1. Society The Basics
FOURTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 7
Deviance

2. Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
7.1 Explain how sociology addresses limitations of a biological or psychological approach to deviance. 7.2 Apply structural-functional theories to the topic of deviance. 7.3 Apply symbolic-interaction theories to the topic of deviance. 7.4 Apply social-conflict theories to the topic of deviance.

3. Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
7.5 Apply race-conflict and feminist theories to the topic of deviance. 7.6 Identify patterns of crime in the United States and around the world. 7.7 Analyze the operation of the criminal justice system.

4. The Power of Society
Does everyone, regardless of race, run the same risk of being sent to prison if they engage in illegal drug use?

5. Deviance (1 of 2) Learning Objective 7
Deviance (1 of 2) Learning Objective 7.1: Explain how sociology addresses limitations of a biological or psychological approach to deviance
Deviance
Recognized violation of cultural norms
Crime
Violation of a society's formally enacted criminal law
“How a society defines deviance, who is branded as deviant, and what people decide to do about deviance all have to do with the way society is organized.”

6. Deviance (2 of 2) Norms guide almost all human activities.
Most familiar examples are negative instances of rule-breaking.
Especially righteous people also might be called “deviant”.
“Different” or “unexpected” to describe deviance from a sociological perspective.
Some categories of people are defined as deviant regardless of action or choice.

7. 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

8. Explanations for Deviance
Biological context
Genetic and environmental factors, especially abuse early in life: predictors of adult crime/violence
Evaluation
Theory offers a limited explanation of crime.
Biological traits in combination with environmental factors explain some serious crime.
No insight into how some kinds of behaviors come to be defined as deviant.

9. Explanations for Deviance: Biological Context
Personality factors
Deviance is viewed as unsuccessful “socialization.”
Focus on abnormality in individual personality
Reckless and Dinitz: Containment Theory
Evaluation
Capacity for self-control and ability to withstand frustration do seem to be skills that promote conformity
Limited value in explaining deviance

10. Social Foundations of Deviance (1 of 2)
Deviance varies according to cultural norms.
No thought or action is inherently deviant.
People become deviant as others define them that way.
How others perceive and label us

11. Social Foundations of Deviance (2 of 2)
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.
Why is it that street-corner gambling like this is usually against the law but playing the same games in a fancy casino is not?

12. Durkheim's basic insight
The Functions of Deviance: Structural-Functional Theories Learning Objectives 7.2: Apply structural-functional theories to the topic of deviance.
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

13. 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.
Durkheim claimed that deviance is a necessary element of social organization, serving several important functions.

14. Figure 7-1 Merton's Strain Theory of Deviance

15. Merton's Strain Theory (1 of 3)
Extent and type of deviance depend on whether a society provides the means to achieve cultural goals.

16. Merton's Strain Theory (2 of 3)
Conformity
Conventional goals through normal means
Innovation
Unconventional means to achieve approved goals

17. Merton's Strain Theory (3 of 3)
Ritualism
Accept institutional means; reject goals
Rebellion
Define new goals and means to achieve goals

18. Deviant Subcultures (1 of 4)
Miller
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.

19. Deviant Subcultures (2 of 4)
Cloward and Ohlin
Extended Merton's theory
Cohen
Delinquency is most common among lower-class youths because they have the least opportunity for conventional success.

20. Deviant Subcultures (3 of 4)
Evaluation
Important contribution
Points out the functions of deviance theories fall short
Assumes that everyone shares the same cultural standards for judging right and wrong

21. Deviant Subcultures (4 of 4)
Young people cut off from legitimate opportunity often form subcultures that many people view as deviant.
Gang subcultures are one way young people gain the sense of belonging and respect denied to them by the larger culture.

22. Labeling Deviance: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis Learning Objective 7
Labeling Deviance: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis Learning Objective 7.3: Apply symbolic-interaction theories to the topic of deviance.
Labeling theory
Main contribution of symbolic-interaction analysis is labeling theory.
Deviance and conformity result not from what people do but how others respond to those actions.

23. Labeling Theory (1 of 2) Primary deviance Secondary deviance
Norm violations that most people take part in with little harm to self-concept
Secondary deviance
When people “make something” of another's deviant behavior

24. Labeling Theory (2 of 2) Stigma
Powerful negative label that greatly changes a person's self-concept and social identity
Does simply committing such a horrific crime lead us to wonder about a suspect's sanity?
Should society respond differently to someone considered “insane” rather than “guilty” of the crime? Explain.

25. Labeling Deviance (1 of 2)
Retrospective labeling
Re-interpreting someone’s past in light of present deviance
Projective labeling
Predicts future deviant behavior

26. Labeling Deviance (2 of 2)
Medicalization of deviance
Transform moral and legal deviance into a medical condition
How people respond
Personal competence of the deviant person

27. 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.

28. Hirschi's Control Theory
Attachment
Strong social attachments encourage conformity.
Opportunity
Greater the access to legitimate opportunity, the greater advantages of conformity.
Involvement
Extensive involvement in legitimate activities inhibits deviance.
Belief
Strong belief in conventional morality and respect for authority controls deviance

29. Symbolic-Interaction Theories
Evaluation
Important contributions to understanding of deviance
Takes highly relative view of deviance
Most usefully applied for less serious issues
Does not clearly show whether deviant labeling produces further deviance or discourages it

30. Deviance and Capitalism Learning Objective 7
Deviance and Capitalism Learning Objective 7.4: Apply social-conflict theories to the topic of deviance.
Steven Spitzer’s 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

31. Deviance and Crime Organized crime
A business supplying illegal goods or services
The television series Boardwalk Empire offers an inside look at the lives of gangsters in this country's history.
How accurately do you think the mass media portray organized crime? Explain.

