SOC 336 - Alexis Ibarra PDF

Preview

Summary

Alexis Ibarra...

Description

SOC 336 January 15, 2014 Today:  TA introduced  Intro from Readings in Deviant Behavior Remember:  Check your email to see if Friday’s class is cancelled  Slides will be online (but I think I got all of today’s information down) Introduction from Readings in Deviant Behavior 

Fair game for the exam

What is deviant behavior?  Different definitions: o Violation of any social rule  Murder is pretty much agreed upon in all societies as warranting correction o Rule violation and quality of provoking disapproval, anger, or indignation  Attaches another quality that deviant behavior has  Negative ways deviant behavior affects society  E.g. murder o Person can be deviant without violating any rule  E.g. not holding the door for the person behind you o Positive deviance  Some deviance can be good for society  E.g. Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus during the social rights movement  E.g. Gandhi and passive resistance  All definitions assume that deviance is real  There are many ways of thinking about it Real or not real  Deviance does not have to be real for it to be labeled deviant o Is smoking weed deviant?  What if you’re alone in your room and no one knows but you?  It depends on the society and situation  Committing a deviant act does not necessarily make someone deviant  Mental construction or image of an act as deviant that is them applied to an individual who is labeled deviant o Person is labeled deviant after the act is labeled deviant Beyond labeling: importance of power  Deviance defined by the powerful as violating any social rule o Gun laws  A school shooting can spark nationwide panic o Smoking laws  Powerful people can avoid the deviant label o Rich and famous people can use their money to hire good lawyers, go to rehab, avoid jail, and redo their image.  Powerful can influence public opinion o People in power like owning guns, so they make sure they don’t have to give them up  Powerful can apply deviant label to others Two opposing perspectives  Table 1.1 in the book o Know it for the exam  Positivism o Deviance as rule-breaking behavior o Subject: absolutism o Method: objectivism o Theory: determinism  Social constructionism o Deviance as constructed through labeling and power o Subject: relativism o Method: subjectivism o Theory: voluntarism 3 Big Questions 1. Subject: Who to study? a. Positivists take an absolutist definition of deviance i. Criminals possess biological traits

1. Deviants break the rules, and criminals for sure broke the rules Criminals possess psychological traits 1. Lombroso measured foreheads a. Racial features iii. Today they recognize the importance of social factors 1. Try to emphasize the importance of society and nurture iv. Deviance still intrinsically real v. Deviance by any other label is just as real b. Constructionism’s relativist definition of deviance i. Deviance is relevant to the person observing the behavior ii. Deviant behavior does not have any intrinsic characteristics iii. An act only appears deviant because some people think it so iv. Deviance is a mental construct expressed in the form of a label v. Focus on whether and why a given act is defined by society as deviant vi. Constructionists study the people who create the labels, not the people being “deviant” Method: How to study it? a. Positivist’s objectivist method i. Deviance as an objective fact ii. Deviants studied scientifically as objects iii. Positivists try to control personal biases 1. You might not like potheads, but you put your biases aside and try to be objective to study them iv. Evolved from value-loaded, subjective notions to value-free and objective concepts v. Use official reports, statistics, clinical reports, self-report surveys, and victimization surveys 1. Measurable facts b. Constructionist’s subjectivist method i. Deviance is a personal experience ii. Deviant person is an active subject, not passive object iii. Embrace a humanist ideology opposed to the control of humans 1. Let go of their control over people’s actions, let the subjects describe themselves iv. Seeks to understand the life of a deviant v. Uses ethnography, participant observations or open-ended in-depth interviews Theory: What does it mean? a. Positivist’s determinism view i. Use etiological, causal, or explanatory theories to make sense of research on deviant behavior 1. Poverty is often used to explain why people sell or do drugs ii. Choices and decisions individuals make are determined by some causes iii. Do not attribute deviance to human choice b. Constructionist’s voluntarism view i. Noncausal, descriptive, or analytical theories to make sense of the experiential world of deviance ii. Deviance is voluntary and made through human choice iii. The power of defining things is in the hands of the subject iv. There are different ways to research people v. Some institutions aim to socially control behaviors through control agents and sanctions 1. Police, DEA force people to make choices vi. Deviants rationalize their behavior as a positive way of acting; might not even think that they are deviant. ii.

