1. SOCIOLOGY OF DISABILITY
SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS:
Pt 1-DEVIANCE

2. DEVIANCE Deviance is a recognized violation of cultural norms
Question:
How do Sociologists look at deviance?

3. CRIME AND CRIMINALITY
When we think of deviance we often think of crime and criminality

4. Cesare Lombroso and the biological roots of criminality

5. William Sheldon
body structure as a predictor of criminality

6. Major Theories in Sociology
Functionalism
Symbolic Interactionism
Conflict Theory

7. STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

8. Emile Durkheim deviance affirms cultural values and norms
-condemning something as “deviant” clarifies moral boundaries
-constructing an act as deviant can unify social groups
-what is constructed as deviant may often be reconstructed as a social or commercial good

9. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE ON DEVIANCE
what we understand to be deviant is nothing more than a function of perspective
examples: “crimes” such as murder, theft, statutory rape

10. Erving Goffman and Stigma
Stigma: culturally negative label that greatly alters or shapes ones self-concept/identity

11. MEDICALIZATION OF DEVIANCE
when behavior constructed as deviant becomes medicalized, the notions of objectivity and legitimacy associated with science and scientific inquiry alter the construction of the behavior;
?What is the difference between behavior that is “biologized” versus “medicalized”?

12. Travis Hirschi: Control Theory
four types of social control
attachment
opportunity
involvement
belief

13. attachment
Attachment to other people who respect the values and rules of the society; individuals do not want to be rejected by those to whom they are close or they admire

14. commitment
Commitment to conventional activities (schools and jobs) that they do not want to jeopardize

15. involvement
Involvement in activities that keep them so busy with conventional roles and expectations that they do not have time for mischief

16. belief
Belief in the social rules of their culture that they accept because of childhood socialization and indoctrination into conventional beliefs.

17. LABELING THEORY
Labeling theory focuses on how people define reality or what is or is not “normal”
No behavior or individual is intrinsically deviant
Behavior “is” deviant because individuals label it deviant
Members of a society create deviance by defining behaviors as deviant; they then react to the deviance by rejection or by imposing penalties

18. Deviance and Conflict Theory

19. Conflict Theory This approach links deviance to social inequality
Who or what is labeled “deviant” depends on which categories of people hold power in a society

20. Conflict Theory: Deviance and Capitalism
Deviant labels have often been applied to people or populations that are perceived to have no or little use in a system of industrial or capitalist production