Transcript Conformity, deviance, and crime

Conformity, deviance, and
crime
What is deviance?
• It depends who you ask
• It depends on when you define the term
• Sociologists define it as “non-conformity to a
•
•
given set of norms that are accepted by a
significant number of people in a community or
society.
Are there other definitions? Yes
Four models are used to clarify what deviance is.
Spiritual Model of Deviance
• The source of deviant behavior is demonic
•
•
possession or that the deviant behavior may be
rooted in some spiritual imbalance.
This model was the earliest of the four and has
more or less been replaced by the others.
It had a profound impact on how deviant
behavior was viewed and how it was treated.
Social Standards Model
• This model suggests that deviance is defined by
•
•
society itself.
Depending on the society, the timing, and the
situational demands on that society, some
behaviors may or may not be considered
deviant.
Examples of this controversial model are
numerous and include some of the writings of
Thomas Szasz, a noted American psychiatrist.
Statistical Model
• This model suggests that deviance is defined by
•
•
the relative infrequency of a particular behavior.
It is a model that modern psychology uses,
especially behaviorally oriented theories, and
looks at such things as base rates of particular
symptoms or disorders.
It may be somewhat tricky to use this model to
defined deviance but allows for relatively easy
measurement of the deviant behavior.
Medical Model
• This model is the most current and dominates
•
•
•
the provision of care for the deviant.
The model suggests that deviance comes from
pathological states. To treat the deviance one
must treat the pathology.
It includes such terms as diagnosis, etiology,
prognosis, and treatment.
While it sounds like this may be the most
convincing approach to defining deviance it has
many problems associated with it.
Other sociological models
• Lombroso (1870’s) – the atavistic man
– Suggested that criminals are “throwbacks to
earlier periods in human development”
• Sheldon (1940’s) – Body type
– Ectomorph
– Endomorph
– Mesomorph
Social Pathology Model
• The deviant or criminal person is a
produce of “social sickness” or social
disintegration.
• This notion is all but discredited among
professionals because it suggests no real
theory of causality.
Cultural Conflict (Conflict Theory)
• Cultural conflict creates opportunities for
•
•
deviance and criminal gain in deviant
subcultures (like prohibition creating
opportunities for organized crime).
Marxian Theory suggests that capitalism
produces poor and powerless masses who may
resort to crime to survive. The rich employ their
own agents to break laws and enhance their
power and wealth.
However, crime still exists in societies that have
sought to eliminate capitalism.
Interactionist
• Crime exists through differential
association
• Criminal careers result from recruitment
into criminal groups based on association
and interaction with criminals.
• Difficult to explain deviant careers but
explains how people get into groups.
Interactionist
• Labeling suggests that deviance is
created by groups that have the power to
attach labels to others, making particular
people as outsiders. It is difficult to she a
label once it has been established and the
labeled person tends to behave in the
expected manner.
Functionalists
• Functionalist believe that deviance is a natural
•
•
part of society and it exists for a reason…it
serves a function.
It develops because of structural tensions and a
lack of moral regulations within the society.
If the aspirations held by individuals and groups
in society do not coincide with the available
rewards, this disparity between desires and
fulfillment will be felt in the deviant motivations
of some of its members.
Durkheim
• Suggested that in modern societies
traditional norms and standards become
undermined without being replaced by
new ones.
• Anomie exists when there are no clear
standards to guide behavior in a given
area of social life.
• Under these circumstances, people feel
disoriented and anxious…anomie is
therefore one of the social factors
influencing dispositions to suicide.
• Durkheim coined the idea of “social facts”
and saw crime and deviance as inevitable
and necessary elements in modern
societies.
• People are less constrained in the modern
world. And, because there is more room
for choice, it is inevitable that there will be
some nonconformity.
• No society will ever be in complete
consensus about the norms and values
that govern it.
• Deviance fulfills two important functions:
– Deviance has adaptive functions (it is an
innovative force that makes society adapt and
change)
– It promotes boundary maintenance between
“good” and “bad” promoting solidarity and
clarifying social norms of behavior.
