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Slide 1. Slide 1. SOCIOLOGY. Diversity, Conflict, and Change. Deviance, Crime and Social Control. Chapter Nine. Kenneth J. Neubeck University of Connecticut. Davita Silfen Glasberg University of Connecticut. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control.

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  1. Slide 1 Slide 1 SOCIOLOGY Diversity, Conflict, and Change Deviance, Crimeand Social Control Chapter Nine Kenneth J. Neubeck University of Connecticut Davita Silfen Glasberg University of Connecticut

  2. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control • Norms — rules or standards of proper behavior formed by interacting individuals • Deviance — behavior or condition of being that is in violation of or departs from social norms • Social control — means of minimizing socially deviant behavior

  3. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control • Sanctions — social control in form of punishment or rewards • Negative sanctions — social control in form of punishment meted out to those who exhibit deviant behavior • Positive sanctions — social control in form of rewards given to those who conform to the norms and abide by the rules of society

  4. The Social Construction of Deviance • Social construction of deviance— creation of ideas regarding people and their relationships to others by members of a social group; for example, the idea that there are biologically distinct races, some of which are inferior to others

  5. The Social Construction of Deviance • If deviant behavior is social construction, then, in theory, any act could be considered deviant by someone. • Who makes your laws? • Whose definition of deviance is dominant? • Label — identifying someone through a descriptive word or phrase, often with a negative connotation when applied to people

  6. The Social Construction of Deviance • Dominant groups within a society typically have power to decide what is deviant and what is not, even though in a heterogeneous society people might differ in what they consider deviant.

  7. The Role of Power in Defining Deviance • Norms that Restrict Women • Appearance Norms — standards of attractiveness, often applied to women- based upon what men (those with power) desire. Women’s appearance norms based upon what appears attractive to men. • Motherhood Norms — standard of behavior holding that normal women want to have children; women who do not have children or who choose not to have children are exhibiting a form of deviant behavior

  8. Deviance and Resistance • Deviance as Behavior versus Deviance as Being • Groups with power tend to define themselves as normal (their language is the “normal” one and so is their dress- everything else is “exotic” or “abnormal”) and those they dominate are described as “the other” and treated as ‘outsiders’ • Remember the devalued “master status”. Who assigns “status”? • Physical structuring of everyday environment communicates who is a “normal” member of society. The “objective” world.

  9. Deviance and Resistance • Resistance to Being Labeled Deviant for One’s Behavior • One of most familiar settings in struggle over being labeled deviant takes place in the courtroom. • Stigma — negative mark that discredits a person’s worth- Goffman- (exam question), • Explanation for recidivism i.e repeat offense • Playing the role assigned to one through social labelling.

  10. Deviance and Resistance • Resistance to Being Labeled Deviant for One’s Being • Often requires persons who make up “the other” to openly question the legitimacy of the dominant group’s judgments and assertions • Howard Becker’s “Outsider”- might be defined as “the other” by the dominant groups but challenges that definition. • What impersonal (negative) term does the government use when it describes immigrants?

  11. Crime as Deviance intent • Crime —violation of the law • Bias in the Treatment of Different Types of Crime • FBI UCR does not report on white-collar and corporate crime- (as Marx said, the state is a committee that manages the affairs of the bourgeoisie) • Gives impression that crime is only done by individuals, and mostly poor individuals. Act

  12. Crime as Deviance • The Case of White-Collar and Corporate Crime • White-collar crimes — violations of the law by individuals in the course of their occupations or profession • Corporate crimes — violations of the law by corporations in their policies or operating procedures, mostly for the sake of profit or corporate benefit

  13. Crime as Deviance Four Measures of Serious Violent Crime: 1973-2001 Figure 9.1 Source: U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.

  14. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Physiological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to a physical peculiarity or malfunction or to heredity or bio-chemical causes. • Psychological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to emotional problems or unusual personality traits that often result from experiences with family members or others

  15. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Social-psychological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to conditions in people’s immediate social environment and group- social interaction.

  16. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Sociological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to societal factors outside the control of individuals- Public Issues- having to do with the structure of society, the criminal justice system and how the powerful define crime. • Reductionism — process that reduces complex ideas or information to simple causes

  17. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Physiological Explanations • 1. Lombroso- 1876; • Low foreheads, protruding jaws, prominent ears, hairy, have long arms • William Sheldon's athletic types Compared body type with criminal history and concluded that delinquency was most common among athletic types 3. Biochemical imbalance, testosterone etc. • These are too simplistic, samples aren't random and they study those already in prisons or described as criminals by a society.

  18. Psychological • Psychological Explanations • No psychological traits seem to clearly distinguish deviants from non-deviants • “good boys” have strong super egos, “bad boys” have weak conscience or super egos • Reckless and Dinitz

  19. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Social-Psychological Explanations • Sutherland’s Differential Association Association Theory — deviant behavior results from an individual associating with people who are already disposed toward deviant behavior • Deviance is a learned behavior. • Doesn’t explain spontaneous crime

  20. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Hirshi’s Control Theory — deviant behavior results from the absence of social control or constraints Attachment (to your community), opportunity (available in your society), involvement (with your community), belief (about the rightness of your values). • Containment Theory — deviant behavior limited in society because of internal (personal) and external (societal) controls to such behavior.

