Deviance - Lecture notes 13 PDF

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Dr. Bilaye Benibo ...

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Deviance Definition: The recognized violation of cultural norms, for a behavior to be deviant society must recognize that behavior as a violation Ex: certain sexual behaviors that are a violation, polygamy, 2 types polyandry (one woman 2 or more men) and polygyny (1 man 2 or more women) However, it is not deviant in other cultures, Deviance also references to any behavior that violates a significant norm in society, and is considered by a significant number of persons and /or a number of significant persons as unacceptable and deserving of negative sanctions 4 conceptions of Deviance: -

Statistical conception of Deviance: argues that a behavior is deviant if those who engage in that behavior constitute in numerical minority Ex: 20% are not thieves and 80% are then the 20% are deviant because they are the minority and not the majority

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Absolutist: argues that a behavior is deviant if it is prohibited or forbidden by divine authority or by an autocratic leader Ex: God says thou shalt not kill there is no exception, If everyone is a murder but one everyone else is deviant, no cultural relativities

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Reactivist: a behavior is deviant essentially if people react to that behavior negatively 3 exceptions: -must be caught doing the act, - you must be caught by someone who disapproves of the behavior

- You must be caught by someone who disapproves and has the authority to punish you -Normative: a behavior is deviant if it violates an existing norm, violates an existing norm, recognizes that deviance is relative to the existing norms Functions of Deviance: -

Promotes positive social change Ex: because women disagreed with the constitution and founding fathers and defined themselves as feminism that created the 19 amendment that allows them to vote and be voted on, Civil rights act

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It promotes solidarity: deviancy can unify society EX: 911 was a deviant behavior and Americans became so much more patriotic, it brought the country together. The deviant act shows and reminds us of a commonality that everyone in a society has

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Enables us to reexamine the boundaries of our norms when someone commits a deviant act we examine the criminal nature of the behavior Ex: someone going to court, decide if the behavior that you are being charged with is still serious, more serious, or less serious than it was when the law was passed

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It is that deviancy provides us an outlet for our frustrations: Acts as a safety value for our emotions, gives an opportunity to vent when we deviate from social norms, Ex: in the U.S there is an opportunity to protest at a micro leave letting your child act up a little it is okay they are getting it out of there system

Theses 4 functions are contributed by Emile Durkheim -

Then there is another one

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Deviance creates jobs: if everyone did not deviant then there would not be police (DEA), boarder patrols, building things, if everyone was born knowing sociology then there would not be sociology class, if everyone was healthy we would not need doctors

Theories of Deviance Psychological: Sigmund Freud the ID pleasure seeking and gratification (we all want to eat because it is needed for our survival) drives that go without control cause deviance, ego, Superego (cannot bring alcohol into the classroom) most of us we can control our drives relite to our superego. -Deferential Association theory/Cultural Transmission: Edwin Sutherland, argues that we learn to be deviant we are not born to be deviant by associating with deviance, the more you frequently you associate with deviance the more likely you will become deviant, the more intense the relationship with a deviant the more likely you are to become like them, the more importance you give to a relationship to a deviant the more you are to be like them, age also plays a role the younger you are when you start to associate with them the more likely you will be a deviant Ex: If you live in a subculture you learnt the ways of their life, bird that fly together develop the same feather -Tiny Dopers: 1-12 young kids that smoke marijuana, they saw their parents using it - Criticism of this theory: people who lived in good environments and became deviant, human beings do and can think of violate norms - The Labeling theory: Howard Becker deviant behavior is do to the labels that society gives to the behaviors and those who engage in those behaviors, when people define a behavior as deviant then it is deviant Structural String Theory: Robert Merton

