Transcript Crime

Chapter 6: Deviance and Crime
Objectives (slide 1 of 2)
6.1 Overview: Understanding Deviance and Crime
• Explain the concept of deviance as a social construct.
• Analyze how societies exert control.
• Discuss the psychological views of deviance.
6.2 Functionalist Perspectives
• Explain the structural-functional approach and the
four positive functions of deviance.
• Compare and contrast opportunity theory and strain
theory.
6.3 Symbolic Interactionism
• Describe symbolic interactionism’s perspective on
deviance and the major theories associated with it.
Objectives (slide 2 of 2)
6.4 Conflict Perspectives
• Discuss the social conflict perspective, distinguishing
between different social constructs as they relate to
deviance.
6.5 Crime
• Give examples of various categories of crime.
• Discuss and compare the attributes of at least two categories
of crime.
6.6 Crime Statistics
• Discuss age, race, gender, and social class as they relate to
crime statistics.
6.7 The Criminal Justice System
• Describe the criminal justice system in the United States and
the roles played by the police, courts, and corrections.
What Is Deviance and
Who Defines It?
• Deviance: The violation of norms of a
group, society, or one’s peers
• Crime: A violation of criminal law
Social Control
• Social control: Efforts by society to regulate
people’s behavior and thoughts.
• Negative sanctions: Actions directed against
a person or persons in response to an act of
deviance
• Ostracism: Excluding someone from the
normal activities of a group
• Positive sanction: An action aimed at a
person that seeks to reward good behavior
and encourage the person and others to
continue such acts
Explanations of Deviance
• Personality theory argues that some personalities
are more impulsive and more likely to exceed the
bounds of acceptable behavior.
• Containment theory argues that some people are
less able to constrain their impulses and behavior
by deferring pleasure.
• Learning theory argues that deviance is socially
learned.
• The frustration-aggression hypothesis argues that
unfulfilled or blocked needs lead to aggressive
behavior.
Functionalist Perspectives
• Social order: A level of social organization
based on institutions, customs, and patterns
of interaction capable of providing the
conditions for their continuing survival
• Functions of deviance:
1. Society’s response to deviance clarifies moral
boundaries.
2. Deviance promotes social unity.
3. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms.
4. Deviance can promote necessary social change.
Strain Theory
• Cultural goals: Widely shared objectives such as having financial
success
• Institutionalized means: Legitimate means, such as job
opportunities and education, for achieving goals
• Conformity: When an individual both subscribes to the cultural
goals of society and has access to legitimate means for achieving
them
• Forms of deviance:
– Innovation: The idea of accepting cultural goals (wealth) but rejecting
accepted means in favor of unconventional ways of achieving those
goals (crime).
– Ritualism: When someone rejects cultural goals while continuing to
pursue legitimate means.
– Retreatism: When a person drops out of society, participating only
minimally.
– Rebellion: When someone rejects these goals and accepted means
and actively offers an alternative.
Opportunity Theory
• Illegitimate opportunity structures:
Having ready access to illegal means
• When someone has little or no access to
legitimate opportunities and has easy
access to illegitimate opportunities,
criminal subcultures likely result.
Symbolic Interactionism:
Differential Association Theory
• Differential association theory: A theory
that argues that people are more likely to
be deviant to the extent that they are
exposed to deviants
• Differential association: The tendency of
someone to spend more time with some
individuals and less with others
Differential Reinforcement Theory
• Differential reinforcement theory: A theory that
argues that individuals learn criminal behavior
through differential association, differential
reinforcement, definitions of acceptable acts, and
imitation
• Definitions of acceptable acts: Views of which
acts are tolerable and which are unacceptable
• Differential reinforcement: The selective reward
of some acts and punishment of others
• Imitation: When an individual copies the
behavior of others
Control Theory
• Social bond theory: A theory that argues
that everyone is tempted by opportunities
for deviant behavior, but deviant acts are
less likely when the individual’s bonds to
society are strong
• Control theory: A theory that argues that
people have an inner control system
supported by a conscience, internalized
morality, a desire to be good, religious
principles, fear of punishment, and a sense
of integrity
Labeling Theory (slide 1 of 2)
• Labeling theory: A theory that argues that an act
becomes deviant only when it is labeled as
deviant by others
• Primary deviance: Occasional minor deviance
that does not affect an individual’s reputation or
self-image
• Secondary deviance: When an individual is
labeled a deviant by others and comes to see
him- or herself as a deviant
– Stigma: A distinctive, strongly negative label that
marks the person as socially unacceptable or
disgraced
Labeling Theory (slide 2 of 2)
• Degradation ceremony: A public ritual in
which one’s stigmatized status is made
known
• Techniques of neutralization: Strategies
often used by individuals to excuse or justify
actions that might otherwise be viewed
negatively
• Tertiary deviance: When people attempt to
redefine stigmatizing acts, characteristics, or
identities as normal or even virtuous
Social Conflict Perspective
• Social conflict perspective: A theory that
emphasizes competing interests of groups
of people having different amounts of
power and how those having more power
use it to exploit those with less power
Deviance in the Conflict
Perspective
Deviance and Power
• Social class and power
influence what is
considered deviant and
how it is treated.
