Final Exam Flashcards
Monster City
Michael Arntfield
Targeted stranger attack
1 of 5 types of victims
….”describe a homicidal scenario, in which a killer identifies, voyeurizes, obsesses over, and then moves in on his prey, often at random. The entire time, the victim has no idea who their stalker is [or that they are being stalked at all] and that they have been effectively marked for death”
MO
MO (Modus Operandi): refers to HOW a killer kills
MO’s are highly unstable
The misunderstanding of the changing nature of MO’s has led to LINKAGE BLINDNESS
Linkage Blindness
failure to connect seemingly unrelated criminal cases, which can hinder the apprehension of serial offenders or other repeat offenders who operate across different jurisdictions.
Signatures
It’s what a killer does to realize his fantasy and feel fulfilled until the next crime. They are unique and individuating characteristics that are difficult to fake. They are indicators of the underlying paraphilia
Often referred to as “paraphilic footprint”
Body Disposal Pathway #3
Refers to a when a body is left “As Is” by that person’s killer at the scene of the murder with out having been transported, posed, or concealed in a second location.
There are a number of commonalities that killers share who use this method
This is 1 of 4 types of body disposal methods
Clearance rate of murders
What has also been declining is what is known as the “clearance rate” of murders.
Fewer murders are solved today than in the 1960’s and 1970’s despite the advances in technology and training.
Sexual Polymorphism
what killers can be characterized by
Psychosis
is a condition that can be either acute or chronic and amounts to a disorder of the mind or some other cognitive abnormality that presents itself in an obvious or clinical fashion.
Psychopathy
a clinical or criminal psychopath is an individual who scores 30+ on the PCL-R
Unorganized killers
Psychosis
are impulsive, opportunistic, and worry later about consequences… if at all.
Organized killers
Psychopath
plan, premeditate, are in control and have thought out all possible scenarios
Process focused killers
killers who are organized psychopaths, sexual sadists whose fantasies are built around extreme violence and deep seated paraphilias. The violence is expressive, symbolic and gratifying.
Act focused killers
killers are clinical and efficient, using instrumental violence (no symbolism)
Partialist
a sexual fetish with an exclusive focus on a specific part of the body other than genitals
(Nashville foot stomper)
Sexual home invasion murders
Residential break-ins are the 2nd most common gateway crime for violent sex offenders.
1/3 of all break-ins are not about money or property
Most homicidal predators are also experienced burglars
Necrophilia
gaining arousal from having sex with a corpse
Murder as past time
New and emerging research suggests that serial homicide is less of a compulsion and more of a hobby … a sadistic past-time.
Increasing frequency as they get better and increasing the difficulty level to stay challenged.
Decompensation
when the stress of faking normalcy wears on the psychopath and the urge to kill returns with a vengeance.
Serial Killer
someone who has murdered on two distinctive occasions and who generally displays certain sexual, ideological, compulsive, and even psychopathic characteristics that can be identified subsequent to that second killing.
Mass murderer
someone who kills 3 or more people in a single incident, whether in a fixed location or part of a mobile killing spree.
what separates serial killers from mass murderers
the presence of paraphilia’s
Paraphilia
an attachment/fixation to objects, images, people, or circumstances that is forbidden by conventional society or prohibited by law (often both).
These can range from harmless to offensive or illegal. Most stay in a preparatory stage
Attack paraphilia
Are indulgences in fantasy enactment that requires violence against others, or non-consenting partners in order to complete.
Non-consenting victims = murder as part of the fantasy.
3 ways to obtain a victim
ruse, blitz, surprise
Hedonistic lust killing
A killing where maximum violence, gore, torture, and eviscerations by stabbing or bludgeoning can satisfy a sadistic killer in a sexual manner, with or without an accompanying act of rape.
Hedonistic thrill killing
Someone who murders solely for self indulgence in the way of entertainment, coupled with an insatiable desire for stimulation, performance, attention, admiration, and being feared.
Very unpredictable and the most poorly understood
highway serial killing initiative
…has determined that there is a causal relationship between the development of highways and homicide.
…a clear connection between newly laid blacktop and murder rates in areas previously removed from mass vehicular traffic.
Gentrification
The transformations going on created the perfect backdrop for crimes…like an urban camouflage for more sinister offenders to move in undetected.
Lust killer
This type of killing always reveals the presence of violent paraphilias.
- Taking souvenirs is also a type of lust killing
….describes a sadistic killer defined by one or more of the following 3 paraphilic disorders
- Erotophonophilia
- sexual arousal from death - Multilophilia
- Erotic interest in things that are characterized by gore and mutilation - Piquerism
- An arousal from puncturing the victim. A substitute for raping…
Crime scene staging and personal cause murders/homicide
describes behaviour belonging exclusively to what are known as PERSONAL CAUSE murders.
…which describes a scenario where the victim is targeted for some specific reason eminently personal to the killer, including jealousy, rage, greed, etc.
4 types of murders
- personal cause homicide
- Group Cause (most commonly done between cousins)
- Sexual (Usually done by a serial killer, or they will become a serial killer if they like it)
- Criminal Enterprise
posing of a body
is strongly linked to sexual homicides
Linked particularly to killers who invest a lot of time in the mental rehearsal and replay of their crimes.
linked to those killers who place great fantasy value on violence.
staging of a body
Unlike posing, staging has an instrumental, rather than expressive purpose.
