Chapter 7
Deviant Behavior and Social Control
Chapter Outline
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Defining Normal and Deviant Behavior
Mechanisms of Social Control
Theories of Crime and Deviance
The Importance of Law
Crime in the United States
Kinds of Crime in the United States
Criminal Justice in the United States
Normal and Deviant Behavior
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Norms and values make up the moral code of a
culture.
The moral code of a culture - The symbolic
system in terms of which behavior takes on the
quality of being “good” or “bad,” “right” or
“wrong.”
Deviant behavior is behavior that fails to
conform to the rules or norms of the group in
question.
Question

Did you ever use marijuana during your
senior year in high school?
A. Yes
B. No
Functions of Deviance
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Causes the group’s members to
close ranks.
Prompts the group to organize in
order to limit future deviant acts.
Helps clarify for the group what it
really does believe in.
The Functions of Deviance
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Teaches normal behavior by
providing examples of rule violation.
Tolerance of deviant behavior
prevents more serious instances of
nonconformity.
Dysfunctions of Deviance
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It is a threat to the social order
because it makes social life
unpredictable.
It causes confusion about the norms
and values of that society.
Dysfunctions of Deviance
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Deviance undermines trust.
 When people’s actions become
unpredictable, the social order is thrown
into disarray.
Deviance diverts valuable resources.
 To control widespread deviance,
resources must be shifted from other
social needs.
Social Control
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Mechanisms of social control
A way of directing or influencing
members’ behavior to conform to the
group’s values and norms.
Internal means of control
Operates on the individual even in the
absence of reactions by others.
Question
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I believe that underage drinking is an
important social problem in our society.
A. Strongly agree
B. Agree somewhat
C. Unsure
D. Disagree somewhat
E. Strongly disagree
Sanctions
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Rewards and penalties used by a group’s
members to regulate an individual’s behavior.
Positive sanctions - Actions that encourage the
individual to continue acting in a certain way.
Negative sanctions - Actions that discourage
the repetition or continuation of the behavior.
Formal and Informal
Sanctions
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Formal sanctions are applied in a public ritual.
 Example: Awarding a prize or announcing an
expulsion.
Many social responses to a person’s behavior
involve informal sanctions, or actions by group
members that arise spontaneously with little or
no formal direction.
Sanctions
Type
Description
Examples
Informal
positive
sanctions
Spontaneous
displays of
approval.
Smiles,
handshakes,
hugs
Informal
negative
sanctions
Spontaneous
displays of
disapproval.
Frowns, gossip,
impolite
treatment
Sanctions
Type
Formal
positive
sanctions
Formal
negative
sanctions
Description
Planned public
ceremonies that
express social
approval.
Actions that
express
institutionalized
disapproval of
behavior.
Examples
Parades,
presentation of
awards, banquets,
awards of money
Expulsion,
dismissal, fines,
imprisonment
Types of Social Sanctions
Question

Gossip about a neighbor's affair with his
secretary would be an example of a(n):
A. informal positive sanction.
B. formal positive sanction.
C. informal negative sanction.
D. formal negative sanction.
Answer: C
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Gossip about a neighbor's affair with his
secretary would be an example of an
informal negative sanction.
Sheldon’s Body Type Theory
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Researched whether personality traits are
associated with body types.
Classified human shapes into three types:
 Endomorphic - round and soft
 Ectomorphic - thin and linear
 Mesomorphic - ruggedly muscular
Sheldon’s Body Type Theory
Claimed psychological orientations are
associated with body types:
 Endomorphs - relaxed creatures of
comfort
 Ectomorphs - inhibited, secretive, and
restrained
 Mesomorphs - assertive, action oriented,
and uncaring of others’ feelings.
Question
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Which of the following body types was
identified as being most prone to criminal
behavior?
A. endomorphic
B. ectomorphic
C. mesomorphic
D. pseudomorphic
Answer: C
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The mesomorphic body types was
identified as being most prone to criminal
behavior.
Merton’s Strain Theory
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Individuals who occupy favorable
positions in the class structure have
legitimate ways to achieve success.
Those who occupy unfavorable positions
lack such means.
The goal of financial success combined
with the unequal access to resources
creates deviance.
