Chapter 6 Deviance PDF

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Summary

Notes on Professor Miric's class on deviance....

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Deviance - Deviance: a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction - How do we decide what is deviant? Why do people violate rules? How do we respond to them? - Ex: - Piercings - Murder - Tattoos - Gangs - Not finishing your education - Dressing differently - Pedophiles - Not social distancing - Smoking cigarettes - Deviant behavior has to have sanctions - Ex: - Imprisonment - Shunning Functionalism - Does deviance have a function? - Durkheim - Deviance helps clarify moral boundaries - Deviance promotes social cohesion - Structural strain theory (Merton) - How someone experiences or is effected by deviance depends on their place in the social structure: - Innovators, ritualists, retreatists, rebels - Some deviance in society is inevitable Structural Strain Theory - Innovator: Steve Jobs, Banksy - They want the same thing everyone wants, but they have faced inequality or other factors that makes them have to achieve their goal a different route - Ritualists: go through the conventional emotions but they recognize that they will not achieve conventional success - Bernie Sanders - Retreatists: people who reject social conventions and refuse to go through the motions and reject conventional success - Henry David Thoreau, the Amish - Rebels: rejects conventional success but want to change social order - Katniss Everdeen, MLK, Tris from Divergent

Conflict Theory - Rules are applied unequally and punishments for rule violators ar unevenly distributed - Voter ID laws - Having to use identification to vote - Behavior of less powerful groups are more likely to be criminalized than the behaviors of the powerful - Social control- norms, laws, and rules that regulate the behavior of individuals and groups Symbolic Interaction - Differential association theory - We learn to be deviant through our interactions with other who break the rules - If your friends jump off a bridge are you going to too? - Labeling theory - Deviance is determined by social context - Primary deviance and secondary deviance - Primary deviance: doing something that gets you labeled - Secondary deviance: having an identity due to your label - Tertiary deviance- redefining the stigma into something positive - Being a recovering alcoholic can be redefined as strong and being able to recover through anything - Self-fulfilling prophecy- a prediction that causes itself to be true merely by being stated - We look to other people for our worth (looking glass) - Stereotype threat vs. stereotype promise Stigma: Review - Stigma is a characteristic widely viewed as an insurmountable handicap that prevents competent or morally trustworthy behavior - Types of stigma include those who have: - Physical challenges and deformities - Character defects such as dishonestly, or mental illnesses that are dangerous to society and themselves - Racial, sexual, or religious beliefs that could contaminate or morally debilitate others - Stigma Management - Stigmatized persons may try to build relationships around the aspects of their selves that are not discredited - Temporary stigma: the stigmatized person may draw attention to their disability to gain sympathy and get attention - Permanent stigma: the stigmatized Outsiders

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Outsiders: people living outside of mainstream - Motorcyclists, hippies, high school rebels, etc. Deviance avowal: some might initiate the labeling process against themselves or provoke others to Deviance as a role instead of an instance

Studying Deviance - Foreground Model of Deviance (Katz) - Most approaches ignore the deviants of the moment - Social actors are not just products of their experience - Thrill stealing/shoplifting - Thrill stealing: stealing in the moment Crime - Crime-violating a norm that has been codified in law - Class - Crime more common in poorer area - Class also affects how people are treated by police, courts, and prisons - Police are more concentrated in urban areas - The police you have in an area, the more arrests happen - White collar crimes: - Fraud (ponzi schemes) - Tax evasion - Insider trading - White, rich, greedy, older businessmen/entrepreneurs - Less likely to be arrested, charged, and found guilty because people see it as less violent - Age - Younger people commit more crime than older - Bias and types of crime a factor - Most likely to be arrested at 19 - Young people commit more visible crimes - Older people are more likely to steal more than younger people - Gender - Males are more likely to commit crimes - Effect of the social and economic roles of women - Women are too weak to commit crimes lmaoooooo - When women get more power, they are more likely to commit crimes - Race - Class factor, legal system bias, and self fulfilling prophecy - Rate of violent crimes have gone down - Property crime has gone down - Violent crime is more common in the south (lack of social resources)

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Deterrence: assumes punishment will have a deterring effect - Makes punishment severe to deter people from committing crimes Retribution: emphasizes retaliation for the crime as appropriate - Getting justice Incapacitation: criminals should be confined to protect society from them - Criminals are irredeemable Rehabilitation: prison system should try to reform the criminal - They can change and be better in society The criminal justice system reflects the society in which it operates and can replicate its inequalities...