It is a series of calculated steps undertaken by a serial killer who knows that the victim’s death will implicate them as the most obvious suspect by default.
- Exact same, if not more, of a countermeasure as to bleaching or covering fingerprints
parking
How someone parks is as distinct and individuating as any personality trait.
Corpus Delicti
the principle that a crime must be proven to have occurred before a person could be convicted of having committed that crime.
Latin for “body of the crime”
false confessions
make up over 10% of wrongful convictions
Schizoid killer
One of the most dangerous and calculating offenders known, perhaps even more so than a criminal level psychopath.
Lot lizards
A term that refers to women at trucking rest stations who are addicts and who sell their bodies for meth, crack, opiods, etc.
truck stops
Known Vice Locations: areas that have a disproportionate risk of victimization.
Top 3 Semi-Skilled Serial Killer Occupations
- Forestry worker/arborist; 2. Truck driver; 3. Warehouse manager
diorama
a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature
trophies
when human flesh is taken. This points to very specific & high risk paraphilias like necrophilia and cannibalism as being the driving force behind a killers murder.
souvenirs
include items like jewelry, clothing or ID. Often referred to as FETISH OBJECTS, they allow a psychopath to relive his crime and cultivate new fantasies weeks, months, and even years after the fact.
Joe Schmoe
Serial killers, with rare exception, always look like the generic “Joe Schmoe” …
It’s why they both fascinate & horrify us.
This appearance is what makes their crimes seem “out of character”
“Medicalization of deviance refers to the application of ‘disease’ explanations to certain types of deviant behaviour”
Linda B. Deutschmann, 2009
“Medicalization is one of the most effective means of social control and it is destined to become the main mode of formal social control”
who said this and what were they predicting?
Peter Conrad
predicting “THE COMING OF THE ‘THERAPEUTIC STATE’
Medicalized Interpretation of Behaviour Becomes…
1) A SUBSTITUTE FOR MORAL INTERPRETATIONS
2) A MEANS TO TAKE AWAY AGENCY
3) A WAY TO LABEL PEOPLE AS NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR BEHAVOUR
True or false: Women are more medicalized, and men are more criminalized
True
5 stages of medicalization
1) Defining a behaviour as deviant
2) Prospecting
3) Claims making
4) Legitimization
5) Institutionalization of a medical deviance designation
formal social control
- THE LEGITIMATE PROCESSES OF DEFINING AND TREATING DEVIANTS WHEN THEY PERSIST IN THEIR DEVIANCE AND IT DOESN’T “GO AWAY BY ITSELF” THROUGH INFORMAL CONTROL
who are the official labellers of society?
Imputational specialists
- When we focus specifically on medicalization, imputational specialists are primarily: medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc.
- However, as we know from Labeling Theory, they can also include social workers, expert witnesses, as well as police, lawyers, judges, criminologists, professors, church officials, etc.
what do official labels have a tendency to do?
STICK
- This is because they are caught up in a network of records and official sanctions.
- Decisions are mostly about what the problem is (DIAGNOSIS) and how it is to be treated (TREATMENT).
DSM-5
The Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
- In an era where science and medicine characterizes our world view, it should not be surprising that more and more behaviour once labeled “deviant” is now medicalized.
- Some mental illnesses are not debated. They involve chemical imbalances or deficiencies in the brain.
- Other ”illnesses” are not so clear and they make their way in and out of the DSM based on SOCIAL VALUES and POLITICS, rather than consensus in the research.
what do experts have the power to do?
- Define deviance
- Create deviance
- Make it go away (i.e. The DSM-5)
medicalization of deviant behaviour
- Unlike informal social control, which tends to control identity, formal social control can physically control the body of the deviant.
- Formal social control can remove the body from the social setting.
- It has the power to confine the body to a hospital, prison, facility, or asylum (“TOTAL INSTITUTIONS” by Erving Goffman)
total institutions
setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a specific period of timeframe time and under tight control
docile bodies
Foucault
are those that do not resist control
- BODIES ARE MADE DOCILE through the process of formal social control.
- The “OUT OF CONTROL” body becomes controlled.
- In a medicalized world, controlling the body is often/primarily done via medication.
moral entrepreneurs
- Those who crusade for the creation and enforcement of the rules
- There is a MORAL FUSION (or judgment) between being DEVIANT and being ’bad’
- MORAL ENTREPRENEURS are the “EXPERTS” on the correct or ‘good’ way to be
- There are a lot of moral entrepreneurs in a medicalized world, namely doctors and those in the pharmaceutical industry. They often have something to gain from designating a behaviour as “deviant”.
“I HAVE IT”
MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS = FORMAL LABELLING SECONDARY DEVIANCE (LEMERT)
moral panic
Widespread and disproportionate fear of something.
