Chapter 2: Deviance Flashcards
Deviance
Behavior that violates social norms but it not prohibited by law (budding line, cutting off a driver)
Deviance varies in 3 ways, how so!
The severity of public response
The perceived harmfulness
The degree of public agreement
Severity of public response
Public’s reaction to the act, ranging from minor disapproval to severe jail time
Perceived harmfulness
The amount of harm the perpetrator is thought to have created through the deviant act
Degree of public agreement
The extent to which the public agrees the act is deviant or criminal
Social construction states that when we _____________, we reinforce our common knowledge of ______ as well as our understanding of how _______ should be
Interact with others
Reality
Society
Our ideas about ________ are socially constructed. This means the norms we define as important are _________ and look different in other societies and cultures.
Deviance
Always changing
What we label as _____ changes when societies norms and values change
Deviant
Durkhiem believed that crime and deviance served a function for ________, as they affirmed cultural _____ and _______
Human societies
Values and norms
Durkheim argued that _____ and ______ will never go away or be eliminated as it’s an important part for society
Crime and Deviance
According to Durkheim, crime serves four main functions. What are they?
1) it affirms cultural values and norms (It teahces people the rules)
2) societies response to deviance and crime teach individuals what’s right and wrong
3) responding to deviance and crime unites societies
4) deviance and crime spur social change
Crimes take on two variables that depend on their severity. First is _____, which varies with time and location, second is ______ which are characteristics of crime that can change, taking different forms over time
How relative the crime is
How evolutive the crime is
Crime is _____________. There are no universally condemned acts, such as ____________________.
Socially defined
Killing in war vs killing in streets
Deviance involves the violation of _______,________, or _________. However these vary across societies and groups
Rules, regulations, or laws
Four major types of crime
Consensus crime
Conflict crime
Social deviations
Social diversions
Consensus crime
Activities that are generally considered very harmful
Strong support for prisons and controlling them
Conflict crimes
Activities that are not universally considered crimes, although they are legally defined as such
Abortion laws, Dr assisted suicide
Social deviations
Behaviours that are considered disreputable in certain social settings
Social diversions
Minor forms of deviance
Since crimes are __________ the rules can change. The distinction between _____ and ________ is thus ambiguous
Socially defined
Criminal and non criminal
All groups have _____; society can not function without them. Most of the time, most of us conform to the ______ of our group
Rules
Norms
Informal rules, aka ______, govern much of our conduct
Folkways
Some informal rules become more formal regulations or ____. This is called ________
Laws
Legalization
Why people are deviant?
Some individual level explanations focus on the deviant or criminals ________ or even ________
Character
Biology
