ORGANIZING SOCIAL LIFE

1. The Sociological Perspective ORGANIZING SOCIAL LIFE 2 part McGraw-Hill © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. 8 DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL • Social Control • Deviance • Crime • Social Policy and Social Control: Gun Control

3. Social Control • Conformity and Obedience • Conformity is defined as going along with peers who have no special right to direct our behavior. • Obedience is defined as compliance with higher authorities in an hierarchical structure.

4. Social Control • Conformity and Obedience • Conformity to Prejudice • Research demonstrates that people may conform to attitudes and behavior of peers even when it means expressing intolerance towards others.

5. Social Control • Conformity and Obedience • Obedience to Authority • According to Milgram, in the modern world, we are accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority figures, whose status is indicated by a title or uniform. • Because we view authority as larger or more important than the individual, we shift responsibility for our behavior to the authority figure.

6. Social Control • Informal and Formal Social Control • Informal Social Control • Informal social control is used casually to enforce norms. • Informal social control includes: • smiles • laughter • ridicule • raising an eyebrow

7. Social Control • Law and Society • Some norms are so important to a society that they are formalized into laws controlling people’s behaviors. • Laws are governmental social control and are created in response to perceived social needs for formal social control.

8. Social Control • Law and Society • Control Theory • Our bonds to members of society lead us to conform to society’s norms. • We are bonded through: • family • friends • peers

9. Deviance • What is Deviance? • Deviance • Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. • Examples of deviants: • alcoholics • gamblers • mentally ill

10. Deviance • What is Deviance? • Sociologically, we are all deviant from time to time. • Each of us violates common social norms in certain situations. • Deviance involves the violation of group norms which may or may not be formalized into law.

11. Deviance • What is Deviance? • Standards of deviance vary from one group (subculture) to another. • Deviance varies over time. • Deviance is subjective, subject to social definitions.

12. Deviance • Sociology on Campus: College Binge Drinking Source: Wechsler et al. 2002:208.

13. Deviance • What is Deviance? • Deviance and Social Stigma • The term stigma describes the labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups. • Once members are assigned deviant roles, they have trouble presenting positive images to others.

14. Deviance • What is Deviance? • Deviance and Technology • Technological innovations can redefine social interactions and standards of behavior related to them. These innovations include: • pagers • voice mail • Internet • cell phones

15. Deviance • A New Form of Deviance: Digital Piracy

16. Explaining Deviance • Figure 8-2: Catching Music Thieves Source: Healy 2003:A21

17. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Functionalist Perspective • Deviance is a part of human existence and has positive and negative consequences for society. • Durkheim introduced the term anomie, defined as a state of normlessness that occurs during periods of profound social change.

18. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Functionalist Perspective (continued) • Merton examined how people adapted to the acceptance or rejection of a society’s goals. Merton’s Anomie Theory of Deviance examines how people conform to or deviate from cultural expectations.

19. Deviance • Table 8.1: Modes of Individual Adaptation Institutionalized Societal Goal Means (Acquisition Mode (Hard Work) of Wealth) Nondeviant Conformity Accept Accept Deviant Innovation Reject Accept Ritualism Accept Reject Retreatism Reject Reject Rebellion Replace with new means Replace with new goals Source: Adapted from Merton 1968:194.

20. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Interactionist Perspective • Focuses on everyday behavior and why or how a person comes to commit a deviant act. The cultural transmission theory holds that one learns criminal behavior through interactions with others. • The routine activities theory holds that criminal victimization is increased when motivated offenders and suitable targets converge.

21. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Interactionist Perspective (continued) • Labeling theory attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants while others are not and emphasizes how a person comes to be labeled as deviant and to accept this label.

22. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Interactionist Perspective (continued) • Conflict theory holds that people with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their own needs. • Conflict theory contends the criminal justice system of the U.S. treats people differently on the basis of their racial, ethnic, or social class background.

23. Deviance • Explaining Deviance • Feminist Perspective • Cultural views and attitudes toward women influence how they are perceived and labeled. • The feminist perspective emphasizes that deviance, including crime, tends to flow from economic relationships.

24. Deviance • Social Inequality: Race and the Death Penalty Source: Based on Bureau of the Census 2002a; Dieter 1998:13; Snell and Maruschak 2002:10, 11.

25. Crime • Types of Crime • Crime is defined as a violation of criminal law for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties. • Laws divide crimes into categories based on: • severity • age of offender • potential punishment • jurisdiction

26. Crime • Types of Crime • Professional Crime: Crime pursued as a person’s day-to-day occupation. • Organized Crime: The work of a group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises.

27. Crime • Types of Crime • White Collar and Technology-Based Crime: Illegal acts committed in the course of business activities, often by affluent people. • Victimless Crimes: The willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services.

