Deviance PDF

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Deviance...

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Deviance, Conformity, and Social Control Core Concept 1: The only characteristic common to all forms of deviance is that some social audience challenges or condemns a behaviour or an appearance because it departs from established norms. a. Deviance: Any behaviour or physical appearance that is socially challenged or condemned because it departs from the norms and expectations of a group. b. Conformity: Behaviour and appearances that follow and maintain the standards of a group; also the acceptance of the cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through means defined as legitimate. c. Social Control: Methods used to teach, persuade, or force a group’s members, and even non members, to comply with and not deviate from its norms and expectations. d. Deviant behaviour is widely defined and deviance and conformity change over time. Core concept 2: When socialization fails to produce conformity, other mechanisms of social control such as censorship, surveillance, and sanctions are used to convey and enforce norms. a. There are two types of norms that we follow, Folkways and Mores. Folkways are norms that apply to mundane aspects of daily life, Mores are norms that people define as essential to the well-being of their group. b. Both sets of norms are established through socialization, which can be used as a form of social control. c. Other forms of social control: Censorship: A method of preventing information from reaching an audience. Surveillance: A mechanism of social control that involves watching and otherwise monitoring the movements, activities, conversations, and associations of people to prevent them from engaging in wrongdoing. d. The Disciplinary Society (Michel Foucault): Highlights shift in society from punishment in forms of cultural spectacle i.e. torture, dismemberment, to a Carceral culture i.e. prisons. Disciplinary Society: A social arrangement that normalizes surveillance, making it expected and routine. Under this culture people censor themselves and control their own behaviour. e. Prison-Industrial Complex: The corporations and agencies with an economic stake in building and supplying correctional facilities and in providing services. Creates “need” or market for prisoners. Large lobbying force in US gov. (Prison Labour) f. Sanctions: Reactions of approval or disapproval to others’ behaviour or appearance. Positive (Applause, smile, trophy) and Negative (Ridicule, fines, banishment, imprisonment, death).

Informal Sanctions: Spontaneous, unofficial expressions of approval or disapproval that are not backed by the force of Law. (Making fun of women who don’t shave legs) Formal Sanctions: Backed by laws, rules, or policies. g. Summary: Socialization helps to internalize norms, but does not work for everyone. This necessitates the use of other mechanisms in order to ensure conformity. Core Concept 3: Functionalist Perspective It is impossible for a society to exists without deviance. a. Durkheim: Deviance is constituted by what a group has defined as dangerous or threatening to its well-being. b. Deviances’ 2 important functions for society: 1) Ritual of identifying and exposing wrongdoing, determining a punishment, and carrying it out is an emotional experience that binds together the members of a group and establishes a sense of community. 2) Deviance helps bring about necessary change. Often “steps forward” are viewed as deviant but highlight new perspectives. c. Summary: Deviance is foundational to society, it helps to bind together its members with a sense of community, and brings about necessary change. Core Concept 4: Labelling theorists maintain that an act is deviant when people notice it and then take action to label it as a violation and apply sanctions. d. Labelling Theory: Guided by 2 principles: 1) People create rules 2) rules are not enforced uniformly or consistently. e. Labelling theorists look at audience rather than individual actor (rule breaker), since an act is only labelled deviant if it is noticed by group. f. Maintain 4 categories of people. - Conformists: People who have not violated the rules of a group and are treated accordingly: - Pure Deviants: People who have broken the rules of a group and are caught, punished, and labelled as outsiders. - Secret Deviants: People who have broken the rules of a group but whose violation goes unnoticed or, if it is noticed, prompts those who notice to look the other way rather than reporting the violation. - Falsely Accused: People who have not broken the rules of a group but are treated as if they have. g. Falsely Accused: most likely when the well being of a country or group is threatened. Close to idea of Scapegoat. Often can take the form of Witch Hunt. Think about post 9/11 in the US, who was stopped at airports, attacked while driving their cabs, accused of terrorism.

