midterm 2

Question 1

deviance/ socialization/ social control

Answer 1

• Any behaviour, belief, or condition that violates a group’s cultural norms
• the process of social interaction that integrates us into a complex of social and cultural systems.
• systematic practices developed by groups to encourage conformity and discourage deviance. One form of social control is socialization, whereby individuals internalize societal norms and values.

Question 2

cooley: the looking glass self

Answer 2

1. We imagine how we appear to others
2. We imagine how others judge us
   Being “normal” (adhering to norms) is a form of control!

Question 3

Michel foucault: Discipline and punish & panopticon

Answer 3

examines how power, knowledge, and social control all intertwine

• Jeremy bentham: panopticon (1787)
• prisoners learn to self-monitor their behaviour
• become ‘’normal’’
• foucault argues that many social institutions ar panoptic
• observe and normalize our behaviour

Question 4

functionalist perspective on crime and deviance

Answer 4

Robert merton: Strain theory
Functional societies have limited deviance
Deviance occurs when people are ‘’blocked’’ from achieving their goals
People will use illegitimate means to reach goals
Understand deviance as a structural problem
Crime is a result of social breakdown and dysfunction

in a functioning society, deviance will be limited. People share common goals and agree upon the appropriate means for reaching them. Deviance may be common in such societies because people may be willing to use whatever means they can to achieve their goals.

Question 5

Durkheim: The function of deviance/crime

Answer 5

Punishment/crime has two social functions:
1) Reinforces solidarity : feeling of togetherness
2) Foster social change
Deviance is ‘normal’, necessary, and functional!
-Very low crime/ deviance are abnormal and a sign of dysfunction

Question 6

Symbolic interactionist perspective

Answer 6

-Differential association theory
Likelihood of deviance increases if you associate with deviant groups. (increases)
-labeling theory:
Giving a status of deviance to someone may make them more likely to be deviant, act out the status
-people internalize the deviant ‘’label’’ and act accordingly
-leads to secondary deviance
Young offenders don’t get the label because as teenagers we search for identity so it will influence their growth, internalize it and become deviant.

Question 7

Howard becker: moral crusades/ moral entrepreneurs

Answer 7

moral crusades: A movement to “label’ particular behaviours deviant and change laws. public campaigns that help generate public and political support for moral entrepreneurs.
- moral entrepreneurs: people or groups who take an active role in trying to have particular behaviours defined as deviant
Deviance: any behaviour labeled deviant by people in positions of power

Question 8

Tax act of 1937

Answer 8

Media reports on crime: myth vs reality
Myth 1: crime is out of control in canada
Leads canadians to overestimate crime rate
Myth 2: Violent crime is very common
Most common crime is property crime

Question 9

effects of media misrepresentation

Answer 9

-Leads to calls for “tougher’’ measures against crime
Unfounded fear of victimization
-Politicians use fear of crime to get elected

Question 10

conflict theory and crime/deviance

Answer 10

Marx: the superstructure of society maintains the capitalist’s position

Marx model of society

Ideology : ideas, common sense
Superstructure (law, legal institutions)
- Relations of productions —–
Base —- - mode of production
- Forces of productions———-
Crime is an expression of the individual’s struggle against the unjust social conditions and inequality produced by capitalism.
Law maintains the capitalists’ dominant position
1) White collar/corporate crimes not policed as much as street crime
2)High status criminals not labeled criminal
3) Weak labour laws

Question 11

Conflict theory: race and crime

Answer 11

Why are first nations so over-represented in jail?
-Poverty: inability to pay fines
Problems of institutional racism

Question 12

institutional racism

Answer 12

laws and procedures that unintentionally discriminate against certain groups.

Question 13

sex vs gender & gender role

Answer 13

Sex: biological difference between men and women
-Gender: the cultural beliefs, practices and assumptions associated with each sex
gender role: refers to attitudes, behaviours and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex. Learned through socialization process

Question 14

Culture and Sexual Assignment

Answer 14

Corrections’ To inter-sexed are culturally motivated rather than medically necessary
-Canadian health care funds ‘corrective procedures’ since they are viewed as medically necessary

Question 15

Questions about ‘Correcting’ Inter-sexed Kids

Answer 15

1)Do inter-sexed children have a right to determine their own identity?
2)Relation to other forms of socially motivated sexual surgery
Castrati: male singers castrated before puberty
•Most came from poor families

Question 16

Why examine the Castrati?

