Conformity, Deviance
& Crime
The U.S. Incarcerated Population (1)
Source: www.sentencingproject.org/policy/9030.htm.
The U.S. Incarcerated Population (2)
The U.S. Incarcerated Population (3)
The U.S. Incarcerated Population (4)
 The
U.S. has failed to make adequate preparations
for inmates’ release
 Why is important?
 What does it say about the social definition of deviance
and crime?
 How does social power play a role in our society?
▪ Rich vs. poor
 Who makes the rules?
Social Properties of Deviance (1)

Deviance is not a property inherent in certain
forms of behavior

Property conferred upon particular behaviors by
social definition

Definitions as to which acts are deviant vary
greatly from time to time, place to place and group
to group

It is the nonconformity to a given set of norms
accepted by a significant number of people
Social Properties of Deviance (2)
 The recognized violation of cultural norms
 CRIME
 The violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law
 All deviant actions or attitudes have in common some
element of difference that causes us to think of
another person as an “outsider”
 Not all deviance involves action or choice
Social Properties of Deviance (3)
 Deviant
acts can also be redefined
 Morals, politics, technological advances
etc… influence definitions of deviant acts
 Societies
can absorb deviance
 Too much will create dysfunctional societies
Biological View of Deviance
 Lombroso
(1870) argued that the behavior
of criminal was mostly determined by
biology
 Some
have tried to look at the heredity
factor, and the genes of criminals passed to
their children
Psychological View of Deviance
 Psychological
theories of crime associate
criminality with particular types of personality
 Psychological explanations of deviance focus on
individual abnormality
 Psychopaths
are withdrawn
 Something
is wrong with the individual rather
than with society (in that sense it is similar to the
biological arguments)
 Most serious crimes are committed by people whose
psychological profiles are normal
Functionalist Theories of Deviance (1)
 Crime
& Anomie (Durkheim & Merton)
 They are social facts and therefore no everybody
conform to them
 Crime comes as a result to nonconformity
▪ However, crime is functional because
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
Responding to deviance brings people together
Deviance encourages social change
Functionalist Theories of Deviance (2)
 When
the normative order breaks down, weak,
unclear, or conflicting norms result in people
having trouble guiding their behavior
 Merton’s
Theory of structural Strain (or anomie)
 Rates of conformity are highest when societies
socialize people to seek culturally acceptable goals
and provide institutionalized (and legitimate) means
for attaining their goals
▪Example: American dream
Functionalist Theories of Deviance (3)
 When
there is a disjuncture between acceptable
goals and institutional means, people respond
with one or more adaptations (innovation,
retreatism, rebellion, or ritualism) that generate
deviance
 Criticism
 Assumes that everyone has the same ideals/goals
 Shares the functionalist view that of value
consensus
Merton’s Typology of Modes of Individual
Adaptation to Anomie (1)
Source: Adapted with the permission of The Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster from Social Theory and
Social Structure by Robert K. Merton. Copyright © 1949, 1957 by The Free Press; copyright renewed 1977, 1985 by
Robert K. Merton.
Merton’s Typology of Modes of Individual
Adaptation to Anomie (2)

Conformity
 Institutionalized means are present to meet cultural goals

Innovation
 Individuals innovate to meet their cultural goals as institutionalized means
are not available

Ritualism
 You lose touch with goals while still abiding by institutionalize means
▪ It is prompted by the inability to reach a cultural goal

Retreatism
 Individuals reject cultural goals and institutionalized means
▪ Individuals “drop out”

Rebellion
 Individuals reject cultural goals and institutionalized means and substitute
new forms for them
▪ Individual create counterculture
Functionalist Theories of Deviance (4)

Cloward and Ohlin (1960)
 Deviance or conformity depends on the relative opportunity
structure that frames a person’s life
 Cloward
and Ohlin attempt to take Merton’s basic
ideas and develop them into an explanation of why
different social groups (specifically working class
groups) choose to adopt different forms of deviance
 People are socialized to value “success.” Those who have the
means to achieve success do so legitimately (they follow
“legitimate opportunity structures” - education, work and so
forth)
 Those who are denied legitimate means still desire success, so
they pursue illegitimate means (“illegitimate opportunity
structures” - crime, in simple terms)
Functionalist Theories of Deviance (5)

In order to do so, they produce a model of illegitimate opportunity
structures that has three basic elements:

Criminal sub-culture – arises due to pre-existing deviants, to which
young males join
 Depends on 3 conditions
▪ Stable, cohesive, working class community - stolen goods can be easily distributed through a wider
mainstream culture that doesn't ask too many questions
▪ Successful role models - needs to be people of standing in the community who have “done well” out
of crime, look up to them.
▪ A career structure for aspiring criminals - has to be organised in some way. In effect, it has to
provide people with the opportunity for advancement (“promotion”) as an alternative to the legitimate
job market, for example