2.

3.

 

Chapter 1 emphasized the Constructionist’s perspective Different writers take different perspectives, so try to figure out which one they’re using

SOC 336 January 17,2014 Frontline video about Jane Elliott  The brown/blue eyed racism activity in school  Jane Elliott made it in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder to teach kids about discrimination  1st one was done in 1968  She also did it with adults Take homes:  Words and how you treat people are very important

SOC 336 January 17,2014 New TA Theories of Deviance: Strain Theory

Durkheim  Deviance is normal and inevitable  Deviance serves a positive function in society o Helps show what’s right and ethical  Amount of deviance must be manageable o “Defining deviance down”  Enforces collective conscience  Origin for understanding deviance in society Social Structure and Anomie  Contradictions are implicit in a stratified system  Success goals are dictated by the culture (usually dominant people) and access to achieve goals is limited to middle and upper strata o In the US, graduate college, get rich, own property o Dominant people have more legal, non-deviant ways of achieving the goals  Lower class can recognize their blocked status and “opt out” o Opting out  People who are labeled retreatist, like hippies o Choosing a deviant alternative  Selling drugs to make money o Finding a detour or alternative means for achieving success goals  Selling drugs to make money for college  Social structure in society is the problem o Exclusion of poorer people o It’s kind of hard to get ahead of the class you were born into What is Anomie?  State of normlessness in society o Rapid shift from pot being illegal to being legal  Results from lack of access to goals and lack of access to goals and lack of available legitimate means for attaining goals  Deviance and crime are the obvious alternatives Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory  More recent perspective that incorporates social disorganization theory and subcultural deviance theories o Links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics  High rates of poverty linked to lower class with less means for achieving goals through legitimate means o Groups in society can adopt values and attitudes that embrace crime and violence  Gangs  Strain and stress in specific communities is a major source of criminal motivation  Relative deprivation and factors of inequality condition the effect of strain on crime o It’s through inequality and deprivation that crime is produced  Theory doesn’t cover the historical roots of inequality in society

SOC 336 January 24, 2014 Positivist Theories of Defiance Differential Association Theory  Edwin Sutherland  Donald Cressey  Deviance as an excess of deviant associations over conventional associations  Crime is rooted in the social organization o The neighborhoods The process of deviance  Criminal behavior is learned o Someone teaches you how to pick a lock o Howard Becker found that people have to be taught how to smoke weed  Learned through the process of communications  Principal part is that this learning occurs within intimate personal groups o Your friends, your gang, your parents, your family  Learning includes specific techniques and specific directions of motives, attitudes, rationalizations  These are learned from definitions of legal codes as favorable or unfavorable o Depends on the laws where you live  E.g. smoking  Person actually becomes delinquent when there is an excess of definitions favoring violation of legal codes o Medical marijuana



 

o Depends how you were raised Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity o You were raised to be good and safe, but when you go to high school, you could try things out o Maybe you just need to relax once in a while All mechanisms of learning are involved in process of learning deviant behavior o Everywhere you go and everything you do influences you a little General needs and values explain both lawful and unlawful behaviors o We can’t base decisions just on general needs and values because they can explain both sides of the argument.

