to behavior that conforms to or departs from group norms
illegitimate opportunity structures
social settings and arrangements that offer people the opportunity to commit specific types of crime
informal sanctions
spontaneous, unofficial expressions of approval not backed by the force of law or official policy
mechanisms of social control
strategies people use to encourage, often force, others to comply with social norms
Stanley Milgram
studied the commands of recognized authority figures as a mechanism of social control -designed an experiment to see how far people would go before they would refuse to conform
examples of surveillance
tapping phones, intercepting letters, e-mail and documents, videotaping/recording and electronic monitoring
conformity
the acceptance of cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through legitimate means -ex: those who play by the book
innovation
the acceptance of cultural goals but the rejection of legitimate means to achieve them ex: evading taxes, selling drugs, identity theft, or embezzlement
prison-industrial complex
the corporations and agencies with an economic stake in building and supplying correctional facilities and in providing services
claims makers
those who articulate and promote claims and who tend to gain in some way if the targeted audience accepts their claims as true
secret deviants
those who have engaged in the offending behavior but no one notices or, if it is noticed, no one applies sanctions
falsely accused
those who have not committed crimes but are treated as if they have
symbolic interactionist perspective
when focusing on the role of laws in shaping interaction and presenting the self -interested in acts of resisting laws and in actions taken to change laws or influence the way they are written
crime
a behavior that violates a law
groupthink
a phenomenon that occurs when a group under great pressure to take action achieves the illusion of consensus by putting pressure on its members to suppress expression of doubt and ignore the moral consequences of their actions
structural strain
a situation in which there is an imbalance between culturally valued goals and the legitimate means to obtain them
disciplinary society
a social arrangement that normalizes surveillance, making it expected and routine
carceral culture
a social arrangement under which the society largely abandons physical and public punishment and replaces it with surveillance as the method of controlling people's activities and thoughts
claims-making activities
actions taken to draw attention to a claim
censorship
an action taken to prevent information believed to be sensitive, unsuitable, or threatening from reaching some audience
stigma
an attribute that is deeply discrediting
deviance
any behavior or physical appearance that is socially challenged and/or condemned because it departs from the norms and expectations of some group
feminist perspective
attuned to how laws are used to maintain and perpetuate inequalities or to mandate behavior and opportunities based on gender
functionalist perspective
attuned to the ways in which laws (and ordinances) contribute to order and stability -laws are in place to protect society -laws exist to ensure order and stability
Labeling theory is guided by what two assumptions?
1. rules are socially constructed 2. rules are not enforced uniformly or consistently
3 broad categories of stigmas
1. stigma of the body or physical conditions that some audience defines as an imperfection, a deformity, or a disability 2. related to behavior/behaviors some audience considers deviant 3. stigmas that an audience has defined as racial, ethnic, religious or national