Answer 16

• We cannot understand Sexual Statuses without connecting them to other parts of social structure
• Economies (boys were poor), religion (church ban), politics (royal guards), etc

Question 17

Gender

Answer 17

-Like sex, western societies only recognize two genders, masculine and feminine
-Other cultures recognized a third recording gender
•The Berdaches and Hijra
•Men prostitutes, not seen as gay

Question 18

Western Examples of Gender Crossing

Answer 18

• Crossdressing: a member of one sex dressing as the ‘opposite’ gender
• Women can “cross-dress” without disapproval but men not afforded the same leniency
• Men wears a skirt is deviant
• , soles based on social context that it is based deviant

Question 19

Empirical Evidence of Patriarchy

Answer 19

Gender wage gap: 
•Women earn 70 cents to the male dollar 
•Gap still exists in the same profession with the same educational credentials 
-Sexual Division of Labour 
•“Double Work Day”
-Women come home from their jobs and then have to clean cook and take care of kids 
-Why does it exist?
•All these traditions are gender roles 

Most women work in lower-paying, less prestigious jobs, with less opportunity for advancement than their male counterparts.
Women lose more work experience because of the time lost of pregnancy and time off for children.
Pay equity: attempts to raise the value of the work traditionally performed by women.
Employment equity: strategies focus on ways to move women into higher-paying jobs traditionally held by men.

Question 20

How do we Learn Gender Roles

Answer 20

Why do women go into certain occupations? Mainly go into teaching nursing humanities . All in relation to nurturing
-How much of our gender identity has been “assigned”?
-A gender Panopticon
•How are different groups watching us so that we live up to gender norms
•Crossing you legs
•We learn to self monitor and change our own behaviour
•Numerous social institutions socialize us into performing traditional gender roles
-Family: treat baby girls and boys differently, clothing, toys,
-Peer Group: Re-enforce gender norms, esp. boys
-Education: teachers are more likely to tell girls to be polite and put your hand up before you speak and men are expected because their voice is important
-Sports: aggression competitiveness

Question 21

effects of unreal images

Answer 21

-Eating disorders are the 3rd most common illness among adolescent american females.
Nearly half of 12-17 year old girls have dieted
4 and 5 year old children use body size to judge someone as “nice’’ or ‘’mean’’

Question 22

difference between majority and minority groups

Answer 22

Majority group: defined by its members social advantages or superior resources and rights
Minority group: members are disadvantaged or treated unequally because of race or ethnicity

Question 23

problems with defining race biologically

Answer 23

Intra-group differences exceed inter-group differences: intra group is within the group inter-group is difference between groups
Criterion is arbitrary: no base to prove, it could be this or that.

Question 24

what is a race, prejudice and stereotype?

Answer 24

Race: any group deemed inferior or superior on the basis of some (arbitrarily) selected attributes
Prejudice is a negative attitude based on preconceived notions about members of selected groups. Racial prejudice involves beliefs that certain racial groups are innately inferior to others or have a disproportionate number of negative traits.
Stereotypes- overgeneralizations about the appearance, behaviour, or other characteristics of members of particular groups.

Question 25

John porter: the vertical mosaic (1965)

Answer 25

Canadian ethnic groups are unequal in status and power
-unequal in income, occupation and education
-british origins had highest incomes, education and health
-over-represented among the social elites
-First nations most disadvantaged
Today: visible minorities sill disadvantaged, first nations remain the worst off
-british still dominate elite positions
-once a stratification system is in place, it reproduces its basic structure

Question 26

race: status and roles

Answer 26

-Why do members of particular racial groups tend to take on a particular status and role?
-How are these statuses and roles socially constructed?
Why are we observing the predominance of black athletes in this clip?
Can we explain this status/role sociologically rather than biologically

Question 27

how do racial status/roles relate to institutions?

Answer 27

Economics

• black athletes predominate in sports that require little expense/equipment
• poverty fosters over-representation in some sports, leading to the unfounded believe that blacks are ‘naturally’ athletic

Education

• Poverty and substandard educations (underfunded schools) means sports scholarships are crucial for black students to attend school
• External social factors, rather than inherent biological ones, explain why blacks may be more likely to assume the status of an athlete

In sports where white athletes are most prevalent, ‘’being white’’ isn’t linked with natural athleticism

Question 28

How is stratification maintained?

Answer 28

Stratification is a system or formation of layers, classes, or categories.
Prejudice: a negative attitude based on preconceived ideas about a group
Measured through “social distances’ surveys
Does prejudice lead to discrimination?
Discrimination: actions or practices of majority group members that harm minority group members
Ex. restaurants and discrimination
Two basic forms: de jure + de facto (informal)
De jure: legal discrimination encoded in laws
E.g the continuous passage rule of 1908. Immigrant from india needed to come directly from india, they could stop on the way or else they were not welcome. There was no continuous boats from india, so they put this law knowing no one would come.