The production of a “MORAL PANIC” often follows the production of deviant categories of illness.
disease
invasion of the body
sickness is a metaphor for weakness
fear of the unknown
- Those who acquire these types of illnesses are often deemed to be “MORALLY BLAMEWORTHY”
- Another way of saying it’s your fault for having the disease
- PHYSICAL ILLNESS — MENTAL ILLNESS — MORAL ILLNESS
The sick role
Parsons
- Illness involves violation of the norms that structure role performance
- The sick role is a culturally available mechanism that minimizes the disruptiveness of deviance to the system as a whole.
4 aspects to the formal social control of the medicalization of deviance
1) The problem of “expert control”
2) Medical Social Control of “Undesirables”
3) Individualization of a Social Problem
4) De-politicalization of Deviant Behaviour
what is the key stage of medicalization according to Conrad?
“Claims-making” where various interest groups actively promote the definition of a condition as a medical problem, often to gain profit or influence. This stage is crucial because it sets the foundation for the subsequent stages of legitimization and institutionalization.
4 components of the sick role
- A sick individual is exempt from normal social responsibilities.
- The sick must be looked after.
- The sick are obligated to want to get better.
- The sick must seek competent help and cooperate in efforts to get better.
good addiction vs bad addiction
Schur
Antidepressants
“Muzzle of madness”
- GOOD Addiction: If you are a middle-class housewife addicted to valium or Librium (some form of anti-depressant).
- BAD Addiction: If you are a woman of colour, living in subsidized housing and addicted to heroin.
- The addictive qualities between these kinds of drugs are very similar, yet heroin was made illegal (and their users deviantized) while tranquilizers are protected due to lobbying of pharmaceutical companies and the “normal” deviance of depression among housewives.
what was the one recognized disorder in the mid 19th century
insanity
the sociology of mental health …is not about whether or not mental illness exists.
It is about the ???
LABELING POWER of imputational specialists and the exclusionary power they have to label the mentally ill.
What is MACHIAVELIAN STATE TERROR?
when a government coldly and deliberately uses terror as a strategic political tool—rooted in manipulation, fear, and a “means justify the ends” approach to ruling.
what is the power elite? (according to Mills)
According to Mills, the eponymous “power elite” are those that occupy the dominant positions, in the three pillar institutions (state security, economic and political) of a dominant country
The Power Elite…
- Share a common world view
- Are characterized by consensus building
- The homogenization of viewpoints
- Elites circulate from one sector to another (government, economics, military) consolidating power as they go
- Such positions give their holders enormous authority over governmental, financial, educational, social, civic and cultural institutions
The article “Marxism, Conspiracy & 9-11” makes a distinction between acts of the state that are ___________ and those acts that are _____________.
PUBLIC and CONSPIRATORIAL
what is the capitalist state to Marx?
a masked form of bourgeois rule
- “A covert meeting of minds among landed property owners, financiers, and industrialists to monopolize the means of power”.
What is the secret of bourgeois rule?
the “state of emergency”
Bourgeois Terrorism
covert state instigated terrorism
what is required to effect transformation into quiet dissent?
secrecy and conspiracy
what can the democratic facade only temporarily hide?
capitalisms vicious machine of class exploitation
When it comes to the events of Sept. 11th 2001, what were the 4 examples used to provide evidence of a domestic conspiracy?
1) Controlled Demolitions
2) War Games and Stand-down of Defense Capabilities
3) The Pentagon and Shanksville
4) Identification of Hijackers
What the paper does is examine the possibility of a ______ conspiracy as distinct from a ______ one.
DOMESTIC, FOREIGN
what are the power elite in political and sociological theory?
The Power Elite are a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, and access to decision-making of global consequence.
False flag operation
a deceptive act or military/political operation designed to appear as if it was perpetrated by an opposing side, often used to justify a retaliatory action or gain a political advantage.
- The Northwoods document outlined a manufactured war with Cuba and is an example of a FALSE FLAG operation.
What does Peter Dale Scott mean by DEEP POLITICS?
those political practices and arrangements, deliberate or not, which are usually repressed rather than acknowledged. . . A deep political system or process is one which habitually resorts to decision-making and enforcement procedures outside as well as inside those publicly sanctioned by law and society.
In popular terms, collusive secrecy and law breaking are part of how the deep political system works. What makes these supplementary procedures “deep” is the fact that they are covert or suppressed, outside general awareness as well as outside acknowledged political processes. . .
. . . A deep political analysis notes that in practice these efforts at control [by law enforcement] lead to the use of criminal informants; and this practice, continued over a long period of time, turns informants into double agents with status within the police as well as the mob.
. . . A deep political system is one where the processes openly acknowledged are not always securely in control, precisely because of their accommodation to unsanctioned sources of violence, through arrangements not openly
acknowledged and reviewed. (xi – xiii)
What was the name of the military grade explosive found in all debris samples at the World Trade Centre?
Nanothermite
A highly energetic material composed of aluminum nanoparticles and metal oxides (often iron oxide), capable of producing extremely high temperatures.
Developed for military applications, including explosives, cutting charges, and incendiary devices.
What was the Northwoods document?
The Northwoods document refers to Operation Northwoods, a top-secret U.S. Department of Defense proposal drafted in 1962 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The plan called for false flag operations — essentially, staged terrorist acts — that would be blamed on Cuba to justify a U.S. military invasion.
