Chapter 8
DEVIANCE AND
SOCIAL CONTROL
Social Deviance Clips
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCDPGzjalQ&
NR=1&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&
safe=active
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOFYOIBpvA&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode
=1&safe=active
Introduction
 What do all of these behaviors have in
common?
 Continuously talking to oneself in public.
 Drag racing on a public street or highway.
 Regularly using illicit drugs.
 A man wearing women’s clothing
 Attacking another person with a weapon.
Introduction
 Individuals do not internalize every
norm.
 Even sanctions cannot bring about
complete social control.
 Behavior that violates significant social
norms is known as deviance.
The Nature of Deviance
 What is considered deviant also varies from society to
society.
 Divorce- legal in the U.S./illegal in the Philippines
 Store hours on Sundays
 The number of occurrences of an action can help to
determine if you are deviant or not.
 Speeding ticket- not necessarily deviant based on one
ticket.
 Murder- probably deviant if you kill someone
The Nature of Deviance
 How is someone labeled as being deviant?
 1. They must be detected (caught) for the deviant
act.

Ex. Tax evasion, gambling, insider stock trading.
 2. They are then stigmatized- A mark of social
disgrace that sets the deviant apart from the rest of
society.
 What are some stigmas attached to social deviants?
The Social Functions of Deviance
 Clarifying Norms
 Unifying the Group
 Diffusing Tension
 Promoting Social Change
 Providing Jobs
Clarifying Norms
 Deviance serves to define the boundaries of
acceptable behavior. (what is ok and what is not
ok)
 People may choose not to commit deviant acts
if they are aware of how severe the
consequences are
 Punishments-
Singled out in class, detentions,
ISA, OSS.
 Tickets/fines, jail, death penalty
 Sins- Heaven and Hell
Unifies the Group
 Deviance serves to draw the line between the
conforming members and the “outsiders” of a
society.
 Emile Durkheim believed that deviance is so
important that if it did not already exist in its base
form, we (as a society) would have to invent it.
 Ex. Us v. Them, Good v. Evil, Righteous v. Sinner,
Left v. Right, Americans v. Al Qaeda, etc.
Good
Evil
Diffuses Tension
 When people are unhappy with their
lives, they may want to strike out at
society.
 Minor actions/acts of disobedience
release anger, stress, etc. without total
chaos.
 Ex. Strikes, protests, speeding, cutting
class.
Promoting Social Change
 Deviance can help prompt social change by
identifying problem areas.
 How can we change for the better if we can’t/don’t
accept that there is a problem? (personally or as a
society)
 Ex. 1960s riots for desegregation, Vietnam
protests.
 To get better you need to accept that there is a
problem (therapy).
Provides Jobs
 Write down 3 of these
 Courts
 Police
 Corrections (prison guards, parole officers)
 Criminologists
 Social workers
 Gun companies
 Security companies (ADT)
Explaining Deviance
 The functionalist perspective explains
deviance as a natural part of society.
 The conflict perspective explains
deviance in terms of power and
inequality.
 The interactionist perspective looks at
how interaction among individuals
influences behavior.
Functionalist Perspective
 Strain Theory- Developed by Robert K. Merton,
views deviance as the natural outgrowth of the
values, norms, and structure of society.
 Society judges people on economic success,
however, there are some people, due to lack of
education or social conditions, will not be able
to live up to expectations.
 Nevertheless, they are judged on how well they
meet these goals of success.
Functionalist Perspective
 When they have incompatible goals
and means, individuals fall victim
to anomie- the situation that arises
when the norms of society are
unclear or are no longer applicable.
 Anomie leaves people without
sufficient guidelines for behavior.
Deviant Responses
Merton’s Structural Strain Theory of Deviance
Mode of
Adaptation
Cultural Goals
Cultural Norms
Conformity
Accept
Accept
Innovation
Accept
Reject
Ritualism
Reject
Accept
Retreatism
Reject
Reject
Rebellion
Reject and Replace
Reject and Replace
Conflict Perspective
Believe that competition and
social inequality lead to
deviance.
