Assignment: What societies define as deviant, what subcultures define as deviant, and what is defined as deviant from one generation to the next can all differ. Therefore, we can say that deviance is relative … it depends on who is doing the defining. The issue of the legalization of marijuana is a good example

Assignment: What societies define as deviant, what subcultures define as deviant, and what is defined as deviant from one generation to the next can all differ. Therefore, we can say that deviance is relative … it depends on who is doing the defining. The issue of the legalization of marijuana is a good example

Assignment: What societies define as deviant, what subcultures define as deviant, and what is defined as deviant from one generation to the next can all differ. Therefore, we can say that deviance is relative … it depends on who is doing the defining. The issue of the legalization of marijuana is a good example

Chapter 7 Outline

• What societies define as deviant, what subcultures define as deviant, and what is defined as deviant from one generation to the next can all differ. Therefore, we can say that deviance is relative … it depends on who is doing the defining. The issue of the legalization of marijuana is a good example.

7.1 Deviance and Control

• Deviance: refers to the violation of cultural norms (laws, folkways, mores, taboos); when deviant behavior breaks a law it is a crime; criminal behavior is an important area of sociological study; which behaviors are considered crimes are, in part, determined by those in power; deviance can also function as a factor in bringing about positive social change, e.g., principled deviance of Rosa Parks during civil rights movement
  

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1. Deviance, Crime and Society

• Deviance is understood within its social context, meaning the same behavior in one situation may be defined as deviance but the same behavior in another social context may be seen as acceptable or expected. For example, the killing of a person on the streets is a serious crime, whereas the killing of another person as part of a military mission may lead to a medal or award. In addition, the definition of which behaviors are deviant and which behaviors are not can differ between different race-ethnic groups, different age groups, different social classes, etc.
• Social Control: the regulation of society’s norms via sanctions, with the goal of ensuring social order, which refers to a system of practices and behaviors that lends predictability and stability to society (link to functionalist perspective); as conflict theory points out, the social order is controlled by the most powerful groups in society (power elite)

• Positive sanctions (rewards for conformity to norms/rules) and negative sanctions (punishments for deviance)

• Formal sanctions (official recognition and enforcement of norms) and informal sanctions (reprimands at micro-level, verbal and nonverbal)

7.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance

• Key sociological question: Why does deviance occur (causes of deviance and crime) and how does it affect society (effects of deviance and crime)?

1. Functionalism

• Emile Durkheim: The Essential Nature of Deviance
• Deviance is a key component to a successful society
• Punishment for deviance/crime reaffirms the cultural norms of society (collective conscience), which in turn provides more stability to society; crimes are crimes because the people of a society condemn the behavior
• Robert Merton: Strain Theory
• Strain theory: expands on Durkheim’s work by emphasizing access to socially acceptable goals, with deviance occurring when there is a tension or gap between culturally accepted goals and the socially accepted means to meet those goals; Merton noted five different ways that people may respond to this tension/gap
• Conformity: people accept both goals and means; they conform to the rules and do the best they can to achieve the goals
• Innovation: people accept the goal but the means are unavailable, or short in supply, so deviance or criminal behavior represents an alternative means to reach the goal
• Ritualism: people lower their goals to meet the limited means; conformity is less about embracing the cultural goals and more about taking a more pragmatic approach
• Reteatism: people reject both the goals and the means and retreat from society; may lead to social isolation, substance abuse, homelessness
• Rebellion: people reject the socially accepted goals and means and seek to replace the standard goals and means with new set of goals and means; e.g., Hippie subculture
• Social disorganization theory: says that crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social ties and absence of social control; high-poverty levels and family disruption are key factors to high crime rates

1. Conflict Theory: focus on social and economic factors causing crime

• Karl Marx: An Unequal System
• Laws and the political order are controlled by owners of production in the system of capitalism; the ruling class writes the laws and the punishments and social control system benefits the powerful
• Wright Mills: The Power Elite
• Takes Marx’s ruling class explanation and elaborates to explain the impact of the power elite, a small group of wealthy and powerful people who hold the power and resources
• Crime and Social Class
• Criminal law and the social control system are a product of the more powerful groups in society; the criminal justice system often treats the powerful social class differently than the less powerful; e.g., different punishments for crack cocaine versus more expensive (“pure”) cocaine.

