1. Module 23: Social Control
Sociology in Modules
Richard T. Schaefer
3rd edition

2. Culture and norms regarding appropriate behavior

3. Social Control
Social control: techniques and strategies employed for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
Parents
Peer groups
Government
Bureaucratic organizations

5. Why do we accept these norms? Social Control and sactions
Sanctions: penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm
If we fail to live up to the norm we may face informal sanctions (fear and ridicule) or formal sanctions (jail sentences or fines)

6. Why do we need norms? What is the functionalist view?
Why are norms functional for society?
Why should few decide about these norms?
Conflict perspective –
Resistance to social norms is necessary to bring about change.
Civil rights movement

7. Conformity and Obedience
The Milgram Experiment
Experimenter instructed people to administer increasingly painful electric shocks to a subject
Conformity: going along with peers who have no special right to direct behavior
Similar status – peer group, minority status group
Obedience: compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure
Higher status – police officers

8. We also consider social positioning
Conflict perspective
Garry Schulman – recreating the Milgram Experiment
What happened when race was introduced?
Authority figure
Your position
Your position
Position of the victim

9. Conformity and Obedience
Reflecting on the Milgram Experiment
Two-thirds of participants fell into category of “obedient subjects”
People in modern industrial world accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority figures
Recent replications of experiment confirm findings

10. Reflecting on the Milgram experiment
Why did these subjects obey? – why were they willing to inflict painful socks on innocent people?
Submission to authority
Power of symbols – people in uniform
Shift of responsibility to authority figure

11. Informal and Formal Social Control
Informal social control: used casually to enforce norms
Smiles, laughter, raised eyebrows, ridicule
Formal social control: carried out by authorized agents
Informal social control can undermine formal social control, encouraging people to violate social norms
Example – Binge drinking

12. Law and Society
Some norms are so important to a society that they are formalized into laws
Law: governmental social control
Regulations – hunting regulations

13. How laws are created?
Laws are passed due to perceived need for social control
Nixon's private comments about marijuana showed he was the epitome of misinformation and prejudice. He believed marijuana led to hard drugs, despite the evidence to the contrary. He saw marijuana as tied to "radical demonstrators." He believed that "the Jews," especially "Jewish psychiatrists" were behind advocacy for legalization, asking advisor Bob Haldeman, "What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?" He made a bizarre distinction between marijuana and alcohol, saying people use marijuana "to get high" while "a person drinks to have fun."

14. He also saw marijuana as part of the culture war that was destroying the United States, and claimed that Communists were using it as a weapon. "Homosexuality, dope, immorality in general," Nixon fumed. "These are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they're trying to destroy us." His approach drug education was just as simplistic: "Enforce the law. You've got to scare them.“
Source: This article originally appeared on Points, an Atlantic partner site.

15. The legal order reflects values of those in a position to exercise authority
Medical use of marijuana
Gay marriage
These values are internalized through the process of socialization
- We are socialized to want to belong and be fearful of being viewed as different of deviant

16. Control Theory
Control theory: connection to members of society leads people to systematically conform to society’s norms
Social connections
Family
Peer group
Induce conformity
Mores
Folkways
Self-control
Internalization
Social norms
Socialization

18. Module 24: What Is Deviance?
Sociology in Modules
Richard T. Schaefer
3rd edition

20. Deviant behavior

21. What Is Deviance?
Deviance: behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society
Involves violation of group norms, which may or may not be formalized into law
Subject to social definition within a particular society and at a particular time

23. What Is Deviance? Deviance and Social Stigma
Stigma: labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups
Mental illness and perception of crime
Overweight people

24. Sociological Perspectives on Deviance
Why do people violate social norms?
Early explanations blamed supernatural causes or genetic factors (“bad blood”)
Socio-biologists critical of emphasis on genetic roots of crime and deviance
Lombroso ( ) – Italian physician – his theory – all criminals have some physical traits in common

25. Functionalist Perspective
Durkheim’s Legacy
Punishments established within a culture help define acceptable behavior and contribute to stability
Erikson illustrated boundary-maintenance function of deviance
Anomie: loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective

26. Table 24-1: Merton’s Deviance Theory26

28. Interactionist Perspective
Cultural Transmission
Cultural transmission: humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly
Differential association: process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules (Sutherland)

29. Social disorganization theory

30. Interactionist Perspective
Social Disorganization Theory
Increases in crime and deviance attributed to absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions
Some claim social disorganization theory seems to “blame the victim”

31. Labeling Perspective
Labeling theory: attempts to explain why some people are viewed as deviants while others are not; also known as societal-reaction approach
Societal-reaction approach: another term for labeling theory, designed to remind us that the response to an act, not the behavior, determines deviance

32. Labeling Perspective Labeling and Agents of Social Control
Focuses on police, probation officers, psychiatrists, judges, teachers, employers, school officials, and other regulators of social control
Social constructionist perspective: deviance is a product of the culture we live in

36. Conflict Perspective
People with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their needs
Contends that the entire criminal justice system in the United States treats suspects differently based on their race, ethnicity, or social class
Differential justice: differences in way social control is exercised over different groups

37. Conflict theory of deviance

38. Who has power?

39. Feminist Perspective
Adler and Chesney-Lind suggest existing approaches to deviance and crime developed with men in mind
Great effort undertaken by feminist organizations to redefine legal definitions of rape
Cultural views and attitudes toward women influence how they are perceived and labeled

