1. Deviance and Social Control
Chapter 6
Deviance and Social Control

2. What is Deviance? Relative Deviance
What is Deviant to Some is not Deviant to Others
“Deviance” is Nonjudgmental Term
A Neutral Term
Stigma
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3. Norms Make Social Life Possible
Makes Behavior Predictable
No Norms - Social Chaos
Social Control
Group’s Formal and Informal Means of Enforcing Norms
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4. Sanctions Negative Sanctions Positive Sanctions
Frowns/gossip breaking folkways; imprison-ment/capital punishment for violating Mores
Positive Sanctions
From smiles to formal awards
Are used to reward people for conforming to norms
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5. Competing Explanations of Deviance
Sociobiologists
Look for Answers Inside Individuals
Genetic Predispositions
Psychologists
Focuses on Abnormalities Within Individuals
Personality Disorders
Deviant Personalities
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6. Competing Explanations of Deviance
Sociologists
Look for Answers Outside Individuals
Socialization
Membership in Subcultures
Social Class
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7. Module 23
Social Control
Social control: Techniques and strategies employed for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
Parents
Peer groups
Companies
Government

8. Internal and External Social Control
Internal social control takes place when individuals internalize norms and values and follow those norms and values in their lives.
External social control involves negative sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors and punish rule breakers. 8

9. Informal and Formal Social Control
Module 23
Informal and Formal Social Control
Informal social control: Used casually to enforce norms
Formal social control: Carried out by authorized agents

10. Module 23
Social Control
Sanctions: penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm
Death penalty ultimate formal sanction
Subject of controversy centered on effectiveness of this sanction as social control

11. Conformity and Obedience
Module 23
Conformity and Obedience
Conformity: Going along with peers who have no special right to direct behavior
Obedience: Compliance with higher authorities in an hierarchical structure

12. Conformity and Obedience
Module 23
Conformity and Obedience
The Milgram Experiment
Experimenter instructed people to administer increasingly painful electric shocks to a subject
Two-thirds of participants fell into category of “obedient subjects”

13. Module 23
Law and Society
Some norms are so important to a society that they are formalized into laws
Law: Governmental social control
The legal order reflects values of those in a position to exercise authority
Control Theory: Our connection to members of society leads us to systematically conform to society’s norms

14. Functionalist Perspective
Module 24
Functionalist Perspective
Durkheim’s Legacy
Punishments established within a culture help define acceptable behavior and contribute to stability
Anomie: Loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective

15. Functionalist Perspective
Emile Durkheim: Deviance is a necessary element of social organization
Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
Responding to deviance brings people together
Deviance encourages social change 15

16. Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
There is a strong cultural emphasis on success goals in America.
Everyone is socialized to aspire toward high achievement and success.
Competitiveness and success are glorified by public authorities, taught in schools, and glamorized in the media
Worth is judged by material and monetary success.

17. Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
There is a discrepancy between means and goals for obtaining success
Disadvantaged groups do not have equal access to such legitimate opportunities.
This anomic condition produces strain or pressure on these groups to take advantage of whatever effective means to success they can find.

18. Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
Merton proposed five ways of responding to (or adapting to) goals verse the means.
Conformity: Most common response
Innovation: Typical criminal response
Ritualism: Habitual response
Retreatism: Typical of drug use or “hobos”
Rebellion: Seeking radical change

19. Robert Merton’s Strain Theory of Deviance
Adaptations
Goals
Means
Conformity
Accept
Innovation
Reject
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
Replace

20. Opportunity Theory
Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin (1960) suggested that for deviance to occur, people must have access illegitimate opportunity structures:
Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.

21. Differential Association Theory Perspectives
States that people have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with individuals who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity.
From this approach, criminal behavior is learned within intimate personal groups such as one’s family and peer groups 21

22. Differential Reinforcement Theory
Criminologist Ronald Akers (1998) combined differential association theory with elements of psychological learning theory to create differential reinforcement theory.
If a person’s friends and groups define deviant behavior as “right,” they is more likely to engage in deviant behavior.
If a person’s friends and groups define deviant behavior as “wrong,” the person is less likely to engage in that behavior. 22

23. Social Bond Theory
The probability of deviant behavior increases when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken.
According to Travis Hirschi, social bonding consists of
attachment to other people
commitment to conformity
involvement in conventional activities
belief in the legitimacy of conventional norms. 23

24. Labeling Theory
Attempts to explain why some people are viewed as deviants while others are not; also known as societal-reaction approach.
The act of fixing a person with a negative identity (label), such as “criminal” is directly related to the power of those who do the labeling and those being labeled. 24

25. Stages in the Labeling Process
Primary deviance is believed to be unorganized, inconsistent, and infrequent. Without social reaction, the deviance would most likely remain sporadic and unorganized.
Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts the identity and continues the deviant behavior.
Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as non-deviant. 25

26. Module 24
Conflict Theory
People with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their needs
Differential justice: Differences in way social control is exercised over different groups

27. Module 24
Feminist Perspective
Adler and Chesney-Lind argue existing approaches to deviance and crime developed with men in mind
Society tends to treat women in stereotypical fashion
Cultural views and attitudes toward women influence how they are perceived and labeled

28. How the Law Classifies Crime
Crimes are divided into felonies and misdemeanors.
A felony is a serious crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment typically ranges from more than a year’s imprisonment to death.
A misdemeanor is a minor crime typically punished by less than one year in jail.

29. How Sociologists Classify Crime
Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offenses:
Conventional Street Crime
White-collar Crime (Professional)
Vice Crime (victimless)
Organized Crime (Hierarchal Structure)
Political Crime

30. Module 25
Types of Crime
Victimless crimes: Willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services
Professional crime: Many people make a career of illegal activities
Professional criminal: Person who pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation

31. Module 25
Types of Crime
Organized crime: Group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities
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

32. Types of Crime White Collar and Technology-Based Crime
Module 25
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

33. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Differential Association Theory
The Theory
Edwin Sutherland
Families
Friends, Neighbors, and Subcultures
Prison or Freedom?
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34. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Control Theory
The Theory
Inner Controls
Morality; Conscience; Religious Principles
Outer controls
Family, friends, the police
Applying Control Theory
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35. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Labeling Theory
Rejecting Labels: How People Neutralize Deviance
Denial of responsibility, injury, victim; condemnation of the condemners; loyalties
Embracing Labels - Outlaw Bikers
Power of Labels: Saints & Roughnecks
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36. Functionalist Perspective: Can Deviance Be Functional?
Most of us are upset by deviance
Clarifies Moral Boundaries and Affirms Norms
Promotes Social Unity
Promotes Social Change
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37. Functionalist Perspective: Strain Theory
How Mainstream Values Produce Deviance
Cultural Goals
Institutional Means
Strain Leads to Anomie
Deviant paths
Innovators; Ritualism; Retreatism; Rebellion
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39. Who Gets Executed? Gender Bias in Capital Punishment
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