Question 29

chinese head tax

Answer 29

-Chinese labour recruited to build the canadian pacific railway (CPR)
Canada let people immigrant here to build the CPR, 15,000 chinese immigrants came. They were used in dangerous and poor conditions.
-When CPR completed, federal government passed the chinese head tax (1888) this did there was a 50$ to enter the country for chinese people. 50$ was just above what a chinese could not pay after paying for all their needs. Then it didn’t stop, increased to 100 and then 500$.
-1923 chinese immigration act ended chinese immigration

Question 30

conflict perspective

and conflict theory and race**

Answer 30

• Immigration is based on need for cheap labour
• Immigrants labour used to break strikes, keep wages down, fill jobs canadians do not want or cannot do
• Split labour market along racial/ethnic lines

internal colonialism refer to a situation in which members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group.

bonanchich: the split market theory
The split labour market: states that both white workers and members of the capitalist class benefit from the explotation of visible minorities. internal colonialism refer to a situation in which members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group. 
The economy is split into two, and they are the complete opposite. The primary sector have higher wages, the secondary sector the jobs have lower wages. The primary sector, the working conditions are safer, better security. 

• Racism is just an epiphenomenon of class: what we think is happening is different, underneath that its class not race.
• A split labour market benefits the capitalist class by “splitting’’ the working class and preventing collective action

Question 31

brain drain

Answer 31

Brain drain”- he emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country. leads to inequality because of lost of skilled individuals, leave after getting their education. Draining them out of their countries to work here.

Question 32

credential recognition

Answer 32

credential recognition: individuals do not get their credits for the educations they have done. Ex. cubans doctors or pilot. Their diplomas are not recognized so they can’t work in their fields so they work in dead end jobs.

Question 33

institutionalized racism

Answer 33

Institutionalized racism: the practices, rules, and procedures of social institutions produce differential treatments of groups
-Shown through the statistical under-representation of certain groups

Question 34

is employment equity reverse discrimination?

Answer 34

To be able to discrimination you need power. So reverse doesn’t make sense because people in minority lack power.
Quotas are explicitly prohibited by the employment equity act.
Employment equity does not hire unqualified people
Hiring and promotion standards are not lowered

Question 35

basic premise of the act

Answer 35

Basic premise of the act: given two equally qualified applicants, hire the one from a minority group

Question 36

Opportunity theory

Answer 36

in a functioning society, deviance will be limited. People share common goals and agree upon the appropriate means for reaching them. Deviance may be common in such societies because people may be willing to use whatever means they can to achieve their goals.

Question 37

four ways to classify crime

Answer 37

street crime
occupational crime
organized crime
political crime

Question 38

what is discrimination and the 4 types?

Answer 38

Discrimination: involves actions or practices of dominant group members that have a harmful impact on members of a subordinate group.
Prejudiced attitudes do not always lead to discriminatory behaviours.
Sociologist Robert Merton identified 4 combinations of attitudes and responses
-Unprejudiced non discriminator: not personally prejudiced and do not discriminate against others.
Unprejudiced discriminators: may have no personal prejudices but still engage in discriminatory behaviour because of peer group pressure or economic, political or social interest
Prejudiced non discriminators: holds personal prejudices but do not discriminate due to peer pressure, legal demands, or a desire for profits.
Prejudiced discriminators: hold personal prejudices and actively discriminate against others

Question 39

what is racism and the different forms?

Answer 39

Racism
A set of ideas that implies the superiority of one social group over another on the basis of biological or cultural characteristics, together with the power to put these beliefs into practice in a way that controls, excludes or exploits minority women and men.
Hate racism: may take the form of deliberate and highly personal attacks.
Polite racism: an attempt to disguise a dislike of others through behaviour that is outwardly non prejudicial.
Subliminal racism: a form of subconscious racism that involves prejudices which individuals are unaware of but that display themselves in discriminatory beliefs and behaviours.
Institutionalized racism: occurs where the established rules, policies and practices within an institution or organization produces differential treatment of various groups based on race.

Question 40

functionalist perspective on race

Answer 40

asslimination is a process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture. To some analysts, assimilation is functional because it contributes to the stability of society by minimizing group differences that otherwise might result in hostility and violence.

Cultural pluralism: is the coexistence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnic groups within one society.
Inequality pluralism or segregation: exist when specific ethnic groups are set apart from the dominant group and have unequal access to power and privilege.