SOCIOLOGY FIRST AND SECOND
PERIOD
PAGES 140-156
Stephanie, Katrina, Stephanie, and Rachel
WHAT IS DEVIANCE?
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Howard S. Becker (1966)
To refer to any violation of norms.
Howard Becker described this way “it is not the
act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make
something deviant.
What deviant to some is not deviant to others.
Its held within society and through out cultures.
Relativity of deviance a major point made by
symbolic interactionists.
WHAT IS STIGMA?
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Erving Goffman (1963)
To refer to characteristics that discredit people.
Violations of norms include ability, appearance,
and norms of involuntary membership.
Stigma can become a persons master status.
HOW NORMS CAN MAKE SOCIAL LIFE
POSSIBLE
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No human group can exist without norms for
norms make social life possible by making
behavior predictable.
Without norms we would have social chaos.
A groups customary social arrangements are
called social order.
Deviance undermines, predictability of social life.
SANCTIONS
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Expressions of disapproval of deviance is called
negative sanctions.
Most negative sanctions are informal.
Positive sanctions are use to reward people for
conforming to norms.
COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF
DEVIANCE—SOCIOBIOLOGY
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Sociobiology explains deviance by looking for
answers within individuals.
They assume that genetic predispositions lead
people to such deviances.
There's three theories:
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2.
3.
Intelligence- if low turns to crime.
“XYY” theory-an extra Y chromosome in males
leads to crime
Body type-people with “squarish muscular” bodies
are more likely to commit street crime.
COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF
DEVIANCE—PSYCHOLOGISTS
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They focus on abnormalities within the
individual.
They examine personality disorders.
Deviating individuals have deviating
personalities and that subconscious motives drive
people to deviance.
Deviance is not associated with any particular
personality.
COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF
DEVIANCE—SOCIOLOGISTS
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They search for factors outside the individuals.
They look for social influences that “recruit”
people to break norms.
They examine such external influences as
socialization membership in subcultures, and
social class.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
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Basic principle of symbolic interactionism is this:
We act according to our interpretation of
situations, not according to blind predisposition.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
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Sociologists stress that people learn deviance.
Edwin Sutherland coined the term differential association to indicate
that we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms primarily from
the different groups we associate with.
What we learn influences us toward or away from deviance.
Different groups send us mixed messages that result in an imbalance.
Your family helps lead you away from deviance.
Symbolic interactionists stress that we are not mere pawns in the hands
of others.
Ex: Member’s of the Mafia also intertwine ideas of manliness with
violence.
“To kill is a measure of their manhood.”
CONTROL THEORY
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Walter Reckless (1973)
He developed the control theory which stresses that two
control systems work against our motivations to deviate.
Our inner controls include our internalized morality, and
our outer controls consists of people.
The stronger our bonds are with society, the more effective
our inner controls are.
Bonds are based on attachments, commitments,
involvements, and beliefs.
This theory can be summarized as self-control (Travis
Hirschi)
Key to learning high self-control is socialization.
LABELING THEORY
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Our “reputations” also called labeling theory is
developed from our social interaction.
Sociologists Greshman Sykes and David Matza
found people use five techniques of neutralization
to deflect society’s norms.
1.Denial of Responsibility
2. Denial of Injury
3.Denial of a Victim
4. Condemnation of the Condemners
5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties
LABELING THEORY
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Although most of us resist others’ attempts to
label us as deviant, there are those who revel in a
deviant identity.
Sociologist Mark Watson did participant
observation with outlaw bikers that statuses
among fellow members of a subculture is more
important that any statuses outside it.
LABELING THEORY
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William Chambliss concluded that the split
vision between the roughnecks and the saints was
due to social class.
Social class vitally affects our perceptions and
behavior.
Labels open and close doors of opportunity.
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
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Emile Durkheim concluded deviance is
functional for society.
1.Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and
affirms norms.
2.Deviance promotes social unity.
3.Deviance promotes social change.
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin identified
the crucial problem of the industrialized world—
the need to locate and train the most talented
people of every generation.
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
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Robert Merton developed the strain theory—people who
experience strain are likely to feel a sense of normlessness.
1. Conformity– to reach cultural goods.
2. Innovators– who accept the goals of society but use
illegitimate to reach them.
3. Ritualism– cling to conventional rules of conduct.
4.Retreatism– reject the cultural goals and the
institutionalized means of achieving them.
5. Rebellion– reject both society’s goals and its
institutionalized means yet seek to give society new goals.
ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE
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Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin said that
different doors that open to the poor are called
illegitimate opportunity structures.
White-Collar Crime refers to crimes that people
of respectable and high social status commit in
the course of their job.
Corporate Crime are a special form of whitecollar crime that is committed by executives to
benefit their corporation.
A major change in the nature of crime is the
growing number of female offenders. The basic
reason for this is women’s changed social
locations.