chapter 5 Flashcards
(29 cards)
Deviance
behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations and attract negative sanctions
Strain theory
Merton: the idea that deviance is caused by a tension between widely valued goals and people’s ability to attain them
Differential association theory
Sutherland:the idea that we need to be recruited into and taught criminal behavior by people in our social networks
Social disorganization theory
Wilson: the idea that deviance is more common in dysfunctional neighborhoods
Concentrated poverty
a condition in which 40 percent or more of the residents in an area live below the federal poverty line
Neutralization theory
the reasons for rule breaking
Neutralization theory types
Denial of Responsibility: is a claim that rule breaking is outside of a rule breaker’s control. “Its not my fault”
Denial of Injury: is a claim that the rule breaking is allowed because no one is harmed. “No one got hurt”
Denial of the Victim: is a claim that any harm that comes is deserved. “They were asking for it”
Condemnation of the Condemners: is a rejection of a critic’s moral authority to judge the rule breaker. “You’re just as bad as me
Appeal to Higher Loyalties: is the claim that rule breaking is justified in pursuit of a greater good. “I did it for my family”
Labeling theory
a theory about how labels that are applied to us influence our behavior
labeling
the process of assigning a deviant identity to an individual
Primary deviance
to describe the instance of deviance that first attracts a label
Secondary deviance
further instances of deviance prompted by the receipt of the deviant label
Structural functionalism
Durkheim: the theory that society is a system of necessary, synchronized parts that work together to create social stability
Collective conscience
Durkheim: a society’s shared understanding of right and wrong
Anomie
Durkheim: Social instability caused by erosion of standards and values.
example: covid disrupted our norms
Conflict theory
Marx, Cooper, Gilman: the idea that societies aren’t characterized by shared interests but competing ones
Social inequality
a condition in which wealth, power, and prestige are most readily available to people with privileged social identities
Stigmatization :
a process by which physical traits or social conditions become widely devalued
Criminalization:
involves collectively defining a trait or condition as criminal.
Medicalization:
involves collectively defining physical traits or social conditions as an illness. Example: anxiety is just an extreme shyness ( nervous disorders)
Marijuana example, deviance is learned
Becker:
Three steps
1. Socialization: learning how to
use the drug
2. Recognition of the drug’s
effects
3. Learning to enjoy these effects
white-collar crime
crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation
for example: fraud, bribery, embezzlement
two types of ways to obey social rules
Merton: conformity and ritualism
comformity
Merton: Strain theory: non deviant way to deal with strain.
Individuals accept both the goals as well as the prescribed means for achieving those goals.
ritualism
Merton: strain theory: The mode of adaptation in which an individual has lost his interest in striving for the socially accepted goals but is satisfied in running through the rituals of working within the institutionalized means.
