Chapter Two Outline
I. Deviant Events: Pamela Rogers and the Nebraska male teacher.
A. Social Control- Reaction or sanctions because people want to do something
about deviance.
B. Deviant Events: Behavioral violation of some type of norm, the context,
history, immediate situation and its aftermath.
C. Deviant Roles: Emerges in the act that people perform but people do not
commit deviant acts all the time. Deviant acts happen over a series of stages, is a
process and occur in particular social contexts.
D. Deviant Places: Physical location connected to the deviant act.
E. The Deviant Act over Time: Deviancy is studied within the social contexts
through a process of realizing pleasure and adventure from committing successive
acts. Progression of drug use and gambling as an example, as opposed to beadwhores.
F. Deviant Acts and Victims: Reaction of others in the social audience helps to
organize and shape the deviant act. A person may start off burglarizing a house in
Atlanta and killing Shaun, a Redskins football star or start with a drug deal and
end up killing the other person when something goes wrong.
II. Social Control
A. Processes of Social Control: Means of dealing with behavior that violates
deeply held social understandings about appropriate conduct. There is a deliberate
attempt to change behavior and move it toward conformity to norms.
1. Internalization Processes: Person learns to accept the norms of the
group, customs, traditions, beliefs, attitudes and values through interaction
with others.
2. Sanctioning Processes: Social reactions to behavior
Negative Sanctions- Punishment meant to discourage deviance
Positive Sanctions - Reward meant to encourage conformity to norms
Informal Sanctions - Gossip, ostracism and unofficial actions
Formal Sanctions - Official expressions meant to convey collective sentiments,
such as criminal penalties.
B. Informal Social Controls: Come from reactions to behavior by people who
personally know each other.
C. Formal Social Controls: Organized systems of reactions from specialized
agencies and organizations.
III. Law as an Example of Formal Control
A. What Kinds of Problems Can the Law Solve? Recognize behavior that harms
others, serve as a social guideline, highlight behavior that violates moral beliefs.
B. Legal Sanctions: Penalties imposed for violating criminal laws and other
bodies of law, such as regulatory laws.
IV. The Irony of Social Control: Applications of social control measures may intensify or
reinforce deviant acts. For example: Drug treatment programs often strengthens drug
users identity as an addict.