According to Mills, who make up the power elite?
dominant positions in state security, economic and political
emperor nero
said to have set fire to Rome
Hitler
bombing of the Reichstag
Modern-day SWAT team invented and perfected by the Gestapo in Germany
Pearl harbour
Roosevelt knew the attacks were coming 7 days before and didn’t stop them
Oklahoma bombing
- Agents were paged that morning and told to not go into work
- 12 surveillance cameras…footage was never released
Marxism, Conspiracy, and 9/11
David MacGregor & Paul Zarembka
JFK assassination and deep politics
- “Those political practices and arrangements, deliberate or not, which are usually repressed rather than acknowledged… A deep political system or process is one which habitually resorts to decision-making and enforcement procedures outside as well as inside those publically sanctioned by law and society. In popular terms, collusive secrecy and law-breaking are part of how the deep political system works. What makes these supplementary procedures “deep” is the fact that they are covert or suppressed, outside general awareness as well as outside acknowledged processes.”
True or false: Conspiracy by ruling elites is intrinsic to capitalism
TRUE
5 reasons people study deviance
- The Vicarious Experience
- Reform
- Self-Protection and Sophistication
- Understanding Oneself and Others
- Intellectual Curiosity
3 types of Norms
o 1. Folkways (most informal rules of conduct for membership in a group. Everyday rules that don’t generate too much turmoil if violated. Ex. Etiquette, personal grooming, manners)
o 2. Mores
o 3. Laws (strongest norms, backed by official sanctions)
informal social control
are the sanctions (consequences) applied to individuals violating folkways and mores.
formal social control
are the sanctions (consequences) applied to individuals who violate laws.
agents of informal social control
They are other members of the group. (friends, family, teammates, colleagues)
agents of formal social control
They include police, the state, the military, doctors, social workers, professors, etc. (people that have the power to create a lasting document of you)
objective view
which are sometimes also called positivistic or ‘normative’
Focus on macro level social structures
Use methods from the natural sciences to study the social world
It is the original social science
Deviance: is a violation of a universal law or something inherent in an individual, characteristic, or behaviour.
Subjective view
which are social constructionist positions, sometimes called ‘reactionist’ or ‘relativist’
Social Construction of Deviance
Stigmatizing Labels
Labeling Theory
Focus is on micro social structures and the point of view of the actor
Qualitative Research Methods
Deviance: is seen as a social construction
Deviance is created and deviant labels are applied to people through a process that marks them as less worthy or categorizes them in terms of some kind of behaviour or physical attribute.
Critical view
a new conception that focuses on critiquing social systems that oppress people.
Focus on macro and global level social structures
Focus is on critiquing the social systems that oppress people.
Will use which ever methodologies are appropriate for the work.
Instead of focusing on individual types of deviance, those who employ this conception critique the social system that exists & creates such norms in the first plac
what are the four characteristics of deviance from an objective perspective?
Statistical Rarity
Harmfulness
Normative Violation
Social Reaction
Sociological Imagination
C. Wright Mills
Is the building block for our understanding of deviance and theory.
This is about connecting the experiences of the individual with issues of larger social concern (ie: the salad bar example)
physical deviance and it’s two main categories
is the most visible form of deviance, and it can evoke stereotypes, stigma, and discrimination.
There are 2 main categories:
1. Violations of aesthetic/beauty norms
2. Physical incapacity – or physical disability
Before the Enlightenment, deviance was thought of as both __________ and __________.
Causal and supernatural
In prescientific times, people understood life and reality in terms of?
myths, parables and stories….
Myths, parables and stories were often to warn people of what will happen if you challenge the powers that be and were designed to enforce…?
social control, regulation and the consequences of non-conformity
what is a trickster?
common archetype in folklore and mythology….
- Trickster embodies the paradox and the dangerous side of deviance
- Not all tales about deviance are black and white, not is deviance always depicted as a bad thing
- Often: a comedic figure who breaks rules to achieve his or her own ends (predominantly male, yet gender-bending)
- Still very common in modern culture/media/entertainment
What are some examples of trickster legends, both ancient and in popular culture?
- anansi (spider)
- papa legba (from Benin)
- Harmless Practical Jokester (Bugs Bunny)
- Deviant in the name of greater good (Robin Hood)
- Malicious Deviant (The Joker)
In Popular Music
- David Bowie
- Harry Styles
- Michael Jackson
- Prince
- Lady Gaga
Bad Heroes of Film/Television…
* Darth Vader
* Wolverine
* Walter White
Sports…Dennis Rodman
From the Arts…
* … Jack Nicholson
* … Johnny depp
* … Tom Hiddleston
Cultural Traditions & political protests:
* … Masked Protestors
* … Mardi Gras
* … Halloween
In terms of the study of deviance, what is the difference between a pantheistic worldview and a monotheistic world view?
PANTHEISTIC WORLD VIEW
- Deviance was not predictable or preventable and was beyond human control
- Word means “All in God” in greek
- The doctrine that regards the universe as a manifestation of the gods/goddesses
- Deviance (and all “bad” things) are the acts of gods/goddesses and/or hostile spirits
- Suffering was beyond human control
MONOTHEISTIC WORLD VIEW
- Deviance of all forms has some human accountability ….
