Exam 1 Flashcards
define deviant behaviour
basically anyone not perfect
General Categories of deviance (7)
1) Crime–> murder drug dealing etc
2) Mental disorders
3) Sexual deviance
4) Substance abuse
5) Physical disorders
6) Suicide–> not a crime in many jurisdictions (Canada)
7) etc.., impoliteness; divorced etc
5 Definitions of deviance (LIST)
1) statistical
2) Absolutist
3) Reactivist
4) Normative
5) Legalist
Statistical Definition and 2 problems
A) behaviour/condition that is NOT the majority or average (concrete and clear definition (deviates from mean (avg), median (midpoint) and mode (most score ppl got)
Problem 1: overly inclusive= makes eveyone deviant
Problem 2: most ppl determine deviance according to what it should be not what it is… cant relate wearing glasses to a mental illness
Absolutist Definition 3 problems
any aberration from an absolute set of standards of conduct…(standards imposed by religious or psychiatric authority ie) Sin is deviant and DM4 psych bible (to look up to see if someone is in the boundary or out)
P1: almost always disagreement over absolute standards…. (among religions many differences.. also so many versions of the bible)
P2: even if one standard is absolutely true= doesn’t tell us anything about the social organization if deviants
P3: absolute truth in the hands of a tiny minority would be odd to charge that all non- followers are deviant
Reactivist Definitions and problems
-Howard Becker: deviant is the individual who is labelled successfully
-labelling theory: people are deviant because they are named deviant (mental ppl health act)
thats why children arent labelled as criminals in the news because they will behave like criminals
-deviant= is somebody who has been labelled
P1: asserts that unobserved behaviour cant be deviant–> observe yourself torturing cats–> self labelling (is never important)
P2: asserts that the label deviance has nothing to do with the behaviour per se but only the process of defining something as deviant …falsely accused criminals that are falsely accused
-ie) alferd plea: had a guilty plea–> but didnt do it=so the state cant be sued—> so basically are official murderers
Normative Definition
whats a norm?
criticisms (1)
deviance is a violation of a norm, a socially shared standard of conduct (some come from religion most don’t)
norms: social properties that suggest what persons should/shouldn’t do as well as what behaviours are normal in certain situations
P1: norm is an inheritantly vague and relativistic concept (hard to talk about deviance without talking about norms
Legalist Definition
-concrete benchmark for a normative view of deviance: deviance is an act that breaks the law
P1: not all deviant acts are illegal: a lot of things that are not illegal ie) alcoholism definitely a deviant act and not all illegal acts are deviant
P2: not all illegal acts are deviant: traffic violations arent always bad sometimes have to for safely
-stealing food to feed family
most popular sociological definition of deviance
Normative Definition
sociologist is going to offer two definitions of deviance
Reactivist and Normative
Norm vs rule
norm isnt a rule
-rules are imposed by those in power and are not socially shared
whereas norms are socially accepted ideas
SES stands for
socio economic structure
definition SES
- weather someone is wealthy or not
- poor vs rich kids: kinds of crimes that are normative- wealthy crime is going to be like business crimes- not going to sell crack
- wealthy ppl have the means to do so (commit more crime) but caught much less because police is busy survellencing the poor ppl
SES and deviant labls
- provides for the differential application of deviant labels
- substance abuse more used by poorer ppl are going to be arrestes and convicted BUT wealthy ppl their addictions may not be noticed IF they are… treated meddically (sent to rehab)
Do norms vary with SES
yes the expectations for normative behaviour is going to differ btw poor and wealthy ppl
Gender related deviance
- the violation of gender roles
- ie)men most trivial and serious deviants more likely to commit violent crimes
- females more likely to engage in less serious self abuse, eating disorder (self destructive) and non serious crimes related to the economy such as shoplifting
- man: mass murderer= deviant for committing a violent act but also not deviant because we expect a male to commit a violent crime
- women mass murderer: even more deviant because a female committed a violent crime
is it easy or hard to quantify deviance
difficult
Sources of Response bias (6)
a) MISTRUST IN OFFICICAL REPS
b) SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS: ppl will give you socially accepted answers but not the truth
c) FINANCIAL MOTIVATION: getting ppl to do the surveys is by giving them money–> some respondents doing the survey over and over again
d)DIFFICULTY IN FINDING RESPONDANTS: difficult to qunatify noncriminal deviances –> murder you have the dead body so you know ut happened
corp crime (almost never reported)
-due to lack of contact info (no directory of drug users/ prosititutes)
-decentralization of deviants= difficult to find deviants because they are scattered everywhere
E)WARINESS OF FUNDING SOURCES: national study of sexual behaviour rejected by federal govt bc asking population personal questions
F) respondants misunderstanding survey instruments
Methods of Data collection for quantifying deviance and crime (LIST)
A) UNIFORM CRIMINAL REPORTS (UCR)
B) VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
C) SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
UNIFORM CRIMINAL REPORTS (UCR)
ADV AND DIS
A) predominant; official stats; police gathered; national in scope; Stats CPS and rural RCMP; used by stats CANADA not the public–> police have to know about the crimes reported to SC
B) DISAD: low rates of reporting; ppl dont call in their victimization; lower for theft under 5000 then sexual assault; 100% police awareness besides murder is car theft; can be flaws in police reporting
C) ADV: consistency; legal professional one criminal code that their following; tells us what police know and what they found doesnt tell us how much crime their is;
VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
ADV AND DISADV
A) asks respondents have you been a victim of crime and did you report it?; crime study done more than once a yr;
B)ADV: uncover unreported crimes and reporting rates; high completion rate in the US (35000 respondants–> very successful victims want to share their experiences–US ones a month Canada biyearly
C)DISADV: not a national scope in Canada; we dont have a huge comprehension; relies on the victims memory and interpretation; dont ask victims which crime
jail vs prison
jail: is a remand centre; pretrial is less than 1 year
prison: more than 1 year after conviction
distinction btw: burglary larceny theft
-all property crime Canada serious: over 1000 and less than 1000 less dangerous) and robbery (violent crime–> threatening with a weapon
SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
ADV AND DISADV
A) in principle: most effective way of tabulating crime–> including victimless and white-collar crimes but lots of practical problems
B) DISADV: relying on ppls reports; will underreport and some will over report; some ppl will want to appear as as a harder case to the person talking the survey
positivism as a social movement
things are understandable scientific objects (DURKHEIM)
-scientists said that lets study the world scientifically
role of economics
-DURK: consumer behaviour; economic man is one who maximizes his benefits and reduces his costs
Precursors ot Durkheim
- coined the term sociology
- wasnt the first to coin the science of society
- support from Comte and Quetelet
Comte
- social theorist and positivist
- said that society could be studies scientifically
- and society evolves (like evolution)–> most evolved society was for the positive
- protopopualtion statiscian
Quetelet
wasn’t a sociologist; first analyst to expose certain statistical recurrences in societies
-crime increases when the weather is warm
(protosociologist)
Durkheims Sociology
- created this new field
- new discipline in universities : also promoted his students to study this
- why did we need a new discipline? because the existing doesn’t study society as a factor
society as a reality SUI GENERIS
DURKHEIM: reality of a unique type
Social facts (Durk)
-murder rate: indiv dont have murder rates (socity does)
Social Stats and the use of indicators
- indicators concrete measures of something
- murder rate was a statistic…proxy for a larger phenomenon
- focus on social facts and relying on social stats
the example of suicide
- can be studied as a social phenomenon
- not only an outcome of a mental indiv but also society
- even among tight knit communities there is suicide
- Durks book on suicide- importance of soci
Other DURK CONCEPTS (LIST 3)
A)ESSENTIAL GOODNESS OF THE EVOLVED SOCIETY
B) THE CONSCIENCE COLLECTIVE
C) MECHANICAL AND ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
ESSENTIAL GOODNESS OF THE EVOLVED SOCIETY
- COMPTE said that society is evolving= social evolution therefore right now society is at its best stage (perfections)= positive view on society
