Answers to Midterm 1 Deviance and Society PDF

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Cathy Prowse...

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How do social theories of crime differ from other disciplines? 

They differ because they locate crime and deviance as a response to the society they occur in—social and cultural relativism

What is the difference between a norm, deviance, and crime?    

Norms are a groups customary social arrangement; makes behaviour predictable. Deviance is a violation of a groups norms. It includes any behaviour that departs from what most consider normal. Crime is any act forbidden by law. This is a specific form of deviance The major difference between deviance and crime is that the deviant behaviour hasn’t been caught yet. Crime and deviance shift between time, context, and culture

What are the three C’s?    

The three C’s are factors that are key to understanding the sociological approach to deviance. It combines social interaction with social structure. Community refers to social groups formed around deviant career activities and cultures, becoming part of a broader deviant community. Culture refers to sets of ideas, beliefs, practices and values that a group shared either within culture mainstream or a subculture Career at the individual level refers to the sequence of activities that characterize a person’s life course. It is a deviant career path

What are Psychological theories? 

Psychological theories locate crime and deviance within the psyche of an individual—an inborn abnormality

What are Biological theories? 

Biological theories locate crime and deviance within the biological makeup of an individual—an inherent deficiency

What are Theological theories? 

Theological theories locate crime and deviance within the moral and spiritual makeup of an individual

Define Functionalism 

Functionalist believe each institution has a function or role to perform in society. Working together, social institutions achieve a balance or equilibrium in society.

Which theories fall under Functionalism?    

Emile Durkheim’s Theory of Anomie Cloward & Ohlin: Differential (illegitimate) opportunity theory Strain theory Robert Merton’s theory of structural inequality and anomie

Define Emile Durkheim’s Theory of Anomie 

Emile Durkheim believes that crime was an unavoidable, universal occurrence and helped renew commitments to social boundaries. Anomie (normlessness) refers to what occurs when excessive individualism in modern society leads to deviance and crime when too many believe they can ignore the groups/society’s rules and simply pursue their own personal interests.

What functions does Durkheim say deviance serves? (3)   

Promote social unity referring to how people united in common anger become a catalyst for social change Promote social change Clarifying moral boundaries referring to the dynamic aspect of society that is always changing and asking if we need more laws, or we need to relax laws etc.

Define Cloward & Ohlin’s Differential (illegitimate) Opportunity Theory 

This theory is built on Anomie theory in that it addresses how there are many people who lack both the illegitimate and legitimate ways of attaining goals through their social networks of associates. They can’t attain their goals since the social network isn’t there so they risk being caught or charged.

What is Robert Merton’s theory of Structural Inequality & Anomie? 

Merton believed that crime and deviance increases when the societal structure of a society prevents people from attaining culturally defined goals through legitimate means. There is a gap between the goals and the ability to meet those goals, and some can conform but others can’t. Therefore, Anomie is the gap between goals and means which create strain.

What is strain theory’s four modes of adaptation?    

Innovation: Accept societal goals and reject the means to attaining these goals but figure out a way to get it illegitimately. Ritualism: reject societal goals(deviant) but accept the institutional means. They are just following the rules and try to exist Retreatism: rejecting societal goals (deviant) and rejecting the institutional means of achieving the goals Rebellion: reject societal goals and reject the means to achieving while creating their own societal goals and means to achieve them. They are always working toward a new social structure and are often referred to revolutionaries

Define Social Control Theories 

Social control theories attempt to explain why only some members of a group become deviant

Define Hirschi’s Parenting styles 

   

Hirschi’s parenting styles refer to parenting styles which influence attachment to family and society as a foundation for conforming behaviour which is considered a social control The parenting styles are Authoritarian, Authoritative, Unengaged, and Permissive. Authoritarian parents have a low acceptance of a child’s expressiveness and high control. These parents are lousy role models. Authoritative styles have a high level of a child’s expressive ness and high control of parental control. These styles are thought to be the most desirable. Unengaged styles have low acceptance of a child’s expressiveness and low parental control. They have no active engagement in a child’s life.

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Permissive parents have a high acceptance of a child’s expressiveness but low parental control.

Define Symbolic Interactionism 

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Symbolic interactionists believe that meanings arise out of social interaction. Human beings act towards things based on meanings they have for them, and social action results from a fitting together of personal Meanings (social interaction gives us meaning)individual action towards things resultssocial collective action results (individuals interpreting it similarly incites a collective response

Which theories fall under Symbolic Interactionism?  

Labelling theory & Secondary Deviance Differential Association Theory

Define Labelling Theory 

Labelling theory sees deviance as a social label that some groups use to describe and stigmatize others. Being fixed with a deviant label increases deviant behaviour due to the impacts of the label on social status, life changes, and sense of self. The impact of the label marginalizes you.

What is secondary deviance? Label the cycle of deviance. 