Deviance and Capitalism
• Activities that do not
support the economic
system are considered
deviant.
Feminist Theory
• Feminist theory: A theory
that looks closely at ways in
which men and women are
treated regarding deviance
and crime and how those
differences are influenced
by gender
Crime (slide 1 of 2)
• Criminology: The scientific study of crime
and its causes
• Crimes against persons: Crimes involving
the threat of injury or force against
people
• Crimes against property: Crimes involving
stealing or damaging property
Crime (slide 2 of 2)
• White-collar crime: Crime committed by
relatively affluent white-collar workers, usually in
the course of conducting their daily business
activities
• Corporate crime: Illegal acts conducted by or on
behalf of a corporation
• Organized crime: Crime committed by collections
of criminals who coordinate activities much like a
business.
• Cybercrime Crime: Crime executed with the use
of a computer and usually over the Internet.
Violent Crime
• Violent crime: Crime that attempts to harm a
person
• Hate crime: A crime against persons or
property when the offender is motivated by
bias
• Terrorism: The use of violence
and threats to intimidate or
coerce a government or
civilian population to further
some political or social
objective
Other Types of Crime
• Political crimes: Crimes committed within
or directed against a political system
• Juvenile delinquency: All of the usual
crimes that might be committed by
adults, such as theft, arson, and murder
but are committed by minors.
• Victimless crimes: Violations of the law
that have no obvious victims
Crime Statistics
Crime statistics play a crucial role in the
study of crime. What sociologists look for
in these statistics are trends over time,
such as rapid increases or reductions in
certain kinds of crime.
Street Crime: Criminal Profile
(slide 1 of 2)
Age
• People ages 15-19 are
twice as likely to be
arrested as people ages
35-39.
Gender
• Men are twice as likely
to commit property
crimes and five times
more likely to commit
violent crimes.
Street Crime: Criminal Profile
(slide 2 of 2)
Race
• Blacks are 2.7 times
more likely to be
arrested for property
crimes and four times
more likely to be
arrested for violent
crimes than whites.
Social Class
• Poor people are viewed
with less respect and so
are more likely to be
viewed as criminals.
Crime Victims (slide 1 of 2)
Age
• Teens and young adults
are more likely to be
victims of violent crime
than older adults.
Gender
• Males are 16% more
likely to be victims of
violent crime than
females.
Crime Victims (slide 2 of 2)
Race
• Racial and ethnic
minorities are more
likely to be victims of
crime.
Social Class
• The lower your
household income, the
more likely you are to
be a victim.
The Criminal Justice System
• Criminal justice system: The social
institution whose primary purpose is to
exert formal social control in a society
• Due process: The stipulation that the
criminal justice system must operate
within the bounds of law
Police and Courts
Police
• Police discretion: The
power of police to
exercise judgment in
their interactions with
suspects
Courts
• Plea bargaining: A
formal negotiation in
which defendants agree
to plead guilty rather
than appear in court
Punishment and Corrections
• Recidivism rate: The rate at which former
prisoners are rearrested, reconvicted, and
re-imprisoned
Historical Reasons for
Imprisoning Criminals
• Retribution: Punishment to seek
vengeance
• Deterrence: The attempt to discourage
criminal behavior through punishment
• Rehabilitation: The process of helping
criminals become productive citizens
• Societal protection: Seeking to remove
offenders from society to make them
incapable of further crimes
Alternatives to Imprisonment
• Community-based corrections: Correctional
programs operating outside traditional
prisons in the community at large.
• Probation: Allows a convicted offender to be
supervised in the community under
conditions imposed by the court instead of
going to prison
• Parole: Release of a prisoner to serve the
remainder of his or her sentence in the
community supervised by the court
The Death Penalty
• In 2009, 2,390 people were executed in 25
countries.
• 8,864 were sentenced to death in 52
countries.
• Countries that executed the most convicts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
China: 1,700
Iran: 350
Saudi Arabia: 100
United States: 37