- Belief in only one god, deity or spirit…. Offset by one evil
- Ie: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
For giving into the forces of evil. - 2 Pathways (could invite or be victims of): Temptation (shows himself in many different ways or guises. Devil can promise you many things in exchange for his soul) and Possession (not necessarily tempted to do it but rather feel like they have been taken over by these forces… the devil invades your body. People are victims of the devil or spells by demonic forces)
- Concept is dominated by Abraham based religion
The Witch Craze
(1400-1700)
approximately 9 million women were murdered. It was certainly not a time of ‘social advancement’ for women (as some of you put on your midterm!!). The witch hunt was about the systematic demonization of women by those spearheading the rise of Christianity (ie: men of the cloth).
- Women were healers in their communities. It was their job to heal and it was respected.
- Prior to C.E. 1000: Those who practiced witchcraft were tolerated, misunderstood, respected at times, and viewed suspiciously at times.
- Church cannon law: witches were deluded
- Between C.E. 1000 and 1480: Witches were redefined as agents of the devil rather than harmless and misunderstood. These are the seeds of the witch hunt. Accused of things like incest, sex orgies, etc. Very contested but real conspiracy that had an impact on many women’s lives.
Contributing factors to the witch craze?
- Set off the ground by the Roman Catholic Inquisition
- They didn’t want women to be healers anymore
- Malleus Maleficarum (Book)
- Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger were instrumental in the start of witch hunting
Witches were seen as ______ of the rise of the _______ world view
Seen as symptomatic of the rise of the Monotheistic world view.
Between C.E. 1000 and 1480
What is the biggest and longest lasting influence of classical era as it pertains to deviance and the treatment of deviant behaviour?
punishment as a detterent
5 central tenants of the classical view
1) People are hedonistic
2) People have free will
3) Society represents a social contract
4) Punishment: sufficiently severe & predictable
5) Goal of Society: the greatest good for the greatest number (teleological direction of society) … very utilitarian.
People associated with classical view
- Immanuel Kant
- Galileo Galilei
- The Philosophes
- Voltaire
- Casare Beccaria
- Thomas Hobbes
- Jeremy Bentham
modern legacy of classical theory:
1) Absolute deterrence
a. When penalties for nonconforming behaviour are so strong that no one commits crime
2) Relative deterrence
a. Penalties are frequent enough and serious enough to encourage other choices
3) General deterrence
a. The demonstration effect. You see it online or in newspaper, you don’t do it. These are efforts to implement general deterrence.
4) Specific deterrence
5) Restrictive deterrence
What were the 3 influential concepts that Neoclassical thinkers introduced to improve the justice system (as outlined by Classical theorists)?
- mitigating factors
- past record
- differences in free will
How was the “deviant” (or non-conformist) viewed from the classical era perspective?
Non-conformists were viewed as selfish
the deviant is a rational actor
Classical Paradigm
Rational, hedonistic actor with free will > perception of opportunity > assessment of probability risk > decision to conform or offend
In the classical period, deviance was seen as a…?
violation of the social contract
why did positivism and biological determinism emerge?
It emerged because the classical era’s notion of the ‘rational actor’ could not explain all forms of deviance.
Positivist perspective
1800-1900
Conceptions of deviance: pathology, constituional inferiority, sickness
Explanation of deviance: Biological determinism, symptoms of constitutional faults
(body made them do it)
Remedies of deviance: Treatment, separation, elimination
in the positivist era, deviance was seen as an ___-____ _______
in-born defect
Physiognomy
study of facial features
- Personality and behavioural traits
- Criminals said to have beaty eyes and shifted noses
Phrenology
mapped the brain – identified areas related to personality & behaviour
- Would make casts of criminal’s skulls when they died to read them
Craniometry
classifying human types by brain size and skull measurements
- Focused on the size of somebody’s skull
- If someone’s brain was too big or too small, It was thought to be a sign of deviance
- Hitler was a big fan of this
Born criminal theory
Not just about deviance being in-born but could be figured out by their looks
Lombroso
Criminology Anthropology
- Italian psychiatrist
- Credited as the father of criminology
- Focus: Biological causes of deviance & crime
Dr. William Sheldon
Body types (somatotyping)
- Believed deviant behaviour could be determined by body types
o Mesomorph (would be most deviant)
Extroverted, aggressive, muscular
o Ectomorph
Lean, thin, might fret, more extroverted, engage in petty crime
o Endomorph
Laid back, extroverted, soft and lumpy
Herbert Spencer
- Second father of sociology
- Coined the phrase “survival of the fittest”
- applied the concept of evolution to an understanding of history and societies.
- The evolution of human societies from “primitive” to “civilized”.
- The criminal, the poor, the mentally ill, the less intelligent, those with low morals… would die out. The most evolved would be the ones that live and procreate
- European societies were seen as the most evolved
Gregor Mendel
Genetic Inheritance
founder of the modern science of genetics.
deviance was inherited and therefore inevitable.