Merton
• Also a functionalist, he believed that the source
•
•
of crime was in the very fabric of American
society.
He believed that there is strain or anomie placed
on the individual when “accepted norms” conflict
with “social reality”.
For example, in American society there is value
placed on material success and the means for
achieving success are self-discipline and hard
work.
• It is believed that if you just work hard
enough that you will be successful. This
“fact” however is not the reality because
there are plenty of people who work hard
and do not have the means or opportunity
to advance.
• This may create great pressure to get
ahead by any means available.
• Therefore, deviance is a by-product of
economic inequalities.
Merton’s Modes of Adaptation
Cultural Goal
Institutional
Means
Conformity
+
+
Innovation
+
-
Ritualism
-
+
Retreatism
-
-
+/-
+/-
Rebellion
Merton’s Modes of Adaptation
Examples
The Poor
The Middle Class
The Rich
Conformity
The Working Poor
The Suburban
Family
Wealthy civic
leader
Innovation
The mugger
The embezzler
The stock
manipulator
Ritualism
The chronic
welfare recipient
The resigned
bureaucrat
The hedonist
Retreatism
The wino or
junkie
The skid row
alcoholic
The bohemian
Rebellion
The bandit
The anarchist
The fascist
Control of Deviant Behavior
• The ways in which society prevents deviance
•
•
•
and punishes deviants are known as “social
control”.
Police, prisons, and mental hospitals, etc. are
responsible for applying social control.
Less threatening forms of deviance are
controlled through everyday interactions of
individuals.
Three dimensions, power, culture, and voluntary
vs. involuntary behavior and the most important
determinants of crime.
Stigma
• Is a personal attribute that is deeply
discrediting.
• While stigmatized individuals may deviate
from societies norms they are not
necessarily deviants.
Crime
• Is usually defined as an act or the
omission of an act for which the state can
apply sanctions.
• Which behaviors constitute crime and
what degree of sanction is appropriate is
questionable.
Crime
• Is there such thing as a “victimless”
crime?
• The most serious and frequently occuring
crimes, called “index crimes” are reported
in the FBI’s crime index.
• Most crimes in this index are grossly
underreported; may be 2 or 3 times
higher.
Crime
• Deviant behavior can be categorized in terms of
•
•
the degree of consensus on whether they are
deviant and on the appropriate degree of
sanction to be applied.
As a culture’s values and norms change, so do
its notions of what kinds of behaviors are
deviant and how strongly they should be
sanctioned.
Individuals may belong to subcultures in which a
particular form of deviant behavior is practiced.
While they may be deviant in terms of societies
norms the behavior of its members is not
considered deviant within the group.
Deviance in the US before the Civil War
Weak sanction
weak consensus
Weak sanction strong Strong sanction weak
consensus
consensus
Strong sanction strong
consensus
•
•
•
•
•
•
Killing native
Americans
Lynching African
Americans
Prostitution
Wife or child
beating
•
Political
Corruption
Corporate
Crime
•
•
•
•
•
Abortion
Indebtedness
Illegitimacy
Divorce
Adultery
•
•
Major
felonies
against
whites
Treason
Homosexuality
Deviance in the US more currently
Weak sanction
weak consensus
Weak sanction strong Strong sanction weak
consensus
consensus
Strong sanction strong
consensus
•
•
•
•
•
•
Recreational
drug use
Homosexuality
Abortion
•
•
•
Schizophrenia
Driving under
the influence of
alcohol
Public
drunkenness
Corporate crime
Wife or child
beating
•
•
•
Sale of whiskey
during the
prohibition
Prostitution
Abortion before
1973
•
Major
felonies
Treason
Crime Rates
Incarceration Rates
Male Crime Rates – Urban vs. Rural
Crime Rates Committed by Men
Crime Rates in the US 1983-1999
Homicide Rates per 100,000 in 2003
Prison Population
Justice Employment and Crime Rate