Biological: Someone’s genetic make up or if not inherited alterations in their body chemistries resulting from life styles Ex: everyone produces dopamine, but we can stimulate the production with cocaine to create an artificial feeling and then if it is used all the time you are always feeling this way if you stop you will become depressed. First person to systematically study deviance was an Italian physician named Cenare Lombroso, Villalel: Raine looked at identical twins that were raised in different homes, and fraternal twins raised in different homes, he found that if one of the identical twins committed crimes the other had a 60% chance of committing crimes, same for children with criminal parents Sociological: Structural String Theory: Robert Merton, two things legitimate goals and legitimate means Ex: we want you to aspire to raise a family in a productive way, or to aspire to be patriotic, want us to be able to reach our goals in a legitimate means Ex: study hard, take exams/time to be a legitimate good student. Not everyone accepts all of these, but those who live by the rules accept legit rules, goals, and means. Non-Deviant Conformists, innovators (share goals, but reject the means) Ex: plagiarism, Ritualists reject the goals set for them by society, but they mechanically/ritualistically obey and follower the rules/goals. Retreatist members of society that reject both goals and means Ex: Hippies. Even those who become addicted to drugs and be described as Retreatist. Rebels, like Ritualists but the reject the goals, they stay in society, but introduce new goals Ex: Revolutionary War, George Washington Control Theory: Travis Thasch, instead of asking the question why some people are more likely to be deviant than others, instead asked why everyone isn’t deviant, by nature we are all evil (comes from Thomas Hobbs)The reason all of us are not deviant is because some of us have internal controls 4 controls, Strong attachment (want to preserve your families reputation, honor is a group thing), Strong involvement (People who are involved in legitimate activities they do not have time for illegitimate things), strong commitment (people who are committed to legitimate activities and goals often do not want anything to derail them), strong belief (Those members of society who believe in the norms of society believe them to be absolute there is no it depends) Marxist: Steven Young, argue that eh source of all criminal behaviors is capitalism, Capitalist value Competition in our society (groups come together, improvement forces us to better than our best) but, it can bring the worst out of us, also values property rights (the right to keep for yourself what ever you have “earned”) reason why we probably have thieves (theft)

Criminal Deviance Measurement: -uniform report is not reliable because not all crimes are reported, some are over reported (auto reports), the intake officer does make judgement on the believability of the reporter - Valued, maybe something that happened to you may not be a crime, you may miss interpret the crime (burglary vs. robbery) we don’t rely on when police when a crime is committed we rely on the courts, remedy is the victimization survey (conducted by the justice department, selects randomly selected 2000 Americans and send them questions about being victims of crimes, give characteristics of perpetrator, then they do a projection of the actual crimes) Extent and distribution: how many crimes occur in the U.S, can’t be answered, but can calculate the crimes that have been reported -

Crimes by the FBI are classified into two categories -Part 1 crimes=crime index (murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, robbery, all these refer to violent crimes, burglary, auto vehicle theft, larcenytheft, arson, property crimes) -Part 2= non-crime index (statutory rape, possession of illegal drugs, driving while intoxicated every other crime) - typical year 1.29 million violent crimes, 7.9 property crimes reported to the police

-Distribution- where the highest reports are, distributed throughout regions, summer months (most in May-august) exception of two murder and robbery (NovemberJanuary) - Why you are more likely to be murdered by a family member emotional intimacy the more emotionally intimate you are with a person the more violate you feel when they betray your trust, frequency of interaction the more you interact the more likely you are to offend them, opportunities for revenge, access to weapons and deadly chemicals, letting down our guards we trust them -Who is most likely to be arrest for crime is a black male ages 18-25 lower Socioeconomic class, residence is urban, least likely to be arrested white female over the age of 60, upper class, rural residence, Who fears crimes more between the two more, white females, victimized by crime black males, more likely to be arrested Crime Control: mechanisms by which societies prevent others from violating their norms

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Informal control: those processes that are outside the law, socialization life long process by which people learn and share cultures and obtain values, if you are taught well then you are able to internalize the norms of society you are more likely to not commit a crime (less deviant) -Surveillance: process by which people are monitored to ensure conformity

- Formal control: legislature the law, crime control requires that the law prohibits crimes, consequences, if the punishment is not swift, (severe certain and swift) - criminal justice system, comprises of three agencies police (investigate, arrest, and assist) , courts (determine guilt and assign punishment), corrections (prisons) (carry out decisions of the court), objectives/strategies deterrence (make it undesirable for someone to commit the crime), retribution (an eye for an eye, you kill we’ll kill you), incapacitation (preventing the perpetrator from hurting anyone else) , reform (rehabilitation) -five arguments for and against the death penalty...