Prof. P. Marina
Social Deviance: Week Five
Week Five Readings:
Goode: Social Deviance: Part III
The Production of Deviance in Capitalist Society, Steven Spitzer
The Functions of Social Deviance, Erikson
The European Witch craze, Ben-Yehunda
Delinquency: The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy and the Dramatization of Evil, Tannenbaum
Primary and Secondary Deviation, Lemert
Deviant Behavior: Howard Becker
Clarke: Deviant Behavior: The Functionalist Perspective
The Normal and the Pathological, Emile Durkheim
On the Sociology of Deviance, Kai T. Erickson
Weekly Questions:
Part I: The Production of Deviance in Capitalist Society, Steven Spitzer
1. In Spitzer's article “The Production of Deviance in Capitalist Society” what does he mean when
stating that the superstructure preserves the hegemony of the ruling class through a system of class
controls?
2. How is institutionalized control manifested in the following:
Family:
Church:
Private Associations:
Media:
Schools:
State:
3. Using Spitzer, how does the problem population threaten the social relations of production in
capitalist societies (p. 68)?
4. Spitzer's Marxist orientation towards deviance invokes Marx's ideas of a relative surplus
population that produces an industrial reserve army. How is this both “useful and menacing” to the
accumulation of capital (p. 69)?
5. According to Spitzer, how does education serve as a tool that develops the needs of corporate
capitalism? What are some of the contradictions to this?
6. Explain some of the differences between what Spitzer calls “social junk” and social dynamite.”
7. In your view, what is the relationship between deviance and social-economic status?
Part II: General Questions/Other Readings
One. How might the social creation of outsiders or deviants serve as an important, though
unconscious, function for maintaining the social order.
Two. Give a functional explanation of deviance. Argue from one or more of these three broad points:
a. Certain actions are dysfunctional or harmful to society threatening its existence. Society
must
discourage this behavior.
b. Society draws its moral boundaries and sets examples for others when harmful or deviant
behavior is punished. For societies to survive, some actions must be encouraged while
others punished.
c. Deviance has existed since man crawled out the slim, it is in this way functional. In
controlled
amounts, certain types of deviance may be functional for society.
Three: How are a and b above protectionist arguments?
Four: How can it be argued that prostitution is functional for society? Or is such a society-wide
approach problematic? Is prostitution functional for certain segments of society?
Five: How can it be said that functionalism justifies the status quo?
Six: Explain which deviant institutions or behaviors might be in some way functional to society or certain
segments of society. Explain you answers with examples.
Seven: In Ben-Yehunda's witch craze, demonstrate how witch craze was functional to maintain prevailing
social order. Put differently, explain how the witch craze served as a function for a waning medieval
society.
Eight: Using the ideas of number seven above, think of contemporary examples of how certain groups
are scapegoated today as a function for tradition and orthodox.
Nine: How can deviance be understood as behavior that both disrupts the stability in society, while
simultaneously serve as an important condition preserving stability (see Erikson, p. 127).
Ten: How is the relationship between deviant persons and agents of social control functional to the
maintenance of society?
Eleven: Explain how institutions that are built to inhibit deviation may actually work to perpetuate it
(examples include prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and schools). In your answer, think of how this relates
to differential association theory. (see Erikson, pg. 127).
Twelve: Have you or a friend experiences the rite of transition from a normal position in society to a
distinct deviant role? Explain including in your discussion the three phases of this rite: Confrontation,
Judgment, and placement (see Erikson, p. 127-128)..
Thirteen: How might the absence of these allowed deviant days might cause problems in society?
Fourteen: Explain the difference between the weak and strong version of labeling theory.
Fifteen: Explain the differences between the functionalist and interactionist (labeling) approach to
understanding deviance.
Sixteen: Explain what Tannenbaum means when he discusses the relationship between labeling along with
the dramatization of evil and the self fulfilling prophecy?
Seventeen: Societies sometimes give license for groups to engage in deviant behavior during certain
seasons or certain days of the year (think Mardi Gras, Decadence Festival, Halloween, etcetera). What
function might this serve? Explain
Eighteen: Explain what deviant actions might prove positive for society, or at least, for certain segments
of society.
Nineteen: How might terrorism or the threat of terrorism serve as a positive function for society, or
certain segments of society?
Twenty: How are moral panics functional to society? Explain.
Twenty-one: Explain primary and secondary deviance and the sequence of interaction leading to
secondary deviance (see Lemert, pp. 150-151).
Twenty-two: What does Howard Becker mean when he refers to the deviant career?
Twenty-three: Explain the distinction between master and auxiliary trait(s) using three examples. What
is your master and auxiliary trait(s)? What about the difference between master and subordinate
statuses?
Week Six Assignment:
Interview an agent of social control (teacher, police officer, federal agent, parole officer, councilor,
psychiatrist, judge, etcetera) on a topic relating to deviance. The point is to understand their
perspective on certain deviant behaviors. Think about how agent of control views certain behaviors as
problematic, why they hold this view, and ways they try to deal with the behavior. You may, however,
develop your own lens of inquiry. Write a page or two and prepare a presentation.
Week Six readings:
Goode: Social Deviance:
Conflict Theory and Marxist Criminology
A Conflict Theory of Criminal Law, Sheley
Clarke: Deviant Behavior: The Conflict Perspective
The Conflict of Conduct Norms, Thorsten Sellin
Differential Punishing of African Americans and Whites Who Possess Drugs: A Just Policy or a
Continuation of the Past? Rudolph Alexander, Jr., Jacquelyn Gyamerah