Deviance and Crime Flashcards
- Explain structural strain
- State the functionalist perspective
- State symbolic interactionist perspective
o Labeling theory
Stigma
Discreditable identity; Discredited identity - State the conflict perspective
- Explain the medicalization of deviance
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What is deviance?
Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society
- Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be formalized into law
- Subject to social definition within a particular society and at a particular time
State the functionalist perspective of Deviance.
Promotes Social Unity
- fosters a ‘we’ feeling
Affirms the rightness of its own ways
Clarifies moral boundaries
- Promotes Social Change
may force a group to rethink and redefine moral boundaries, help groups to change their customary ways
What is anomie?
Anomie is a situation that occurs when there is a disjuncture between the goals promoted by society and the availability of legitimate means to achieve these goals
Elaborate on sources of suicide: egoism
- Occurs when people are not well integrated into society
- In this state, people lack ties to their social groups.
- These people simply have less to live for (i.e. less reason not to kill themselves)
Elaborate on sources of suicide: anomie
- a situation in which people do not experience the constraint of social norms
- Collective conscience are not powerful enough to regulate their behaviour
- Suicide is easier
What are 5 basic forms of adaptation according to Merton’s/ Anomie Theory of Deviance.
- Conformist
- Innovator
- Ritualist
- Retreatist
- Rebel
Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Conformist
Conformity
- Ignore the disjuncture and keep on trying
- Continue to accept goals of success and accept means of hard work
Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Innovator
Innovators
- Accept and pursue accepted goals but devise non-legitimate means
- e.g.: crack dealers, embezzlers, robbers, con artists
Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Ritualist
Ritualists
- Reject culturally approved goals but continue to pursue the means
- ‘uninspired’ teacher who cling on to job
Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Retreatist
Retreatists
- Reject the goals and reject the legitimate means
- Drop out of society
e. g. Entry to convent or monastery, live simply in hut
e. g. Alcohol and drugs
Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Rebel
Rebellion
Reject both goals and means and then substitute new ones
Revolution
- substitution of new goals and means -> makes the rebel seem the greatest threat to society
What are the difference theories of interactionist perspective of Deviance
- Cultural Transmission Theory
- Differential association
- Social Disorganization Theory
- Labeling Theory
- Societal-reaction approach
Elaborate on the cultural transmission theory
- Humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly
Elaborate on the differential association.
- Process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules
Elaborate on the social disorganization theory
- Increases in crime and deviance attributed to absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions
- Some claim social disorganization theory seems to “blame the victim”
Elaborate on the labelling theory
- Attempts to explain why some people are viewed as deviants while others are not; also known as societal-reaction approach
- Focuses on the significance of labels
- Labels become part of self-concept
- Propel towards or away from deviance
Elaborate on the societal-reaction approach
- Response to an act, not the behavior, that determines deviance
What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance?
Primary deviance
- Committed for all sort of reasons – social, cultural, psychological and physiological factors
- e.g. to fit in with group, on a whim
Secondary deviance
- Results as a means of social defense or adaptation to social reactions to primary deviance
- Perform as a result of being labeled as deviant
Elaborate on Stigma from Labelling Theory
- Any attribute that discredits a person or disqualifies him or her from ‘full social acceptance’
- Label of deviant can trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy
- Treat people as deviant
- Cut off their opportunities to be anything other than deviant
- Increase chance of them becoming deviant (Secondary deviance)
What are the three types of stigma?
Abominations of the body (deformities, scars, disfiguring injuries)
Blemishes of individual character (mental disorder, dishonesty, alcoholism, or bankruptcy)
Tribal stigmas – being discredited for membership in a particular racial, religious or ethnic group or subcultural group
Elaborate on discredited and discreditable identity of stigma.
Discredited identity
- When stigma is visible or known
Discreditable identity
- When a person hides (deviant) attributes, s/he is vulnerable to being found out
Negative label can become a person’s master’s status
State the conflict perspective on Deviance.
Class, crime and the judical system
- The Law as an Instrument of Oppression
- Idea that law operates impartially and administers a code shared by all is a cultural myth
- People with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their needs (designed by the powerful to maintain their privileged position
Differential justice
- Differences in way social control is exercised over different groups
Explain the medicalization of deviance
- A way society deals with deviance is to “medicalise” it.
- Classify it as a form of illness that belongs in the care of physicians
- When people are disturbed by someone’s deviance and when they cannot find a satisfying explanation for why the person is ‘like that’,
they often say a ‘sickness in the head’ is causing the unacceptable behaviour.
Medicalisation of Deviance
- Mental illnesses are neither mental nor illness. They are simply problem behaviours.
