Deviant Behavior and Social Control Chapter 7

1. Deviant Behavior and Social Control Chapter 7

2. After studying this chapter, you should be able to: Understand deviance as culturally relative. Explain the functions and dysfunctions of deviance. Distinguish between internal and external means of social control. Differentiate among the various types of sanctions. Describe and critique biological, psychological, and sociological theories of deviance. Discuss the concept of anomie and its role in producing deviance. Know how the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Crime Victimization Survey differ as sources of information about crime. Describe the major features of the criminal justice system in the United States.

3. Defining Normal and Deviant Behavior What determines whether a person’s actions are seen as eccentric, creative, or deviant?

4. In your opinion what makes a given action such as a 25 year old dating a 14 year old wrong to some people?

5. Why will two men walking hand-in-hand cause raised eyebrows in one place but not in another?

6. Norms and values make up the moral code Moral code The symbolic system in terms of which behavior takes on the quality of being “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong.” Moral codes differ widely from one society to another.

7. Deviant behavior Behavior that fails to conform to the rules or norms of the group in question

8. The Functions of Deviance Émile Durkheim “An integral part of all healthy societies”

9. Functions of Deviance

10. The Dysfunctions of Deviance It is a threat to the social order because it makes social life difficult and unpredictable It causes confusion about the norms and values of a society. Deviance also undermines trust. Control widespread deviance, vast resources must be called upon and shifted from other social needs.

11. External Means of Control: Sanctions External means of control Other people’s responses to a person’s behavior—that is, rewards and punishments. Sanctions Rewards and penalties that a group’s members use to regulate an individual’s behavior

12. Positive and Negative sanctions work only to the degree that people can be reasonably sure that they actually will occur as a consequence of a given act.

13. Formal and Informal Sanctions Applied in a public ritual—as in the awarding of a prize or an announcement of expulsion—and are usually under the direct or indirect control of authorities.

14. Informal positive sanctions Displays people use spontaneously to express their approval of another’s behavior. Examples: Smiles Pats on the back Handshakes Congratulations Hugs are informal positive sanctions. Informal negative sanctions Spontaneous displays of disapproval or displeasure, Examples: frowns damaging gossip impolite treatment directed toward the violator of a group norm.

15. Formal positive sanctions Public affairs, rituals, or ceremonies that express social approval of a person’s behavior. Examples: Parades Presentation of awards or degrees Formal negative sanctions Actions that express institutionalized disapproval of a person’s behavior.

16. Theories of Crime and Deviance

17. Biological Theories of Deviance Cesare Lombroso (1835–1901) People are born criminals Criminals are evolutionary throwbacks whose behavior is more apelike than human Driven by their instincts to engage in deviant behavior Believed that certain criminal types could be identified by their head size, facial characteristics and even hair color.

18. Psychological Theories of Deviance Downplay biological factors and emphasize instead the role of parents and early childhood experiences, or behavioral conditioning, in producing deviant behavior. Assume that the seeds of deviance are planted in childhood and that adult behavior is a manifestation of early experiences rather than an expression of ongoing social or cultural factors.

19. Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalytic • unconscious, the part of us consisting of irrational thoughts and feelings of which we are not aware, causes us to commit deviant acts.

20. Behavioral Theories • People adjust and modify their behaviors in response to the rewards and punishments their actions elicit. • Something that leads to a favorable outcome, we are likely to repeat that action.

21. Sociological Theories of Deviance Anomie theory. Anomie Theory Durkheim published The Division of Labor in Society in 1893.

22. Emile Durkheim Recognized that the common conscience, or moral code, has an extremely strong hold on the individual in small, isolated societies where there are few social distinctions among people and everybody more or less performs the same tasks Mechanically integrated societies Societies organized in terms of shared norms and values: All members are equally committed to the moral code.

23. Durkheim found that anomie was a major cause of suicide. Robert Merton built on this concept and developed a general theory of deviance in American society.

24. Durkheim Anomie Refer to the condition of normlessness, in which values and norms have little impact and the culture no longer provides adequate guidelines for behavior.

25. Strain Theory Robert K. Merton (1938, 1969) believed that American society pushes individuals toward deviance by overemphasizing the importance of monetary success while failing to emphasize the importance of using legitimate means to achieve that success.

26. Merton identified four types of deviance that emerge from this strain. Innovators Ritualist Retreatest Rebels

27. Innovators Accept the culturally validated goal of success but find deviant ways of going about reaching it. Examples Con artists, Embezzlers

28. Ritualists Individuals who reject or deemphasize the importance of success once they realize they will never achieve it and instead concentrate on following and enforcing rules more precisely than was ever intended. Example: A person who continues to stay at a job because it’s their job. They do only because they suppose to not because they really want to. They have no love or passion for the job.

29. Retreatists People who pull back from society altogether and cease to pursue culturally legitimate goals. Example: High School dropout

30. Rebels Reject both the goals of what to them is an unfair social order and the institutionalized means of achieving them. Example Tears down the old social order and build a new one with goals and institutions they can support and accept.

31. Control Theory Social ties among people are important in determining their behavior. Believe that what causes deviance is the absence of what causes conformity.

32. Hirschi’s four ways in which individuals become bonded to society and conventional behavior.

35. Cultural Transmission Theory Two components in which criminal behavior is learned: Criminal techniques How to break into houses Criminal attitudes Rationalizations that justify criminal behavior.

36. Labeling Theory Focus shifts from the deviant individual to the social process by which a person comes to be labeled as deviant and the consequences of such labeling for the individual. Although we all break rules from time to time, we do not necessarily think of ourselves as deviant— nor are we so labeled by others.

37. At least three factors that sets a deviant labeling in motion: The importance of the norms that are violated The social identity of the individual who violates them The social context of the behavior in question.

38. Two Forms of Labeling Primary deviance The original behavior that leads to the application of the label to an individual. Secondary deviance The behavior that people develop as a result of having been labeled as deviant.

39. The Importance of Law What is the legal code?

40. Legal code The formal rules, called laws, adopted by a society’s political authority. The code is enforced through the use of formal negative sanctions when rules are broken.

41. The Emergence of Laws How is it that laws come into society? How do we reach the point where norms are no longer voluntary and need to be codified and given the power of authority for enforcement?

43. Consensus approach Assumes that laws are merely a formal version of the norms and values of the people. Functionalist model for explaining a society’s legal system.

44. Conflict approach Assumes that the elite use their power to enact and enforce laws that support their own economic interests and go against the interests of the lower classes

45. Crime in the United States Violent crime An unlawful event such as homicide, rape, and assault that may result in injury to a person. Aggravated assault Rape Murder Robbery

46. Property crime An unlawful act that is committed with the intent of gaining property but that does not involve the use or threat of force against an individual. Larceny Burglary Motor vehicle theft are examples of property crimes

47. Felonies Offenses punishable by a year or more in state prison. Misdemeanors Less serious offences punishable by jail or a fine.

48. Juvenile crime The breaking of criminal laws by individuals younger than age 18. Recidivism Repeated criminal behavior after punishment.

49. Violent Crime In addition to homicide and rape, other violent crimes such as aggravated assault and robbery have an effect on American households.

50. Property Crime Seventy-five percent of all crime in the United States is what is referred to as crime against property, as opposed to crime against the person