Chapter 7 Flashcards
(37 cards)
Social Control
Attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior
Conformity
Going along with peers
Obedience
Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure
Informal social control
Used casually to enforce norms
- smiles, laughter, raised eyebrows, ridicule
Formal social control
Carried out by authorized agents
Sanctions
Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm. People often receive competing messages about how to behave.
Functionalists: people must respect social norms for group or society to survive
Conflict theorists: successful functioning of society made possible by adherence to social norms benefits the powerful
Deviance
Recognized violation of cultural norms
Social foundation of deviance
Deviance varies according to cultural norms, people become deviant as others define them that way, both norms and the way people define them involve social power
Durkheim’s 4 functions
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms, responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries, responding to deviance brings people together, deviance encourages social change
Crime
Violation of society’s formally enacted criminal law
Criminal justice system
A formal response by police, courts, and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
Differential justice
Differences in way social control is exercised over different groups
5 criticisms of the criminal justice
- Tendency of police to arrest suspects from minority groups at substantially higher rates than those from the majority group in situations where discretion is possible
- The over representation of certain dominant social, ethnic, and racial groups on juries
- The difficulty the poor encounter in affording bail
- The poor quality of free legal defense
- The disparity in sentencing for members of dominant and minority groups
Merton’s anomie theory
The strain between our culture’s emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to get rich gives rise to crime and other forms of deviance
Labeling theory
Deviance and conformity result, not so much from what people do, as from how others respond to those actions
Primary deviance
Passing episodes of norm violation
Secondary deviance
Repeated violation of norm. Takes on a deviant identity
Stigma
A powerfully negative social label that changes a person’s self concept and social identity, operating as a master’s status
Differential association
Deviance is learned in groups, exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to a violation of the rules
Routine activities theory
In order to have crime you must have motivated offenders and suitable targets
Social disorganization theory
Increases in crime and deviance can be attributed to the absence of breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions
Control theory
Social control depends on imagining the consequences of one’s behavior
FBI index of crime
8 types of crime that are tabulated each year by the FBI
Murder, rape, assault, robbery, theft, grand motor theft, arson, and burglary
Organized crime
A business supplying illegal goods or services