28. Crime • Crime Statistics • Crime statistics are not as accurate as social scientists would like. • Reported crime is very high in the United States and is regarded as a major social problem. • Violent crimes have declined significantly nationwide following many years of increases.

29. Crime • Discretion within the Criminal Justice System Source: Adapted from Department of Justice, 1988:59.

30. Crime • Figure 8.3: Victimization Rates, 1973 to 2001 Source: Rennison 2002:12.

31. Crime Source: Uniform Crime Report 2002, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/pdf/0front.pdf

32. Crime Source: United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#ncvs

33. Crime Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#ncvs

34. Crime Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.http: //ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#ncvs

35. Crime Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice. 2001. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bsj/cvict.htm#ncvs

36. Social Policy and Social Control • Policy Shift: Portugal takes a bold step of decriminalizing the use of drugs. (Click inside frame to start video)

37. Social Policy and Social Control • The Death Penalty in the United States and Worldwide • The Issue • Historically, execution has served as a significant form of punishment for deviance. • Capital punishment was once assumed to be morally and religiously justified. • People in the United States and other countries that have the death penalty criticize capital punishment, especially when it might apply to young people convicted of murders.

38. Social Policy and Social Control • The Death Penalty in the United States and Worldwide • The Setting • Death penalties are not unusual anywhere in the world. • In the decade of the 1990s, more than 30 nations abolished the death penalty. • Only three nations have introduced the death penalty since 1985. • It the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment was constitutional.

39. Social Policy and Social Control • Death Penalty Status Worldwide

40. 3,593 3,000 2,500 In 1976 the Courtupheld revised Statecapital punishment laws. 2,000 1,500 In 1972 the Supreme Courtruled unconstitutional thedeath penalty as thenadministered. 1,000 500 0 1953 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Social Policy and Social Control • Persons Under Sentence of Death, 1953 to 2000 Source: Figure 1 in Tracy L. Snell for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2001. Capital Punishment 2000. NCJ 190598. Accessible at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cp00.pdf.

41. Number under sentence of deathon December 31 2,000 1,500 White Black 1,000 500 All other races 0 1968 1970 1980 1990 2000 Social Policy and Social Control • Persons Under Sentence of Death, 1953 to 2000 Source: Figure 2 in Tracy L. Snell for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2001. Capital Punishment 2000. NCJ 190598. Accessible at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cp00.pdf.

42. Number of executions 200 160 120 85 80 40 0 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Social Policy and Social Control • Persons Under Sentence of Death, 1953 to 2000 Source: Figure 3 in Tracy L. Snell for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.2001. Capital Punishment 2000. NCJ 190598. Accessible at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cp00.pdf.

43. Social Policy and Social Control • The Death Penalty in the United States and Worldwide • Sociological Insights • Functionalists hold that the death penalty will prevent at least some criminals from committing serious offenses. • Even if the death penalty is not a deterrent, such criminals deserve to die for their crimes. • The alternative to capital punishment—life in prison—is a dysfunction because it is unnecessarily expensive.

44. Social Policy and Social Control • The Death Penalty in the United States and Worldwide • Sociological Insights • Conflict theorists emphasize the persistence of social inequality in society today. • Poor people cannot afford the best lawyers and this unequal treatment may mean the difference between life and death. • Race discrimination may also be a factor because defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death if their victims were White rather than Black.

45. Social Policy and Social Control • The Death Penalty in the United States and Worldwide • Policy Initiatives • How can the death sentence be handed out in a judicially fair manner? • Federal and state lawmakers continue to make more crimes punishable by death. • There is increasing international pressure on the United States to abolish the death penalty. • Capital punishment remains popular with both the general public and lawmakers in the United States.

46. Social Policy and Socialization • Gun Control • The Issue • Over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all murders were committed with firearms. • The 1994 Brady Act mandates that firearms dealers run criminal history background checks on people who wish to purchase handguns. About two percent of all purchases were denied as a result of the checks.

47. Social Policy and Socialization • Gun Control • The Setting • The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” • 30 to 35 million people in the United States own handguns, and about 45 percent of U.S. households have some type of firearm on the premises.

48. Social Policy and Socialization • Gun Control • Sociological Insights: • Since the Brady Act, support for stricter measures has actually declined. • Conflict theorists contend that groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) can dominate the legislative process because of their ability to mobilize resources.

49. Social Policy and Socialization • Gun Control • Policy Implications: • Advocates for stricter gun control would like to see: • A total ban on assault weapons • Tight restrictions on permits to carry concealed weapons. • Increased penalties for leaving firearms were they are easily accessible to children and others who could misuse them.

50. Social Policy and Socialization • Gun Control • Policy Implications: • In light of growing concern over terrorism on the home front, the handgun debate has turned to the question of allowing pilots to carry guns in the cockpit.