1. Deviance and Social Control

2. 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

3. Aren’t we all deviant?
Defined as any behavior that departs from societal or group norms
Negative deviance (underconforming)
Positive deviance (overconforming)
If never too thin is the norm,
Anorexia =?
Obesity = ?

4. What is Deviance? Deviance and Social Stigma Deviance and Technology
Stigma: Labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups
Deviance and Technology
Technological innovations can redefine social interactions and standards of behavior related to them

5. Biological and Psychological Theories
Physical traits, body type leads to crime
Personality, intelligence, and anatomy
Psychological
Criminal personality

6. Why Sociologists Critique Psychologists
Often ignore social, economic, and cultural factors
Miss other crimes like white-collar crime
View deviance as physical or psychiatric not social
Cannot explain variation (why some people and not others)
Nature focused not nurture

7. Three Circumstances Social status and power of individual
Saints and Roughnecks
Social context of behavior
gambling
Historical period of behavior
Sex, drugs, rock and roll

8. Social Control
Social control: Techniques and strategies employed for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
Parents
Peer groups
Companies
Government

9. 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

10. 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

11. Criminal Justice System
Police, Courts, Correctional System
Deterrence (drinking and driving?)
Retribution (making them pay)
Incarceration (them away from us)
Rehabilitation?

12. Bowling for Columbine? US versus the world?
Better economy means less crime?

13. Informal and Formal Social Control
Informal social control: Used casually to enforce norms
Smiles, laughter, raised eyebrows, ridicule
Formal social control: Carried out by authorized agents
Informal social control can undermine formal social control, encouraging people to violate social norms

14. 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: Connection to members of society leads people to systematically conform to society’s norms

15. Functionalist Perspective
Durkheim’s Legacy
Punishments established within a culture help define acceptable behavior and contribute to stability
Erikson illustrated boundary- maintenance function of deviance
Anomie: Loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective

16. Functionalist Perspective
Merton’s Theory of Deviance
Anomie Theory of Deviance: 5 basic forms of adaptation
Conformist
Innovator
Ritualist
Retreatist
Rebel

17. Interactionist Perspective
Cultural Transmission Theory
Cultural transmission: Humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly
Differential association: Process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules (Sutherland)

18. Interactionist Perspective
Social Disorganization Theory: Increases in crime and deviance attributed to absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions
Some claim social disorganization theory seems to “blame the victim”

19. Interactionist Perspective
Labeling Theory: Attempts to explain why some people are viewed as deviants while others are not; also known as societal-reaction approach
Societal-reaction approach: response to an act, not the behavior, determines deviance

20. Interactionist Perspective
Labeling and Agents of Social Control
Focuses on police, probation officers, psychiatrists, judges, teachers, employers, school officials, and other regulators of social control
Social constructionist perspective: deviance product of the culture we live in

21. Conflict Perspective
People with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their needs
Contend that the entire criminal justice system in the United States treats suspects differently based on their racial, ethnic, or social-class
Differential justice: Differences in way social control is exercised over different groups

22. Crime: A Sociological Approach
Crime: Violation of criminal law for which governmental authority applies formal penalties
6 types of crime differentiated by sociologists:
Victimless
Professional
Organized
White-collar and technology-based
Hate crimes
Transnational crime

23. 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

24. Crime Statistics
Crime index is disproportionately devoted to property crimes
Only track crimes reported to law enforcement agencies
Victimization Surveys: Surveys of ordinary people, not police officers, to determine whether they have been victims of crime

25. The Death Penalty in the U.S. and Worldwide
Looking at the Issue
Execution significant form of punishment for deviance from social norms and criminal behavior
In North America, death penalty used for centuries to punish murder, alleged witchcraft, and other crimes
Death penalty is still on the books in most states
As of late 2010, 95 nations renounced capital punishment, and many more use it sparingly

26. The Death Penalty in the U.S. and Worldwide
Applying Sociology
Debate over the death penalty focused on its appropriateness as a form of punishment and its value in deterring crime
Sanctions against deviant acts help to reinforce society’s standards of proper behavior
Death penalty also creates some dysfunctions
Conflict theorists: social inequality in society puts poor people at a disadvantage

27. The Death Penalty in the U.S. and Worldwide
Initiating Policy
Several states considering broadening range of offenses for which convicted criminals may be sentenced to execution
A movement away from the death penalty based on doubts about whether executions can be carried out humanely
About 40 to 50 death sentences handed out for the more than 15,000 reported murders
International focus on China and Iran

28. Discussion Questions Are the homeless deviant? (use theories)
Where does self control come from?
Use differential association theory to solve recidivism
How is labeling good? Bad?
Labeling and mental illness?
Why so much crime in US?

29. Discussion Questions What is the purpose of prisons?
Does capital punishment work?
What about terrorism?
Solutions?