1. SOCIOLOGY: A Brief Introduction
Richard T. Schaefer
SOCIOLOGY: A Brief Introduction
Sixth Edition
McGraw-Hill
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL8
DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
Social Control
Deviance
Crime
Social Policy and Social Control: Gun Control

3. Social Control
Techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
Occurs on all levels of society
Sanctions: Penalties and rewards for conduct, concerning a social norm

4. Social Control 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

5. Social Control Conformity and Obedience Conformity to Prejudice
Research demonstrates that people may conform to attitudes and behavior of peers even when it means expressing intolerance towards others

6. Social Control Conformity and Obedience Obedience to Authority
Milgram pointed out that in the modern industrial world, we are accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority figures, whose status is indicated by a title or uniform
We view authority as larger or more important than the individual, and we shift responsibility for our behavior to the authority figure.

7. Social Control Informal and Formal Social Control
Informal Social Control: used casually to enforce norms
Formal Social Control: carried out by authorized agents
Interplay between formal and informal social control can be complicated, especially if people are encouraged to violate social norms

8. Social Control Law and Society
Some norms are so important to a society that they are formalized into laws
Laws: governmental social control
Creation of laws a social process
Legal order reflects the values of those in position to exercise authority

9. Social Control Law and Society
Control Theory: our connection to members of society leads us to systematically conform to society’s norms

10. Social Control
Figure 8.1: The Status of Medical Marijuana

11. Deviance 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

12. Deviance Sociology on Campus: Binge Drinking
Source: Wechsler et al. 2002:208.

13. Deviance What is Deviance? Deviance and Social Stigma
Stigma: labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups
People often stigmatized for deviant behaviors they no longer engage in

14. Deviance What is Deviance? Deviance and Technology
Technological innovations can redefine social interactions and standards of behavior related to them

15. Explaining Deviance Figure 8-2: Catching Music Thieves
Source: Healy 2003:A21

16. Deviance Explaining Deviance Functionalist Perspective
Deviance common part of human existence, with positive as well as negative consequences for social stability.
Durkheim Legacy
Anomie: loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior becomes ineffective

17. Deviance Explaining Deviance Functionalist Perspective
Merton’s Theory of Deviance
Anomie Theory of Deviance: How people adapt in certain ways by conforming to or by deviating from cultural expectations, including conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion

18. Deviance

19. Deviance Explaining Deviance Interactionist Perspective
Explains why rule violations continue despite pressure to conform and obey

20. Deviance Explaining Deviance Interactionist Perspective
Cultural Transmission Theory
Cultural Transmission: humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly
Differential Association: sutherland’s term describing the process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules

21. Deviance Explaining Deviance Interactionist Perspective
Routine Activities Theory
Criminal victimization increases when motivated offenders and suitable targets converge.

22. Deviance Explaining Deviance Interactionist Perspective
Labeling Theory
Attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants while others are not
Some individuals or groups have the power to define and apply labels
Also known as societal-reaction approach
Social Constructionist Perspective: deviance is product of the culture we live in

23. Deviance Explaining Deviance Explaining Deviance
Interactionist Perspective
Conflict Theory
Explaining Deviance
Interactionist Perspective
Conflict Theory
Agents of social control and other powerful groups can impose their own self-serving definitions of deviance on the general public.

24. Deviance Explaining Deviance Interactionist Perspective
Feminist Perspective
Society tends to treat women in stereotypical fashion
Emphasizes deviance, including crime, tends to flow from economic relationships

25. Deviance Social Inequality: Race and the Death Penalty Continued…
Source: Based on Bureau of the Census 2002a; Dieter 1998:13; Snell and Maruschak 2002:10, 11.

26. Deviance Social Inequality: Race and the Death Penalty Continued…
Source: Based on Bureau of the Census 2002a; Dieter 1998:13; Snell and Maruschak 2002:10, 11.

27. Crime
Types of Crime
Crime: violation of criminal law, for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties
Laws divide crimes into categories based on:
Severity of offense
Age of offender
Potential punishment
Jurisdiction

28. Crime Types of Crime Professional Crime Organized Crime
Professional criminal: person who pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation
Organized Crime
Work of a group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities

29. Crime Types of Crime White Collar and Technology-Based Crime
White-collar Crime: illegal acts committed in the course of business activities, often by affluent, “respectable” people
Computer Crime: use of high technology to carry out illegal activity
Corporate Crime: any act by a corporation that is punishable by the government

30. Crime Types of Crime Victimless Crimes
Willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services

31. Crime Crime Statistics Not as accurate as social scientists would like
Serve as an indicator of police activity and approximate indication of the level of certain crimes
Mistake to interpret these data as an exact representation of the incidence of crime

32. Crime Crime Statistics Understanding Crime Statistics
Reported crime is very high in the U.S.
Public regards crime as major social problem
Victimization Surveys: surveys of ordinary people, not police officers, to determine whether they have been victims of crime

33. Crime Crime Statistics International Crime Rates
Violent crimes much more common in U.S than Western Europe in 1980s and 1990s
Disturbing increases in violent crime are evident in other Western societies

34. Crime Figure 8.3: Victimization Rates, 1973 to 2002
Source: Rennison 2003:1.

35. Social Policy and Social Control
Gun Control
The Issue
Over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all murders were committed with firearms
The 1994 Brady Act mandates that firearms dealers run criminal history background checks on people who wish to purchase handguns
About two percent of all purchases denied as result of the checks

36. Social Policy and Social Control
Gun Control
The Setting
The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the “right of the people to keep and bear arms”
30 to 35 million people in the United States own handguns
About 45 percent of U.S. households have some type of firearm on the premises.

37. Social Policy and Social Control
Gun Control
Sociological Insights:
Since the Brady Act, support for stricter measures has actually declined
Conflict theorists contend that groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) can dominate the legislative process because of their ability to mobilize resources

38. Social Policy and Social Control
Gun Control
Policy Implications
Advocates for stricter gun control would like to see:
A total ban on assault weapons
Tight restrictions on permits to carry concealed weapons
Increased penalties for leaving firearms where they are easily accessible to children and others who could misuse them

39. Social Policy and Social Control
Gun Control
Policy Implications
In light of growing concern over terrorism on the home front, the handgun debate has turned to the question of allowing pilots to carry guns in the cockpit
Firearms issue not limited to the U.S.