Transcript Deviance/Social Control

Chapter 6
Deviance and Social
Control
What is Deviance?
• Relative Deviance
• What is Deviant to Some is not Deviant to
Others
• “Deviance” is Nonjudgmental Term
– A Neutral Term
• Stigma
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Norms Make Social Life Possible
• Makes Behavior Predictable
• No Norms - Social Chaos
• Social Control
– Group’s Formal and Informal Means of
Enforcing Norms
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Sanctions
• Negative Sanctions
– Frowns/gossip breaking folkways; imprisonment/capital punishment for violating Mores
• Positive Sanctions
– From smiles to formal awards
– Are used to reward people for conforming to
norms
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Competing Explanations of
Deviance
• Sociobiologists
– Look for Answers Inside Individuals
– Genetic Predispositions
• Psychologists
– Focuses on Abnormalities Within Individuals
– Personality Disorders
– Deviant Personalities
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Competing Explanations of
Deviance
• Sociologists
– Look for Answers Outside Individuals
– Socialization
– Membership in Subcultures
– Social Class
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Module 23
Social Control
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Social control: Techniques and strategies
employed for preventing deviant human
behavior in any society
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Parents
Peer groups
Companies
Government
Internal and External Social
Control
• Internal social control takes place when
individuals internalize norms and values
and follow those norms and values in their
lives.
• External social control involves negative
sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors
and punish rule breakers.
Module 23
Informal and
Formal Social Control
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Informal social control: Used casually to
enforce norms
Formal social control: Carried out by
authorized agents
Module 23
Social Control
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Sanctions: penalties and rewards for
conduct concerning a social norm
– Death penalty ultimate formal sanction
– Subject of controversy centered on
effectiveness of this sanction as social
control
Module 23
Conformity and Obedience
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Conformity: Going along with peers who
have no special right to direct behavior
Obedience: Compliance with higher
authorities in an hierarchical structure
Module 23
Conformity and Obedience
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The Milgram Experiment
– Experimenter instructed people to administer
increasingly painful electric shocks to a
subject
Two-thirds of participants fell into
category of “obedient subjects”
Module 23
Law and Society
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Some norms are so important to a
society that they are formalized into laws
– Law: Governmental social control
• The legal order reflects values of
those in a position to exercise authority
– Control Theory: Our connection to members
of society leads us to systematically conform
to society’s norms
Module 24
Functionalist Perspective
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Durkheim’s Legacy
– Punishments established within a culture help
define acceptable behavior and contribute to
stability
– Anomie: Loss of direction felt in society when
social control of individual behavior has
become ineffective
Functionalist Perspective
• Emile Durkheim: Deviance is a
necessary element of social organization
– Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
– Responding to deviance clarifies moral
boundaries
– Responding to deviance brings people
together
– Deviance encourages social change
Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
• There is a strong cultural emphasis on
success goals in America.
– Everyone is socialized to aspire toward high
achievement and success.
– Competitiveness and success are glorified by
public authorities, taught in schools, and
glamorized in the media
– Worth is judged by material and monetary
success.
Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
• There is a discrepancy between means and
goals for obtaining success
– Disadvantaged groups do not have equal
access to such legitimate opportunities.
– This anomic condition produces strain or
pressure on these groups to take
advantage of whatever effective means to
success they can find.
Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
• Merton proposed five ways of responding
to (or adapting to) goals verse the means.
– Conformity: Most common response
– Innovation: Typical criminal response
– Ritualism: Habitual response
– Retreatism: Typical of drug use or “hobos”
– Rebellion: Seeking radical change
Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance
Adaptations
Goals
Means
Conformity
Accept
Accept
Innovation
Accept
Reject
Ritualism
Reject
Accept
Retreatism
Reject
Reject
Rebellion
Replace
Replace
Opportunity Theory
• Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
(1960) suggested that for deviance to occur,
people must have access illegitimate opportunity
structures:
• Circumstances that provide an opportunity for
people to acquire through illegitimate activities
what they cannot achieve through legitimate
channels.
Differential Association Theory
Perspectives
• States that people have a greater tendency to
deviate from societal norms when they frequently
associate with individuals who are more
favorable toward deviance than conformity.