- the notion that society is going to get better whereas others think its going to get better
THE CONSCIENCE COLLECTIVE
- share perspectives with everyone else
- even in our mental perspectives come from society
MECHANICAL AND ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
- social group that has the qualities= solidarity
- ppl brought together because they are of the same or different
- MECHANICAL: when everyone was doing the same thing= brought together because of their similarities (replaceable)
- ORGAN: homologous to the body cant exist without the other (heart lungs)
- law evolves just like society does
DURK LAW
-law invariable social institution ( Functionalist: society evolves around structural set ups) therefore if an institution it must exist for a reason (evolution)
Repressive VS restitutive law
DERK
repressive: criminal law: prevent and repress and punishes certain behaviours; moves them away from society in a way–if ppl get evicted from society= its ok their replacable
restitutive law: redress; brings peopleback into society and brings them back together (preceded repressive law)
religious crime
DURK: crimes that threaten societies (serious crimes)–> in mechanical solidarity
TODAY is their religious crime
no, in organic solidarity their is human crimes beucase crime is not going to threaten the whole of society the way religious crimes did
human crimes
DURK
- he thought that crime gives us a senses of morals and unites society (if you stand in organic solidarity…everyone unites against certain crimes)
- RMR ppl brought together because of shred morals NOT sorrows
- DURK need crime to realize this unity
DURK and crime
- promotes social evolution
- social protest to promote social change
- dont have crime no protest
- crime, deviance is bad for society but promote social change
DURK 2 ways crime is functional
crime betters society and unites ppl
KAI ERIKSON
book called wayward puritans
-ironic title bc puritans in history:extremely religious; had one view in life based on biblical teachings and everyone followed the rules
BOUNDARY MAINTAINENCE
KAI
-the process through which a communities moral standards are defined and affirmed through the persecution of deviance (ie witch hunts)
-**we dont go after criminals to teach others that the crime is bad…. it unites society through morals NOT sorrow
Becker et al.
labelling theory
-purely social definition and how society labels a person
Who were the players and what was their goals (CONRAD)
!) The pharmaceutical revolution: synthesizing and manufacturing many psychoactive drugs = drug taking and making revolution in America
-drugs that affect the CNS
2)Government action: 5-10% children of nebraska being treated;
concern kids getting the drugs because teachers/parents reports not actual testing
-no longterm study of how what the effects are over time
who gets called deviant Sptizer
massedu
mass edu: not enough edy= drop outs; too much= student radicals (bite the hand that feeds them
1) poor steal from the rich (capitalist modes0
2) social conditions captialist produvction takes place (those who refuse or unable to perform wage labour)
3) patterns of distr and consumption in captialist society (who use drugs to escape rather than adjustment
4) process of soicalization for productive and non-productive roless (youth who refuse to be educated or those who deny a family life)
5) ideology that supprts the functioning of capitalist society
- propoertions of alt forms of social organizationm
REGULATORY OFFENCES
happen under legislation (provincial, federal or territorial) regulates normal everyday activities…. not serious an small penalties
actus reas
the fact that a criminal act has been committed
mens reus
he individual accused was, at the time of the crime, in a mental state to understand that what he/she was doing was wrong / unlawful and thus that there was intent present in the commission of the crime.
Criminal defences
1) mental disorder (vince li)
2) mistake of fact= accused person acts under the influence of an honest mistake in relation to hte actus rea of the offence charged –> women marries again thinking that her first husband died= not guilty og bigamy
3) Intoxication= RUZIC case= transpoing heroein with a fake passport mothers paramilitary man assaulted her.. therefore did it out of duress
- provocation reduces the chargers from murder to manslaughter –ie) reponding to an insult
self-defence
homicide figr 4.5
highest 1974 (homicide rate per 100 000 canadans low= 1966
crime severity table 4.1:
highest crime rate ans crime severity index= regina
lowest= toronto
