Reactions to Deviance

1. Reactions to Deviance

2. Reactions • Whether it involves cheating on a sociology quiz or holding up a liquor store, any violation of norms invites reactions

3. Street Crimes and Prisons • 1 out of every 143 citizens is in prison • Almost all prisoners are 18-44 and almost all of them are men and close to half are African American • For about the past 20 years, the US has followed a “get tough” policy- • “3 strikes your out” laws • When someone is convicted of a 3rd felony, judges are required to give a mandatory sentence, sometimes life imprisonment

4. The Decline in Violent Crime • Drop in crime rate b/c: • Judges have put more and more people in prison • Legislators passed the three strike laws and reduced early releases of prisoners

5. Recidivism • A major problem with prisons is that they fail to teach their clients to stay away from crime • Recidivism rate- the percentage of former prisoners who are arrested • For criminals sent to prison for violent crimes, within 3 years of release, 2 out of 3 are rearrested and ½ are back in prison

6. The Death Penalty and Bias • Capital Punishment, the death penalty, is the most extreme measure the state takes • MAJOR CONTROVERSY • Death penalty is not administered evenly • Geography • Social class • Gender • race

7. Legal Change • Crime varies from one culture to another, from group to group within a society and from one time period to another • Lets look at some weird laws… • Hate crime is a good example….

8. Medicalization of deviance • Deviance is a sign of mental sickness • Thomas Szasz- says mental illness is neither mental, nor an illness but problem behaviors • Some have organic causes but when someone because deviant and when others cant find an explanation, “sick in the head” is often taken as a cause for their unacceptable behavior

9. ADD as an example • No one explains where this came from and why it didn’t exist 50 years ago. • It is diagnosed by a teacher or parent complaining about a child misbehaving • This isn’t a new problem for parents/teachers but now their problem behavior has become a sign of mental illness

10. Behaviors not mental illness • Everyone struggles with problems as they go through life. • Some people fail to cope well with life’s challenges and become depressed uncooperative or hostile • These are behaviors not mental illnesses • Szasz concludes that “mental illness” is a myth foisted on a naïve public by a medical profession that uses pseudoscientific jargon to expand its area of control

11. What is the origin of bizarre behavior • Szasz’s extreme claim forces us to direct our attention to how people learn such behaviors we deem “mentally ill” • Social experience not some illness of the mind

12. The need for a more humane approach • Deviance is inevitable • Our prisons are filled with poor, and reflect patterns of broad discrimination in our larger society • White collar criminals continue to get away with a slap on the wrist, while street criminals are punished severely • We need to address the larger issues • Finding ways to protect people from harmful deviance, tolerating those behaviors that are not harmful, and developing systems of fair treatment