After reading the Crime, Deviance, and Social Control lecture, give your opinion on the “Bad Samaritan” video and on Cash.
DEVIANCE
Watch this episode of Crash Course in Sociology: Deviance
- Deviance: Violation of social norms
–behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society
- Characteristics
-Can be a trait, a belief, or a behavior
-Accompanied by social stigmas
-Varies across and within societies
-Varies across situations
-Formal or informal
-Perceptions of deviance change over time
–Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be formalized into law
–Subject to social definition within a particular society and at a particular time
Watch this episode of Crash Course in Sociology: Theory and Deviance
SOCIOLOGIAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE
Functionalist Perspective
Normal part of society
- Dysfunctional deviance
- Creates tension and insecurity, and is expensive
- Erodes trust in personal and formal relationships
- Decreases confidence in institutions
- it is a threat to social order because it makes social life unpredictable
- It cause confusion regarding norms and values of that society
- Deviance undermines trust
- Deviance diverts valuable resources
Durkheim’s concept of anomie
- Anomie: A concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Durkheim to refer to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.
- Anomie: Condition in which people are unsure how to behave because of absent, conflicting, or confusing social norms
- Durkheim believed anomic situations made people feel disoriented and anxious; anomie therefore heightens dispositions to suicide.
- Durkheim saw crime and deviance as inevitable elements in modern societies, where there is more room for individual choice.
- Durkheim functions of deviance:
- Causes the group’s members to close ranksPrompts the group to organize in order to limit future deviant actsHelps clarify for the group what it really believes inTeaches normal behavior by providing examples of rule violationTolerance of deviant behavior prevents more serious instances of nonconformity.
Strain Theory
- Proposes that deviant behavior is exhibited when goals and the means of achieving those goals are in conflict
Does the individual…
(1) accept the goals of society? and
(2) the use of acceptable means to achieve those goals?
–Conformist (nondeviant): accepts both the goals of society and the use of acceptable means (yes; yes)
–Retreatist:withdraws from both the goals of society and the use of acceptable means to achieve them (no; no)
–Innovator:accepts the goals of society, but pursues them with means considered improper (yes; no)
–Ritualist: abandons the goals, but becomes compulsively committed to the institutional means (no; yes)
–Rebel:feels alienated from both the goals of society and the dominant means of achieving them (no; no)
CONFLICT THEORY
- Conflict theory: The argument that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature.
- As inequalities increase between the ruling class and the working class, law becomes the key instrument for the powerful to maintain order.
- Crime occurs in the context of inequalities and competing interests among social groups.
INTERACTIONIST THEORIES
- Sociologists studying deviance reject the idea that some types of conduct are inherently deviant.
- Instead, they ask why only some groups get labeled as deviant.
Differential Association
- Differential association: An interpretation of the development of criminal behavior proposed by Edwin H. Sutherland, according to whom criminal behavior is learned through association with others who regularly engage in crime.
- The term differential refers to the ratio of deviant to conventional social contacts.
- We become deviant when exposed to a higher level of deviant persons and influences, compared with conventional influences.
Labeling Theory
- Labeling theory: An approach to the study of deviance that suggests that people become “deviant” because certain labels are attached to their behavior by political authorities and others.
- Primary deviation: According to Edwin Lemert, the actions that cause others to label one as a deviant.
- Secondary deviation: According to Edwin Lemert, following the act of primary deviation, secondary deviation occurs when an individual accepts the label of deviant and acts accordingly.
Control Theory
- Control theory: The theory that views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and controls that deter it.
- Control theorists hold that criminals are rational beings who will act to maximize their own reward unless they are rendered unable to do so through either social or physical controls.
- Control theorist Travis Hirschi claimed that there are four types of bonds that link people to society and law-abiding behavior.
- Hirschi’s Four Types of Bonds
- 1.Attachment refers to emotional and social ties to persons who accept conventional norms, such as a peer group of students who value good grades and hard work.2.Commitment refers to the investment one makes in conventional activities to achieve goals important to the individual.3.Involvement refers to one’s participation in conventional activities such as paid employment, school, or community activities.4.Beliefs involve upholding morals and values that are consistent with conventional tenets of society.SOCIAL CONTROLNormsNorms: Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations.A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it.All human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another, varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment.Early 20th-century sociologist William Graham Sumner identified two types of norms.Mores: Norms that are widely adhered to and have social and moral significance. Violations are generally sanctioned strongly.Folkways: Norms that guide casual or everyday interactions. Violations are sanctioned subtly or not at all.Norms and SanctionsAll social norms carry sanctions that promote conformity and protect against nonconformity.Sanction: A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior.Laws: Rules of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power.Crime: The result of any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority.CRIMEReporting Crime StatisticsMost media reporting is based on official statistics on crime, which are collected by the police and published by the government.In turn, most of these government reports are based on two sources: Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and victimization studies.Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): Documents that contain official data on crime that is reported to law enforcement agencies that then provide the data to the FBI.The Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)-Victimization survey: Interviews people about being crime victims-Includes both reported and unreported crimesTypes of CrimeViolent crimes (e.g., murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) use force or the threat of force against othersSerial murder: the killing of several victims in three or more separate eventsHate Crimes: Driven by the bias against race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or disabilityWhite-collar: Committed by high-status people in the course of their occupationsCriminals use their status and powerful positions to enrich themselves or othersCauses significant public harmConvictions for such illegal acts do not generally harm a person’s reputation, status, or career aspirations as much as conviction for a street crime.Watch this video as Oprah interviews Martha Stewart (Links to an external site.)Corporate Crime: Committed by executives to benefit themselves and their companiesOtherwise known as organizational crimesTargeted towards general public, the environment, or a company’s own workersOne of the most devastating examples of corporate crime in recent years was the collapse of a garment factory at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, in April 2013, which killed at least 1,100 people and injured 2,500.Although building inspectors had found cracks in the factory only a few days earlier and had recommended that the building be evacuated and shut down, corporate managers forced many of the garment workers to return to work, with some even threatening to withhold pay (Manik and Yardley 2013).Cybercrime: Illegal activities that are conducted onlineOrganized: Acts of people and groups that supply illegal goods and services for profit•Organized retail crime – Involves stealing money in merchandise that is later sold onlineVictimless Crime: Acts that violate lawsOffenders do not consider themselves as victims•Otherwise known as public order crimesAre these crimes REALLY victimLESS?Over-drinkingAlcohol and drug abuseProstitutioncompulsive gamblingRead this article re: a young murder victim due to gambling addiction Sherrice Iverson (Links to an external site.)Bad Samaritan? (this will be the topic of this week’s discussionCash admits to seeing his high school friend Jeremy Strohmeyer grab and begin to assault 7-year old Sherrice Iverson in the bathroom of a Las Vegas casino. Cash did nothing to stop Strohmeyer, and did not report him to any authority, keeping quiet for several days, even after Strohmeyer admitted to Iversons rape and murder.Part I (note–you will have to open in YouTube due to age restrictionPart II (same restriction–open in YouTube)