Lesson 5 Keywords Flashcards
the wealthy who own the means of production and buy the labor of the working class
capitalist class
the idea that two control systems - inner controls and outer controls -work against one’s tendencies to deviate
control theory
the violation of norms written into law
crime
the legitimate objectives held out to the members of a society
cultural goals
the violation of rules or norms
deviance
Edwin Sutherland’s term to indicate that associating with some groups results in learning an “excess of definitions” of deviance, and a greater likelihood that one will become deviant
differential association
opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of life
illegitimate opportunity structure
approved ways of reaching cultural goals
institutionalized means
the view, developed by symbolic interactionists, that the labels people are given affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into deviance or conformity
labeling theory
an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown, to a formal prison sentence or an execution
negative sanction
a reward given for following norms, ranging from a smile to a prize
positive sanction
a group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms
social control
a group’s usual and customary social arrangements on which its members depend and on which they base their lives
social order
blemishes that discredit a person’s claim to a “normal” identity
stigma
Robert Merton’s term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success) but withholds from many the approved means to reach that goal. One adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal
strain theory
