Chapter 6

Question 1

What is deviance?

Answer 1

-A behaviour that strays from what is “normal”
-Does not mean bad, criminal, perverted, “sick,” or inferior in any way
-It is different from the norm
-Is a category that changes with time, place, and culture
-Definitions of deviance often reflect power

Question 2

What are the characteristics of deviance?

Answer 2

Overt characteristics:
-actions or qualities taken as explicitly violating the cultural norm

Covert Characteristics:
-unstated qualities that might make a group a target for sanctions
-E.g., age, ethnic background, “race,” and sexual orientation

Question 3

What is conflict deviance?

Answer 3

A disagreement among groups over whether or not something is deviant (e.g. Marijuana use)

Conflict across and within cultures:
-differ from each other
-change over time
-deviance is a social or cultural construct that can be contested

Question 4

What is social constructionism?

Answer 4

Proposes that certain elements of social life, such as deviance, are not natural but are created by a society or culture

Question 5

What is essentialism?

Answer 5

Argues that there is something natural, true, universal, and therefore objectively determined about these characteristics
-When we look at certain social phenomena, we can see that each of these two viewpoints applies to some degree

Question 6

What are the three types of stigmata and who identified them?

Answer 6

-Goffman in his study of stigma, deviance, and the “spoiled identity”

Stimga: human attribute that is seen to discredit an individual’s social identity
1. Bodily stigmata -physical deformities
2. Moral stigmata -blemishes of individual character
3. Tribal stigmata -stigmatization of group or persons in a group by characteristics (race/ethnicity, physical attributes, sexual orientation, national identity, religion)

Question 7

What is “the Other”?

Answer 7

-An image constructed by the dominant culture to characterize subcultures
-Can be depicted as mysterious, mystical, or mildly dangerous, but somehow it is ultimately cast as inferior
-Behaviour, once associated with Otherness often subjects to negative sanctions or punishment, rejection, potentially violence, etc.

Question 8

What is moral panic?

Answer 8

A campaign designed to arouse concern over an issue or group

Question 9

What is a moral entrepreneur?

Answer 9

According to Becker (1963), a person who tries to convince others of the need to take action around a social problem that they have defined

Question 10

What is racializing deviance?

Answer 10

-Linking particular ethnic groups -especially visible minorities - with certain forms of deviance
-Making ethnic background a covert characteristic of deviance
-Treats people differently because of that connection (Muslims wearing a niqab are seen as deviant, their faces are covered)

Question 11

What is multiculturalism?

Answer 11

A set of policies and practices designed to encourage respect for cultural differences

Question 12

What is assimilation in racialized minorities?

Answer 12

-The pressure to become culturally similar to the dominant culture
-Not assimilating can be viewed as deviant

Question 13

How is deviance racialized through racial profiling?

Answer 13

-Actions undertaken supposedly for reasons of safety, security, or public protection, based on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin rather than on reasonable suspicion -Visible characteristics used to predict illegal activity
-A person’s otherness is used as a grounds for differential treatment (law enforcement, employers, service providers, landlords)

Question 14

What are two important concepts in a patriarchal world?

Answer 14

Misogyny: literally means “hating women”
-Images of women are often constructed in ways that contain and reflect misogyny

Patriarchal construct: social conditions that favour boys/men over girls/women
-Male values are normalized through customs, laws, and cultural production
-Many well-paying jobs are dominated by men, few female CEO’s, fewer female politicians than we used to have

Question 15

Describe the Schools-to-prison hypothesis.

Answer 15

Poverty can be considered a covert characteristic of deviance (class bias in the criminal justice system)
-Biased application of zero-tolerance policies in schools
-Poor schools are often located in racialized neighbourhoods
-Constant surveillance and bias in the criminal justice system can result in higher incarceration rate

Question 16

Explain the Crime in Low-Income Communities.

Answer 16

Lower class is over-represented in the statistics on criminal convictions and admissions to prison

Reason for higher crime rates:
-lack of social resources (E.g., insufficient knowledge of the law and legal system, lack of social connection, and the ability to pay for a lawyer)
-Limited ability for impression management (control of personal information flow to manipulate how others see and treat you

Question 17

What is criminology?

Answer 17

Study of patterns in criminal behaviour to learn more about how crime can be predicted, prevented, and sanctioned

Question 18

What are The Social Determinants of Crime?

Answer 18

Closely related to poverty, social explusion, wage and income inequality, cultural and family background, level of education and other socio-economic factors that may affect individual’s susceptibility to commit crimes such as cultural characteristics, age, and sex

Question 19

How does Edward Said’s Orientalism touch on the Other?

Answer 19

-Edward Said’s Orientalism discusses how the dominant West constructed the Middle East as Other/dominant Canadian culture defines “Indigenous” as Other

Question 20

What is white-collar crime and who introduced the concept?

Answer 20

-Edwin Sutherland
-A crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation

Question 21

What are the two types of white-collar crime and who distinguished them?

Answer 21

-Clinard and Quinney

Occupation Crimes: benefit the individual at the expense of other individuals who work for the company (e.g., sexual harassment)

Corporate crimes: Benefit the corporation and its executives at the expense of other companies and the general public (e.g., enron)

Question 22

What are the three central theories of criminal deviance?

Answer 22

-Strain theory
-Subcultural theory
-Labelling theory

Question 23

What is strain theory?

Answer 23

-Robert Merton theorized why some individuals “choose” to be criminally deviant
-Strain is the disconnect between culturally defined goals and uneven distribution of means to achieve those goals
-Those without the necessary resources to achieve culturally defined goals turn to criminal deviance

Question 24

What is the American Dream?

Answer 24

anyone has the opportunity to be successful regardless of their background or circumstances as long as they work hard

Question 25

What is Subcultural theory?

Answer 25

-Albert Cohen challenged and refined some aspects of Merton’s work
-Individuals from lower-class backgrounds experience status frustration (failure to succeed in middle-class institutions)
-Can become socialized into an oppositional subculture or “delinquent subculture” (develop values in opposition to mainstream society): E.g., non-utilitarian crimes committed for groups respect
-Delinquency is a learned behaviour

Question 26

What is Labelling Theory?

Answer 26

-Howard Becker developed it
-Explains how subcultural values, beliefs, and practices become defined as deviant by mainstream society
-Explains how labels become internalized by both majority and deviant group
-Labels may take on a master status that dominates all others (E.g., Image of the “Indian as a drunk, Muslim as a terrorist, gay man as a pedophile, older woman as a gold digger, etc.)