Ch.6: Deviance And Social Control Flashcards
Deviance
The violation of norms (or rules of expectations)
Crime
The violation of norms written into law
Stigma
“Blemishes” that discredit a person’s claim to a “normal” identity
Social Order
A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives
Social Control
A group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms
Negative Sanction
An expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a fine or prison sentence
Positive Sanction
An expression of approval or following a norm, ranging from a smile or a good grade in a class to a material reward such as a prize
Genetic Predisposition
Inborn tendencies
Street Crime
Crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary
Personality Disorders
The view that a personality disturbance of some sort cause an individual to violate social norms
Personality Disorders
The view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms
Differential Association
Edwin Sutherland’s term to indicate that people who associate with some groups learn an “excess of definitions” of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant
Control Theory
The idea that two control systems- inner controls and outer controls - work against our tendencies to deviate
Labeling Theory
The view that the labels people are given affect their own and other’s perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior not either defiance or conformity
Techniques of Neutralization
Ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect (or neutralize) society’s norms
Degradation Ceremony
A term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone’s self by stripping away that individual’s self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place
Cultural Goals
The objectives held out as legitimate or desirable for the members of a society to achieve
Institutionalized Means
Approved ways of reaching cultural goals
Strain Theory
Robert Merton’s term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success), but with holds from some the approved means of reaching that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal
Illegitimate Opportunity Structure
Opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of life
White-Collar Crime
Edwin Sutherland’s term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations
Corporate Crime
Crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation
Criminal Justice System
The system of police, courts, and prisons set up to deal with people who are accused of having committed a crime
Recidivism Rate
The percentage of released convicts who are rearrested
Capital Punishment
The death penalty
Serial Murder
The killing of several victims in three or more separate events
Police Discretion
The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense or to overlook the matter
Medicalization of Deviance
To make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians
Medicalization
The transformation of a human condition into a medical matter to be treated by physicians
