Chapter 7

Deviance promotes social change

Deviants may violate norms in order to get them changed. For example, acts of civil disobedience including lunch counter sit-ins and bus boycotts—were used to protest and eventually correct injustices such as segregated buses and lunch counters in the south. Students periodically stage campus demonstrations to call attention to perceived injustices, such as a tuition increase or the firing of a popular professor.

external pressures

Those with the strongest containment mechanisms are able to withstand ____ that might cause them to participate in deviant behavior.

Deviance unites a group

When deviant behavior is seen as a threat to group solidarity people and unite in opposition to that behavior, their loyalties to society are reinforced.

Secondary deviance

refers to deviance as a lifestyle and personal identity.

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% of property crimes are not reported to the police.

The Three Stages of Deviance

(1) Primary deviance refers to the initial act of rule breaking. (2) Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts that identity and continues the deviant behavior. For example, a person may shoplift an item from a clothing department store but not be apprehended, or labeled as a deviant. The person may subsequently decide to forgo such behavior in the future. However, if the person is labeled as a "thief," and subsequently accepts that label, then the person may shoplift items from stores on numerous occasions. (3) Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.

Hirschi's concept of "social bond" is comprised of the following four elements

(1) attachment to other people, (2) commitment to conformity, (3) involvement in conventional activities, and (4) belief in the legitimacy of conventional values and norms.

Functions of deviance

(a) it clarifies norms and increases conformity, (b) it strengthens social bonds among the people reacting to the deviant, and (c) it can help lead to positive social change.

Four factors of Hirschi's social bond theory

1) Attachment to other people 2) Commitment to conformity 3) Involvement in conventional activities 4) Belief in legitimacy of conventional values and norms

Three Gang Types

1) Criminal—devoted to theft, extortion, and other illegal means of securing an income. 2) Conflict—seek to acquire a reputation by fighting over turf and adopting a value system of toughness, courage, and similar qualities. 3) Retreatist—are unable to gain success through legitimate means and are unwilling to do so though illegal ones. As a result, the consumption of drugs is stressed, and addiction is prevalent.

Merton identified five ways in which people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them

1. Conformity—accepts culturally approved goals; pursues them through culturally approved means. 2. Innovation—accepts culturally approved goals; adopts disapproved means of achieving them. 3. Ritualism—abandons society's goals but continues to conform to approved means 4. Retreatism—abandons both approved goals and the approved means to achieve them 5. Rebellion—challenges both the approved goals and the approved means to achieve them.

Edwin Sutherland suggests that deviance is learned through association with others.

A person becomes delinquent when exposure to law-breaking attitudes is more extensive that exposure to law-abiding attitudes.

How the process of labeling occurs

Becker believes that moral entrepreneurs use their own perspective of "right" and "wrong" to establish the rules by which they expect other people to live.

Deviance clarifies rules

By punishing deviant behavior, society reaffirms its commitment to the rules and clarifies their meaning.

External social control

Society's effort to bring those who "stepped outside the lines" back into line. It is made up of the system of rewards and punishments, sanctions that persons, parties, and agents use to induce others to conform to a norm. External social control refers to the ability of outside agencies -- such as police -- to exert control over your behavior.

discretion

The criminal justice system, including the police, the courts, and prisons, often has considerable ____ in dealing with offenders. The police often use ____ in deciding whether to act on a situation. Prosecutors and judges use ____ in deciding which cases to pursue and how to handle them.

Internal social control

The process of internalizing the norms of society and accepting them as valid. It operates through the process of socialization, which is learning and adopting the norms of the society or a particular group or collectivity within the society. Internal social control refers to the lessons of socialization you have taken to heart and so you evaluate behaviors according to your personal views of right and wrong.

Social bond theory

The proposition that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person's ties to society are weakened or broken.

Organized crime

a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.

Felony

a major crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment typically ranges from more than a year's imprisonment to death.

Misdemeanor

a minor crime that is typically punished by less than one year in jail.

Rehabilitation

a program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses.

Deviance and Capitalism

a second branch of conflict theory—Marxist/critical theory—views deviance and crime as a function of the capitalist economic system.

Juvenile delinquency

a violation of law or the commission of a status offense by young people.

Violent crime

actions— murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault— involving force or the threat of force against others.

Retribution

an act of moral vengeance by which society makes the offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime.

A stigma

an undesirable characteristic or label used by others to deny the deviant full social acceptance (jailbird, crazy, fat, homeless, cripple).

Punishment

any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of some offense the person is thought to have committed.

Deviance

any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant cultural norms in the society or group in which it occurs.

Social exchange theory

are based on the assumption that self-interest is the basic motivating factor in people's interactions. According to this approach, people learn to adjust their behavior so that they receive rewards from others rather than negative responses of punishment. When people do not give and take in a manner that is deemed inappropriate by other group members, conflict often ensues, and relationships among people may be destabilized. Consider this example of give and take: A good friend offers you a gift, but you decide to refuse it. Self-interest—such as keeping the friendship or some possession of some worth—might dictate that you accept the gift.