Conflict sub-culture – Develops where there is little adult criminal
activity, so less chance of getting into serious crimes
 Young males in particular, denied financial rewards, status and so forth in the legitimate
job market and unable to join a criminal sub-culture respond by forming gangs

Retreatist sub-culture – High drug use, as a result of failure to join 1 and 2
Interactionist Theories of Deviance (1)
 Interactionists
ask how behaviors initially come
to be defined as deviant, and why certain groups
and not others are labeled as deviant
 Deviant
behavior is learned through interactions
with others
 You
can learn techniques, motives, drives, and
rationalizations
Interactionist Theories of Deviance (2)

Differential association (Edwin Sutherland)
 Individuals become deviant to the extent to which they
participate in settings where deviant ideas, motivations,
and techniques are viewed favorably
 A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of
definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions
unfavorable to violations of law
▪ Depends on frequency, duration, and importance of that
interaction

Criticism
 Not all deviance is acquired from other deviants; not all
people who have deviant associates are deviant
Interactionist Theories of Deviance (3)
 Does
not just look at why people commit deviant
acts, but why certain people are viewed as deviant,
delinquent, or “losers”
 How you become tagged as deviant
 How you start thinking of yourself as deviant
 How you enter deviant careers
 Example: Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Repetition of images might force people to internalize
negative things about themselves which eventually might
become true
 Stigmatization of racial minorities, of poor etc…
Conflict Theories of Deviance (1)
 It
draws from Marxist thought to argue that deviance
is deliberately chosen and often political in nature
 It results from the unequal nature of the capitalist system
that thrives on inequalities and on the oppression of many
 Criminal justice system serves the interests of the
powerful, while keeping the poor and disadvantaged in a
deprived position
 Laws
are tools used by the powerful to maintain their
own privileged positions
 People with power protect their interests, so they will
define deviance to suit their own needs
Conflict Theories of Deviance (2)
 People
labeled as deviant are typically those who
share the trait of powerlessness
 Three
conflict explanations
 All norms and especially the laws of any society generally
reflect the interests of the rich and powerful
 Even if their behavior is called into question, the powerful
have the resources to resist deviant labels
 They contest the widespread belief that norms and laws
are natural and good; when you believe it, you mask their
political character
Conflict Theories of Deviance (3)
 Deviant
labels are applied to the people who interfere
with the operation of capitalism
 Four reasons:
 Capitalism is based on private control of property –
threats are labeled as deviant
 Capitalism depends on productive labor – cannot or will
not work and you will be labeled deviant
 Capitalism depends on respect for authority figures –
resist and you will be labeled deviant
 Anyone who directly challenges the capitalist status quo is
likely defined as deviant
Conflict Theories of Deviance (4)
 Society
positively labels whatever supports the
operation of capitalism
 Capitalist
system tries to control those who do
not fit into the system
 Social
welfare and criminal justice systems
blame individuals not the system for social
problems
Conflict Theories of Deviance

Conflict theorists would ask …
 “Which group will be able to translate its
values into the rules of society and make these
rules stick?”
 “Who reaps the lion’s share of benefits from
particular social arrangements?”
Organized Crime

Crime carried out by large-scale organizations
that provide illegal goods and services in public
demand
 Example: the Mafia or gang MS-13 in California
White-Collar Crime

Crime committed by relatively affluent persons,
often in the course of business activities
 When the individual within the organization commits
a crime
 Example: Enron scandal, Martha Stewart

It is usually regarded as more tolerant crimes while
white-collar crimes involve 40 times more money
 Who does the criminal justice system benefit?
Corporate Crime
 Crime
committed by a business
 Pollution, discrimination etc…
 Example: BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Victimless Crime

Willing exchanges among adults of widely
desired, but illegal, goods and services

No one involved is considered a victim

However, prostitutes might be victims of a
system, but the law is not really humanitarian
Measuring Crime

Statistics on crime are among the most
unsatisfactory of all social data

Large proportion of the crimes go undetected
 Include
only crimes known to the police
 Researchers
check crime statistics
 Victimization Surveys
 Demonstrates that the overall crime rate is three times
higher than official reports indicate
Crime & Drugs (1)

Drugs and crime are related
 Directly
▪ Selling, using, possessing illegal drugs are all crimes
 Indirectly
▪ Drug involvement leads to other sorts of crime
Question: Is depenalization a solution?
Crime & Drugs (2)
Gender & Crime