Eugenics and theories of deviance
- Popularized by Social Darwinism
- Some social groups are more evolved than, and therefore biologically superior to, other groups.
- Result: programs & policies to increase reproduction in “superior” groups and decrease reproduction in “inferior” groups.
What is the canadian example of Eugenics?
Leilani Muir and The Sexual Sterilization Act (Alberta)
- 1928: Sexual Sterilization Act
- Evaluate and involuntarily sterilize “mental defectives” and “morons” at puberty
What is genetic loading?
The person with this condition is like a _________, with the environment as the _________.
Genetic loading refers to the accumulated genetic risk or predisposition an individual has for developing a particular trait, condition, or disorder due to their inherited genes.
Loaded gun, trigger
Biological Atavism
criminals were evolutionary throwbacks
o Not as evolved as non-criminals
Social disorganization theory
§ Clifford Shaw & Henry McKay – Chicago School sociologist
- Based on the work of Durkheim
§ macro level theory
§ POSITIVISTIC
§ The most dominant perspective in the study of deviance from 1890’s to the mid 1930’s
§ Focus: Crime is not simply the result of individual choices. Rather, it is heavily influenced by the social environment, particularly in communities where traditional structures have broken down.
§ They observed the rapid social changes that caused communities to become unstable.
§ Key Observation: Crime rates remained high in certain neighbourhoods despite changes in the ethnic composition of those communities. They concluded that crime was liked to neighbourhood characteristics, not the characteristics of individuals or specific ethnic groups.
- This perspective emphasizes ‘social pathology’ as the root cause of deviant behaviour
Core concepts of social disorganization?
§ Social Disorganization refers to the breakdown of social institutions such as family, schools, & community networks that traditionally help to maintain order & control in a community.
§ When these institutions are weak, communities lose their ability to regulate behaviour, leading to increased crime and deviance.
What factors contribute to social disorganization?
poverty, residential mobility, ethnic heterogeneity.
Social Disorganization Theory originated out of the __________ School of sociological thought in the 1920’s.
Chicago
Social disorganization perspective emphasized ______________ in society as the sociological counterpart to biological and psychological explanations of deviance.
Failure OR instability OR the social environment OR rapid social change OR disorganization
Woudl social organization fall under a subjective or objective conception?
Objective.
It focused on the relationship between community structures and rates of deviant behaviour.
In social disorganization theory, crime is not simply the result of individual choices. It is heavily influenced by…?
the social environment
a pathological society is one where norms are either __ ___ or ___ ___
too strong or too weak
what did Durkheim call the two states in society?
ANOMIE: A lack of integration in the group
EGOISM: A lack of regulation by the group
Both of these states lead to higher rates of suicide, mental illness, and crime.
What did Durkheim say created the conditions for ‘social pathology’ to occur?
change that happens too rapidly
Evolution of society is a good thing, but must happen slowly.
When it comes to Social Disorganization theory, what does ‘informal social control’ refer to?
The ability of communities to regulate behaviour through social bonds and community engagement.
- In disordered communities, these bonds are weak(er), leading to less oversight and more opportunities for deviant behaviour to flourish.
What was Jane Addam’s Hull House? And why is it significant?
Hull House was a pioneering community center in Chicago that transformed social reform in America.
It empowered marginalized people, fueled major policy changes, and laid the groundwork for sociology as a discipline rooted in social justice.
Sigmund Freud
- Founder: The Psychoanalytic School of Psychology
- UNCONSCIOUS MIND
3 parts of the human psyche
Freud
§ The ID:
- The pleasure principle
- devil on your shoulder
- wants and is greedy.
- only one we are born with.
- Irrational and emotional.
- Houses survival instincts.
- Impulsive.
The SUPEREGO:
- The conscience.
- Angel on your shoulder.
- Holds your morals.
- Let’s you function in society.
- Houses your senses of what is right and wrong.
- Allows us to feel happy and proud, ashamed.
- Demands that the primal urgers of the ID are kept in check.
- Keeps us socially appropriate.
The EGO:
- The reality principle.
- Helps us deal with reality.
- Sits in between the other two.
- balancing act between the two.
How did Freud explain deviant behaviour using the Id, Ego, & Superego?
§ A criminal might lack the strength of the EGO or SUPEREGO to suppress the ID
§ A saint may have lost their ID entirely
Life and death insticts (Freud)
Life Instinct: (Eros or Libido) our instinct for self preservation, social cooperation, & procreation.
Death Instinct: (Thanatos) our instinct towards self destructive behaviour, aggression, & risky behaviour
These 2 forces are in constant conflict within the individual
Deviant behaviour according to Freud
can be blamed on the ID, the SUPEREGO, the EGO, or some combination there of… and the deviant adaptations that stem from the conflict between the Life and Death instincts.
If society is seen as a smooth-running machine….
How is the individual seen from a functionalist perspective?
- People are little pieces of the machine, playing their own role…in harmony
- People are immediately perfect-able through the process of socialization
- Society’s job: to shape each person after itself…and the expectation is that individuals will want to conform
According to Functionalism and in terms of deviance, should the individual change or should society change?
