Social Control and Deviance
Chapter 6
“It is the deviants among us who hold society together”
Studying Criminology…A few simple questions
• What creates a deviant or a criminal?
• How do some people who started their life as innocent little children
end up committing heinous acts and end up in prison?
• What is crime? How do some acts come to become defined as
criminal while others do not?
• Victor Rios: A sociological lens towards crime and policing…
•
http://wwnorton.com/common/mplay/6.8/?p=/college/soc/conley4/vid/&f=rios-short&ft=mp4&cdn=1&cc=1&a=1
Discussion Outline
• I. The Nature of Deviance
• II. Theories of Deviance and Social Control
• III. Crime and the Criminal Justice System
I. The Nature of Deviance
• Deviance:
• Any behavior that violates a norm-Folkways, mores, or laws
• Informal deviance-Possible Informal sanctions
• Formal deviancePossible formal sanctions
• In analyzing deviance we must consider two important points
• 1. Whether something is deviant depends on who is evaluating it
• Deviance is what people say it is-based upon one’s value system
• 2. When important norms are violated, social control mechanisms function to
maintain order
• Social control-Mechanisms that create normative compliance
The Nature of Deviance
• The Relativity of Deviance
• Relativity-There is nothing inherent in an act that makes an act wrong,
criminal, or deviant.
• Social definitions of deviance are relative to the values, beliefs, and norms of a society
• Defining deviance is a social and historical construct, varying from:
• Time to time
• Place to place
• Group to group
• Examples?
• Killing someone?
• Premarital sex?
• Sharing a water fountain?
Deviance is rooted in culture…
• When the social structure and culture change, what is considered to be
deviant/criminal changes
• How does culture change?
• The political nature of defining crime and deviance
• Politics?..
• I.e.: The case of Homosexuality
• What cultural changes have taken place?
• What political changes have occurred?
• What evidence do you have?
• Time? Culture? Group?
• Is what comes to be considered deviant or criminal based upon the
overall harm done to American society?
• Why is the use of some drugs considered deviant/criminal, while
others are not? Is it based on relative harm done?
• Does drug policy and concern about drug use make
sense when looking at objective reality?
• I.e.: Statistics regarding the harm done by certain drugs
Relativity and Drug Use
 Objective component is
physical, psychological, or
social evidence of harm
 Subjective component is
people’s perceptions
about the consequences
Example: Marijuana vs. Alcohol
Subjectively our society believes that marijuana is harmful
and should remain illegal, while alcohol is relatively harmless
and should stay legal
Objectively there is little evidence that marijuana is harmful
but much evidence of alcohol and tobacco and associated
dangers.
II. Theories of Deviance: Why do crime and
deviance occur?
• A high school or college athlete who takes steroids to enhance performance?
• A 12 year old who joins a inner city gang and begins selling drugs and guns?
• A corporate executive who steals from his/her investors through the use of complex computer algorithms?
• A student who cheats on a big exam?
• A drug dealer who makes more money selling drugs then working a 9-5?
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSucylf4KhY
-
Theories of Deviance
• Functionalism- Anomie Theory
• Durkheim’s anomie: social condition in which people
find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms that
they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting
• Anomie occurs when peoples expectations about what they
deserve are not met
• What happens when the economy collapses?
Structural Strain Theory-Robert Merton
• The acceptable means to achieving the American Dream= ???
• Americans internalize goal, but may not have access to
acceptable means
• People adapt to inconsistency between means and goals in society.
Structural limitations  Strain adaptation(Crime)
• Innovation
• The drug dealer?
• The corporate executive?
• The athlete who takes steroids?
Cultural Transmission Theory
• Youths become delinquent because they associate and make
friends with other delinquents
• Youths learn and may be pressured into deviance
• Socialization into a deviant subculture; I.e.: Athletes on a new team
• Why do many argue against jail or juvenile hall for a first time drug
offender or low level criminal?
• Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association
• Differential association: individual’s cultural conditions help
determine his/her likelihood of and attitudes towards deviance
• Relationships are important. Favorable attitudes of a subcultural group
to violation of norms.
• Binge drinking in college frats and sororities; Parole rules or a
parents requests
Theories of Deviance
• Labeling Theory
• Labeling people as deviants has consequences for
them
• Primary Deviance: We all engage in deviant behavior; but
are we caught and labeled as deviants?
• Very little push back from society; no label attached to
actions
• Secondary deviance: deviance individuals adopt in
response to the reactions of other individuals
• Tagged as deviant, adopts identity of deviance, and
maintains a deviant lifestyle
• People labeled “deviant” typically find themselves rejected and
isolated which can result in a self fulfilling prophecy
Theories of Deviance
• Conflict Theory
• Individuals victimized by capitalist oppression are driven by
their struggle to survive to commit acts that the ruling class
brands as criminal
• A focus on social class and criminal activity; How does poverty
contribute to crime?
• The legal system reflects interests of the rich
• Laws created to protect privilege and property
• Differential punishment for business and street crimes
• What gov’t agency keeps track of corporate crimes?
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/27775/23160-focus-matt-taibbi-the-super-rich-havebecome-untouchables
Theories of deviance
• To some theorists, white collar criminal activity and other
forms of deviance may be best be understood through
rational choice theory.
• People are inclined to engage in deviant behavior when it has significant
rewards and limited costs
• Deterrence theory of crime control
III. Crime and the Criminal Justice System
• Crime- Any act prohibited by law
• Socially constructed
• The Criminal Justice System- The reactive agencies of the state: Police;
court system; jails, etc.
• Street Crime
• White Collar Crime
• Corporate Crime
The American Punishment Frenzy/Prison
Boom
• Punitive policies
• Imprisonment of non-violent offenders
• 1980’s-The drug war
• Mandatory minimums
• Three strikes laws
• Plea bargains
• The United States had the highest incarceration rate in the world
• Over 7.3 million people in prison, jail, or under correctional supervision
Has the drug war worked to….
• -take drugs off the streets?
• -reduce the flow of drugs into the United States?
• -reduce the amount of users in the population?
• -decrease the strength of drugs?
• -take drug dealers off street corners and out of middle
and upper class communities?
The American punishment frenzy
• The Prison Industrial Complex
• Correctional expansion continues not because it decreases
crime and creates a safer public, but because it serves the
interest of certain powerful groups that benefit from tough on
crime policies and continue to push for punitive policies
through lobbying political leaders and running million dollar ad
campaigns
• Private prison corporations
• Prison guards Unions
• Prison labor benefits government, corporations and a variety of
businesses and communities with vested interests in correctional
expansion
• Is it right that corporations make profit on keeping
bodies in cells and lobbying state and federal legislators
to maintain “tough on crime” strategies??