Deviance Flashcards
What is deviance?
Attitudes, behaviours, or conditions that violate social norms, a relationship between individuals and larger social landscapes
Define moral panics and moral entrepreneurs
Overheated, short-lived periods of intense social concern over a social issue perceived as major problem, hostility directed at those perceived to be the cause, fear out of proportion to threat
Moral entrepreneurs push for increased concern over issues and help create moral panic
Define stigma
Characteristic of individual or group that is seen as inferior/undesirable and they face negative sanctions for it, leads to social rejection
Define social change as according to deviance.
When many accept/embrace what was once considered deviant, or when something that wasn’t before becomes considered deviant
Define labelling theory
People become deviants by being labelled as deviants and treated as such
Define opportunity theory. and illegitimate opportunity.
Some have more access/opportunity to be deviant which explains why people adapt in different ways.
Illegitimate opportunity: deviant subculture’s proximity and norms allow one to take on role of deviant
Who created theory of differential association and what is it?
Edwin Sutherland, deviance is a learned behaviour like all others. Through certain ideologies in intimate personal contacts and social groups.
Define control theory
Ties to mainstream social groups and institutions (loved ones, jobs) make us less likely to become deviant; weak bonds make deviance more likely.
Define functionalist theories
Deviance serves social purpose, negative responses to deviance strengthen social cohesion
What does conflict theories of deviance state?
Dominant groups define what is deviant, shape ideologies, and establish hegemony (dominance), to help them stay in power.
What does Robert K.Merton’s Strain Theory believe?
Deviance occurs when there is mismatch between socially-endorsed goals and socially-endorsed means to achieve these goals, and through this there are 5 adaptions to strain
What are the 5 adaptions to strain for Robert K. Merton’s strain theory?
Conformity: individuals accept socially-approved goals and have the means to achieve them (most people)
Innovation: individuals accept socially-approved goals, but rejects the means to achieve them
Ritualism: individuals accept social-approved means to success, but rejects the goals
Retreatism: reject both socially-prescribed goals and normative means, and retreat
Rebellion: reject both socially-prescribed goals and normative means, and try to disrupt the system
Define medicalization. Two examples
What is normal is becoming more narrow as more issues are considered medical issues
Two examples: Mental health, herpes
4 key points to understand crime
Networks of peers
Ties to family, school, work, and other institutions
Features of the environment that make a crime more/less likely
Structural inequalities
