Chapter 4 Flashcards
the core idea that elements in society’s structure promote deviance by making deviant behavior a viable adaptation to living in the society. The theory describes deviance as a result of certain social, structural strains that pressure individuals to become deviant.
Anomie Theory
Examples: like material success, in the form of wealth and education
status goals
Goals that are generally strived for in a society. Within the law.
culturally valued goals and legitimate means
can contribute to the explanation of serious crimes in the United States and may create other types of strain through actions.
Social Structure
people or groups who wish their conception of
morality to be reinforced by law
Moral Entrepreneurs
focus their explanations more on deviance than on deviant behavior. That is, these theories address the origins of rules or norms rather than the origins of behavior that violates established standards.
Conflict theory
society’s ruling class. These wealthy members of society control the means of economic production and exert inordinate influence over society’s political and economic institutions
Bourgeoisie
workers whose labor the wealthy exploit.
Proletariat
hypothesis, however, denies this direct relationship, explaining enthusiasm for crime control as a function of perceived social threats in society. These threats may come from behavior defined as undesirable or from people or groups defined as inherently dangerous, regardless of their behavior.
social threat
acknowledges the state’s active role in the process of criminalizing certain behaviors. The state enacts laws that reflect established political and economic inequalities and interests.
left realism
Processual theories concentrate on the social psychology of deviance; that is, the conditions that bring about deviant acts by individuals and small groups. This theory is also called the interactionist perspective, focuses on the consequences of deviants’ interactions with conventional society, particularly with official agents of social control
Labeling theory
a particular conception or definition of deviance
Reactivist conception
Consequences of social control efforts
Theory of secondary deviation
different groups who promote competing rules and definitions of deviance; society’s determination of behavior as deviant always reflects the relative power of these groups
stigma contest
Widely established general perspectives on deviance and expresses some of the main ideas of the social disorganization perspective.
Control Theory