midterm 1 Flashcards
Norms
Socially acceptable ideals/rules
Ex: the way you behave at a grocery store or fast food restaurant (lines, etiquette)
Deviance
Any behavior that violates social norms
- positive deviance (climate change activists)
Social Norms
The way people are expected to behave in society or situations
- violating personal space ettiquette
Natural Attitude
Disengaging from normal routine when something interrupts it
(something deviant or out of the ordinary)
Stages of Learning
Observation
- Imitation (feedback loop)
- Blending in, being a part of something (feeling of belonging)
Feedback
- Breaching experiments
- Correction
Direct instruction
- Being informed of the expectation for a certain situation (told to be on time)
4 Elements of Social Deviance
- Socially Constructed
- Contextual
- Culturally Relative
- Changes over Time
Socially constructed
It only exists within a society, nothing is ‘naturally deviant’
- Consequences are associated
Contextual
Sometimes acceptable, sometimes unacceptable, depends
Culturally relative
Acceptable in some cultures, unacceptable in others
- Ex: greetings, personal space, tipping, dancing
Changes over time
Evolving
- Ex: seatbelts, smoking/vaping, tattoos, drinking and driving, phones
Attitudes
(or belief systems)
ex; flat earthers, leftists, rightists
Behaviors
People’s actions!
- Way they dress, act
- It is achieved (someone earns it, caused by something)
- Changing the label is difficult
Conditions
Something acquired from birth (biology, psychology or environment)
- Nothing was done to earn the label, it is hard to get ride of
Caveat
A conditional deviant status can be achieved
(when a person becomes very fat or thin)
Social Harmfulness Argument
People believe that deviance is only harmful behavior and should be controlled/prevented
Physical Argument for Social Harmfulness Argument
Deviance causes physical damage to the deviant, other people, or objects
- Does NOT account for positive deviance!!
- Ex: marijuana was said to provoke sudden insanity, murder, mental defect etc.
Social Reality Argument for Social Harmfulness Argument
It is harmful because it is “destroying the world”
- Shakes up the assumptions that make life orderly, understandable, and meaningful
4 Problems with the Social Harmfulness Argument about Deviance
- Not all deviance is harmful in the same way
- Some conduct labeled deviant is less harmful than that which is not
- Some deviance that’s harmful is celebrated and the perpetrator is held in high regard
- Ex; Highly aggressive individuals are celebrated, yet are problematic (youtubers who do pranks, hockey players that fight on the ice)
- We find said behaviors interesting because we can’t engage with them - Can’t deal with positive outcomes of deviance (Silver lining effect)
What is Crime?
Legal definition: what the criminal code/law proclaims it to be a crime as an act punishable by law (any act that contradicts criminal code)
-Always partial, no universal definition
Actus Reus
VS
Mens rea
Actus Reus: Culpable act
(Accused behavior caused event )
Mens rea: Guilty mind
(Simultaneously accompanied by certain state of mind)
Ethics
how we ‘ought’ to be (how we should behave)
Nuremberg Code
Established in 1948, stating that “The (a) voluntary (b) consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” making it clear that subjects should give consent and that the benefits of research must outweigh the risks
10 Standards of the Nuremberg Code
- Volunteers freely consent to participate
- Researchers fully inform volunteers
- Risks associated with the study are reduced where possible
- Researchers are responsible to protect volunteers against harm
- Participants can withdraw at any time
- Stopping the study if adverse effects emerge
- Society should benefit from findings
- Research on humans, should be based on previous animal or other previous work
- A research study should never begin if there is a reason to believe that death or injury may result
Declaration of Helsinki
World Medical Association established recommendations guiding research involving human subjects
- Research protocols should be reviewed by an independent committee prior to initiation
- Informed consent from research participants is necessary
- Research should be conducted by medically/scientifically qualified individuals
- Risks should not exceed benefits
Researchers must (usually) ensure
- Anonymity
- Confidentiality
- Research causes no undue harm to participants
- Informed consent of participants
- Have not disguised the true nature/purpose of the research (manipulation)
Canadian Uniform Crime Reports CUCR
Goal: provide uniform and comparable national statistics
- Allows for comparisons between jurisdictions/over time (per 100,000)
3 Factors that influence the crime rate
Economy
Administrative changes
Demographic changes
Victimization survey
A survey of a random sample of the population in which people are asked to recall and describe their own experience of being a victim of crime
Victimization studies
They don’t just count crime, they provide data on costs of victimization, financial losses, physical injuries, and fear
Most common crimes (according to UCR)
VS
Most common crimes (according to victimization studies)
Most common crimes (according to UCR)
Theft under 5000$
Drug offenses
Administration of justice issues
Common assault- lvl 1 (no weapons, or bodily harm)
Most common crimes (according to victimization studies)
Fraud (also the fastest growing crime)
The 3 levels of assault
1= no weapons or bodily harm (common)
2= assault with a weapon, doesn’t cause bodily harm
3= murder, manslaughter, SA, aggravated assault
Limitations of Self-Report studies
Truth telling
Downplaying certain responses
Ethnography and participant observation
(looking at the details, in depth)
Correlates of crime
variables that are connected with crimes
Correlation
A phenomenon that accompanies another phenomenon & is related in some way to it
- An association
Social Construction
Something that is brought into existence by a group of people and is accepted as true by that group
- Collectively held
- Ex; thumbs up = good job, youth = troublemakers
Maturational reform
People are less likely to commit crime as they grow older.
What age range has the highest crime rate?
18-24
Gender
The Western concept of gender recognizes that gender exists on a continuum with individuals identifying as women, men,neither, or both and may change or shift along the continuum over time
Sex vs Gender
Sex: biological, given, physiological construct
Gender: cultural, socially constructed (masculinity vs femininity)
Theory
- A set of concepts and their nominal definitions or assertions about the relationships between these concepts, assumptions, and knowledge claims.
- Set of verifiable principles about a thing or behavior
- A lens, way to look at a situation or phenomenon