Female Incarcerated Population Exceeds 200,000
 The number of women in prison first exceeded 100,000 in
2003, and currently there are 107,500 female prisoners

In addition, the 94,600 women in local jails brings the
total female incarcerated population to more than
200,000 for the first time

The rapid growth of women’s incarceration – at nearly
double the rate for men over the past two decades – is
disproportionately due to the war on drugs

Women in prison are more likely than men (29% vs.
19%) to be serving a sentence for a drug charge
Social class & Crime
 Street crime is more widespread among people of lower
social position
 Most violent crimes in inner-city communities are
committed by a few hard-core offenders
 Majority of people in inner-city neighborhoods have no
criminal record
 Connection between social standing and criminality
depends on what type of crime
 Include “white-collar crime” in the definition
 “Common criminal now looks more affluent and may live in a
$100 million dollar home
Racial Dynamics Persist (1)
The new imprisonment figures document the continuing
dramatic impact of incarceration on African American
communities
 African Americans males are incarcerated at more than six
times the rate of white males and Hispanic males more than
double the rate
 One of every eight black males in the age group 25-29 is
incarcerated on any given day
 For women, black females are incarcerated at four times the
rate of white females and Hispanic females at nearly double the
rate
 In historical perspective, the 910,000 African Americans
incarcerated today are more than nine times the number of
98,000 in 1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education
decision

Racial Dynamics Persist (2)
 Racial
disparities in incarceration vary broadly among
the states
 In
7 states, African Americans are incarcerated at more
than 10 times the rate of whites
 These states are
▪ Iowa – 13.6
▪ Vermont – 12.5
▪ New Jersey – 12.4
▪ Connecticut – 12.0
▪ Wisconsin – 10.7
▪ North Dakota – 10.1
▪ South Dakota – 10.0
Racial Dynamics Persist (3)
 Pager
(2003) found in her study of long-term
consequences of prison that
 Whites are more preferred than blacks when they
have similar criminal records
 Whites with a felony conviction were half as likely to be
considered by employers as equally qualified nonoffenders
 Black with no criminal history fared no better than did
whites with a felony conviction
 Conclusion: Being black almost already means being
considered a felon (everything being equal)
▪ Is that fair?
Criminal Justice System (1)

Four traditional purposes of imprisonment
 Why does a society punish wrongdoers?

Retribution
 The act of moral vengeance by which society makes the offender
suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime

Deterrence
 The attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment

Rehabilitation
 A program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses

Societal protection
 Rendering an offender incapable of further offenses temporarily
through imprisonment or permanently by execution
 Are they effective crime-reduction strategies?
Criminal Justice System (2)
Criminal Justice System (3)
 Despite
extensive use of punishment
 High recidivism rate
Later offenses by people previously convicted of crimes
 Growing controversy over the use of the death
penalty
 Prisons provide short-term societal protection but
do little to reshape attitudes or behavior
Criminal Justice System (4)
 Housing
an inmate in California costs $49,000 a year
(2/3 goes to security and healthcare) in 2008
 In comparison, per student expenditures in California
▪ UC student: $10,876 a year
▪ CSU Student: $7,837 a year
 America’s
prisons are overcrowded
 Although the U.S has 5% of the total world’s
population, its incarcerated population represent 25%
of the world’s incarcerated population
 55% of people in Federal jail are serving time for
nonviolent drug-related crimes in 2005
End of slavery? 13th Amendment
 The
13th amendment of the constitution ratified
in 1865 states:
 Section
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
Rise of Private Prisons: what for? (1)
 Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA)
presentation before Lehman Brothers (investment
firm) addresses the private prison industry in Spring
2007
 Major
arguments:
 The existence of a private correctional facility enhances
the economic vitality of a community in a variety of ways
 Through the creation of jobs, a demand for housing and
other services enhances property values and local
businesses
Rise of Private Prisons: what for? (2)
 Major
arguments
 Demand for prison beds continues to significantly
outpace the supply which should continue for the next
several years
 We believe that CCA is well positioned to address the
supply/demand imbalance with a strong balance sheet
combined with significant cash flow
 The prison industry is not significantly impacted by
economic cycles
Rise of Private Prisons: what for? (3)
 Major
arguments
 The State of California could save around $7,000-8,000
per year per inmate to have private prisons contracted to
supervise inmates
▪ Lower pay for guards and less benefits
 The money still comes out of taxpayers pockets
 Inmates are considered a commodity
 What does that say about crime, incarcerations and
lobbying from this industry?
▪ Would they they accept laws which would emphasize shorter
punishments for some crimes and no punishment for others?
▪ Their business plans would be threatened
Rise of Private Prisons: what for? (4)