CHAPTER 8: DEVIANCE & SOCIAL CONTROL

Objectives:Define deviance and explain why it is

relative.Why are norms necessary and why do

we create a system of social controlExplain Positive and Negative SanctionsWhy do people violate norms

WHAT IS DEVIANCE?

Deviance: the violation of rules or normscan be minor (driving over speed limit)can be serious (murdering someone)”It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant” (Howard Becker)what is deviant to some is not deviant to others (Read Thinking Critically pg. 203)

Crime: violation of norms written into lawStigma: “blemishes” that discredit a

person’s claim to a “normal” identity

HOW NORMS MAKE SOCIAL LIFE POSSIBLENorms make social life possible by making

behavior predictableexample pg. 201 (purchasing milk)

Norms prevent social chaosLay out basic guidelines for how we should

play our roles and interact with otherssocial order: a group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives

Deviance undermines this orderhumans develop social control: a formal or

informal means of enforcing its norms

SANCTIONS

Negative Sanctions: expression of disapproval for breaking a norm

ranges from a mild, informal reaction (frown) to a formal reaction (prison sentence)

Positive Sanctions: a reward or positive reaction for following norms

ranges from a smile to a prize

The severity of the sanction depends on your perspective

SHAMING AND DEGRADATION CEREMONIES

Shaming is an example of a negative sanction

effective within a primary groupexamples: Hester Prynne in The

Scarlet Letter ; Arizona sheriff making inmates wear pink underwear

Degradation Ceremony: an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual’s self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place

perp walks; shaving head for military

EXPLAINING DEVIANCE…3 PERSPECTIVESBiologicallook for answer within the individualsomething in the individual’s makeup leads

him/her to be deviantGenetic Predispositions: inborn tendencies (to

commit deviant acts)biological explanations: 1) intelligence— low intelligence crime 2) “XYY”—extra Y chromosome in malescrime 3) body type—people with “squarish/muscular”

bodies more likely to commit street crime like mugging, rape, burglary

These explanations don’t hold up very well

EXPLAINING DEVIANCE…3 PERSPECTIVESPsychologicalLook for answer within the individualPersonality disorders: the view that a

personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms

subconscious motives drive people to deviance

like: suppressed anger, suffocating mothers, absent fathers

no inevitable outcome of any childhood experience; deviance is not associated with any particular personality

EXPLAINING DEVIANCE…3 PERSPECTIVESSociological Search for factors outside of individuallook for social influences that “recruit”

people to break normsie: socialization, group

membership, subcultures, social class

Explain deviance using the 3 sociological perspectives (Symbolic Interactionism, Fuctionalism, and Conflict)

ASSIGNMENT…

Due Friday: (either hand in or by email)--see examples: improv everywhere (frozen grand central station)

Gather 1 example of deviance in the news or on the internet. This can be a newspaper article/magazine story/news video/youtube video

Write a paragraph explaining the act of deviance you have discovered and why it is a deviant act.