Chapter 1- Determining Deviance Flashcards
(31 cards)
Deviance Specialists vs. Criminologists
deviance specialists study criminal and non criminal forms of deviance, where as criminologists only study the criminal forms
Deviance
involves violating the norms that have been accepted in society. Problem with defining deviance. More subjective nowadays. Statistical Rarity Harm Societal Reaction Normative Violation
Objective views of deviance
claim that the presence of certain characteristics define deviance
Subjective views of deviance
claim that there is no shared observable characteristic that can clearly tell us who or what is deviant, and who or what is normal. Instead someone must tell us who is deviant.
Statistical Rarity
definition not often used in academic research, but used in everyday reality. Its hard to define statistical rarity-at what percentage point is something considered rare?
Harm
Second factor to the definition of deviance. includes physical harm, emotional harm, social harm (get in the way of the smooth runnings of society), and harm to the way people understand the world and their role in it.
Societal Reaction
If the responses of society’s masses are primarily negative, rather than positive, then the person or act being responded to is deviant.
Normative Violation
proposed to be the defining characteristic of deviance
Absolutist view of norms
a particular behavior or characteristic was percieved as being inherently and universally deviant
Folkways
informal norms
Mores
foundation of morality in a culture, (prohibitions against incest of homosexuality) if violated, might be considered immoral
Consensual view of law
law is perceived as arising out of social consensus and is then equally applied to all, is the only one of the possible views of crime and law
Conflict view of law (social power perspective)
law as a tool used by the ruling class to serve its own interests, and believe that the law is more likely to be applied to members of the powerless classes in society
Interactionist view of law
society’s powerful define the law at the behest of interest groups, who appeal to those with power n order to rectify a perceived social ill.
High consensus deviance and low consensus deviance
different levels of support in the broader society
Subjectivism
subjectivists say that we cannot recognize deviance when we see it; we have to be taught, through processes of socialization, that a person, behavior, or characteristic is deviant.
Social Constructionism
perspective proposing that social characteristics are creations or artifacts of a particular society at a specific time in history, just as objects are artifacts of that society; consequently a person behaviour or characteristic that is considered deviant in one society may be considered normal in another
Levels of social construction
from all encompassing to most specific Sociocultural Institutional Interactional Individual
radical constructionists
the world is characterized by endless relativism, there is no essential reality to the social world at all, that if everything and anything is simply looked at in a certain way that is the way it is
types of social constructionism
radical, strict, soft or contextual
Deviance Dance
the interactions, negotiations, and debates among groups with different perceptions of whether a behavior or characteristic is deviant and needs to be socially controlled, and if so, how
Moral Entrepreneurs
those who manufacture public morality through
1) bringing the problem to public awareness
2) facillitating moral conversion
Groups commonly known to be moral euntrepreneurs
Politicians, Scientists, Religious Institutions, media (central battleground), commercial enterprise,
Social Typing
three component process that changes the way society treats people who are typed or categorized as deviant.
Description
Evaluation
Prescription
