1. Social Control and Deviance
Chapter 6
Social Control and Deviance
Lecture PowerPoint
© W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

2. What Is Social Deviance?
Social deviance is any transgression of socially established norms.
Minor transgressions of these norms can be described as informal deviance.
Formal deviance or crime involves the violation of laws.
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3. Functionalist Approaches to Deviance and Social Control
Social cohesion refers to the way people form social bonds, relate to each other, and get along on a day-to-day basis.
Emile Durkheim theorized that social cohesion is established either through:
Mechanical solidarity — based on the sameness of society’s parts or members
Organic solidarity — based on the interdependence of specialized parts or members
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4. Functionalist Approaches to Deviance and Social Control
Punitive justice is focused on making the violator suffer and thus defining the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
Rehabilitative justice examines the specific circumstances of an individual transgressor and attempts to find ways to rehabilitate him.
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5. Functionalist Approaches to Deviance and Social Control
Social control is the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals.
Normative compliance is the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply following the rules of group life.
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6. Functionalist Approaches to Deviance and Social Control
Informal social sanctions
Are unspoken rules and expectations about people’s behavior
Help maintain a base level of order and cohesion in society and form a foundation for formal social control
Are, for example, laws, the authority of police officers, etc.
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7. Functionalist Approaches to Deviance and Social Control
Emile Durkheim’s theory of suicide proposed that suicide is a product of social forces, depending on a person’s level of social integration and social regulation.
Robert Merton’s strain theory argues that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals.
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8. Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Deviance
Symbolic interactionists take a micro view of society, examining the beliefs and assumptions people bring to their everyday interactions to find the causes or explanations for deviance.
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9. Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Deviance
Labeling Theory
People unconsciously notice how others see or label them, and over time they internalize these labels and come to accept them as “truth.”
People then behave in accordance to expectations surrounding the label they’ve been assigned or that’s been assigned to another — in this way deviance is a social construct.
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10. Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Deviance
Primary deviance
The first act of rule breaking that may result in the rule breaker being labeled “deviant” and thus influence how people think about and act toward him or her.
Secondary deviance
Refers to acts of rule breaking that occur after primary deviance and as a result of a person’s new deviant label.
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11. Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Deviance
Stigma
Negative social label that changes your behavior toward a person; also changes that person’s self-concept and social identity
Has serious consequences in terms of the opportunities made available, or rather that are not made available, to people in a stigmatized group
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12. Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Deviance
Broken Window Theory of Deviance
Developed by Philip Zimbardo
Explains how social context and social cues impact the way individuals act
People who wouldn’t exhibit a certain behavior in one social context might do so in another context where the behavior seems more permissible
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13. Crime
Street crime — refers to crime committed in public and is often associated with violence, gangs, and poverty.
White-collar crime — committed by a professional against a corporation, agency, or other business.
Corporate crime — type of white-collar crime committed by the officers or executives of a company.
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14. Crime Differential Opportunity Theory
Developed by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
States that in addition to the legitimate economic structure, there is an illegitimate opportunity structure that is unequally distributed across social classes
In order to reduce participation in that illegitimate economy, you have to raise the costs of participating in it
Tougher sentencing laws and community policing are two measures that do so
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15. Crime
It can be difficult to measure crime rates over time for a variety of reasons, including:
Changes in how crimes are defined
Fluctuations in whether people report crimes
In the case of murders, improvements in medical technology
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16. Crime Reduction
Deterrence theory is a philosophy of criminal justice based on the notion that crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits.
According to this theory stiffer penalties, increased prison terms, and stricter parole guidelines should thus help reduce crime.
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17. Crime Reduction
There are numerous unintended consequences of deterrence theory that may ultimately result in increased recidivism.
Recidivism occurs when a person who has been involved in the criminal justice system reverts back to criminal behavior.
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18. Crime Reduction
While commitment to a total institution is supposed to help an individual learn to function as a productive member of society, there are many aspects of total institutions that lead to the opposite result.
Michel Foucault argues that penal practices are indicative of how social control is exercised outside of prisons and various modes of discipline are used in society at large to monitor, examine, and order our lives and behavior.
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19. Crime Reduction
Since the 1970s, there has been a change from a more rehabilitative sense of justice to a more punitive one in the United States.
This is evidenced by historically high rates of incarceration.
The consequences of this mass incarceration include staggering costs, the disenfranchisement of millions of former felons, and a disproportionately high rate of imprisonment for black males, which has a ripple effect throughout black communities.
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20. Concept Quiz
1. Which of the following is an example of informal deviance? a) Paying for a meal in a restaurant with pennies, nickels, and dimes b) Telling the hostess of a dinner party that you didn’t like the main dish c) Dyeing one’s hair purple and orange d) All of the above e) None of the above
Answer: D
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21. Concept Quiz
2. Informal social sanctions are ______. a) enforced by overt punishments b) understood by members of a social group without being openly expressed c) established through discussion and consensus of the group d) too weak to have any effect on deviance
Answer: B
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22. Concept Quiz
3. Which of the following is an example of rehabilitative justice?
a) Attending parenting classes while in prison
b) Mandatory monthly drug tests for five years after being paroled on a drug offense
c) Entering a work training program after being released from prison
d) Losing the right to vote after a felony conviction
e) Both A and C
f) Both B and D
Answer: E
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23. Concept Quiz
4. According to Emile Durkheim’s theory of suicide, what two social factors have the most impact on suicide rates? a) Informal sanctions and formal sanctions b) Social integration and anomie c) Social integration and social regulation d) Conformity and recidivism
Answer: C
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24. Concept Quiz
5. Differential opportunity theory links what two things in analyzing deviance? a) Crime rates and penal codes b) Formal and informal social sanctions c) Economic opportunities and crime rates d) Recidivism and rehabilitative justice
Answer: C
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25. Concept Quiz
6. _______ refers to crimes committed by a professional against a corporation, agency, or other business. a) Primary deviance b) Corporate crime c) Secondary deviance d) White-collar crime
Answer: D
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26. Figure 6.1 | A Normative Theory of Suicide

27. Figure 6.2 | Total U.S. Violent Crime Rate, 1960-2005

28. Figure 6.3 | Homicide Victimization Rate, 1950-2005

29. Figure 6.4 | National Recidivism Rates for Prisoners Released in 1983 and 1994

30. Figure 6.5 | Size of Death Row Population since 1973

31. Figure 6.6 | Number of Executions and Race of Prisoners Executed, 1976-2007