32. Deviance, Race, and Gender: Race-Conflict and Feminist Theories
Hate crime
A criminal act against a person or person's property by offender motivated by racial bias
By 2012, forty-five states and the federal government had enacted legislation that increased penalties for crimes motivated by hatred.
Do you think this example of vandalism should be prosecuted as a hate crime?

33. Deviance, Race, and Gender Learning Objective 7
Deviance, Race, and Gender Learning Objective 7.5: Apply race-conflict and feminist theories to the topic of deviance.
The Feminist Perspective and Gender
The world applies more stringent normative controls to women.
Strain may be 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?

34. Applying Theory Deviance Structural-Functional Theory
Symbolic-Interaction
Social-Conflict
Race-Conflict and
Feminist Theories
What is the level of analysis?
Macro-level
Micro-level
What is deviance?
Deviance is a basic part of social organization.
Deviance is part of socially constructed reality that emerges in interaction.
Deviance results from social
inequality.
Deviance reflects racial and
gender inequality.
What part does it play in society?
By defining deviance, society sets its moral boundaries.
Deviance comes into
being as individuals label something deviant.
Norms, including laws, reflect
the interests of powerful
members of society.
Deviant labels are more readily applied to women and other minorities.
What is important about
deviance?
Deviance is universal: It exists in all societies.
Deviance is variable: Any act or person may or may not be
labeled deviant.
Deviance is political: People with little power are at high
risk of being labeled deviant.
Deviance is a means of control:
Dominant categories
of people discredit others as a means to dominate them.

35. National Map 7-1 The Risk of Violent Crime across the United States

36. Crime (1 of 2) Learning Objective 7
Crime (1 of 2) Learning Objective 7.6: Identify patterns of crime in the United States and around the world.
The violation of criminal laws enacted by a locality, state, or the federal government
Two elements
The act itself
Criminal intent

37. Crime (2 of 2) Crimes against the person Crimes against property
Direct violence or threat of it
Crimes against property
Involves theft of property
Victimless crimes (crimes without complaint)
Violations of law in which there are no obvious victims

38. Criminal Statistics
Victimization surveys: Crime rate is two to four times higher than official reports.

39. The Street Criminal: A Profile (1 of 2)
Ages 15-24
14% of population
38.1% of arrests for violent crime, 45.6% of property crimes
Gender
Males commit 62.9% of property crimes and 80.4% of violent crimes

40. The Street Criminal: A Profile (2 of 2)
Social class
Violent crime committed in poor neighborhood
White-collar and corporate crime committed by more affluent
Race and ethnicity
69.2% of arrests involve white people.
People of color are over-criminalized.

41. Crime in Global Perspective (1 of 3)
United States and crime
The U.S. crime rate is high by world standards.
The rate of U.S. violent crime is several times higher than in Europe.
Currie suggests that crime stems from our culture’s emphasis on individual economic success frequently at the expense of strong families and neighborhoods.

42. Crime in Global Perspective (2 of 3)
Other countries and crime
Crime rates are high in some of the world’s largest cities due to rapid population growth and millions of poor.
The traditional character of low-income societies and their strong families allow informal crime control outside of big cities.

43. Crime in Global Perspective (3 of 3)
Different countries have different strategies for dealing with crime.
When economic activity such as selling illegal drugs takes place outside of the law, people turn to violence rather than courts to settle disagreements.

44. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process (1 of 4)
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
The criminal justice system must operate according to law
This principle is grounded in the Bill of Rights.

45. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process (2 of 4)
Police
Police are primary point of contact between population and criminal justice system.
The police maintain public order by enforcing the law.

46. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process (3 of 4)
Officers quickly size up situations in terms of six factors.
Gravity of situation
Victim’s wishes
Cooperation of suspect
Suspect arrested history
Presence of observers
Suspect ethnicity/race

47. US Criminal Justice System: Due Process (4 of 4)
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

48. Global Map 7-1 Capital Punishment in Global Perspective

49. Justifications for Punishment (1 of 2)
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

50. Justifications for Punishment (2 of 2)
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

51. Summing Up Four Justifications for Punishment Retribution
The oldest justification for punishment.
Punishment is society’s revenge for a moral wrong.
In principle, punishment should be equal in severity to the crime itself.
Deterrence
An early modern approach.
Crime is considered social disruption, which society acts to control.
People are viewed as rational and self-interested; deterrence works because the pain of punishment outweighs the pleasure of crime.
Rehabilitation
A modern strategy linked to the development of social sciences.
Crime and other deviance are viewed as the result of social problems (such as poverty) or personal problems (such as
mental illness).
Social conditions are improved; treatment is tailored to the offender’s condition.
Societal protection
A modern approach easier to carry out than rehabilitation.
Even if society is unable or unwilling to rehabilitate offenders or reform social conditions, people are protected by the
imprisonment or execution of the offender.

52. The Death Penalty Learning Objective 7
The Death Penalty Learning Objective 7.7: Analyze the operation of the criminal justice system.
Most of the 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.

53. Community-Based Corrections
Parole
Releasing inmates from prison to serve the remainder of their sentences in the community
Probation
Policy permitting convicted offender to remain in community under conditions by court
Shock probation
Judge orders convicted offender to prison for a short time then suspends the remainder of the sentence.

54. Violent Crime Is Down Why? Reduction in youth population
Changes in policing
More prisoners
Better economy
Declining drug trade