Hirschi’s Control Theory  Delinquent acts result from when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken  Assumes existence of a common value system within a society or group  4 elements of the bond: o Attachment  Who are you attached to?  Mom, dad, family, friends o Commitment  Committed to school, paying debts, job o Involvement  Engaged in activities with people or not involved at all o Belief  Internal, can vary a lot o If you’re not attached to anyone or anything, you’re a psychopath o If every element of the bond is broken, is there a common value?  Similar to Durkheim’s collective conscience Braithwaite’s Shaming Theory  Rehabilitation aspect that’s important and not commonly talked about  Shaming is the key to controlling crime  Reintegrative shaming, not stigmatization or disintegrative shaming  Expressions of community disapproval must be followed by gestures of reacceptance into the community o E.g. after a 5 minute timeout, we’re all good and we love you.  Current prison system doesn’t make gestures of reacceptance when convicts go back into the community o They’re discriminated in society, jobs, etc. o That’s why people commit crimes again Key concepts  Interdependency: condition of networking dependence and interdependent in a community o The more connected we are, the less likely we are to be deviant  Communitarianism: condition of societies that are interdependent, have symbolic significance as attachments o Society needs all the people with their skills to function smoothly. Everyone has a place and is needed in society  Shaming: all social processes of expressing disapproval which invoke shame o Formal: o Informal: time outs, shunning is a social group when someone does something wrong, detention, slut shame: shame girls who act/dress like they’re promiscuous so they don’t do it anymore  Interdependent persons are more susceptible to shaming o You care about the people you’re connected to, what they think, so you correct your behavior once you’re shamed  Urbanization and residential mobility undermine shaming o People move around a lot, so they don’t make connections and you’re not interdependent o When people live together for a long time, they can come to agreements about things like letting wildlife live near them o When your friends find out you did something bad, your neighbors will find out and your parents will find out and you’ll get in trouble  Stigmatizing shaming makes criminal subcultures more attractive

SOC 336 January 27, 2014 Next class: be able to apply theories to stories that she’ll give you. Constructionist Theories of Defiance Beker’s Labeling Theory  Deviance is created by society  Social groups create deviance through rules  When a label has been successfully applied, the person is a “deviant”  Process of labeling is imperfect o We can label innocent people, anybody. It’s whether or not the label sticks that’s important o Not everyone deviant category contains all those who have broken the rules

   



o Positivist theorists looks at already labeled people Deviance is a transaction between some social group and a rule-breaker Degree and intensity of response to deviant act will vary o E.g. Adultery. A man is caught but unsuccessfully labeled, but the label sticks to the woman because of society. Depends on who commits the act and who perceives harm from it Depends on the nature of the act o Some are considered less harmful than others o What’s going on in the society at the time matters (social circumstance)  E.g. ice is considered more harmful than weed When someone is treated as generally deviant, it produces a self-fulfilling prophecy o People treat them differently o Their access is blocked to other opportunities

Jack Katz’s Phenomenological Theory  Focuses on the positive aspects of being deviant  The lived experience of criminality is wonderfully seductive  There are distinctive attractions for certain types of crimes o There are reasons people commit crimes outside of poverty and necessity  We live life on a continuum between involvement and boredom, seduction and repelled disgust  What are people trying to do when they commit a crime? o Get a rush o Live  Necessary conditions for each type of crime: o A path of action: mode of execution o A line of interpretation: symbolic creativity o An emotional process: esthetic finesse  E.g. vengeance. It’s a moral emotion that can influence decisions at all steps of execution  Moral emotions are always central to the experience of deviance  The act comes, then there’s the reasoning for why you did the act

SOC 336 January 29, 2014 Friday:   

Practice for exam, so come to class Know the 8 theorists and their theories Slides are posted before class now.

Constructionist Theories of Defiance Quinney’s Conflict Theory  Teacher likes this one  Modern society is pluralistic, diverse, and full of conflicts  Social conflict: incompatible interests, needs, and desires of diverse groups o People fight because they can’t agree  Cultural conflict: discrepant norms and values regarding right and wrong  Both lead to crime  A. The official definition of crime  Formulated definitions of crime  Applying definitions of crime  How behavior patterns develop based on definitions of crime  Constructing ideology of crime  Constructing social reality of crime The social reality of crime  Know the image for the exam

Class Struggle and Conflict

1. 2. 3. 4.

