Week 1 Flashcards
1
Q
Deviance is
A
A continuum
- Objective and subjective continuum
- Objective scholars: high-consensus crime (murder, gangs)
- Subjective scholars: low-consensus crime (porn, gambling)
2
Q
Objective vs subjective
A
- Once almost exclusively objective and now we have more subjective focus
- There are different ways of trying to answer the question, “who is deviant?”…
3
Q
Objective (trait)
A
- argue that certain acts are inherently moral or immoral
4
Q
Statistical rarity (objective)
A
- Deviance defined as people, behaviours or characteristics that are statistically rare in a population
- Not rly accepted cuz ‘rare’ hard to quantify, it doesn’t rly correspond to how we view deviance (e.g. teen drinking normal but bad)
5
Q
Harm (objective)
A
- Deviance defined as people, behaviours or characteristics that cause harm
- Physical harm, Emotional harm, social harm, Ontological harm (threat to fundamental ways we understand the world)
- Limitations; not that clear, perceptions of harm have changed, whether society is being harmed is subjective, there is a difference between harming society and changing society
6
Q
Negative societal reaction (objective)
A
- Deviance defined as people, behaviours or characteristics that society’s ‘masses’ respond to negatively (anger, fear, distrust)
- Limitations; how many ppl is masses, why does society get mad at some
7
Q
Normative violation (objective)
A
- Deviance defined as people behaviours, or characteristics that violate society’s norms
- Early objectivists = certain traits inherently deviant
- Norms: folkways (everyday behaviour), mores (morality in society) and laws (legal system)
8
Q
Subjective (process)
A
- argue that it is not a quality that lies at the core of deviance, but a process
- groups w influence tell society certain ppl or behaviours are deviant
9
Q
Dominant moral codes (subjective)
A
- Determine who/what is deviant in society
- Multiple moral codes exist at the same time + dictate ppl to what’s right and wrong, complex power relations
10
Q
Social constructionism (subjective)
A
- Social constructionism is a perceptive saying social characteristics are creations of a particular society at a specific time in history
- Strict (no reality) vs. contextual (social phenomena)
- Its a process: behaviours place in the social order –> the role assigned to ppl who exhibit that behaviour –> meanings attached to that behaviour
- Individual level (own identities), interactional level (other ppl), institutional level (society structure), sociocultural level (beliefs, values etc.), global level (globalization)
11
Q
Deviance dance (subjective)
A
- Understanding an act of deviance requires understanding its larger context in a society’s value system and the configuration of power relationships that influence moral boundaries among different groups
- This analysis is the ‘deviance dance’
- Interactions, negotiations + debates among groups w different perceptions of whether a behaviour is deviant and in need of social control
- It can either have considerable cooperation or by opposition but still moving together
- Nature of power relations can influence the direction the deviance dance takes
- Some ppl in better positions to be moral entrepreneurs than others
- Moral entrepreneurs identify a social problem and try to mobilize resources to address the problem
12
Q
Social typing process
A
- Process which some ppl are seen as deviant and other as normal
13
Q
Description, evaluation and prescription
A
- 3 component process can change the way society treats ppl who’re typed as deviant
- description : Label placed on a person cuz of observed or presumed behaviour/characteristic
- evaluation : Judgement attached to the individual cuz of the label
- Prescription : Process of social control or regulation emerges, individual treated in specific way
14
Q
Forms of social control
A
- Formal/Informal social control
- Formal = organizational/institutional level (e.g. dress code, school policies)
- Informal = patterns of informal social interaction
- Retroactive/Preventative social control
- Retroactive = treating a known deviant in a certain way
- Preventative = trying to prevent deviance in 1st place
- Control of others/self-regulation
- Control of others = directed at an individual by someone else
- Self regulation = ppl regulate their own behaviour
- Multiple may be going on at any given moment
15
Q
Shame + guilt
A
- Shame = focus on self ‘I am bad’
- Guilt = focus on behaviour ‘I did something bad’
