Chapter 8: Deviance & Social COntrol

1. Objectives: Define deviance and explain why it is relative. Why are norms necessary and why do we create a system of social control Explain Positive and Negative Sanctions Why do people violate norms Chapter 8: Deviance & Social COntrol

2. Deviance: the violation of rules or norms can be minor (driving over speed limit) can be serious (murdering someone) ”It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant” (Howard Becker) what is deviant to some is not deviant to others (Read Thinking Critically pg. 203) Crime: violation of norms written into law Stigma: “blemishes” that discredit a person’s claim to a “normal” identity What is Deviance?

3. Norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable example pg. 201 (purchasing milk) Norms prevent social chaos Lay out basic guidelines for how we should play our roles and interact with others social order: a group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives Deviance undermines this order humans develop social control: a formal or informal means of enforcing its norms How Norms make Social Life Possible

4. Negative Sanctions: expression of disapproval for breaking a norm ranges from a mild, informal reaction (frown) to a formal reaction (prison sentence) Positive Sanctions: a reward or positive reaction for following norms ranges from a smile to a prize The severity of the sanction depends on your perspective Sanctions

5. Shaming is an example of a negative sanction effective within a primary group examples: Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter ; Arizona sheriff making inmates wear pink underwear Degradation Ceremony: an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual’s self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place  perp walks; shaving head for military Shaming and Degradation Ceremonies

6. Biological look for answer within the individual something in the individual’s makeup leads him/her to be deviant Genetic Predispositions: inborn tendencies (to commit deviant acts) biological explanations: 1) intelligence— low intelligence crime 2) “XYY”—extra Y chromosome in malescrime 3) body type—people with “squarish/muscular” bodies more likely to commit street crime like mugging, rape, burglary  These explanations don’t hold up very well Explaining Deviance…3 perspectives

7. Psychological Look for answer within the individual Personality disorders: the view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms subconscious motives drive people to deviance like: suppressed anger, suffocating mothers, absent fathers no inevitable outcome of any childhood experience; deviance is not associated with any particular personality Explaining Deviance…3 perspectives

8. Sociological  Search for factors outside of individual look for social influences that “recruit” people to break norms ie: socialization, group membership, subcultures, social class Explain deviance using the 3 sociological perspectives (Symbolic Interactionism, Fuctionalism, and Conflict) Explaining Deviance…3 perspectives

9. Due Friday: (either hand in or by email) --see examples: improv everywhere (frozen grand central station) Gather 1 example of deviance in the news or on the internet. This can be a newspaper article/magazine story/news video/youtube video Write a paragraph explaining the act of deviance you have discovered and why it is a deviant act. Assignment…