Merton’s Typology of Individual
Modes of Adaptation
Merton’s 4 Types of
Deviance
1.
Innovators:
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Accept the culturally validated goal of
success but find deviant ways of going
about reaching it.
Con artists, embezzlers, bank robbers,
fraudulent advertisers, drug dealers,
corporate criminals, crooked politicians
Merton’s 4 Types of
Deviance
2.
Ritualists:
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Reject the importance of success once
they realize they will never achieve it.
Remain within the labor force but
refuse to take risks that jeopardize
their job security.
Ritualists are often in large institutions
such as governmental bureaucracies.
Merton’s 4 Types of
Deviance
3.
Retreatists:
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4.
Pull back from society.
Drug and alcohol addicts who can no
longer function, street people
Rebels:
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Reject the goals of what to them is an
unfair social order and the means of
achieving them.
Control Theory
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People are free to violate norms if they
lack intimate attachments.
Without attachments, people can violate
norms without fear of social disapproval.
This theory assumes the disapproval of
others plays a major role in preventing
deviance.
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Four
Ways Individuals Bond to Society
1.
2.
3.
4.
Attachment to others.
Commitment to conformity.
Involvement in conventional activities.
A belief in the moral validity of social
rules.
Neutralization: How to Justify
Deviant Behavior
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Denial of responsibility.
Denying the injury.
Denial of the victim.
Condemnation of the authorities.
Appealing to higher principles or
authorities.
Athletes Accused of Sexual
Assault
Theory of Differential
Association
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Based on the idea that criminal behavior is
learned in the context of intimate groups.
When criminal behavior is learned, it includes
two components:
 Criminal techniques: how to break into
houses
 Criminal attitudes: justifications for criminal
behavior
Sutherland’s Principles of
Differential Association
1.
2.
3.
Deviant behavior is learned.
Deviant behavior is learned in interaction with
other people in a process of communication.
The principal part of the learning of criminal
behavior occurs within intimate personal
groups.
Sutherland’s Principles of
Differential Association
4.
5.
6.
When deviant behavior is learned, the
learning includes (a) techniques of committing
the act and (b) the specific direction of
motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
A person learns reasons for both obeying and
violating rules.
A person becomes deviant because of an
excess of definitions favorable to violating the
law over definitions unfavorable to violating
the law.
Sutherland’s Principles of
Differential Association
7.
8.
9.
Differential associations vary in frequency,
duration, priority, and intensity.
The process of learning criminal behavior by
association with criminal and anticriminal
patterns involves the mechanisms used in any
other learning situation.
Criminal behavior is an expression of needs
and values, but is not explained by general
needs and values. Noncriminal behavior is
also expression of needs and values.
Labeling Theory
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Factors that determine whether a person
will be labeled deviant:
 Importance of the norms that are
violated.
 Social identity of the individual who
violates them.
 Social context of the behavior in
question.
Question
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Which sociological theory of deviance
suggests that the likelihood of deviance can
be decreased by increasing the social bond
between the individual and society?
A.
control theory
B.
labeling theory
C. cultural transmission theory
D. techniques of neutralization
Answer: A
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Control theory suggests that the
likelihood of deviance can be decreased
by increasing the social bond between the
individual and society.
The Emergence of Laws
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The consensus approach assumes laws are a
formal version of people’s norms and values.
 Example: People generally agree that
stealing is wrong. Laws emerge that provide
penalties for those caught violating the law.
The conflict approach assumes that the elite
use their power to enact laws that support their
economic interests and go against the interests
of the lower class.
Crime
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Crime is behavior that violates a society’s legal
code.
A violent crime is an unlawful event, such as
homicide, rape, and assault, that may result in
injury to a person.
A property crime is an unlawful act that is
committed with the intent of gaining property but
that does not involve the use or threat of force
against an individual.
Property Crime
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75% of all crime in the United States is a
property crime.
In 2000:
 3,444,000 households reported a burglary.
 937,000 reported an auto theft.
 19,297,000 reported a property crime.
 Only 32.6% of all household thefts are
reported.
