Chapter 8-Deviance
I. What Is Deviance?
A. Deviance = the recognized violation of cultural norms. Deviant actions or attitudes have
some element of difference in common that causes us to regard another as an "outsider."
B. Deviance leads to social control- societal attempts to regulate people's thoughts, behavior.
1. The criminal justice system is a formal response to an individual's alleged violations
of law from police, courts and prison officials.
C. Biological context- Genetic research seeks possible links between biology and crime
D. Personality factors- Reckless & Dinitz's containment theory suggests that strong moral
standards and positive self-image can keep boys from becoming delinquent.
1. Critical evaluation- Most crimes are committed by people who are “normal”
E. The social foundations of deviance:
1. Deviance varies according to cultural norms.
2. People become deviant as others define them that way.
3. Both rule-making and rule-breaking involve social power.
II. Structural-Functional Analysis.
A. Emile Durkheim: The functions of deviance:
Deviance affirms cultural values & norms & encourages social change
2. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries & promotes social unity
B. Merton's strain theory.
1. The "strain" between our culture's emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to
get rich gives rise, especially among the poor, to theft, drug sales, or other street crime.
2. Merton's four types of deviance (responses to failure):
1.
C. Deviant subcultures.
1. Cloward and Ohlin extended Merton's theory, proposing that access to illegitimate opportunities for success is also problematic. As a result of this, three
different types of delinquent subcultures may arise:
a. Criminal subcultures- attempt success through crime
b. Conflict subcultures- violence is used as a way to gain respect
c. Retreatist subcultures- those who withdraw entirely, often through drugs
2. Albert Cohen suggests that delinquency is most pronounced in lower-class
youths because they have the least opportunity to achieve conventional success.
III. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis.
A. Labeling theory is the idea that deviance and conformity result, not so much
from what people do, but from how others respond.
1. A stigma is a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a
person's self-concept and social identity, operating as a master status.
2. Stigmas are deepened by retrospective labeling, the interpretation of
someone's past consistent with present deviance.
3. Labeling and mental illness: Thomas Szasz argues that "mentally ill" is a label
we attach to people who are only different and concludes that we should
abandon the concept of mental illness entirely.
B. The medicalization of deviance is the transformation of moral and legal issues
into a medical condition.
1. Whether deviance is defined morally or medically has three profound
consequences.
a. It affects who responds to deviance.
b. It affects how people respond to deviance.
c. It affects whether the deviant is regarded as being personally competent.
C. Hirschi's control theory states that social control depends on imagining the
consequences of one's behavior.
1. Hirschi asserts that conformity arises from four types of social controls:
a. Attachment.
b. Commitment.
c. Involvement.
d. Belief.
E. Critical evaluation.
1. Labeling theory is most applicable to minor forms of deviance.
2. The consequences of deviant labeling may vary.
3. Not everyone resists deviant labeling.
IV. Social-Conflict Analysis.
A. Principles of deviance and power:
1. The norms of any society generally reflect the interests of the rich &powerful
2. The powerful have the resources to resist deviant labeling.
3. The laws may be inherently unfair.
B. Deviance and capitalism: Steven Spitzer suggests that deviant labels are chiefly
applied to those who impede the operation of capitalism.
C. White-collar crime consists of crimes committed by persons of high social
position in the course of their occupations.
1. It is usually controlled by civil rather than criminal law.
2. Most white-collar criminals are treated leniently.
D. Corporate crime refers to the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting
on its behalf.
E. Organized crime is a business supplying illegal goods or services.
V. Deviance and Social Diversity.
A. Gender is important variable affecting deviant labeling & other deviant behavior
B. Hate crimes- crime carried out by an offender motivated by racial or other bias
VI. Crime.
A. Crime involves two components, the act itself and criminal intent or mens rea.
B. Types of crime:
Crimes against the person involve direct violence or the threat of
violence against others.
2. Crimes against property involve theft of property belonging to others.
3. Victimless crimes are violations of law in which there are no readily
apparent victims.
C. Criminal statistics show crime rising between 1960 and 1990, but declining over
the past decade.
1. Victimization surveys may provide more accurate data.
1.
VII. The Criminal Justice System
A. Police.
1. The police serve as the primary point of contact between the population and
the criminal justice system.
B. Courts.
1. Plea bargaining is a legal negotiation in which the prosecution reduces a
defendant's charge in exchange for a guilty plea.
C. Punishment. Four basic reasons to punish:
1. Retribution is an act of moral vengeance by which society subjects an
offender suffering comparable to that caused by the offense.
2. Deterrence is the attempt to discourage criminality through punishment.
3. Rehabilitation involves reforming the offender to prevent subsequent
offenses.
4. Societal protection is rendering an offender incapable of further offenses
temporarily through incarceration or permanently by execution.