Deviance

1. Deviance Chapter 8

2. What Is Deviance? • The word deviance connotes odd or unacceptable behavior, but in the sociological sense of the word, deviance is simply any violation of society’s norms. • Deviance can range from something minor, such as a traffic violation, to something major, such as murder.

3. Relativism and Deviance • Deviance is a relative issue, and standards for deviance change based on a number of factors, including the following: • 1: Location • 2: Age • 3: Social status • 4: Individual societies

4. Deviant Traits • A person does not need to act in a deviant manner in order to be considered deviant.

5. Deviant Traits • Sometimes people are considered deviant because of a trait or a characteristic they possess. • Sociologist Erving Goffman used the term stigma to identify deviant characteristics. • These include violations of the norms of physical ability or appearance.

6. Social Control • Punishing people for deviant behavior reminds people what is expected of them and what will happen if they do not conform to society’s norms. • Every society has methods of social control, or means of encouraging conformity to norms. • These methods of social control include positive sanctions and negative sanctions.

7. Positive Sanctions • Society uses positive sanctions to reward people for following norms. • Positive sanctions can be formal, such as an award or a raise. • They can also be informal and include words, gestures, or facial expressions. • A reaction to an individual’s actions can be a positive sanction, even if it is not intended to be.

8. Negative Sanctions • Negative sanctions can range from formal to informal. • Some subcultures dole out negative sanctions for behaviors generally condoned by the rest of society. • Academic achievement is usually held in high esteem. • Some subcultures, succeeding in a way that the dominant society approves of is not considered a good thing. • In some gangs, getting good grades is not acceptable, and gang members who do well in school are criticized by their friends for “selling out.” • Conformity to traditional figures of authority, such as teachers, is negatively sanctioned.

9. Symbolic Inter-actionist Perspective • Symbolic inter-actionists study how people use symbols to create meaning.

10. THEORY OF DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION • Sociologist Edwin Sutherland studied deviance from the symbolic inter-actionist perspective. • The basic tenet of his theory of differential association is that deviance is a learned behavior— people learn it.

11. Edwin Sutherland • He further explained exactly what one learns from people who commit deviance. • He said that the future deviant learns values different from those of the dominant culture, as well as techniques for committing deviance.

12. Edwin Sutherland • Part of Sutherland’s theory is that if people learn deviance from others, the people with whom we associate are of utmost importance. • The closer the relationship, the more likely someone is to be influenced.

13. Deviant Subcultures • When individuals share a particular form of deviance, they often • form a deviant subculture, a way of living that differs from the dominant culture and is based on that shared deviance.

14. Control Theroy • Sociologist Walter Reckless developed the control theory to explain how some people resist the pressure to become deviants. • According to control theory, people have two control systems that work against their desire to deviate. • Each person has a set of inner controls and outer controls.

15. Travis Hirschi and Control Theory • Sociologist Travis Hirschi elaborated on the control theory. • He identified four elements that would render an individual more or less likely to commit deviance: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

16. Labeling Theory • A key aspect of the symbolic inter-actionist perspective of deviance is labeling theory. • First proposed by sociologist Howard Becker in the 1960s, labeling theory posits that deviance is that which is so labeled. • No status or behavior is inherently deviant until other people have judged it and labeled it deviant.

17. Primary and Secondary Deviance • Sociologist Edwin Lemert differentiated between primary deviance and secondary deviance. • The difference between primary deviance and secondary deviance is in the reactions other people have to the original act of deviance. • Primary deviance is a deviant act that provokes little reaction and has limited effect on a person’s self-esteem. • The deviant does not change his or her behavior as a result of this act. • Secondary deviance includes repeated deviant behavior that is brought on by other people’s negative reactions to the original act of primary deviance.

18. Chambliss and the Saints and Roughnecks • In the 1970s, sociologist William Chambliss studied two groups of high school boys to find out how strongly labels affected them.

19. Structural Functional Theory • Another framework sociologists use to understand the world is the structural functional theory. • Its central idea is that society is a complex unit, made up of interrelated parts. • Sociologists who apply this theory study social structure and social function. • French sociologist Emile Durkheim based his work on this theory.

20. Functions of Deviance • Emile Durkheim • Affirmation of cultural norms and values: Seeing a person punished for a deviant act reinforces what a society sees as acceptable or unacceptable behavio • 2. Clarification of right and wrong: Responses to deviant behavior help individuals distinguish between right and wrong. • 3. Unification of others in society: Responses to deviance can bring people closer together. • 4. Promoting social change: Deviance can also encourage the dominant society to consider alternative norms and values.

21. Strain Theory of Deviance • Sometimes people find that when they attempt to attain culturally approved goals, their paths are blocked. • Not everyone has access to institutionalized means, or legitimate ways of achieving success. • Strain theory, posits that when people are prevented from achieving culturally approved goals through institutional means, they experience strain or frustration that can lead to deviance. • People also experience anomie, or feelings of being disconnected from society, which can occur when people do not have access to the institutionalized means to achieve their goals.

22. Institutionalized Means to Success • In the 1960s, sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin theorized that the most difficult task facing industrialized societies is finding and training people to take over the most intellectually demanding jobs from the previous generation. • To progress, society needs a literate, highly trained work force. Society’s job is to motivate its citizens to excel in the workplace, and the best way to do that is to foment discontent with the status quo. • Cloward and Ohlin argued that if people were dissatisfied with what they had, what they earned, or where they lived, they would be motivated to work harder to improve their circumstances. • In order to compete in the world marketplace, a society must offer institutionalized means of succeeding. • For example, societies that value higher education as a way to advance in the work place must make educational opportunity available to everyone.