Secondary deviance consists of a sequence of rule breaking acts that follow from a reaction to the imposition of a deviance or criminal label. The cycle begins as 1) A questionable DEVIANT ACT 2) SOCIAL REACTION to it being DEVIANT OR NOT if it is outside or normative range 3) A person is stuck with the NEGATIVE LABEL & STIGMA 4) They go through a DEGREDATION EVENT by the media or courts etc. 5) The person internalizes their new identity through SELF LABELLING & INTERNALIZATION 6) Options are now closed to the individual so they fall to DEVIANT SUBCULTURE 7) SECONDARY DEVIANCE/MORE ACTS OCCUR 8) Back to the beginning

Define Differential Association Theory 

Edward Sutherland (1939) proposed that deviance was learned through socialization and relationships. Deviant behaviour occurs when there is an excess of favourable definitions of deviancedenial of a victim, best interest rational. This happens if you hang out/socialize with other people who are engaged in deviant activity, and is common among children or occupational deviance.

What is moral panic? 

Moral panic occurs when certain groups periodically become the focus of widespread attention when society has trouble adapting to dramatic or unknown change. Mass media often amplifies and preserves popular misconceptions of deviance.

What do critical theorist believe?

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Critical theorists believe that conflict and change are basic features of social life and change happens because people see things differently. The conflict is unavoidable because society is composed of groups differing in power, status, and influence. These differing groups try to seize control and power in society, including the power to make and enforce rules so the laws are ultimately serving the rich and powerful. Critical theorists always ask, who benefits and who suffers from the existing social order.

What theories fall until Critical Theories?  

Max Weber’s three dimensions of stratification Sellin’s theory of culture conflict

Describe Sellin’s Theory of Culture Conflict 

Sellin (1938) believed that children of immigrants assimilating to American culture were caught between Old World and New World conduct norms. The conflict is the greatest when one groups conduct norms have been institutionalized in the law which embodies conduct norms of the dominant ethno cultural mainstream.

Who was Karl Marx? 

Karl Marx believed that conflict arises from hierarchical relations of dominance and subordination built on property ownership. The ruling class makes laws to dominate workers, and the subordinate classes develop strategies and practices of resistance. Karl Marx’s beliefs center on property—those with property or dominate, and those without are subordinate

Who was Max Weber? 

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Max Weber believed that conflict or the ability to influence can arise from horizontal relations of difference (money, power, prestige). His theory is broader than Marx’s theory because it applies to groups of all sizes and is multi-dimensional Primary difference between the two theorists is the broader application as marx focuses on property while weber says it’s a horizontal relation of different aspects (power, prestige, money).

What is Max Weber’s Three Dimensions of Stratification? 

Weber described three dimensions of stratification as wealth (economic status), power (political status) and prestige (social status). He believed that crime is the product of social reaction (most important reaction coming from the most influential authorities). The authorities impose definitions of the type of behaviour to be defined as criminal using political power. Crime then becomes the product of legal definitions that have been socially constructed by the powerful to protect their agenda.

Describe the feminist approach of Radical Feminism 

Radical feminists believe that patriarchy structures how societies work and is the universal cause of women’s oppression. Radical Feminists promote the notion that women must organize separately from men because they have a different social reality and must protect their own interest.

What is postmodern approach? 

Postmodernists are interested in unmasking the ideologies that protect the dominant social order. Those who have the most to gain by these ideological notions are the powerful ones. It is in their best interest if the rest of us buy into these ideologies because they have the most to gain if society embraces them. Post modernists believe that the media uses crime and crime control as a commodity to consumers in which they are the stakeholders in how the stories are presented. Those images of crime are a constructed phenomenon.

Define Ideology 

Ideology is defined as ideas, however unintentional, that DISTORT REALITY in a way that justifies the existing distribution of power and wealth

Who was Michel Foucault? What is his theory? 

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Michel Foucault (1975) declared that all modern society is a prison. He cites the principle of PANOPTICON which refers to a prison in which guards constantly watch prisoners without being seen, as the model. Foucault saw modern society as dominated by TECHNOLOGIES OF POWER exercised through institutions of social control: prisons, schools, hospitals and their expert discourses of control. He also said that the brightest are the smartest among us to be able to see we are being manipulated by the masses. It is in their resistance that they find themselves in trouble with the law or locked up. Long standing regulation in prison was based on PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT but the modern correctional regime is dependent on instilling PERSONAL DISCIPLINE in the offender

Label the Critical Criminology factors by Quinney (6—CCSPPP) 1) Crime is an authorized ( political) definition= law 2) Crime is behavior that conflict with power interests a. It is these interests that have the political clout through lobbying efforts or donating money to have certain bills put forward etc. Heavily influencing the political agenda. 3) Crime definitions are applied by those with the Power to shape enforcement a. They define these definitions and they are implied. The government enforces these 4) Behaviors occur within contexts that have varying probabilities of being defined as criminal a. Depending on the context, you can have the same behavior occur, and the discretion by enforcement agencies differs 5) Conceptions of crime are constructed and shared by means of communication a. Policing/patrolling have a tendency to over police certain neighborhoods that they associate with crime because they are impoverished. Are they over represented with crime or are they over policed? 6) The social reality of crime is constructed by the application of (definition + behavior)

How is Deviance Created?

1) Some deviant category (mores and laws) must exist 2) A person must be viewed as violating the category 3) Someone must attempt to enforce this violation of the category is so, the social deviant is created...