chp7 deviance and crime Flashcards
(31 cards)
Deviance
is behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms.
Formal deviance
(breaks laws or official rules)
Informal Deviance
(violates customary norms)
Deviance and Crime are different
Deviance: recognized violation of cultural norms
Crime: Violation of a society’s enacted criminal law
Not all deviant behavior is criminal
Four main characteristics of deviant behavior:
- It occurs in a social context and is not just individual behavior.
- It is culturally relative.
- The social rules are created or constructed; not just morally decided upon or enforced.
- The audience decides what is defined as deviant.
Social Movements
Networks of groups that organize to support or resist change
-Campaign against smoking
Social Movements success and failure
Temperance Movement
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union 1873
1919 TheNational Prohibition Act (Volstead Act), 18th
Repealed 1933
Social Construction of Deviance
-Deviance is influenced by society and subcultures
Medicalization of deviance
attributes deviant behavior to a “sick” state of mind, where the solution is to “cure” the deviance through therapy or other psychological treatment.
Functionalists theories of deviance
-focus on how the behavior and the audience’s reactions contribute to the stability of society.
-Even dysfunctional behaviors such as prostitution and arson reinforce stability.
-The behavior creates social cohesion, giving people a heightened sense of social order.
-“Imagine a community of saints in an exemplary and perfect monastery. In it crime as such will be unknown, but faults that appeal venial to the ordinary person will arouse the same scandal as does normal crime in ordinary consciences” (Durkheim p.100)
STABILITY AND SOCIAL ORDER
Durkheim criticized the functionalist theory that
those who commit suicide are mentally deranged.
Durkheim identified three types of suicide:
Egoistic suicide occurs when people feel totally detached from society.
Lack of social integration
Anomic suicide is committed by people when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone.
Anomie relative normlessness caused by the breakdown of social influences.
Altruistic suicide is when there is excessive regulation of individuals by social forces.
People commit suicide for the good of others
Durkheim
- Deviance affirms cultural values and norms.
- -There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime.
- Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries.
- -A boundary between right wrong
Robert Merton, functionalist, (1910–2003) developed the
Strain (Anomie) theory of deviance.
- Merton proposed that people conform to the social expectation when the goals (“American Dream”) and the means of reaching them are in balance.
- He traces the origins of deviance to the tensions caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available to achieve those goals.
Social control theory
(Hirschi) examines the culture’s value systems and people’s attachment—or lack thereof—to those values.
- Most people probably feel some impulse toward deviance at times, but that the attachment to social norms prevents them from actually participating in deviant behavior.
- “Control theories assume that delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken. Since these theories embrace two highly complex concepts, the bond of the individual to society, it is not surprising that they have at one time or another formed the basis of explanations of most forms of aberrant or unusual behavior” (Hirschi 1969:16)
- ATTACHMENT TO SOCIAL VALUES/NORMS WEAK OR STRONG DETERMINES DEVIANCE
Social control theory (Hirschi)
The bonds of:
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
conflict perspective-what create crime?
elite deviance
White collar crime
argues that the economic structure of capitalism produces deviance and crime. -Conflict theorists demonstrate that the upper class has the means available to hide their criminal behavior.
Elite deviance refers to the wrongdoing of wealthy and powerful individuals and organizations
White collar crime – wealthy elite will always exploit the poor and working class.
Conflict Theories of Deviance
- who makes rules?
- who do they favor and unfavor?
- It is the people in power who make the rules which govern our society.
- -Tax and campaign laws are designed to favor the interests of the rich and the powerful.
- Those with little power or wealth are more likely to come into contact with a social control agent
- -e.g., the courts, and be charged with deviant or criminal behavior.
Symbolic Interaction Theories of Deviance
W. I. Thomas (1863-1947)
-Normal response to the condition people find themselves
-Social Disorganization Theory and Chicago School
“…the decay of existing societal rules of behavior and institutions” (Thomas and Znaniecki 1920:165)
“…refers to the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls” (Sampson and Groves 1989:777)
Symbolic Interaction Theories of Deviance
-Differential association theory
Differential Association Theory: Sutherland believed people become criminals when they are more strongly socialized to break the law than to obey it.
- One LEARNS to become a deviant
- Our primary group associations and interactions influence over our actions.
- Example: Hang out in a bar too long and you will likely become an alcoholic.
Symbolic Interaction Theories of Deviance
-Labeling Theory
-Labeling Theory interprets the responses of others as the most significant factor in understanding how deviant behavior is both created and sustained.
-Label – when a person is assigned a deviant identity by others, including by agents of social institutions.
It is people’s reactions, not the action itself, that produce deviance through labeling process.
-Arguably, an act is not deviant until someone says it is.
-Stigma- discredited attribute
REACTION NOT ACTION ITSELF
-Deviant communities
are similar to subgroups and countercultures.
They maintain their own values, norms, and rewards for behavior.
Joining a deviant community closes one off from conventional society.
This solidifies deviant careers because deviant individual gets rewards/status from the in-group.
Crime:
deviant behavior that violates laws.
Criminology
is the scientific study of crime and criminal behavior.
