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Chapter 7
Deviance
Deviance
• Norms guide almost all human activities
• Most familiar examples are negative instances of rule-breaking
• Especially righteous people also might be called “deviant”
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Deviance
• “Different” or “unexpected” to describe deviance from a sociological perspective
• Some categories of people are defined as deviant regardless of action or choice
• Social Control
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Social Control
• Informal Social Control – Parents; teachers; peers
• Formal Social Control – Criminal Justice System:
• A formal response by police, courts, and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
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Explanations for Deviance
• Biological context– Genetic & environmental factors, esp. abuse
early in life: predictors of adult crime/violence
• Personality factors– Deviance is viewed as unsuccessful
“socialization”
• Reckless and Dinitz – Containment Theory
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Social Foundations of Deviance
• Both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power– Rule-makers, rule-breakers, and rule-
enforcers– Norms and applying them are linked to social
position
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Durkheim's Basic Insight
• Deviance affirms cultural values and norms– There can be no good without evil and no
justice without crime
• Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries– A boundary between right wrong
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Durkheim's Basic Insight
• Responding to deviance brings people together– People typically react to serious deviance with
shared outrage
• Deviance encourages social change.– Deviant people push a society’s moral
boundaries
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Merton’s Strain Theory
• Conformity– Conventional goals through normal means
• Innovation– Unconventional means to achieve approved
goals
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Merton’s Strain Theory
• Ritualism– Accept institutional means; reject goals
• Rebellion– Define new goals and means to achieve goals
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Merton’s Strain Theory of DevianceCombining a person’s view of cultural goals and the conventional means to obtain them allowed Robert Merton to identify various types of deviance.Source: Merton (1968).
Deviant Subcultures
• Cloward and Ohlin– Extended Merton’s theory
• Cohen– Delinquency is most common among lower-
class youths because they have the least • Opportunity for conventional success
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Deviant Subcultures
• Miller– Delinquent subcultures
• Trouble, toughness, smartness, need for excitement, belief in fate, desire for freedom
• Anderson– In poor urban neighborhoods, most people
conform to conventional values
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Labeling Deviance
• Symbolic-interaction analysis– Assertion that deviance & conformity result
not from what people do as • How others respond to those actions
• Primary deviance– Norm violations that most people take part in
with little harm to self-concept
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Labeling Deviance
• Secondary deviance– When people “make something” of another’s
deviant behavior
• Stigma– Powerful negative label that greatly changes a
person’s self-concept and social identity
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Labeling Deviance
• Retrospective labeling– Re-interpreting someone’s past in light of
present deviance
• Projective labeling– Predicts future deviant behavior
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Labeling Deviance
• Medicalization of deviance– Transform moral and legal deviance into a
medical condition– How people respond– Personal competence of the deviant person
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Sutherland’s Differential Association
• Deviant behavior is learned
• Frequency of association is central to the development of deviance
• If associates are prone to violation of norms, one is also more likely to take part
• Conformity reaps rewards while the lack of it reaps punishment
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Hirschi’s Control Theory
• Attachment– Strong social attachments encourage
conformity
• Opportunity– Greater the access to legitimate opportunity,
the greater advantages of conformity
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Hirschi’s Control Theory
• Involvement– Extensive involvement in legitimate activities
inhibits deviance
• Belief– Strong belief in conventional morality and
respect for authority controls deviance
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Social-Conflict Analysis: Deviance and Power
• Norms or laws reflect interests of rich and powerful
• Powerful have resources to resist deviant labels
• Belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks political character
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Deviance and Capitalism
• Steven Spitzer - likely targets of labeling:– People who interfere with capitalism– People who cannot or will not work– People who resist authority– Anyone who directly challenges the status
quo
• White-collar crime
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Deviance and Capitalism
– Those committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations
• Corporate crime– Illegal actions of a corporation or people
acting on its behalf
• Organized crime– A business supplying illegal goods or services
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Deviance, Race, and Gender
• Hate crime– A criminal act against a person or person’s
property by offender motivated by racial bias
• The Feminist Perspective & Gender– The world applies more stringent normative
controls to women
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Deviance, Race, and Gender
– Strain due to reality of gender-based inequality
– Different standards are used to judge the behavior of women and men
– Why do women commit fewer crimes than men?
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Risk of Violent Crime across the United States
Crime
• The violation of criminal laws enacted by a locality, state, or the federal government
• Two elements– The act itself – Criminal intent
• Crimes against the person
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Crime
– Direct violence or threat of it
• Crimes against property– Involves theft of property
• Criminal statistics– Victimization surveys: Crime rate is two to four
times higher than official reports
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Crime Rates in the United States, 1960–2010Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2011).
Crime in Global Perspective
• United States– The US crime rate is high by world standards.– The rate of US violent crime is several times
higher than in Europe– Elliott Currie: Crime stems from our culture’s
emphasis on individual economic success
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Crime in Global Perspective
• Frequently at the expense of strong families and neighborhoods
• Other countries– Crime rates are high in some of the world’s
largest cities• Rapid population growth and millions of poor
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Crime in Global Perspective
– The traditional character of low-income societies and their strong families allow
• Informal crime control outside of big cities
– Different countries have different strategies for dealing with crime
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Capital Punishment in Global PerspectiveSource: Amnesty International (2011).
US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
• Anyone charged with a crime must receive– Fair notice of the proceedings– A hearing on the charges conducted
according to law and with the ability to present a defense
– A judge or jury that weighs evidence impartially
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US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
• The criminal justice system must operate according to law
• This principle is grounded in the Bill of Rights
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US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
• Police: Primary point of contact between population and criminal justice system– Officers quickly size up situations in terms of
six factors• Gravity of situation• Victim’s wishes
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US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
• Cooperation of suspect• Has suspect been arrested before?• Presence of observers increases chances of arrest• Officers are more likely to arrest people of color.
– The police maintain public order by enforcing the law
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US Criminal Justice System Courts
• Plea bargaining: Legal negotiation in which a prosecutor reduces a charge – In exchange for a defendant’s guilty plea
• Widespread because it spares the system the time and expense of trials.
• Undercuts both the adversarial process and the rights of defendants
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Justifications for Punishment
• Retribution– An act of moral vengeance by which society
• Makes offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime
• Deterrence– The attempt to discourage criminality through
the use of punishment
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Justifications for Punishment
• Rehabilitation– A program for reforming the offender to
prevent later offenses
• Societal protection– Rendering an offender incapable of further
offenses temporarily through imprisonment • Or permanently by execution
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The Death Penalty
• Most of population supports death penalty
• Death penalty sentences have declined:– Decline in crime rates has resulted in a
decreased fear of crime– Fear of wrongful convictions– Increased use of life sentences without parole– High cost of prosecuting capital cases.
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