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HOW SOCIETY WORKS EXAM > Crime and Deviance > Flashcards

Crime and Deviance Flashcards

1
Q

What is the definition of Deviance?

A 
Violation of cultural norms:
- Any behaviour that violates normal behaviour 
- Deviate from the norm
- Normal is a social construction 
- Only 3 things everyone 
agrees is wrong = murder, incest, theft
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2
Q

What is the definition of crime?

A

Violation of cultural norm which are enacted into law.

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3
Q

What is the difference between crime and deviance

A
  • All crime is deviant behaviour, but not all deviant behaviour is crime
  • Crime and deviance changes over time
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4
Q

How does crime and deviance differ by place and change over time?

A

It varies because societies determine what is right and wrong, it is a social construction.
- EX: speed limits, pot, drinking age, etc

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5
Q

What are crimes and the 4 differential seriousness?

A
  1. Consensus crimes:
    - the public mostly agrees that the behavior is criminal: murder, rape, etc
  2. Conflict crimes:
    - these are acts which are illegal, but there are a number of people who think it should not be illegal: prostitution, drug laws, etc
  3. Social deviation:
    - not illegal acts, but behavior that society believes is serious and harmful: behaviour stemming from mental illness, addition, etc
  4. Social diversions:
    - behavior that is distasteful, harmless, but seen as cool to others. Examples: body piercing, tattoos, skateboarding
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6
Q

What are 3 sanctions used in maintaining conformity?

A
  1. Negative Sanctions
    - Punishment for violating norms, through the police and or the courts
  2. Positive sanctions
    - Rewards for conforming to expected behaviour
  3. Informal Sanctions
    - Individuals discouraging certain behaviour through a face to face interaction
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7
Q

What factors effect crime?

A
  • Gangs, mental health, age, gender, race, and socioeconomic factors such as unemployment
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8
Q

Why do racial and ethnic groups differ in terms of their crime rate?

A

It could result from Racial Profiling

  • Some believe the police are more likely to over police people of colour
  • The police say some of it might be die to bias
  • In Toronto, there are no stats so racial profiling cannot be confirmed
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9
Q

What was learned in the Kingston Study

A
  • Kingston police were told to record the race of everyone they stopped
  • Kingston is a predominately white city
  • The report showed that police were more likely to blacks than whites.
  • 1.4 times more likely to stop an aboriginal than a white person
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10
Q

Who studied the Biological explanations to deviance? and what did they study? What was wrong with it?

A

Cesare Lombroso , a prison physician
- Characterized criminals as having distinctive physical characteristics: (low foreheads, prominent jaws and cheekbones, protruding ears, excessive hairiness, Resembled apelike ancestors.
- His research was flawed:
He didnt have a control group, he only studied prisoners.

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11
Q

What is the biological research today?

A
  • Most crimes are committed by males
  • Most crimes committed by younger rather than older individuals
  • By age 18, 90% of males have participated in delinquent acts
  • Criminal conviction records for Adoptive children, Biological children, Adoptive parents
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12
Q

What is the latest in Biological research?

A

Medrick found:

  • children of convicted parents were more often convicted
  • Children of convicted adoptive parents were less likely to be convicted
  • Interaction of genes and environment: Highest conviction rate among convicted biological and adoptive parents
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13
Q

How do functionalists view deviance?

A
  • As a key component of a function society.
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14
Q

What are 3 functionalist perspectives on deviance in society?

A
  1. Social disorganization theory
  2. Strain theory
  3. Cultural deviance theory
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15
Q

How did Durkheim study function of crime? (8 points)

A

Crime reinforce the need for laws:

  • Criminal behaviour tests the boundaries of laws
  • Laws are slow to change once created
  • The majority may change their opinion on what is illegal before the law changes. ie. pot
  • Criminality forces society to reevaluate the applicability of laws each time it deals with the criminal act
  • In small societies (rural, pre-industrial) social organizations are based on closely shared norms and values
  • The norms and values are like glue that bind people together
  • Small towns or villages: everyone enforces rules
  • In large societies (industrial, post industrial) close ties don’t exist, instead a multitude of social relationships exist.
  • A lack of interaction results in moral ties become weaker, as they are not reinforced through personal contact.
  • A mechanism to regulate these relationships needs to develop: the legal systems
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16
Q

What is Social Disorganization Theory?

A
  • Some people use to believe that some cultures are defective and thus more likely to commit crime.
  • The Chicago school showed this is not the case.
  • Instead they showed it had to do with environmental factors
17
Q

What are some changes in our environment causing social changes?

A
  • Since we are interlinked to our (environment) surroundings, a change in our surroundings can affect our behaviour
  • If a dump moves into the neighbourhood, this will affect behaviour:
    Some people will move, Housing values will drop, Poor
    will move in, Changes in people’s behaviour will result.
18
Q

What is the Concentric-zone model

A

Cities evolve and bring with it changes in behaviour
- Burgess’s concentric zone model conceptualized cities as a succession of five concentric rings, each containing a distinct population and type of land use.

19
Q

What are the 4 parts of the Concentric zone model (5 points)

A
  1. Central Business District (CBD): - major department stores, live theatres, hotels, banks, offices
    - Constantly expanding
    - Most expensive property
  2. Zone of Transition: cheap housing for each new immigrant wave and the centre of illegal activities
    - Owners do little to improve property in anticipation of being bought out by the expanding CBD
    - Area deteriorates and some move out of the area
    - Rents fall and attract the poor, and the immigrant
  3. Zone of Working-Class Homes: settlements of second-generation immigrants and rural migrants
    - Some move into this zone from the transitional zone
  4. Zone of Better Residences: middle-class homes
  5. Commuter Zone: suburbs and satellite towns
20
Q

What is Control Theory in relation to crime and deviance? And who studied it?

A

Hirschi’s assumes delinquent acts will result when one’s bond, or connection to society is weak or broken

  • No motivational factors were necessary for one to become delinquent; the only requirement was the absence of control that allows the individual to be free to weigh the benefits of crime over the costs of those same delinquent acts.
  • Weak social bonds may set an individual free to weigh the benefits of crime
  • self-control, rather than societal control, as the root of criminality or conformity
  • Self-control has its roots in parental upbringing
21
Q

What is Symbolic Interactionism in relation to labeling to stigma?

A
  1. Labeling can lead to acquiring a stigma
    - A powerful negative social label that radically changes a person’s self-concept
  2. Once a label is acquired, a person’s past is reanalyzed, and the label is reinforced with previous behaviours which fit the label
    - Pedophile
22
Q

What is conflict theory in relation to crime and deviance? (3 points)

A
  • Capitalists and the working class conflict for scare resources
  • Capitalists maintain their superior position, because they use social institutions such as law, politics, and education to legitimize the class structure
  • Crime is the expression of the individual’s struggle against the unjust social conditions and inequality produced by capitalism
23
Q

What is Inequality and Crime?

A
  • Some believe that crime results from income inequality
  • Income inequality can be measured by the GINI
  • The GINI coefficient ranges from 0 to 1.
    0 indicates a society where are members earn the same income
  • 1.0 indicates a society where one member earns all the money earned in the society and everyone else earns zero income
  • No society has a gini of 0 or 1.0
  • All are in between 0 and

HOW SOCIETY WORKS EXAM (5 decks)

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