Non-conformity and Social Control: Criminal and Social Justice

Question 1

Define deviance and categorize different types of deviant behaviour.

Answer 1

Deviance is a violation of established contextual, cultural, or societal norms, whether folkways, mores, or codified law.

Conflict crimes are illegal but there is only considerable public disagreement
Social deviations are not illegal themselves but widely regarded as serious or harmful
Social diversions violate norms in a provocative way but are generally regarded as distasteful (or cool for some) but harmless

Question 2

Explain why certain behaviours are defined as deviant while others are not.

Answer 2

Individuals are not born deviant, but become deviant through their interaction with reference groups, institutions, and authorities
In other words, behaviours that resist common belief or action are considered deviant

Question 3

Distinguish between different methods of social control.

Answer 3

• Penal social control functions by prohibiting certain social behaviours and responding to violations with punishment
• Compensatory social control obliges an offender to pay a victim to compensate for a harm committed
• Therapeutic social control involves the use of therapy to return individuals to a normal state
• Conciliatory social control aims to reconcile the parties of a dispute and mutually restore harmony to a social relationship that has been damaged

Question 4

Describe social control as forms of governance, including penal control, discipline and risk management.

Answer 4

Surveillance, normalization, and Periodic examinations
Risk management refers to interventions designed to reduce the likelihood of undesirable events occurring based on an assessment of probabilities of risk

Question 5

Describe different types of sanctions.

Answer 5

Positive sanctions are rewards given for conforming to norms
Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms

Informal sanctions emerge in face-to-face social interactions
Formal sanctions are ways to officially recognize and enforce norm violations

Question 6

Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society (social disorganization theory)

Answer 6

crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control;
the absence of moral and social solidarity that provides the conditions for social deviance to emerge

Question 7

Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society (control theory)

Answer 7

social control is directly affected by the strength of social bonds. Many people would be willing to break laws or act in deviant ways; those who do have the opportunity are those who are only weakly controlled by social restrictions

Question 8

Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society (strain theory)

Answer 8

Access to socially acceptable goals plays a part in determining whether a person conforms or deviates

Question 9

Discuss how critical sociology understands the relationship between deviance, crime and social inequality (i.e., class, gender, race and ethnicity, generational, etc.).

Answer 9

Crimes of accommodation: ways individuals cope with conditions of oppression

Question 10

Describe interpretive approaches to deviance.

Answer 10

Deviance as a learned behaviour: Individuals learn deviant behaviour from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance.
Labelling theory: examines the ascribing of a deviant behaviour to another person by members of society

Question 11

Identify and differentiate between different types of crimes.

Answer 11

Violent crimes (also known as “crimes against a person”) are based on the use of force or the threat of force. Rape, murder, and armed robbery fall under this category. 
Nonviolent crimes involve the destruction or theft of property, but do not use force or the threat of force. Because of this, they are also sometimes called “property crimes.” Larceny, car theft, and vandalism are all types of nonviolent crimes

Question 12

Identfiy and describe the different sources of crime statistics.

Answer 12

police and other authorities decide which criminal acts they are going to focus on, the data reflects the priorities of the police rather than actual levels of crime and does not include unreported crime

Question 13

Describe and discuss the overrepresentation of different minorities in the corrections system in Canada.

Answer 13

This problem of overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the corrections system — the difference between the proportion of Indigenous people incarcerated in Canadian correctional facilities and their proportion in the general population — continues to grow appreciably despite a Supreme Court ruling in 1999 (R. vs. Gladue) that the social history of Indigenous offenders should be considered in sentencing
black Canadians are a smaller minority of the Canadian population than Indigenous people, they experience a similar problem of overrepresentation in the prison system

Question 14

Examine alternatives to prison.

Answer 14

• community-based sentencing, in which offenders serve a conditional sentence in the community, usually by performing some sort of community service
• restorative justice conferencing, which focuses on establishing a direct, face-to-face connection between the offender and the victim
• Indigenous sentencing circles involve victims, the Indigenous community, and Indigenous elders in a process of deliberation with Indigenous offenders to determine the best way to find healing for the harm done to victims and communities