Change the PERSON, not the system
Functionalism
- Dominant paradigm until the 1970s
- Emile Durkheim, founding father
- Roots of these theories are grounded in his works
how was deviance viewed from a functionalist perspective?
1)…was viewed as a natural necessary product of the social order or (2) it was symptomatic of a problem that must be corrected.
* Deviance justifies why we need police officers, judges, etc.
what was the social control of deviance under functionalism?
Treatment and Rehabilitation
- In other words: Change the PERSON, not the system
True or false: According to Functionalism… rules and rules enforcement are simply part of the whole. They are a process that hold the social system together.
TRUE
- Rules create order,
- Rule enforcement maintains stability, and
- Both contribute to the overall functioning of society.
According to functionalism, when does deviance occur?
Occurs when something in that smooth running machine breaks down. Like all machines they need to be well maintained.
* Deviance has a FUNCTION.
True or false: A functionalist would say that deviance is necessary in society and serves a function.
TRUE
Strain Theory
Robert Merton
- Merton took Durkheim’s concept of ANOMIE and added the idea of STRAIN.
- Specifically, the strain between the achievement of the American Dream and the (limited) legitimate ways of achieving it…
- ….and according to Merton, it is this strain that creates the conditions for deviance
What are some examples that demostrate the ways social conditions are structured to unintentionally produce deviance?
- Ex. You get stressed out about school, you start to take your friends ADD meds…
- Subcultural Solutions to strain (ie: police, medical schools, being a student)
- Theft
- Laziness
- Dishonesty
- Fraud
What happens when a community is characterized by ‘anomie’?
societal expectations and the framework for achieving success become unclear or unattainable, leaving individuals feeling disconnected.
Structural Functionalism
- The structure of society and its systems produce structural strain that cause deviance
social conditions are frequently structured in such a way that they unintentionally produce deviance (ie subcultural solutions to strain).
What is Durkheim’s legacy?
he paved the way for later theories (ie: Merton’s Strain Theory) to examine how social instability and disconnection from collective norms create an environment where deviant behaviour can thrive.
Modes of Adaptation
Robert Merton
conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.
goals/means
What is a common response when individuals lack legit opportunities to achieve success?
(modes of adaptation)
Innovation
- Crime becomes a rational choice for achieving goals when legal/legitimate paths are blocked.
Extensions of Strain Theory
Status Frustration and Delinquency - Albert Cohen
Differential Opportunity Theory - Cloward and Ohlin
General Strain Theory - Robert Agnew
Differential Association Theory
Edwin Sutherland
(introduced the term “white collar crime”)
*this is a learning theory as well
The foundation of this theory is that deviant behaviour is learned. Learning occurs when an individual is exposed to more definitions in favour of violation of the law over definitions in favour of conformity.
According to Sutherland, what is differentially associated is not people but ____________.
definitions
emphasize the importance of social environments and learning processes.
One of the key words for Sutherland is ___________________.
Learning OR Socialization
Sutherland’s 7 propositions
- Criminal behavior is learned.
- Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
- The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.
- Learning includes techniques and justification
- The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal code
as favorable or unfavorable. - A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law.
- Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
- Learning mechanisms are universal
- Deviance is not explained by general needs and values because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.
What did Sutherland call the justifications & excuses for behaviour that emerge from subcultures to neutralize the demands of dominant culture?
- VOCABULARIES OF MOTIVE: which are justifications/reasons/excuses for our actions:
- Ex. “I had no other choice,” “the law is stupid anyway,” “I stole that cause I had to feed my family”
- When a jury lets someone off easier, it is cause they understand the vocabulary of motive
What makes Labeling Theory different from all the other theories so far? What is the fundamental change?
Labeling theory suggests that social control leads to deviance.
Other theories suggest deviance leads to social control
Labeling has to do with _____ ______ to particular behaviours and the subsequent reaction of the labelee to the label.
societal reaction
Labeling is a process that involves _______, _______, and the attribution of _____.
interpretation, meaning, and the attribution of deviance
In labeling theory, deviance becomes relative to:
- the norms of the group
- information available to the labelers
- who the labelers are
- the authority of the labelers to make the label stick.
Labeling theory has a long history in terms of its development.
What are the 5 theories that helped shape it?
- Cooley’s Looking Glass Self
- Mead’s theory of the Social Self
- Tannenbaum’s the Dramatization of Evil
- Becker’s Outsiders
- Lemert’s Primary and Secondary Deviance
Looking Glass Self
Charles Horton Cooley
(Symbolic interactionism)
How individuals imagine they appear to others
- How they believe others judge them based on their behaviour/appearance
- How they develop feelings of shame or pride based on these reactions of others
Theory of the Social Self
Our social SELF is developed through the interaction between the “I” and the “Me”
This is based on the notion that we are able to see ourselves as both a SUBJECT AND OBJECT.
When we INITIATE social action – the Self operates as a SUBJECT (“I”)
When we TAKE THE ROLE OF THE OTHER – The Self operates as an OBJECT (“Me”)
4 Stages of Socialization
1. Imitation
2. Pretend
3. Game
4. The Generalized Other
Dramatization of Evil
Tannenbaum
A community cannot deal with people it cannot define
Labeling creates “KINDS OF PEOPLE” which we then
expect to behave in the manner IMPUTED to them.
