Deviance and Social Control

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Chapter 8

• Deviance and Social Control

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Chapter Outline

• What Is Deviance?
• Dimensions of Deviance
• Theoretical Perspectives on Social Deviance
• Crime and Social Control

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What Is Deviance?

• Deviance - behavior that violates the norms of a
  particular society.
• A deviant person is one who violates or opposes a
  societys most valued norms.

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Dimensions of Deviance

• Power
• Culture
• Voluntary versus involuntary behavior

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Crime

• Many sociologists claim that some crimes are
  victimless.
• Others argue that even victimless crimes inflict
  damage on society.
• The overall rate of serious crime in the United
  States is 2 to 3 times higher than the reported
  crime index.

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Crime

• The overall rate of serious crime in the United
  States is 2 to 3 times higher than the reported
  crime index.

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The Crime Rate
1972 1982 1996 2001
Crime Index, total 3,961 5,604 5,079 4,160
Violent crime 401 571 634 504
Property crime 3,560 5,033 4,445 3,656
Murder 9 9 7 6
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Biological Explanations of Crime

• Cesare Lombroso claimed to have proved that
  criminals were throwbacks to primitive,
  aggressive human types.
• William Sheldon postulated that body type was
  correlated with crime.
• Some modern researchers have concluded that both
  biology and social environment play a role in
  producing criminals.

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Robert Mertons Typology

• Based on the theory that social structures exert
  pressure toward crime or conformity.
• Hypothesized that people who do not accept
  cultural goals or the accepted means of achieving
  them would follow otherpossibly criminal or
  deviantalternatives.

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Marxian Perspective on Crime

• Legal definitions of deviant behavior are imposed
  by the rich and powerful to protect their own
  interests.
• Definitions of criminal behavior are applied more
  forcefully to the poor and working class than to
  the upper classes.

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Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance
Perspective Description
Biological Theories Deviance is genetically determined.
Social Pathology A deviant person is a product of social disintegration.
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Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance
Perspective Description
Functionalism Deviance results from the failure of social structures to function properly.
Cultural conflict theory Cultural conflict creates opportunities for deviance and criminal gain in deviant subcultures.
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Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance
Perspective Description
Marxian theory Capitalism produces poor and powerless masses who may resort to crime to survive. The rich employ their own agents to break laws and enhance their power and wealth.
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Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance
Perspective Description
Differential association Criminal careers result from recruitment into crime groups based on association and interaction with criminals.
Labeling Deviance is created by groups that have the power to attach labels to others, marking particular people as outsiders.
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Crime and Social Control

• Research does not support the claim that capital
  punishment deters people from committing terrible
  crimes.
• Some ex-felons are denied voting rights, a
  serious concern about the way inequalities in
  imprisonment affect specific groups.
• Sociologists who have studied prisons agree that
  the least successful aspect of prison life is
  rehabilitation.

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Justifications for Punishment
Justification Critical Issues
Deterrence Does prison deter crime or socialize criminals?
Rehabilitation What forms of rehabilitation actually work to prevent recidivism?
Retribution Do extreme punishments reduce all members of society to the level of the criminal?
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Quick Quiz
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• 1. Which is true concerning deviance?
• People who bear a stigma, by definition, are also
  deviant.
• Deviance is something that people only engage in
  when they are alone by themselves.
• Definitions as to what is deviant often vary from
  place to place, and from one time period to
  another in a given society.
• Over the history of our nation, there has always
  been a high degree of consensus that wife and
  child beating constitute deviant behavior.

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Answer c

• The following is true concerning deviance
• Definitions as to what is deviant often vary from
  place to place, and from one time period to
  another in a given society.

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• 2. Sociological explanations for deviance stress
  the idea that
• deviance is biologically inherited.
• personality type leads people to be deviant.
• the vast majority of deviants are sick or
  abnormal.
• deviant behavior is largely a function of social
  conditions and learning.

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Answer d

• Sociological explanations for deviance stress the
  idea that deviant behavior is largely a function
  of social conditions and learning.

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• 3. A major criticism of functionalist theories
  is that they
• suggest that deviants are largely mentally ill.
• place too much emphasis on power and domination.
• fail to demonstrate that deviance may be a
  consequence of social environment.
• tend to assume that there is a single set of
  values that everyone shares within a given
  society.

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Answer d

• A major criticism of functionalist theories is
  that they tend to assume that there is a single
  set of values that everyone shares within a given
  society.

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• 4. Essential to the cultural conflict
  perspective is the idea that
• social inequality is major factor in determining
  crime in a society.
• definitions of morality are not necessarily
  widely shared within a given society.
• people are basically good and decentit is
  culture that tends to corrupt them.
• not all people have access to the cultural
  capital that would allow them to succeed.

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Answer b

• Essential to the cultural conflict perspective is
  the idea that definitions of morality are not
  necessarily widely shared within a given society.