They see social life as a struggle
between those who possess
power and those who do not.
Conflict Perspective
Power
 Commit deviant
acts in order to
maintain their
position of power
No Power
 Commit deviant acts;
 1. To obtain
economic rewards.
 2. Because they have
low self-esteem and
feelings of
powerlessness
Interactionist Perspective
3 Major explanations of
deviance:
Control Theory
Cultural Transmission Theory
Labeling Theory
Control Theory
 Deviance is a natural occurrence.
 Interested in why people conform rather
than the causes of deviance.
 Suggest that individuals who are integrated
into the community are likely to conform.
 Those who have weak ties to the community
are likely to commit deviant acts.
Assignment
 Page 178 #1-2
 Page 186 Practicing the Skill Write
at least 5 sentences.
Control Theory
 You may be asking yourself, how do people
form strong social bonds? (write 2)
 People
form attachments with each other
 Strong beliefs in the moral codes of society
 Show commitment to traditional societal
values and goals (education or job)
 Fully involved in nondeviant activitiesleaving no time for deviant activities
Cultural Transmission Theory
 Deviance is a learned behavior.
 The interaction is mainly through people
who are committing deviant acts (the norms
and values are deviant).
 Differential Association- If the majority of a
person’s interactions are with a deviant, they
are likely to become involved in deviance
(gangs, organized crime, etc.)
Labeling Theory
 Focuses on how people become identified as being




deviant.
All people commit deviant acts throughout their
lives, but not everyone is labeled as deviant.
There are 2 types of deviance;
Primary deviance- Nonconformity that goes
unnoticed by those in authority.
Secondary deviance- Results in the individual being
labeled as deviant and accepting the label as true.
Labeling Theory
 The process of labeling an
individual as deviant is usually
accompanied by a degradation
ceremony, which takes place in a
public setting (public stoning, trial,
etc.)
Crime
 Crime- Any act that is labeled as such by those in
authority, is prohibited by law, and is punishable
by the government.
 Ex. #1: A person robs a bank- an act that is
labeled criminal, is prohibited by law, and is
punishable by the government- has committed a
crime.
 Ex. #2- A champion swimmer who stands by and
watches his friend drown instead of attempting a
rescue has not necessarily committed a crime.
Arrests by Race (2000)
Arrests
2.5%
30.4%
67.1%
White
African American
Other
Arrests by Sex and Race (2000)
Characteristic
Percentage Total
Sex
Male
78%
Female
22%
Under 18
18.5%
18-24
28.8%
25-34
23.4%
35-44
19.5%
45-54
7.4%
55 and Over
2.4%
Age
Types of Crime
 The FBI organizes crimes in the Uniform Crime
Report (UCR) into 29 offense classifications.
 Crimes are grouped into 5 broad categories:
 Violent crimes
 Crimes against property
 Victimless crimes
 White-collar crime
 Organized crime
Violent Crime
 Includes;
 Murder, forcible rape, robbery, and
aggravated assault.
 These crimes make up a small portion
of reported crimes.
 According to the UCR, a violent crime
happens every 22 seconds in the U.S.
Violent Crime
 Aggravated
Assault- every 35 seconds
 Robbery- every 1 minute and 18 seconds
 Forcible Rape- every 5 minutes and 48 seconds
 Murder- every 33 minutes and 54 seconds
 Most victims of violent crime are African
Americans
 African American males age 18-24 victimization
rate- 8x that of African American women, 8x
that of white men, and more than 30x that of
white women of the same age range.
Violent Crime
 Weapons Guns are used in 65% of all murders
(handguns used 51% of the murders)
 Knives are used in 13%
 The handgun use in homicides is higher
in the U.S. than it is in any other
industrialized country in the world.
Crime Against Property
 Includes Burglary, larceny (theft other than auto), motor
vehicle theft, and arson.
