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Ericksons Functionalist Perspective
Deviance helps maintain boundaries of
acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
Deviance bolsters cohesion and solidarity of
a community.
Deviance promotes the stability of social
life.
Deviance provides employment.
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Erickson Continued.
A deviant is someone whose actions/identities
have moved outside the margins of the group-
when society holds him/her accountable for it, itreinforces boundaries.
Every time society reacts to deviance it sharpens
its authority and power.
Agencies designed to curtail deviance often
perpetuate it.
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Durkheim
Crime and deviance are normal, providedthey dont exceed a certain level.
Deviance and Crime free societies areimpossible to attain (see example with druguse and legalization debate).
The authority the moral conscience enjoysmust not be excessive. Individualoriginality must be able to express itself.
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Durkheim and Anomie
Anomie= absence of social ties that bind people to society,
state of where norms about good and bad have little
salience in peoples lives. Outcome of advanced
Capitalism and ideology of individualism (latter 20th
century U.S.)
Who are you responsible to? Example of deviance and
responsibility.
Weakening of social ties destabilizes society and leads to chaos. Collective good versus individual self-interest? Did Durkheim
believe functional societys had to chose between these two things
or did he advocate balance between them? Why?
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) As Becker relates, "Social groups create
deviance [crime] by making the rules whose
infraction constitutes deviance [crime], andby applying those rules to particular people
and labeling them as outsiders
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.)
Note that labeling theorists attempt to
explain only what Lemert called "secondarydeviance
Secondary deviance = the commission of
crime after the first criminal act, with the
acceptance of a criminal label
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) Secondary deviance begins with an initial
criminal act, or what Lemert called
"primary deviance"
The causes of initial criminal acts are
unspecified
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) If society, especially official agents of the
state, reacts negatively to an initial criminal
act, the offender will likely be stigmatized,or negatively labeled
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) It is possible, even likely, that an initial
criminal act will not be reacted to at all, or
that the offender will not accept orinternalize the negative label
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) However, if the negative label is
successfully applied to the offender, the
label may produce a self-fulfilling prophecyin which the offender's self-image is defined
by the label
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) Secondary deviance is the prophecy
fulfilled
The crime prevention implication of
labeling theory is simply not to label or to
employ "radical nonintervention
This might be accomplished by:
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) Decriminalization (the elimination of many
behaviors from the scope of the criminal
law)
Diversion (removing offenders from
involvement in the criminal justice process)
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) Greater due process protections (replacing
discretion with the rule of law
Deinstitutionalization (a policy of reducing
jail and prison populations and
construction)
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) Once a person is labeled and stereotyped as
"criminal," he or she probably will be
shunned by law-abiding society, havedifficulty finding a good job, lose some
civil rights (if convicted of a felony), etc.
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Interactionism and Labeling
Theory (cont.) The criminal (and delinquent) label is
conferred by all agencies of criminal
justice-- police, courts, and corrections--aswell as the media, the schools, churches,
and other social institutions
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Conflict Theory
Deviance is caused by economic and political
forces in society.
Criminal law and the criminal justice system are
viewed as vehicles for controlling the poormembers of society.
The criminal justice system serves the rich and
powerful. Deviance and Crime are defined in ways that meet
the needs of those who control society.
Unit 2 - 16
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
Crime is a function of the extent of conflict
generated by stratification,hierarchicalrelationships, power differentials, or theability of some groups to dominate other
groups in that society
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
Crime, in short, is caused by relative
powerlessness
Conflict theory has two principal crimeprevention implications:
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
On the one hand, dominant groups could
cede some of their power to subordinate
groups, making subordinate groups morepowerful and reducing conflict
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
Increasing equality in that way might be
accomplished by redistributing wealth
through a more progressive taxationscheme, for example
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
On the other hand, dominant group
members could become more effective
rulers and subordinate group membersbetter subjects
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
To do so, dominant groups would have to
do a better job of convincing subordinate
groups that the current inequitabledistribution of power in society is legitimate
and in their mutual interests
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
Members of subordinate groups, in turn,
must either believe it or resign themselves
to their inferior status
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Conflict Theory (cont.)
Either way, dominant group members hope
that over time subordinate group members
will learn to follow those who dominatethem