Percentage of Selected Crimes
Reported to the Police
Likelihood That Someone Will
Be Arrested for a Known Crime
Likelihood That Someone Will Be
Sent to Prison for a Known Crime
Juvenile Crime
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The breaking of criminal laws by
individuals under the age of 18.
Age Distribution of Arrests,
2000
Age Group
Age 14 and
younger
15–19
20–24
25–29
30–34
35–39
% of U.S.
Population
% of People
Arrested
21.2
5.1
7.2
6.8
6.4
7.1
8
20.4
19.8
12.9
10.5
9.8
Age Distribution of Arrests,
2000
Age Group
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
Age 65 and
older
% of U.S.
Population
8.2
7.3
6.4
4.9
3.9
12.7
% of People
Arrested
9.2
6.2
3.3
1.5
0.7
0.6
White-Collar Crime
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Crimes committed in the course of one’s
job for the purpose of personal or
organizational gain.
Examples: embezzlement, bribery, fraud,
theft of services and kickback schemes.
In 2000, federal prosecutors charged
8,766 defendants with white-collar crimes.
U.S. Homicide Solution
Rates
Victimless Crimes
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Acts that violate those laws meant to
enforce the moral code.
Usually they involve the use of narcotics,
illegal gambling, public drunkenness, the
sale of sexual services, or status offenses
by minors.
Criminal Justice in the United
States
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Every society that has established a legal
code has also set up a criminal justice
system—personnel and procedures for
arrest, trial, and punishment—to deal with
violations of the law.
The three main categories of our criminal
justice system are the police, the courts,
and the prisons.
Who Decides?
Police
Enforce specific laws
Investigate specific crimes
Search people, vicinities, buildings
Arrest or detain people
Prosecutors File charges or petitions for
adjudication
Seek indictments
Drop cases
Reduce charges
Who Decides?
Judges or
Set bail or conditions for release
magistrates Accept pleas and determine
delinquency
Dismiss charges, impose sentences
or revoke probation
Correctional Assign to correctional facility
officials
Award privileges and punish for
disciplinary infractions
Paroling
Determine conditions of parole
authorities Revoke parole
Goals of Imprisonment
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Prisons exist to accomplish at least four
goals:
 separate criminals from society
 punish criminal behavior
 deter criminal behavior
 rehabilitate criminals
Question
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From the following list, what do you feel should
be the most important function of prison?
A. Punish people for crimes they committed.
B. Rehabilitate criminals.
C. Protect society by locking away criminals.
D. Warn to would-be lawbreakers.
E. Make people pay back society for crimes
they committed.
F. Don't know
Likelihood of Prisoners Being
Arrested Three Years of Release
Women Prisoners in State and
Federal Institutions, 1925–2004
Average Time Served for
Various Types of Crime
Quick Quiz
1. Deviant behavior is behavior which is:
A. illegal.
B. immoral.
C. violates the norms of society in
which it occurs.
D. unsocialized.
Answer: C
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Deviant behavior is behavior which
violates the norms of society in
which it occurs.
2. Which of the following is not a
dysfunction of deviant behavior?
A. It makes social life unpredictable.
B. It creates opportunities for
cooperation.
C. It results in confusion about the
norms of the society.
D. It undermines trust.
Answer: B
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The following is not a dysfunction of
deviant behavior:
 It creates opportunities for
cooperation.
3. According to Merton's theory, a student
who passes a course by cheating on
every test is a(n):
A. innovator.
B. ritualist.
C. retreatist.
D. rebel.
Answer: A
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According to Merton's theory the student
who passes a course by cheating on
every test is an innovator.
4. The differential association theory of
deviant behavior is based on the idea
that:
A. deviant behavior is a result of being
told one is deviant.
B. deviant behavior is learned in the
context of intimate groups.
C. the values and norms of the society
determine deviant behavior.
D. deviant behavior is the result of the
rewards and punishments.
Answer: B
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The differential association theory of
deviant behavior is based on the idea that
deviant behavior is learned in the
context of intimate groups.
5. Which of the following is not a goal of the
prison system?
A. elimination of all criminals
B. separation of criminals
C. rehabilitation of criminals
D. deterrence of criminal behaviors
Answer: A
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Elimination of all criminals is not a
goal of the prison system.