1. Symbolic Interactionism: focus on micro-level social forces, at the level of social interaction, affecting deviance and crime

• Labeling theory: focus on how labeling someone as “deviant” can contribute to further deviance;
• Primary deviance refers to the violation of norms that does not have long-term effects on person’s self-image, whereas secondary deviance occurs when a person identifies as a deviant or criminal, and sometimes leads to person’s self-identity as a criminal becoming the person’s master status (dominant status)
• Techniques of Neutralization (in response to being labeled)
• Denial of Responsibility:
• Denial of Injury:
• Denial of the Victim:
• Condemnation of the Condemners:
• Appeal to a Higher Authority:
• Edward Sutherland: Differential Association
  • Differential association theory: focus on how people can learn deviance from interaction with deviant groups; e.g., gang recruitment and criminal behavior; people begin to accept and participate in behavior—whether conforming behavior or deviant behavior—after learning whether it is viewed as favorable to those around them

• Travis Hirschi: Control Theory
• Control theory: focus on how social control is affected by the strength of social bonds, with deviance the result of weak social bonds
• Four types of social bonds:
• Attachment: connections to others
• Commitment: investments we make in our community
• Involvement: participation in socially legitimate activities
• Belief: agreement on common values in society

7.3 Crime and the Law

• Crime: refers to behavior that violates a society’s legal codes, which are rules adopted and enforced by political authority
• Types of Crimes
• Violent crimes: also known as “crimes against a person”; involve use of force or threat of use of force; e.g., rape, murder, armed robbery
• Nonviolent crimes: destruction of theft of property (without force); e.g., larceny, car theft, vandalism
• Street crime: crimes against other people or organizations, usually in public places
• Corporate crime: also known as “white-collar crime”; committed by white-collar workers (management) in a business environment; embezzlement, insider trading, identity theft
• Victimless crime: when perpetrator is not explicitly harming another person; e.g., drug use, prostitution, underage drinking
• Hate crimes: attacks on a person’s race-ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation
• Crime Statistics
• FBI”s Uniform Crime Reports: annual publication on crimes across the country, with data coming from over 17,000 law enforcement agencies; does not include unreported crimes
• S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Report: survey relying on people self-reporting on being victims of crime; helps capture some of data on unreported crimes
• Public Perception of Crime: violent crime rate has decreased nationally but public perception runs counter to that trend; media coverage is important factor to understanding gap between perception and reality
• The U.S. Criminal Justice System
• Criminal justice system=a system of social control that enforces the law … in U.S., there are three parts to the system: the police, the courts, and corrections
• Police: civil force that enforces law and public order at the local, state and national (federal) levels.
• Federal level: enforce federal/national law (executive branch); Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is result of 9-11 tragedy
• State level: enforce state law (not federal law); state highway patrol
• Local level: authority only at local or county level; city police
• Courts: judicial branch system that comes into play after crime has been committed, which may find that crime was not committed. Two levels: federal courts (U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Appellate Courts, and U.S. District Courts) and state courts (usually includes a state supreme court, appellate courts, and trial courts)
• Corrections system: also known as prison system but also including parole (temporary release from prison or jail, with supervision by a parole officer) and probation (supervised time as alternative to prison), which are two non-prison parts of the system
• In 2018, about 2.3 million people were incarcerated (jail or prison), and about 6.4 million people part of the corrections system which includes those on parole or probation (1 in every 40 people)
• Jails are for temporary confinement as people, usually while an individual awaits trial or parole; prisons are built for individuals who are serving sentences of more than one year; parole refers to a temporary release from prison or jail; probation is supervised time used as an alternative to prison
• Policing and Race
  • 1980s: tough sentencing laws disproportionately affected Black and Brown communities and led to mass incarceration; this unequal outcome is a form of systemic racism
  • Police shootings of unarmed black men in recent years has deepened the distrust between minority communities and the local police force; 2020, George Floyd, and Black Lives Matter protest movement