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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 • The Social Construction of Deviance • The Role of Power in Defining Deviance • Deviance and Resistance • Crime as Deviance • Explanations for Deviant Behavior

3. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control • Crime and Punishment: Differential Application of Sanctions • Do Societies “Need” Deviant Behavior? • Deviance and Social Change • Summary

4. 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

5. 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

6. The Social Construction of Deviance • Social construction — 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

7. The Social Construction of Deviance • If deviant behavior is social construction, then, in theory, any act could be considered deviant by someone. • Label — identifying or descriptive word or phrase, often with a negative connotation when applied to people

8. The Social Construction of Deviance • Large heterogeneous societies not only disagree about what behaviors are unacceptable but also possess different amounts of power to define who or what is deviant. • Dominant groups within a society typically have power to decide what is deviant and what is not.

9. The Role of Power in Defining Deviance • Norms that Restrict Women • Appearance Norms — standards of attractiveness, often applied to women • 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

10. The Role of Power in Defining • Challenges to the Label “Deviant” • Appearance and motherhood norms still exist, but they have been breaking down. • Ability of other dominant groups in U.S. society to attach the label “deviant” to behavior has been under attack.

11. Deviance and Resistance • Deviance as Behavior versus Deviance as Being • Groups with power tend to define themselves as normal and those they dominate as “the other.” • Physical structuring of everyday environment communicates who is a “normal” member of society.

12. 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 • Recidivism — tendency to relapse into a previous mode of behavior

13. 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

14. Crime as Deviance • Crime — form of behavior considered deviant because it is in violation of the law • Bias in the Treatment of Different Types of Crime • FBI does not report on white-collar and corporate crime • Gives impression that crime is only done by individuals

15. 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

16. 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/.

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

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

19. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Sociological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to societal factors outside the control of individuals • Reductionism — process that reduces complex ideas or information to simple terms

20. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Physiological Explanations • Tend to be too simplistic • Psychological Explanations • No psychological traits seem to clearly distinguish deviants from nondeviants • Limited to inferences about what goes on in the minds of deviants

21. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Social-Psychological Explanations • Differential Association Association Theory — deviant behavior results from an individual associating with people who are already disposed toward deviant behavior

22. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Control Theory — deviant behavior results from the absence of social control or constraints • Containment Theory — deviant behavior limited in society because of internal (personal) and external (societal) controls

23. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Social Reinforcement — deviant behavior results from the belief that the rewards of deviant behavior outweigh the punishments • 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

24. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Shortcomings of Social-Psychological Explanations • Many forms of deviance to which differential association does not seem to apply • Many instances are not helped by containment theory • Theories that stress reinforcement lack empirical support • Labeling does not explain first violation of norms

25. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • Sociological Explanations • Opportunity Structure Theory — deviant behavior results from a society that stresses the importance of material success but does not provide all members with the same means to achieve that success

26. 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 sense of alienation, low wages, and unemployment

27. Explanations for Deviant Behavior • In capitalist society, members are not owners of the means of production. • Lacks power to get its needs met • Alienation — withdrawing or separation from something • The dynamics of capitalism need not always be present for deviant behaviors to occur

28. Crime and Punishment • Dominant groups have power to identify behaviors deserving of negative sanctions. • Affluent can afford private attorneys • Race • White collar and corporate crimes often receive lower penalties

29. 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.

30. Crime and Punishment Comparison of Sentencing by Race: 2000 Table 9.2 Sentencing Rate (Per 100,000in population) Held under Death Sentence(Percentage of total held) Executed(Percentage oftotal executed) African American men Latinos White men 34.6 12.2 <0.01 39.0 8.6 50.6 41.2 0.0 57.6 Source: www. usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons and www.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm

31. Crime and Punishment PrisonersWho ReceivedOther Dispositionsa Total underSentenceof Death,1997-2001c Prisoners Executed Percentof Total Percentof Total Number Number Originb White Black Latino/Latina All otherd Total 3.316 2.784 550 104 6,754 422 263 52 12 749 12.7 9.4 9.5 11.5 11.1 % 1,250 1,000 140 32 2,424 37.7 35.9 25.5 32.7 35.9 % % % aIncludes persons removed from a sentence of death because of statutes struck down on appeal, sentences or convictions vacated, commutations, or death by other than executrion. bWhite, black, and other race categories exclude Latinos/Latinas. cIncludes persons sentenced to death prior to 1977 who were still under sentence of death on December 21, 2001 (8), persons sentenced to death prior to 1977 whose death sentence was removed between 1977 and December 21, 2001 (372), and persons sentenced to death between 1997 and December 31, 2001 (6,374). dIncludes American Indians and Asians. Table 9.3 Executions and Other Dispositions of Inmates Sentenced to Death, by Race and Latino/Latina Origin: 1977-2001 Source: Tracy L. Snell and Laura M. Maruschak, “Capital Punishment, 2001,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, December 2002, p.11.

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.

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. Summary • Whether or not behavior is considered deviant depends on the norms that people develop and use to judge others. • Deviance is a social construction. • Since dominant groups frequently impose the “deviant” label on people who do not want it, the labeling process often encounters resistance.

35. Summary • Sociologist have long been interested in why deviant behavior, particularly crime, occurs. • Social-psychological explanations examine the influence of one’s immediate social environment on deviant behavior.

36. Summary • The presence of deviant behavior in all societies (although societies often differ on what behavior is considered deviant) raises the issue of whether societies “need” deviance. • Societies may benefit from those groups and individuals who rise up and deviate from norms that support harmful and unjust social conditions.

37. Summary • From the revolutionary to the whistle-blower, people at times challenge what those more powerful would prefer be considered normal.