h. Status of Deviant. Primary Deviant: Those people whose rule breaking is viewed as understandable, incidental, or insignificant in light of some socially approved status they hold. Secondary Deviant: Those whose rule breaking is treated as something so significant that it cannot be overlooked or explained away. Master-status of deviant: An identification that proves to be more important than most other statuses that person holds, such that he or she is identified first and foremost as a deviant. i. Summary: Rule breakers are not deviant unless Noticed, statuses can affect how deviant behaviour is noticed and labelled. Core Concept 5: Obedience to Authority The firm commands of a person holding a position of authority over a person hearing those commands can elicit obedient responses j. Milgram - “The person who, with inner conviction, loathes stealing, killing, and assault may find himself performing these acts with relative ease when commanded by authority. Behaviour that is unthinkable in an individual who is acting on his own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders” k. Summary: Atrocities can be committed and carried out on simply firm commands of a person with social status that places them with even minimal authority over a subject. Core Concept 6: The Constructionist Approach in an effort to understand how deviance is defined, sociologists take a constructionist approach to study the role of claims maker and claims-making activities. l. Constructionist Approach: A sociological approach that focuses on the way specific groups, activities, conditions, or artefacts become defined as problems. m. Claims Makers: People who articulate and promote claims and who tend to gain in some way if the targeted audience accepts their claims as true. n. Claims-making activities: Actions taken to draw attention to a claim, such as “demanding services, filling out forms, lodging complaints, filing lawsuits, calling press conferences, writing letters of protest, passing resolutions, publishing exposes, placing ads in newspapers, . . . setting up picket lines or boycotts” (Spector and Kitsuse 1977, p. 79). o. EX) Human Rights Report the the US Department of State releases: Claims China poses grave restrictions of freedom. Vice-versa China claims that the US disregards sovereignty when invading and occupying foreign nations. p. Summary: Deviance is defined by claims makers and claims-making activities. Success is dependent on many factors, but it's important to look at who is making the claims, who is hearing it, how the audience responds.

Core concept 7: Structural Strain Theory Structural strain theory holds that deviance is a response to an imbalance between culturally valued goals and the socially acceptable ways for achieving those goals. q. Structural Strain: Any situation in which (1) the valued goals of a society have unclear limits, (2) people are unsure whether the legitimate means will allow them to achieve the goals, and (3) legitimate opportunities for reaching the goals remain closed to a significant portion of the population. r. Responses to Structural Strain: (ex) Surveillance i. Conformity: the acceptance of the cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through legitimate means. 1. Those who accept value of privacy, and willingly subject themselves to forms of surveillance. ii. Innovation: The acceptance of cultural goals but the rejection of the legitimate means to achieve them. 1. Value privacy, unwilling to consent to surveillance, establish false identity to access needed services. iii. Ritualism: The rejection of cultural goals but a rigid adherence to the legitimate means of achieving them. 1. those who are resigned to the fact that individual privacy is unachievable but grudgingly give consent in return for needed services iv. Retreatism: The rejection of both culturally valued goals and the means of achieving them. 1. believe individual privacy is unachievable, so they “drop out” of mainstream society by paying with cash, refusing to get cable TV, abandoning smartphones, and so on. v. Rebellion: The full or partial rejection of both the goals and the means of attaining them and the introduction of a new set of goals and means. 1. believe that too much emphasis has been placed on individual privacy but are not willing to subject themselves to constant surveillance. So they recruit like-minded people to establish a self-sufficient community where group needs are put ahead of individual privacy. s. Summary: Structural strain occurs when the culturally valued goals have unclear limits, people are unsure whether the legitimate means will allow them to achieve the goals, or legitimate opportunities for meeting the goals remain closed to a significant portion of the population. Core concept 8: Criminal behaviour is learned; thus, criminals constitute a special type of conformist in that they conform to the norms of the group with which they associate.

t. Differential Association: explains how deviant behaviour, especially juvenile delinquency, is learned. This theory states that exposure to criminal patterns and isolation from anti criminal influences put people at risk of turning criminal. u. Deviant Subcultures: Groups that are part of the larger society but whose members share norms and values favouring violation of that larger society’s laws. i. Important to note that contact with deviant subcultures does not necessarily make a criminal, rather a person reaches a tipping point. ii. If criminal behaviour is learned, then criminals are in fact a special type of conformist. v. Other factors play role in development of criminal behaviours: i. Illegitimate opportunity structures: Social settings and arrangements that offer people the opportunity to commit particular types of crime. w. Other types of criminal behaviour: i. White-collar crimes: Crimes committed by those with high status and respectable positions as they carry out the duties and responsibilities of their occupation. ii. Corporate Crimes: Crimes committed by a corporation through the way that it does business as it competes with other companies for market share and profits. x. Summary: Criminality can be learned and thus is a special kind of conformity. Social settings and arrangements i.e. inequality or wealth also play a role in the opportunity to commit crimes, and the types of crimes committed....