Deviance and Crime

Question 1

• Explain structural strain
• State the functionalist perspective
• State symbolic interactionist perspective
  o Labeling theory
   Stigma
   Discreditable identity; Discredited identity
• State the conflict perspective
• Explain the medicalization of deviance

Answer 1

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Question 2

What is deviance?

Answer 2

Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society

• Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be formalized into law
• Subject to social definition within a particular society and at a particular time

Question 3

State the functionalist perspective of Deviance.

Answer 3

Promotes Social Unity
- fosters a ‘we’ feeling
Affirms the rightness of its own ways

Clarifies moral boundaries
- Promotes Social Change
may force a group to rethink and redefine moral boundaries, help groups to change their customary ways

Question 4

What is anomie?

Answer 4

Anomie is a situation that occurs when there is a disjuncture between the goals promoted by society and the availability of legitimate means to achieve these goals

Question 5

Elaborate on sources of suicide: egoism

Answer 5

• Occurs when people are not well integrated into society
• In this state, people lack ties to their social groups.
• These people simply have less to live for (i.e. less reason not to kill themselves)

Question 6

Elaborate on sources of suicide: anomie

Answer 6

• a situation in which people do not experience the constraint of social norms
• Collective conscience are not powerful enough to regulate their behaviour
• Suicide is easier

Question 7

What are 5 basic forms of adaptation according to Merton’s/ Anomie Theory of Deviance.

Answer 7

• Conformist
• Innovator
• Ritualist
• Retreatist
• Rebel

Question 8

Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Conformist

Answer 8

Conformity

• Ignore the disjuncture and keep on trying
• Continue to accept goals of success and accept means of hard work

Question 9

Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Innovator

Answer 9

Innovators

• Accept and pursue accepted goals but devise non-legitimate means
• e.g.: crack dealers, embezzlers, robbers, con artists

Question 10

Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Ritualist

Answer 10

Ritualists

• Reject culturally approved goals but continue to pursue the means
• ‘uninspired’ teacher who cling on to job

Question 11

Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Retreatist

Answer 11

Retreatists

• Reject the goals and reject the legitimate means
• Drop out of society

e. g. Entry to convent or monastery, live simply in hut
e. g. Alcohol and drugs

Question 12

Elaborate on Merton’s Theory of Deviance: Rebel

Answer 12

Rebellion
Reject both goals and means and then substitute new ones

Revolution
- substitution of new goals and means -> makes the rebel seem the greatest threat to society

Question 13

What are the difference theories of interactionist perspective of Deviance

Answer 13

• Cultural Transmission Theory
• Differential association
• Social Disorganization Theory
• Labeling Theory
• Societal-reaction approach

Question 14

Elaborate on the cultural transmission theory

Answer 14

• Humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly

Question 15

Elaborate on the differential association.

Answer 15

• Process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules

Question 16

Elaborate on the social disorganization theory

Answer 16

• Increases in crime and deviance attributed to absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions
• Some claim social disorganization theory seems to “blame the victim”

Question 17

Elaborate on the labelling theory

Answer 17

• Attempts to explain why some people are viewed as deviants while others are not; also known as societal-reaction approach
• Focuses on the significance of labels
• Labels become part of self-concept
• Propel towards or away from deviance

Question 18

Elaborate on the societal-reaction approach

Answer 18

• Response to an act, not the behavior, that determines deviance

Question 19

What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance?

Answer 19

Primary deviance

• Committed for all sort of reasons – social, cultural, psychological and physiological factors
• e.g. to fit in with group, on a whim

Secondary deviance

• Results as a means of social defense or adaptation to social reactions to primary deviance
• Perform as a result of being labeled as deviant

Question 20

Elaborate on Stigma from Labelling Theory

Answer 20

• Any attribute that discredits a person or disqualifies him or her from ‘full social acceptance’
• Label of deviant can trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Treat people as deviant
• Cut off their opportunities to be anything other than deviant
• Increase chance of them becoming deviant (Secondary deviance)

Question 21

What are the three types of stigma?

Answer 21

Abominations of the body (deformities, scars, disfiguring injuries)

Blemishes of individual character (mental disorder, dishonesty, alcoholism, or bankruptcy)

Tribal stigmas – being discredited for membership in a particular racial, religious or ethnic group or subcultural group

Question 22

Elaborate on discredited and discreditable identity of stigma.

Answer 22

Discredited identity
- When stigma is visible or known

Discreditable identity
- When a person hides (deviant) attributes, s/he is vulnerable to being found out

Negative label can become a person’s master’s status

Question 23

State the conflict perspective on Deviance.

Answer 23

Class, crime and the judical system

• The Law as an Instrument of Oppression
• Idea that law operates impartially and administers a code shared by all is a cultural myth
• People with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their needs (designed by the powerful to maintain their privileged position

Differential justice
- Differences in way social control is exercised over different groups

Question 24

Explain the medicalization of deviance

Answer 24

• A way society deals with deviance is to “medicalise” it.
• Classify it as a form of illness that belongs in the care of physicians
• When people are disturbed by someone’s deviance and when they cannot find a satisfying explanation for why the person is ‘like that’,
  they often say a ‘sickness in the head’ is causing the unacceptable behaviour.

Medicalisation of Deviance
- Mental illnesses are neither mental nor illness. They are simply problem behaviours.