 Much more common than violent crimes.
 All property crimes involve stealing someone
else’s property or intentionally damaging it.
 The FBI estimates that property crime is
committed every 3 seconds in the U.S.
Crime Against Property
 Sociologists generally tie variations in the
crime rate to changes in population
 Ex. People under 25 commit a large
percentage of crime. As the size of that
population changes, crime rates change in
that same direction.
 However, other things can also explain an
increase in crime.
 Ex. 1980s and 1990s illegal drug use
Victimless Crime
 Includes Prostitution, illegal gambling, illegal drug use,
and vagrancy (homelessness and panhandling).
 These offenses are called victimless because
they harm no one but the person committing
the act.
 While this is true, the consequences for society
(in the case of drug use) can be significant.
White-Collar Crime
 white-collar crime describes offenses
committed by individuals of high social
status in their professional lives (coined by
Edwin Sutherland).
 Include Misrepresentation, fraud, tax evasion,
embezzlement, price fixing, toxic pollution,
insider trading, and political corruption.
White-Collar Crime
 Corporations can be charged even
though the workers commit the offense
under the laws of incorporation.
 Estimates suggest that white-collar
crimes cost the U.S. more than $300
billion each year.
Organized Crime
 For some people, crime is an individual
effort, but for some criminals they are
part of an organized crime syndicate.
 A crime syndicate is a large-scale
organization of professional criminals
that controls some vice (drugs, alcohol,
etc.) or business through violence or
the threat of violence.
Organized Crime
 Syndicates often use legitimate businesses as
“fronts” for their criminal activity.
 This allows them to launder their money
through legal channels.
 Organized crime syndicates use methods
such as; drug trafficking, illegal gambling,
hijacking, and loan sharking (lending $ at
high interest rates).
Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system
includes;
Police, courts, and corrections
Police
 Police discretion: police have considerable
power to decide who is actually arrested for
a crime (not everyone who commits a crime
gets arrested).
 Discretion involves the population of the
U.S., the number of criminal offenses, and
the number of full-time police officers.
Police
 Factors of police discretion
 Seriousness of the offense
 Wishes of the victim
 Attitude of the suspect
 Are bystanders present?
 Race
 Racial profiling: Assuming that nonwhite
Americans are more likely to commit a
crime than white Americans.
Courts
 The role of the courts is a twofold process:
 Court determines the guilt or innocence of an
accused person by means of a trial
 If there is a guilty finding, the court assigns
some form of punishment
 More than 90% of all criminal cases are
settled through plea bargaining before
trial.
Courts
 Plea bargaining: The process of legal
negotiation that allows an accused
person to plead guilty to a lesser charge
in exchange for a lighter sentence.
 This process allows courts to reduce the
volume of their caseloads.
Corrections
 Corrections: the sanctions used when
people are found guilty of crimes. They
include, imprisonment, parole,
probation, and community service.
Corrections
 These sanctions serve 4 basic functions
 Retribution- punishment acts as revenge for
society.
 Deterrence- discourage offenders for future crimes
and make society think twice.
 Rehabilitation- Prisons’ goals are to reform
criminals to return to society
 Social protection- freedom is limited to prevent
future crimes
Corrections
 The effectiveness of corrections is a topic of
heated debate.
 Recidivism- Repeated criminal behavior
 According to the U.S. Department of Justice
study, 62% of released prisoners will be
charged with a new crime and 41% will
return to prison within 3 years of release.
Juvenile-Justice System
 The 3rd largest category of criminals in
the U.S. consists of juvenile offenders
(younger than 18).
 The reasoning behind having separate
regulations was that juvenile offenders,
could not be expected to be as
responsible as adults.
Juvenile-Justice System
 Juvenile courts try to provide more services
for offenders than do adult criminal courts
(classes, diversion programs, etc).
 In larger cities, tougher juvenile laws are
being established.
 Ex. Some juveniles (even very young
children) can be tried as adults for certain
serious offenses (murder)