23. Illegitimate Opportunity Structures • Cloward and Ohlin further elaborated on Merton’s strain theory. • Deviant behavior—crime in particular—was not just a response to limited institutionalized means of success. Crime also resulted from increased access to illegitimate opportunity structures, or various illegal means to achieve success. • These structures, such as crime, are often more available to poor people living in urban slums. • A poor person can become involved in prostitution, robbery, drug dealing, or loan sharking to make money. • While these activities are clearly illegal, they often provide opportunities to make large amounts of money, as well as gain status among one’s peers.

24. Reactions to Cultural Goals & Institutionalized Means

25. Conflict Perspective • A third important sociological framework is the conflict theory. • Unlike the structural functional theory, which views society as a peaceful unit, conflict theory interprets society as a struggle for power between groups engaging in conflict for limited resources.

26. Conflict Perspective • Karl Marx is the founder of conflict theory. • Conflict theorists like Marx posit that there are two general categories of people in industrialized societies: the capitalist class the working class. • The capitalist class, or elite consists of those in positions of wealth and power who own the means of production or control access to the means of production.

27. Conflict Perspective • The working class consists of relatively powerless individuals who sell their labor to the capitalist class. • It is advantageous to the elite to keep the working class in a relatively disadvantaged position so that they can maintain the status quo and their own privileged positions.

28. Conflict Theory and Crime • Conflict theorists believe that the broad division of people into these two categories is inherently unequal. • Conflict theorists cite the criminal justice system to support their claim.

29. Conflict Theory and Crime • The capitalist class passes laws designed to benefit themselves. • These same laws are detrimental to the working class. • Both groups commit acts of deviance, but the system the capitalists created defines deviance differently for each group. • The criminal justice system judges and punishes each group differently.

30. Conflict Theory and Crime • In addition, the elite can often afford expensive lawyers and are sometimes on a first-name basis with the individuals in charge of making and enforcing laws. • Members of the working class generally do not have these advantages.

31. White - Collar Crimes • Conflict theorists also look at the types of crimes committed by members of the two classes. • The working class is more likely to commit so-called street crime, such as robbery, assault, or murder. • Members of the elite are less likely to commit acts of violence but more likely to engage in white-collar crime, or nonviolent crime committed by the capitalist class during the course of their occupations. • White-collar criminals are difficult to catch and prosecute for two main reasons: a. White-collar crime is difficult to identify. It leaves little physical evidence and no easily identifiable victim. • b. White-collar criminals are sometimes able to use their power and influence to avoid prosecution. Because of their social and economic clout, white-collar criminals rarely face criminal prosecution.

32. Deviance and Power • Conflict theorist Alexander Liazos points out that the people we commonly label as deviant are also relatively powerless. • The people in positions of power make the laws of any given society they create laws to benefit themselves.

33. Deviance and Power • According to the conflict view of deviance, when rich and powerful people are accused of wrongdoing, they have the means to hire lawyers, accountants, and other people who can help them avoid being labeled as deviant.

34. Deviance and Power • Lastly, members of a society generally believe that laws are inherently fair, which can draw attention away from the possibility that these laws might be unfairly applied or that a law itself might not be good or just.

35. Crime • White-collar crime is just one type of crime. Crime, or the violation of a written law, is a specific kind of deviance. What constitutes a crime varies from society to society. In our society, sociologists have identified three general categories of crime

36. Crime • Crimes against the person: These are crimes in which an act of violence is either threatened or perpetrated against a person. A mugging is an example of a crime against the person.

37. Crime • Crimes against property: These are crimes that involve the theft of property or certain forms of damage against the property of another. Arson is an example of a property crime.

38. Crime • Victimless crimes: These are crimes in which laws are violated, but there is no identifiable victim. Prostitution is often classified as a victimless crime.

39. Profile of a Criminal • Sociologists studying crime and deviance study statistics on who commits crime. Identifying a criminal profile can help sociologists understand the causes of crime and other deviance. • Sociologists use the categories of age, gender, social class, and race and ethnicity to create this profile.

40. Profile of a Criminal • Age: Young people, roughly between the mid-teens and early twenties, commit almost 40 percent of all crimes. The likeliness to commit crime, particularly violent crime, decreases with age. • Gender: Men are arrested for crimes far more often than women. Men are arrested for approximately 70 percent of all property crimes and 80 percent of all violent crimes. Several theories, including the following, attempt to explain this situation: a. In all known societies, men are allowed more behavioral freedom than women are. More freedom means more opportunity to engage in deviant acts. b. Traditionally, police have been less willing to define a woman as a criminal, and the court system has been less likely to convict a woman and sentence her to jail or prison.

41. Profile of a Criminal • Social Class: Street crime, particularly violent crime, is more prevalent in poor, inner-city neighborhoods than in affluent communities. Violent crime in inner-city neighborhoods tends to be committed by the same group of seasoned criminals. Their victims are most often the law-abiding inhabitants of those neighborhoods. White- collar crime tends to occur in more affluent communities.

42. Profile of a Criminal • Race and Ethnicity: African Americans represent approximately 12 percent of the population in the United States and comprise 30 percent of property-crime arrests and 38 percent of violent-crime arrests. White people represent 66 percent of the arrests for property crimes and 60 percent of the arrests for violent crimes.