40. Sociology in Modules Richard T. Schaefer 3rd edition
Module 25: Crime
Sociology in Modules
Richard T. Schaefer
3rd edition

41. Crime
Crime: violation of criminal law for which governmental authority applies formal penalties
Six types differentiated by sociologists:
Victimless crimes
Professional crime
Organized crime
White-collar and technology-based crime
Hate crimes
Transnational crime

42. Types of Crime Victimless Crimes Professional Crime
Willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services – drug abuse, gambling
Should these be regulated?
Are these crime really victimless?
Consider – labeling theory – “victimless”
Professional Crime
Committed by a professional criminal: person who pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation

43. Professional Crime Edwin Sutherland Highly organized
Specialization in a crime – Burglary, Con artists
Spend lot of time perfecting the crime
Develop skill to avoid arrest, convictions
Connected to other criminals – develop a sub culture

44. Types of Crime Organized Crime
Group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities
Prostitution, gambling
Dominates world of illegal business, just as large corporations dominate conventional businesses
Serves as means of upward mobility for groups of people struggling to escape poverty
Can be characterized by the process of ethnic succession

45. Types of Crime White Collar and Technology-Based Crime
White-collar crime: illegal acts committed in the course of business activities
Computer crime: use of high technology to carry out embezzlement or electronic fraud
Corporate crime: any act by a corporation that is punishable by the government

46. Corporate Crime

47. Changing views about corporate crime How corporate crime is dealt with?
Generally, corporate wrong-doers get off easily
Few exceptions – Martha Steward (2004)
Enron's bankruptcy in December 2001
led to thousands of layoffs, the collapse of the company’s stock price and the loss of billions of dollars by investors, including many of the company’s own employees.
Two billion dollars in employee pensions were wiped out, as well as $60 billion in stock. Five thousand employees lost their jobs, and 20,000 people lost their entire life savings.

49. ENRON
Jeff Skilling was never convicted of causing Enron's bankruptcy or losing its employees' retirement plans millions of dollars. He was, however, wrongly sentenced to 24 years in jail for doing those things.
On Friday, a federal judge approved a deal resentencing Skilling to just 14 years, six of which he has already served. While that is still quite a long stint behind bars, the reduction means that Skilling is no longer effectively jailed for life.

50. White collar crime and stigma

51. Types of Crime
Hate Crime – Perpetrators action and purpose of their conduct
Offender is motivated to choose a victim based on race, religion, ethnic group, national origin, or sexual orientation, and when evidence shows that hatred prompted offender to commit the crime
In 2013, official reports of more than 7,200 hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents

52. Hate Crime Statistics Act, 1990
Official mandate to record hate crime
Definitions of hate crime – mental disability
Punishment for hate crime – fines and jail
Race – highest motivator for hate crime
Vandalism, intimidation
Assaults, rape and murder

53. Figure 25-1: Categorization of Reported Hate Crimes53

54. Types of Crime Transnational Crime
Crime that occurs across multiple national borders
Once often limited to shipment of goods across single border; now, spans the globe
Slavery
Trafficking in endangered species, drugs, stolen art and antiquities

55. Crime Statistics Index Crimes and Victimization Surveys
Index crimes include eight types of crime tabulated by the FBI
Violent crimes against people
Murder, rape, robbery, assault
Crimes against property
Burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson

56. Crime Statistics Index Crimes and Victimization Surveys (continued)
Crime index is disproportionately devoted to property crimes
Only crimes reported to law enforcement agencies tracked
Under-reporting of crime – serious issue
Victimization surveys: surveys of ordinary people, not police officers, to determine whether they have been victims of crime

57. Media and public perception of crime

58. Crime Statistics Crime Trends
Public regards crime as major social problem, yet rate of crime being reported in was comparable to what it was in 1963
Violent crime and property crime has dropped by about 20% in the last 10 years
Why the decline?

59. Figure 25-2: Victimization Rates, 1993–201259

60. Crime Statistics International Crime Rates
Violent crimes much more common in U.S. than western Europe in 1980s and 1990s
England, Ireland, Denmark, and New Zealand have higher rates of car theft than U.S.
Rapid rise in homicide rates in developing countries that supply drugs to industrialized countries
Why are violent crimes higher in the US? Can we use Merton’s Strain Theory?

61. Social Policy and Social Control: Gun Control
Looking at the Issue
Guns are big business in the U.S.; very high ratio of guns to people in the U.S.
Second Amendment to the constitution guarantees the “right of the people to keep and bear arms”
35% own some form of firearm
Gun ownership – part of culture
US has more guns per person than any other county

62. Number of citizens favoring stricter gun control has dropped
Role of firearms in crime has remained steady -2/3 of all murders are committed with firearms
Brady Act requires background checks for gun purchases
Supreme Court has recently favored more gun rights

63. Social Policy and Social Control: Gun Control
Applying Sociology
Sociologists find it difficult to get funding for studies of gun violence
1993 CDC study found that firearm kept at home likely to harm family members - controversies
Near total cutoff of federal funding for gun studies
Conflict theorists point out power of NRA over legislative process
Interactionists note use of symbols by both pro- and anti-gun rights activists