The official definition Formulating definitions of crime Applying definitions of crime a. Either criminal acts by groups or enforcement for one group but not another How behavior patterns develop in relation to definitions of crime

Conflict Theory  Blames unjust law on the capitalist system  Calls for political action against the powerful class who inevitably criminalizes the powerless  Chambliss: identified the difference between law on the books and law in action o Enforcement of law is often unfair  War on drugs—crackdowns more on poor, colored urban people than others o Interests of ruling class are strongly favored  Rich white people get away way more  Campaign against poor people. Systematically racist. Daly’s Feminist Theory  Daly is one of the biggest feminist criminologists in the U.S. o She gives reasons why theorists should include gender in their theories about crime  Research on Women and Gender can be divided into two categories: o Aggregate patterns and trends from a variety of data sources  Quantitative research o Qualities of offenses committed and the life worlds of lawbreakers  Qualitative research  Two distinct theoretical problems for study of women, gender, crime: o Gender ratio problem  Men commit more crimes than women o Generalizability problem  Assumption that we can make theories for male deviance and apply it to women even though women are different Aggregate patterns (Quantitative research)  Higher rates of lawbreaking prevalence and incidence for boys than girls for 18 out of 20 offenses o Girls rates are slightly higher than boys for “running away from home” and “hitting a parent” o As offense seriousness increases, gender gap widens  Arrest data show larger gender ratios of lawbreaking than self-report data o More boys are arrested than girls—officers are biased against males  From 1960-1990 the female share of arrests rose from 10% to 20%  Arrest rates rise and fall in similar fashion  Gender differences cannot be understood apart from race, ethnicity, and class o To have a good understanding for gender differences in crime, you have to understand how all aspects of life come together and make a person. Qualities and life works  Female involvement in gangs is varied (10-38%)  Little is known about women’s involvement or gender differences in white-collar crime o Women have higher convictions for bank embezzlement, but there are significant job differences  Women who get caught are often in lower positions like bank teller. o Women aren’t in as many white-collar jobs as men are in  Women’s roles in offenses are varied o They are often secondary participants, participating in a group or with a boyfriend





o Men are usually the active, primary participant Research on gender, offense contexts, and motives is most developed for homicide o More likely to kill intimates than men o Victims often initiate the violence o More likely to occur in residence  Women are more likely to kill their boyfriend or husband or partner, but only once the other person has initiated the violence. Girls’ and women’s pathways to lawbreaking are varied and complex o Through sexual violence early in life o Through other physical abuse

SOC 336 January 31, 2014 PowerPoint: Criticisms Critiques of Positivists  Deviance based on the positivist’s own preconceived notions of morality and understanding of deviance  Humans are passive objects whose behavior is determined by forces beyond their control  Search for objective truth must be deconstructed Criticism of Labeling Theory  Can’t explain causes of deviance  Deviant label does not encourage further deviance o E.g. label “sex addict” doesn’t make someone have more sex  Underestimates role of the powerful o Doesn’t touch on the role except to acknowledge that some people can avoid labels and some can give them Criticism of Phenomenologists  Failure to develop a practical way to understand deviance  Influenced by their own beliefs, judgments, and ideas—personal biases Criticism of Conflict Theory  Can’t explain common-law crimes and vices o E.g. alcoholism. People all over the power spectrum self-medicate with alcohol.  Wrong in assuming that a utopian, socialist society would be free of deviant behavior

1.

Which theory? Why? Last year, there was a group of students who cheated on their exam to increase their chances of admittance to law school a. Strain theory—innovation i. Deviance to disrupt the natural place of things; deviating from the institutionalized way of doing things

2.

Japan has the lowest per capita imprisonment rate in the world. They attributed it to confession, repentance, and absolution a. Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming: people can come back into society after shaming

3.

A convicted felon cooks with a famous celebrity a. b.

Labeling theory—initially, label of convict is assigned to Snoop Lion, not Martha Stewart Conflict theory—her punishment vs her crime i. How we punish white-collar crimes is very different than poorer crimes

4.

Jeffrey Dahmer a. Known as the Milwaukee Cannibal i. Raped, murdered, dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 b. Control theory—weak ...