Chapter 5 - Deviance Flashcards
What is deviance?
- Action that produces destructive outcomes
- Statistical rarity (stands out from norm)
- The violation of cultural norms that guide our activities
What do popular views define deviance by?
Illustration, statistics and harm
What is social control?
Ways in which members of social groups express their disapproval of people and behaviour
What types of control does social control consist of?
Formal and informal controls.
Formal - laws (enforceable rules), Morés (social norms and customs of moral importance)
Informal - folkways (conventional behaviours)
What is crime?
Violation of society’s formally enacted criminal law
What is the criminal justice system?
Formal response by police, courts, and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
What is juvenile delinquency?
Violation of legal standards by the youth
What are the 2 dimensions of deviance?
1) Objective (certain ways of being, thinking, and acting)
2) Subjective (moral status accorded to such characteristics, thoughts, and actions)
What do sociologists believe about deviance?
Not only unusual/rare behaviour but also labelled deviant by powerful others
What are some difficulties posed by deviance for researchers studying deviance?
Safety and secrecy
What does much theoretical work focus on in deviant behaviour?
The “why”
What did Cesare Lombroso find in his studies of deviance?
He worked in prison populations and concluded they all look similar
What is the Hirschi theory?
Juvenile crime is a product of weak social control
What are the 4 different types of social control?
1) attachment
2) opportunity
3) involvement
4) belief
What is the general theory of crime and deviance?
Crimes of all types are committed by individuals with the social-psychological characteristic of low self-control
What is the containment theory?
Positive self-image can keep boys from becoming delinquent
According to the containment theory, bad boys/girls have:
A weaker conscience, easily frustrated/angry, and little tolerance when things don’t go their way
What are the social foundations of deviance?
1) varies according to cultural norms
2) people become deviant as others define them that way
3) both rule-making and rule-breaking involve social power
What is the control theory?
Deviant behaviour occurs when it’s allowed to occur, so we can expect deviance when controls are weak or broken
What did Durkheim argue about suicide?
Individuals more likely to commit suicide when disconnected from social regulation and left to own devices
What were the 4 distinct functions of deviance identified by Durkheim?
1) deviance affirms cultural values and norms
2) responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
3) responding to deviance promotes social unity
4) deviance encourages social change
What is the Strain theory according to Merton?
Lack of fit between cultural goals and means available to pursue these
Why does social strain produce deviance?
Individuals use illegitimate means to achieve material success
Why is deviance more prevalent among lower social-economic classes?
They experience greater social strain
What is Merton’s strain theory of goal attainment?
1) innovation (unconventional means to achieve culturally approved goals)
2) ritualism (obsessively stick to rules to feel respectable)
3) retreatism (reject cultural goals and means)
4) rebellion (rejects cultural definition of success and normal means of achieving it)
What is the second source of social strain proposed by Agnew?
Inability to avoid or escape some negative condition (deviance as a way of coping with strain)
What is the cultural support theory?
Focuses on the way patterns of cultural beliefs create and sustain deviant conduct
What did Edwin Sutherland learn from studying youth gangs?
People become deviant due to learning experiences that make deviant conduct acceptable
What is Sutherland’s Differential Association theory?
Conformity, or deviance, depends on the amount of contact an individual has with others (we become like the people we hang out with)
What influences the Differential Association theory?
1) closeness of association
2) frequency of association
3) embracing of values
4) embracing the rationale for those values
What have studies about deviance and gender discovered?
Men commit more crimes than women
What 2 components does crime include?
1) Actus Rea - the act itself
2) Mens Rea - the criminal intent
What 2 types of crime are there?
1) crimes against person
2) crimes against property
Are there victimless crimes?
No but there are crimes with no readily apparent victims
What are factors that explain why the US homicide rate is 3 times that of Canada
1) culture’s emphasis on individual economic success (capitalism)
2) widespread ownership of guns by private citizens
What is plea bargaining?
A legal negotiation in which prosecution reduces a defendant’s charge in exchange for a guilty plea
What are 4 justifications have been offered for punishment of criminals?
1) retribution (moral vengeance)
2) deterrence (discourage criminality through punishment)
3) rehabilitation (reforming offender to preclude future offences)
4) societal protection (render offender incapable of further offences temporarily (prison) or permanently (execution)
What is the transactional character of deviance?
Deviance and crime as collective product produced through social interaction
Who viewed deviance as a situated transaction?
Luckenbill
How does social constructionism view deviance?
Acts and people are not inherently deviant but defined as such by those with power to do so
What or who is called deviant changes over time
What is claims-making?
Process by which groups assert grievances about the troublesome character of “other” people or behaviours
What 3 objectives are claims-making directed toward?
1) publicizing claims
2) shaping a view of the problem
3) generating consensus around new moral categories
What is a moral entrepreneur?
Claims-makers who discover and publicize deviant behaviour
What do conservative conflict theorists say about deviance?
Conflict over definition of deviance reflects differently positioned social groups and their relative influence on systems of social control
What is the radial conflict theory of deviance?
Social constructions of deviance reflect class exploitation in capitalist system (marginalized populations more likely to be labelled deviant)
What is white-collar crime?
Crimes committed by persons of high social position in the course of their occupations (Richard Nixon - Watergate)
What is corporate crime?
Illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf (firefighters - cancer agents occupational disease)
What are hate crimes?
Motivated by racial or other bias (Ku Klux Klan - offender)
What is the process of labelling?
Deviant labels are applied to those who engage in deviant behaviour
What is resistance to labelling?
Ability of individuals to resist deviant labelling depends on level and access to social power
What is evasion?
Some people hide their deviance and avoid getting caught
What is the labelling theory of social stigma?
Powerful negative label that greatly changes an individual’s self-concept and social identity (equivalent to a master status)
What are degradation ceremonies?
Powerful negative event of stigma directed towards an individual
What is projective?
Looking forward and projecting someone’s likely behaviour (Justin Bieber - just watch, he’ll mess up again)
What is retroactive?
Looking back at someone’s behaviour (Toronto Mayor Rob Ford - I knew he was never fit to be mayor)
What does the labelling theory say about the medicalization of deviance?
Occurs when moral or legal deviance is transferred into a medical condition
What is primary deviance?
Deviant activity with no real consequence for the individual involved (name calling/labelled)
What is secondary deviance?
Development of a deviant identity through labelling process and internalization of stigma (take label, internalize it, and act as if it’s 100% true)
What did Goffman say about discreditable vs. discredited?
Individuals may become discredited if stigma is made public (collective action to change public perceptions)
What does post-modernism say about deviance?
They study how language is used to construct deviance
- language is part of discourse
- large, specialized units of knowledge and dominant discourses (reflect interests and values of powerful groups) shape normative notions of deviance