• From this approach, criminal behavior is learned
within intimate personal groups such as one’s
family and peer groups
Differential Reinforcement
Theory
• Criminologist Ronald Akers (1998) combined
differential association theory with elements of
psychological learning theory to create differential
reinforcement theory.
– If a person’s friends and groups define deviant
behavior as “right,” they is more likely to
engage in deviant behavior.
– If a person’s friends and groups define deviant
behavior as “wrong,” the person is less likely to
engage in that behavior.
Social Bond Theory
• The probability of deviant behavior increases when a
person’s ties to society are weakened or broken.
• According to Travis Hirschi, social bonding consists
of
– attachment to other people
– commitment to conformity
– involvement in conventional activities
– belief in the legitimacy of conventional norms.
Labeling Theory
• Attempts to explain why some people are viewed
as deviants while others are not; also known as
societal-reaction approach.
• The act of fixing a person with a negative identity
(label), such as “criminal” is directly related to the
power of those who do the labeling and those
being labeled.
Stages in the Labeling Process
• Primary deviance is believed to be unorganized,
inconsistent, and infrequent. Without social reaction, the
deviance would most likely remain sporadic and
unorganized.
• Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has
been labeled a deviant accepts the identity and continues
the deviant behavior.
• Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has been
labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by
relabeling it as non-deviant.
Module 24
Conflict Theory
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People with power protect their own
interests and define deviance to suit
their needs
– Differential justice:
Differences in way
social control is
exercised over
different groups
Module 24
Feminist Perspective
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Adler and Chesney-Lind argue
existing approaches to deviance and
crime developed with men in mind
– Society tends to treat women
in stereotypical fashion
Cultural views and attitudes
toward women influence how
they are perceived and labeled
How the Law Classifies Crime
• Crimes are divided into felonies and
misdemeanors.
– A felony is a serious crime such as rape,
homicide, or aggravated assault, for which
punishment typically ranges from more than a
year’s imprisonment to death.
– A misdemeanor is a minor crime typically
punished by less than one year in jail.
How Sociologists Classify Crime
•
Sociologists categorize crimes based on
how they are committed and how society
views the offenses:
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Conventional Street Crime
White-collar Crime (Professional)
Vice Crime (victimless)
Organized Crime (Hierarchal Structure)
Political Crime
Module 25
Types of Crime
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Victimless crimes: Willing
exchange among adults of widely
desired, but illegal, goods and services
Professional crime: Many people
make a career of illegal activities
– Professional criminal: Person who
pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation
Module 25
Types of Crime
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Organized crime: Group that
regulates relations between
various criminal enterprises
involved in illegal activities
– Dominates world of illegal
business just as large corporations
dominate conventional businesses
– Serves as means of upward
mobility for groups of people
struggling to escape poverty
Module 25
Types of Crime
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White Collar and
Technology-Based Crime
– White Collar crime: Illegal acts committed
in the course of business activities
– Computer crime: Use of high technology to
carry out embezzlement or electronic fraud
– Corporate crime: Any act by a corporation
that is punishable by the government
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective:
Differential Association Theory
• The Theory
– Edwin Sutherland
• Families
• Friends, Neighbors, and Subcultures
• Prison or Freedom?
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Symbolic Interactionist Perspective:
Control Theory
• The Theory
– Inner Controls
• Morality; Conscience; Religious Principles
– Outer controls
• Family, friends, the police
• Applying Control Theory
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Symbolic Interactionist Perspective:
Labeling Theory
• Rejecting Labels: How People Neutralize
Deviance
– Denial of responsibility, injury, victim;
condemnation of the condemners; loyalties
• Embracing Labels - Outlaw Bikers
• Power of Labels: Saints & Roughnecks
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Functionalist Perspective: Can
Deviance Be Functional?
• Most of us are upset by deviance
• Clarifies Moral Boundaries and Affirms
Norms
• Promotes Social Unity
• Promotes Social Change
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Functionalist Perspective: Strain
Theory
• How Mainstream Values Produce
Deviance
• Cultural Goals
• Institutional Means
• Strain Leads to Anomie
• Deviant paths
– Innovators; Ritualism; Retreatism; Rebellion
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Who Gets Executed?
Gender Bias in Capital
Punishment
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