According to Howard Becker, moral entrepreneurs

are often the ones who create the rules about what constitutes deviant or conventional behavior. Becker believes that more entrepreneurs use their own perspectives of "right" and "wrong" to establish the rules by which they expect other people to live. They also label others as deviant. Often, these rules are enforced on persons with less power than the moral entrepreneurs. Becker concludes that the deviant is "one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label."

Critical approach

based on the assumption that they laws and the criminal justice system protect the power and privilege of the capitalist class.

Crime

behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions.

Deviance

cannot be defined without some reference to norms, but this does not mean that labeling processes are unimportant.

Marxist theory

capitalism produces haves and have-nots, and each group engages in different types of crime.

Illegitimate Opportunity structures

circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels. Cloward and Ohlin expanded Merton's strain theory and suggested that for deviance to occur, people must have access to this.

Property crimes

crimes including burglary (breaking into private property to commit a serious crime), motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft (theft of property worth $50 or more), and arson.

Emancipation theory of female crime

has been refuted by subsequent analysts, Adler's and Simons's works encouraged feminist scholars (both men and women) to examine more closely the relationship among gender, deviance, and crime.

Travis Hirschi's social bond theory

holds that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person's ties to a society are weakened or broken.

Occupational (White-collar) crime

illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.

Corporate crime

illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support. Examples include antitrust violations; tax evasions; misrepresentation in advertising; infringement on patents, copyrights, and trademarks; price fixing; and financial aid fraud.

Political crime

illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it.

Labeling

is all that is required for an act to be deviant.

Marxist feminist approach

is based on the assumption that women are exploited by both capitalism and patriarchy. From this approach, women's criminal behavior is linked to gender conflict created by the economic and social struggles that often take place in postindustrial societies such as ours.

Uniform Crime Report

is the major source of information on crimes reported in the United States.

Primary deviance

is when a person engages only in isolated acts of deviance.

Social junk

members of stigmatized groups (such as welfare recipients, the homeless, and persons with disabilities) who are costly to society but relatively harmless.

Labeling theory

no act is inherently deviant; deviance is a matter of social definition. Deviance exists when some members of a group or society label others as deviant. Primary deviance is when a person engages only in isolated acts of deviance. Secondary deviance refers to deviance as a lifestyle and personal identity. A stigma an undesirable characteristic or label used by others to deny the deviant full social acceptance (jailbird, crazy, fat, homeless, cripple). Labeling is all that is required for an act to be deviant. Deviance cannot be defined without some reference to norms, but this does not mean that labeling processes are unimportant.

Civil disobedience

nonviolent action that seeks to change a policy or law by refusing to comply with it.

Modifying Durkheim's concept of anomie, Robert Merton developed the Strain theory

people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.

Quinney

people with economic and political power define as criminal any behavior that threatens their own interests. The powerful use of law to control those who are without power. For example, drug laws enacted early in the twentieth century were actively enforced in an effort to control immigrant workers, especially the Chinese, who were being exploited by the railroads and other industries.

Social dynamite

persons who have been marginalized (including rioters, labor organizers, gang members, and criminals)

Situational factors

place of crime, suitable targets, and the availability of people to deter the behavior

Krisberg

privilege is the possession of what is most valued by a particular social group in a given historical period. As such, privilege includes not only rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but also material possessions such as money, luxury items, land, and houses.

Walter Reckless suggests that many people do not resort to deviance because of inner containments

self-control, a sense of responsibility, and resistance to diversions

Inner containments

self-control, a sense of responsibility, and resistance to diversions.

Control Theory: Social bonding--Walter Reckless

society produces pushes and pulls that move people toward criminal behavior; however, some people "insulate" themselves from such pressures by having positive self-esteem and good group cohesion.

Labeling theory

states that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviants, and they, in turn, come to accept the label placed upon them and begin to act accordingly.

outer containments

supportive family and friends, reasonable social expectations, and supervision by other. Those with the strongest containment mechanisms are able to withstand external pressures that might cause them to participate in deviant behavior.

Outer containments

supportive family and friends, reasonable social expectations, and supervision by others.

Social control

systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance.

Major strength of rational choice theory

that it explains why high-risk youths do not constantly engage in delinquent acts: They have learned to balance risk against the potential for criminal gain in each situation.

Radical feminist

views the cause of women's crime as origination in patriarchy (male domination over females). This approach focuses on social forces that shape women's lives and experiences and show how exploitation may trigger deviant behavior and criminal activities.

Personal factors

what rewards they may gain from their criminal behavior

Liberal feminist approach

women's deviance and crime are a rational response to the gender discrimination that women experience in families and the workplace. From this view, lower-income and minority women typically have fewer opportunities not only for education and good jobs but also for "high-end" criminal endeavors.