Outsiders
Howard Becker
“Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance.
Deviance is not a quality of an act, but a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender”.
Key terms: Moral Entrepreneurs and Master Status
Primary and Secondary Deviation
Primary deviation: having been accused of committing a deviant “act” (or it has gone unnoticed), but not internalizing or accepting a deviant label or identity
Secondary deviation: coming to think of oneself as deviant. This occurs after societal reaction and labeling.
Labeling can lead to secondary deviance in 3 general and overlapping ways…
- By altering an individual’s self concept
- By limiting conforming opportunities
- By encouraging involvement in a deviant subculture
There is a term for this: THE AMPLIFICATION OF DEVIANCE
What term do labeling theoriest use rather than “agents of formal social control”
imputational specialists
Off Shoots of Labeling Theory include?
Garfinkel’s ETHNOMETHODOLOGY (the study of norms that precede interaction) and Goffman’s DRAMATURGICAL MODEL.
Social Control Theories
- objective and positivistic
- believe that we are all born deviant and that humans are generally antisocial
- The emphasis here is on the social barriers that keep people from deviating. These barriers are developed via proper socialization and supervision (by your mom, apparently).
- deviance is a natural part of the social order in society
- given the opportunity we would all deviate
Social Bond Theory
Travis Hirschi
- Deviance occurs when social bonds become weak or broken
4 main types of bonds:
1) Attachment
2) Commitment
3) Involvement
4) Belief
True or false: Labeling theories are interpretive and subjective
TRUE
What is the difference between labeling theories and social control theories ways of studying the social world?
Positivist approaches (like social control theories) look for patterns and predictability in deviant behavior through data and structure, while interpretive approaches (like labeling theory) explore how deviance is socially constructed and experienced through meaning and interaction.
Family Relations & Delinquent Behaviour (social control theories)
F. Ivan Nye
(build a solid foundation for later control theories)
Nye emphasized the role of socialization and social control in shaping behaviour, arguing that both internal and external forces work together to encourage conformity.
Deviance occurs when the socialization process fails to instill strong internal controls, when external controls (like punishment) are ineffective, or when bonds with significant others are weak or absent.
3 types of control:
1) Internal Control
2) Direct Control
3) Indirect Control
Routine Activities Perspective (control theories)
This theory was developed to help explain the ecological patterns of victimization in urban areas.
It is a powerful explanation of the phenomenon of “repeated victimization”
Cohen and Felson (1979) – The probability of a crime increases when there is a convergence of 3 distinct elements:
1) a motivated offender 2) a suitable target 3) an absence of capable guardianship.
According to Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory, the answer to “Why aren’t you a criminal?” would be….
….that we have a stake in conformity. Most of us feel as if there is too much to lose by becoming a criminal.
However, deviance occurs when social bonds become weak or broken.
Low Self Control Theory
- Hirschi and Gottfredson (1990’s)
- General Theory of Crime
- focus on the individual
- universal application
- Individuals with low self-control are more likely to engage in deviant behaviour because they prioritize short term rewards over long term consequences.
Conflict theories are similar to interpretive theories of deviance in that they focus on _____________.
social inequalities OR class struggle
Marxist Conflict Theories
Focus is on the concept of class struggle
- The source of deviance does not reside in the body or mind – but rather in the unequal relationships between people
- deviance is deeply intertwined with societal power structures.
- Deviance in all of its forms are by-products of the capitalist system.
- Deviance is not the fault of universal laws (the norms that govern larger social structures) or individual choices. Rather, these issues are SYSTEMATIC and STRUCTURAL.
- emphasis on formal social control
Fundamentals of critical conflict theories
1) rules are made by the powerful 2) rules preserve the preferred way of life for the powerful
3) people break rules out of need and/or oppression.
What is praxiological research? Why is it valued in critical and conflict theories?
- Praxiological research is geared at the analysis, exposure, and resistance to oppressive social structures and systems…
- Praxiological social scientists should be studying the REAL nature of society and expose its structures of domination and lift what is called the veil of FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS
What is the name of Marx’s theory that we discussed in lecture?
Theory of Alienation
ALIENATION, in conjunction with FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS, CREATES DEVIANCE
What is false consciousness?
- People base their decisions on a false reality
- They think they are making decisions in their own best interest when in fact they are not…
- …because the oppressive system is so overshadowing that people don’t realize they are living in it.
- The job for the researcher is to expose systems that only serve the powerful and empower people who have been oppressed by them.
According to Antonio Gramsci, what is HEGEMONY?
The legitimate control of ideas by the dominant group of the masses through the use of ideas.
- It’s a world view so dominant that people are unable to conceive of any other alternative. It becomes the ‘common sense’ of a society.
emerges out of power and dominance
Neo Marxist Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School
1920s
These theorist fled Germany as they saw the dangers of Hitler and fascism taking over. This led them to studying the authoritarian personality and issues of false consciousness.
BUT …before leaving Germany, thinkers of the Frankfurt School examined the question…
Why didn’t the revolution that Marx predicted come to fruition?
Reid Technique
Interview technique widely associated with people giving false confessions
