Chapter 6 Deviance and Crime

1. Chapter 6Deviance and Crime • What Is Deviance? • Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance • Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance • Conflict Perspectives on Deviance

2. Chapter 6Deviance and Crime • Postmodernist Perspective on Deviance • Crime Classifications and Statistics • The Criminal Justice System • Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future • The Global Criminal Economy

3. Deviance • Deviance is a formal property of social situations and social structure. • Deviance is conferred by audiences. • Deviance is relative and it varies in its degree of seriousness.

4. Functionalist Perspectives Deviance is universal because it serves three important functions: • Deviance clarifies rules. • Deviance unites a group. • Deviance promotes social change.

5. Strain Theory • People feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals they are unable to obtain. • Merton identified ways people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them.

6. Merton’s Five Modes of Adaptation • Conformity - people accept culturally approved goals and pursue them through approved means. • Innovation -people accept culturally approved goals but adopt disapproved means for achieving them.

7. Merton’s Five Modes of Adaptation • Ritualism - people give up on societal goals but not the approved ways of achieving them. • Retreatism - people abandon approved goals and the approved means of achieving them. • Rebellion - people challenge the approved goals and advocate an alternative set of goals or means.

8. Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance Three approaches: • Differential association and Differential reinforcement theory • Control theory • Labeling theory

9. Differential Association and Differential Reinforcement • Differential association theory - people are more likely to become deviant when they associate with people who are deviant. • Differential reinforcement theory - deviant behavior and conventional behavior are learned through the same social processes.

10. Control Theory: Social Bonding • Deviant behavior is related to the strength of social bonds: • Attachments to other people. • Commitment to conformity. • Involvement in conventional activities. • Belief in conventional values and norms.

11. Labeling Theory Stages in the labeling process: • Primary deviance - initial act of rule breaking. • Secondary deviance - acceptance of identity as a deviant. • Tertiary deviance - normalizing deviant behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.

12. Conflict Perspectives on Deviance • People in positions of power use the law to protect their own interests. • Laws ensure that individuals at the bottom of the social class do not infringe on the property or threaten the safety of those at the top.

13. Feminist Perspectives • Liberal feminism - women's deviance is a rational response to gender discrimination. • Radical feminism - women's deviance and crime is related to patriarchy. • Socialist feminism - women's deviance and crime is the result of women's exploitation by capitalism and patriarchy.

14. Sociologists Classifications of Crime • Conventional or street crime • Occupational or white-collar crime • Corporate crime • Organized crime • Political crime

15. Crimes and Criminals • Rates of arrest are higher for males than females at every age and for most offenses. • Individuals from all social classes commit crimes; they simply commit different kinds of crime. • Young males of color between the ages of 12 and 24 have the highest victimization rates.

16. Functions of Punishment • Retribution • Social protection • Rehabilitation • Deterrence

17. The Future of Deviance and Crime in the U.S. • People agree that crime is an important issue but are divided over what to do about it. • The best approach for reducing delinquency and crime is prevention. • As long as racism, sexism, classism, and ageism exist, people will see deviant and criminal behavior through a selective lens.