Chapter 15: Crime & Deviance

Question 1

What is a crime?

Answer 1

• A crime is an act or omission that breaks an existing law, is harmful to an individual or society as a whole & is punishable by law. Eg) killing, stealing.
• Harm may be physical, financial or psychological damage caused to an individual (eg. Assault) or an adverse impact on society (eg. Increase public costs, affect public safety etc).

Question 2

What is deviant behavior in sociology?

Answer 2

Deviant behaviour refers to conduct that departs significantly from the norms set for people in their social statuses.

Question 3

What is formal deviance?

Answer 3

Deviance that breaks the law.
Eg) theft, speeding in your car, vandalism, tax evasion.

Question 4

What is informal deviance?

Answer 4

Deviance that contravenes social norms.
Eg) swearing at your teacher, cheating in an exam, rudeness.

Question 5

Explain the role of deviance in a functionalist society:

Answer 5

• Functionalists argue that deviance is a necessary part of society, which contributes of the well- being of any society.
• Durkheim argued that deviance is “inevitable” considering people come from all sorts of social backgrounds, it is bound to happen.

Question 6

What is anomie?

Answer 6

Durkheim’s term for a social condition characterized by a breakdown in the norms governing society; the personal experience of dislocation in the absence of rules or when the individual falls outside existing social rules.

Question 7

What are the 6 functionalists perspective on deviance?

Answer 7

1. Conformity
2. Innovation
3. Ritualists
4. Retreating
5. Rebellion
6. Critisms & defenses of Mertons theory of structural strain.

Question 8

What are the 3 types of sub- cultures?

Answer 8

1. Conflict sub- culture
2. Criminal sub- culture
3. Retreatist sub- culture

Question 9

What are the main 3 topics of sub- culture?

Answer 9

1. A delinquent sub- culture
2. Working class sub- culture
3. The underclass sub- culture

Question 10

What is the conflict perspective on crime & deviance?

Answer 10

Laws are not an expression of value consensus but a reflection of ruling class ideology.

Question 11

Crime is viewed as a natural outgrowth of capitalist society which generates crime for the following reasons:

Answer 11

• the capitalist mode emphasises the maximization of profits & the accumulation of wealth.
• economic self- interest rather than public duty motivates behavior.
• competition breeds aggression, hostility, & for particularly for the losers, frustration.

Question 12

What groups are most likely to be socially excluded?

Answer 12

• the disabled
• the poor
• lone parents
• young people
• the elderly
• women
• ethnic minorities.

Question 13

What are social exclusion examples?

Answer 13

• homelessness
• discrimination
• classism
• racism
• gender bias.

Question 14

What are inclusive societies?

Answer 14

• secure employment
• economic stability
• citizenship rights
• stable family life
• sense of community
• core values: work & family.

Question 15

What are the 4 aspects of social control?

Answer 15

• conformity & obedience
• control through laws & socialisation
• informal & forms of control
• technology as a form of social control.

Question 16

What are the 3 theories of the interactionist perspective?

Answer 16

1. Cultural transmission theory
2. Social disorganization theory
3. Labeling theory.

Question 17

What is poverty?

Answer 17

Lacking material resources.

Question 18

What happens in poverty?

Answer 18

• virtually all income is spent on food
• lack of money
• not knowing how to read
• inadequate shelter

Question 19

What is social stratification?

Answer 19

Is a social hierarchy where individuals & groups are classified on the basis of wealth, occupation, education level, race or gender.

Question 20

What are the factors of social stratification?

Answer 20

• economic status.
• age stratification.
• educational stratification.
• religious stratification.

Question 21

Describe crime in South Africa?

Answer 21

• one of the biggest challenges facing SA.
• moving away from the exclusion of apartheid to the modern exclusion of todays society.
• poverty and unemployment also contribute to the increase in criminal activities.
• the strategy of ungovernability by the oppressed majority bred a culture of violent lawlessness & distrust of authority.

Question 22

What is the poverty datum line?

Answer 22

A technique for describing the theoretical minimum cost of living.

Question 23

What is the minimum living level?

Answer 23

The lowest sum possible on which a specific household size can live in our existing social set-up.

Question 24

What is the household subsistence level?

Answer 24

An estimate of the theoretical income needed by an individual household to maintain a defined minimum level of health and decency in the short term.

Question 25

What is the Gini coefficient?

Answer 25

Measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.

Question 26

What is the human development approach?

Answer 26

Expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live.

Question 27

What is poverty reduction?

Answer 27

Promoting economic growth that will permanently lift as many people as possible over a poverty line.

Question 28

What is poverty eradication?

Answer 28

The complete or near absence of people or households under the international poverty line in a given context.

Question 29

What is the structural & agency- based approaches for poverty?

Answer 29

As the percentage of people in vulnerable demographic or labor market circumstances increases, more poverty results.

Question 30

What are the millennium development goals?

Answer 30

Human capital, infrastructure and human rights (social, economic and political), with the intent of increasing living standards.

Question 31

What is relative deprivation?

Answer 31

The belief that a person will feel deprived or entitled to something based on the comparison to someone else.

Question 32

What is the capability approach to poverty?

Answer 32

Defines poverty as a deprivation of capabilities, as a lack of multiple freedoms people value and have reason to value.

Question 33

What is the human development index?

Answer 33

A summary measure of human development.

Question 34

What is the social exclusion approach to poverty?

Answer 34

A multidimensional and complex process through which individuals or groups are excluded from economic, social, political and cultural participation in society.

Question 35

What is the participatory approach to poverty?

Answer 35

A method to include poor people in the analysis of poverty with the objective of influencing policy.

Question 36

What is the money metric approach?

Answer 36

Measuring the risk of poverty is proposed.