  21. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Social Reinforcement — deviant behavior results from the belief that the rewards of deviant behavior outweigh the punishments, depends on if your crime paid off in the past. • Labeling Theory — draws attention to how people come to be labeled as deviants and the impact of this label on the individuals and their subsequent behavior

  22. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Edwin Lemert’s Primary and Secondary Deviance. • Secondary Deviance, internalization of the label- Goffman’s Stigma: a powerful negative label that damages a person’s self concept. Deviant career begins

  23. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Sociological Explanations- • Merton’s Opportunity Structure Theory — deviant behavior results from a society that stresses the importance of material success as cultural goals but does not provide all members with the same means to achieve that success- leads to MODE OF ADAPTATION. • Cultural Goals VS. Means available to attain them = opportunity structure or Strain Theory or Anomie theory

  24. Deviant Subculture • Walter Miller (1970)-characteristics of criminals • Trouble as way of life • Toughness- physical strength • Street Smartness • Need for Excitement • Belief in fate- lacking control over your life • Desire for freedom

  25. Code of the Street • Elijah Anderson • Loss of jobs, no opportunity, and the rejection by the outside wider society results in the development of a • “street code”- a survival mechanism by those who live under these circumstances • It is a counter culture. • (test question on Code of the Street)

  26. Objective Opportunity feeds into psychological readiness • “The accumulation of advantages at the very top parallels the vicious cycle of poverty at the very bottom. For the cycle of advantages includes psychological readiness as well as objective opportunities: just as the limitations of lower class and status positions produce a lack of interest and self-confidence…Energetic aspiration lives off a series of successes; and continual petty failure cuts the nerve of the will to succeed.” (C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. 1956:111)

  27. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Deviance and Capitalism • Marxist theory of deviance — sociological explanation for deviant behavior that suggests that such behavior within the working class results from a sense of alienation, low wages, and unemployment, and a wider society that punishes those that don’t accept their subordinate role in society.

  28. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • In capitalist society, members are not owners of the means of production. • Lacks power to get its needs met • Alienation — being alien to yourself and others, the subject (you) becomes an object, a thing to be manipulated for “use-value” in a capitalistic system.

  29. Crime and Punishment • Dominant groups have power to identify behaviors deserving of negative sanctions. • Affluent can afford private attorneys • Race- African American males are imprisoned ten times more often than white males • White collar and corporate crimes often receive lower penalties, if any at all, few are prosecuted

  30. Crime and Punishment Community Supervision Total Estimated Correctional Populationa Incarceration Year Probation Parole Jail Prison 1990 1995 1996 1997b 1998b 1999b 2000 2001 Percent change, 2001-01 Average annual Percent change, 1995-2001 4,350,300 5,342,900 5,490,700 5,734,900 6,134,200 6,340,800 6,445,100 6,592,800 2.3% 3.6% 2,670,234 3,077,861 3,164,996 3,296,513 3,670,441 3,779,922 3,826,209 3,932,751 2.8% 3.4% 531,407 679,421 679,733 694,787 696,385 714,457 723,898 731,147 1.0% 1.2% 405,320 507,044 518,492 567,079 592,462 605,943 621,149 631,240 1.6% 3.7% 743,382 1,078,542 1,127,528 1,176,564 1,224,469 1,287,172 1,316,333 1,330,980 1.1% 3.6% Note: Counts are for December 31, except for jail counts, which are for June 30. Jail and prison counts include inmates held in private facilities. Totals in 1998 through 2001 exclude probationers held in jail or prison. aBecause some offenders may have multiple statuses, totals were rounded to the nearest 100. bCoverage of probation agencies was expanded. For counts based on the same reporting agencies, use 3,266,837 in 1997 (to compare with 1996); 3,417,613 in 1998 (to compare with 1997); and 3,773,624 in 1999 (to compare with 1998). The average annual percent change was adjusted for the change in coverage. Table 9.1 Persons under Adult Correctional Supervision: 1990, 1995-2001 Source: Laureen E. Glaze, “Probation and Parole in the United States, 2001,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, April 2002, p. 1.

  31. The U.S. has the biggest prison population in the world and the highest rate of prisoners per capita of all countries. One of every 32 adults in the U.S. is either in jail, on parole or on probation (BBC news report, 26 August, 2002). Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. population grew by 21% but federal inmates soared by 312% - OFFICIAL numbers i.e. from the government. • In 2004, 61% of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities (USA today, 4/24/2005)

  32. Do Societies “Need” Deviant Behavior? • Functionalistic theory of deviance — Deviant behavior is a necessary and possible even desirable thing. • Criminals perform a service to society in that their crimes anger and upset members of society who then come together and become more cohesive as a group. i.e. social solidarity • Norms as “boundaries”. Deviants defines boundaries for all to see, thus society needs a continuous “supply” of deviants to show the rest of society the consequence of violating norms.

  33. Deviance and Social Change • People may intentionally violate norms to draw attention to social conditions they consider wrong. • Civil rights movement • Whistle blowers—people who speak out to the mass media about such issues as unsafe corporate practices, unethical and illegal acts, etc.

  34. Institutionalized Corporate Crime- the causes • Of course there may be corrupt men in sound institutions but when institutions are corrupting, many of the men who live and work in them are necessarily corrupted. In the corporate era, economic relations become impersonal and the executive feels less personal responsibility. Within the corporate world of business, war-making and politics, the private conscience is attenuated and the higher immorality is institutionalized. It is not merely a question of a corrupt administration in corporation or army or state, it is a feature of the corporate rich,...deeply intertwined with the politics of the military state • C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite 1956:343

  35. CRIME & THE STATUS SYSTEM “In a society in which money-makers have had no serious rival for repute and honor* (i.e. status), the word "practical" comes to mean useful for private gain, and "common sense", the sense to get ahead financially. The pursuit of the moneyed life is the commanding value, in relation to which the influence of other values has declined, so men become easily morally ruthless in the pursuit of easy money and fast estate building.” (C. Wright Mills, Diagnosis of Our Moral Uneasiness, 1952)* Who has greater repute and honor in our society: Donald Trump or a Sunday School teacher?

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