1. Chapter 7
Deviance

2. Deviance Norms guide almost all human activities
Most familiar examples are negative instances of rule-breaking
Especially righteous people also might be called “deviant”
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3. Deviance
“Different” or “unexpected” to describe deviance from a sociological perspective
Some categories of people are defined as deviant regardless of action or choice
Social Control
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4. Social Control Informal Social Control Formal Social Control
Parents; teachers; peers
Formal Social Control
Criminal Justice System:
A formal response by police, courts, and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
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5. Explanations for Deviance
Biological context
Genetic & environmental factors, esp. abuse early in life: predictors of adult crime/violence
Personality factors
Deviance is viewed as unsuccessful “socialization”
Reckless and Dinitz – Containment Theory
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6. Social Foundations of Deviance
Both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power
Rule-makers, rule-breakers, and rule-enforcers
Norms and applying them are linked to social position
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7. Durkheim's Basic Insight
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime
Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
A boundary between right wrong
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8. Durkheim's Basic Insight
Responding to deviance brings people together
People typically react to serious deviance with shared outrage
Deviance encourages social change.
Deviant people push a society’s moral boundaries
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9. Merton’s Strain Theory
Conformity
Conventional goals through normal means
Innovation
Unconventional means to achieve approved goals
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10. Merton’s Strain Theory
Ritualism
Accept institutional means; reject goals
Rebellion
Define new goals and means to achieve goals
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11. Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
Combining a person’s view of cultural goals and the conventional means to obtain them allowed Robert Merton to identify various types of deviance.
Source: Merton (1968).
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12. Deviant Subcultures Cloward and Ohlin Cohen Extended Merton’s theory
Delinquency is most common among lower-class youths because they have the least
Opportunity for conventional success
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13. Deviant Subcultures Miller Anderson Delinquent subcultures
Trouble, toughness, smartness, need for excitement, belief in fate, desire for freedom
Anderson
In poor urban neighborhoods, most people conform to conventional values
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14. Labeling Deviance Symbolic-interaction analysis Primary deviance
Assertion that deviance & conformity result not from what people do as
How others respond to those actions
Primary deviance
Norm violations that most people take part in with little harm to self-concept
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15. Labeling Deviance Secondary deviance Stigma
When people “make something” of another’s deviant behavior
Stigma
Powerful negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity
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16. Labeling Deviance Retrospective labeling Projective labeling
Re-interpreting someone’s past in light of present deviance
Projective labeling
Predicts future deviant behavior
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17. Labeling Deviance Medicalization of deviance
Transform moral and legal deviance into a medical condition
How people respond
Personal competence of the deviant person
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18. Sutherland’s Differential Association
Deviant behavior is learned
Frequency of association is central to the development of deviance
If associates are prone to violation of norms, one is also more likely to take part
Conformity reaps rewards while the lack of it reaps punishment
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19. Hirschi’s Control Theory
Attachment
Strong social attachments encourage conformity
Opportunity
Greater the access to legitimate opportunity, the greater advantages of conformity
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20. Hirschi’s Control Theory
Involvement
Extensive involvement in legitimate activities inhibits deviance
Belief
Strong belief in conventional morality and respect for authority controls deviance
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21. Social-Conflict Analysis: Deviance and Power
Norms or laws reflect interests of rich and powerful
Powerful have resources to resist deviant labels
Belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks political character
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22. Deviance and Capitalism
Steven Spitzer - likely targets of labeling:
People who interfere with capitalism
People who cannot or will not work
People who resist authority
Anyone who directly challenges the status quo
White-collar crime
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23. Deviance and Capitalism
Those committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations
Corporate crime
Illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf
Organized crime
A business supplying illegal goods or services
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24. Deviance, Race, and Gender
Hate crime
A criminal act against a person or person’s property by offender motivated by racial bias
The Feminist Perspective & Gender
The world applies more stringent normative controls to women
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25. Deviance, Race, and Gender
Strain due to reality of gender-based inequality
Different standards are used to judge the behavior of women and men
Why do women commit fewer crimes than men?
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27. The Risk of Violent Crime across the United States
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28. Crime
The violation of criminal laws enacted by a locality, state, or the federal government
Two elements
The act itself
Criminal intent
Crimes against the person
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29. Crime Crimes against property Criminal statistics
Direct violence or threat of it
Crimes against property
Involves theft of property
Criminal statistics
Victimization surveys: Crime rate is two to four times higher than official reports
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30. Crime Rates in the United States, 1960–2010
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2011).
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31. Crime in Global Perspective
United States
The US crime rate is high by world standards.
The rate of US violent crime is several times higher than in Europe
Elliott Currie: Crime stems from our culture’s emphasis on individual economic success
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32. Crime in Global Perspective
Frequently at the expense of strong families and neighborhoods
Other countries
Crime rates are high in some of the world’s largest cities
Rapid population growth and millions of poor
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33. Crime in Global Perspective
The traditional character of low-income societies and their strong families allow
Informal crime control outside of big cities
Different countries have different strategies for dealing with crime
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34. Capital Punishment in Global Perspective
Source: Amnesty International (2011).
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35. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
Anyone charged with a crime must receive
Fair notice of the proceedings
A hearing on the charges conducted according to law and with the ability to present a defense
A judge or jury that weighs evidence impartially
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36. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
The criminal justice system must operate according to law
This principle is grounded in the Bill of Rights
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37. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
Police: Primary point of contact between population and criminal justice system
Officers quickly size up situations in terms of six factors
Gravity of situation
Victim’s wishes
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38. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process
Cooperation of suspect
Has suspect been arrested before?
Presence of observers increases chances of arrest
Officers are more likely to arrest people of color.
The police maintain public order by enforcing the law
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39. US Criminal Justice System Courts
Plea bargaining: Legal negotiation in which a prosecutor reduces a charge
In exchange for a defendant’s guilty plea
Widespread because it spares the system the time and expense of trials.
Undercuts both the adversarial process and the rights of defendants
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40. Justifications for Punishment
Retribution
An act of moral vengeance by which society
Makes offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime
Deterrence
The attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment
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41. Justifications for Punishment
Rehabilitation
A program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses
Societal protection
Rendering an offender incapable of further offenses temporarily through imprisonment
Or permanently by execution
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42. The Death Penalty Most of population supports death penalty
Death penalty sentences have declined:
Decline in crime rates has resulted in a decreased fear of crime
Fear of wrongful convictions
Increased use of life sentences without parole
High cost of prosecuting capital cases.
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