Deviance and Social

Control

Chapter 6
What is Deviance? Pages 154-157
 Deviance- violation of the norms
 Sociologist Howard Becker (1966) “not the act itself
but the reaction to the act that makes something
deviant”
 Relativity of deviance acceptable in one culture is
deviant in another- this statement is true within
societies. Deviance is relative
 Specific form of deviance is crime- a violation of
rules that are written into law
 Sociologists do not view deviance as a bad thing- it is
just acts that people see as negative- all of us are
deviant at one time or another
 Stigma characteristic that discredits people- includes
violations of norms of ability (handicap), appearance
(obesity) and being an involuntary member (AIDS
victim)
 Some stigmas can become a persons master status
How Norms Make Social Life
Possible
 Norms make life predictable by making behavior
predictable
 We are socialized to follow norms, play basic roles that
society assigns us.
 Norms bring social order, a groups customary social
arrangement.
 Deviance undermines this predictability
 Groups develop a systems of social control , formal and
informal ways of enforcing norms
 Sanctions- expressions of disapproval of deviance bring
negative sanctions- range from frowns (breaking
folkways) to imprisonment (breaking mores). Positive
sanctions are used to reward for conforming to the norms.
Most negative sanctions are informal.
Other types of sanctions
 Shaming- effective when members of a
primary group use it. Often used to keep
children in line and small communities.
Shaming can be part of a public ritual
 Degradation Ceremony- a formal attempt
to brand somebody as an outsider.
Individual is stripped of their identity as a
group member. This dramatizes that the
member is no longer part of the group
Explanations of Deviance
 Sociobiologists look for explanations within people
 Assume that people have genetic predispositions.
Sociologists argue that genetics have little
influence on deviance
 Psychologists focus on the abnormalities within
individuals. Examine personality disorders.
Sociologists dispute that deviant individuals fit a
particular personality
 Sociologists search for factors outside the
individual. They look for social influences that
recruit people to break norms
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective of Deviance pages 159-164
 Symbolic Interactionists argue that we act
according to our interpretations of situations
 Differential Association Theory
 Edwin Sutherland developed the theory-we learn
deviance from the different groups we associate with
 Give us messages about conformity and deviance
 We receive an imbalance of these messages one
way or another that tilts us in one direction
 Factors that influence us- family, friends, neighbors,
subcultures
Family, Friends, Neighborhood
and Subcultures
 Family is the primary agent of
socialization, difference whether
we learn deviance or conformity.
 Studies have proven that families
involved in crime, have
lawbreaking children
 Neighborhoods- people want to
move our of “bad” neighborhoods
keep children away from corrupting
influences
 Some neighborhoods develop
subcultures of violence (gangs,
mafia)
 People have choice in the groups
we associate with- we produce
our own orientations to life
Control Theory
 Control Theory (Walter Reckless)
 We have two control systems that work against
our motivation to deviate.
 Inner Control- internalized morality- conscience,
religious principles, ideas of right and wrong
 Outer Controls- consist of people- family,
friends, police officers, etc. that influence us most
not to deviate
 The stronger our bonds are with society the more
effective our inner controls (attachments,
commitments and involvements)
Control Theory
 Attachments – feeling
affection and respect for
people that conform to
mainstream norms
 Commitments- having a
stake in society that you
don’t want to risk
 Involvements- putting time
an energy into approved
activities
 Control theory how we
learn self- control. Learning
self control is achieved
through socialization
Labeling Theory
 Labels- names, reputations, etc. we are
given, become part of our self- concept
 Most people resist negative labels by others
 Some people that are deviant do not view
themselves that way. The deflection of
societies norms are rationalized in the five
techniques of neutralization- denial of
responsibility, denial of injury, denial of a
victim, condemnation of condemners,
appeal to higher loyalties
Functionalist Perspective of
Deviance pages 164-166

 Stress the functions of

deviance to society
1. It is essential to the
social order
2. Clarifies moral
boundaries and affirms
norms
3. Promotes social unity
4. Promotes social change
Strain Theory
 Functionalists see crime as
a natural part of society.
Mainstream values
generate crime
 Strain theory was
developed by Robert
Merton (1956) to explain
this:
 When society socializes large
numbers of people to desire a cultural
goal (success) but withholds the
means of reaching that goal to many
people. An adaptation to meet the
goal is crime (outside of the approved
system). To attain the cultural goal.
Strain Theory
 People who experience the strain feel anomie (a
sense normlessness)
 Mainstream norms aren’t getting them anywhere,
find it difficult to identify with these norms, feel
wronged by the system, rules are illegitimate
 People match their goals to their means through
five ways- conformity, innovation, ritualism,
retreats, rebellion where they accept, reject or
replace cultural norms
Four Deviant Paths
 Innovation- accept goals but use illegitimate
means to reach them
 Ritualism- give up on achieving goals but
survive by following rules of their job (job
burnout)
 Retreats- reject cultural and societal goals and
the means of achieving them- alcoholics, drug
addicts and nuns that enter convents are
examples
 Rebellion- reject societies goals . They seek to
give societies new goals. Revolutionaries are an
example
Social Class and Crime
 Social classes have distinct styles of crime because
of the unequal access to institutional means.
 The illegitimate opportunity structure is the term
given to the opportunity for crime woven into the
texture of life
Street Crime
 Industrialized societies socialize all classes into the
desire for material possessions (all Americans can
afford society’s goods and services)
 Education the most common route to success, not
an option for the poor
 School system is out of touch with the poor- closes
the door to them as a legitimate avenue to success
 Urban slums there is an opportunity –crime (drug
dealing, prostitution, burglary, gambling)
 The “hustler” is viewed as a role model- the image
of easy money, only ones seen as coming close to
the ideal of success
White Collar Crime
 More privileged classes have different opportunities
for crime
 White collar crime (embezzlement, money schemes
opportunities encountered by these classes)
 Another form is corporate crime committed by
executives to benefit their corporation
 White collar criminals rarely spend a day in jail even
though it costs more than street crime
 Most Americans are concerned with street crime
and the disruption it will cause in their lives.
Conflict Perspective
 Conflict theorists- power
and social inequality as the
main characteristics of
society.
 Power elite that runs
society also runs the
criminal justice system.
 Division between the
haves and have nots
 Those at the lower end of
the scale are at the highest
risk for poverty, prison
Law as an instrument of
Oppression
 “Justice for all” myth promoted by the elite. Conflict theorists
see the law as an instrument of oppression designed by the
elite to maintain their position.
 Criminal justice system does not focus on the corporate
criminals, directs energies toward the working class.
 When the corporate class is prosecuted and the case receives
attention- stabilizes the justice system and provides evidence
of “fairness”
 To a conflict theorist this is a cultural device that the power
elite uses to carry out self protective and repressive policies
Reactions to Deviance
Decline in Crime and
Recidivism
 Reaction to deviance from minor
sanctions to death penalty
 Past 20 years more and more
people have been put in prison
and three strikes laws have
reduced early release.
 At the same time the crime rate
has dropped sharply.
 Sociologists question if this has
caused the drop in crime rates
 Statistics demonstrate prisons fail
to rehabilitate criminals.
 Recidivism rate (prisoners that
are rearrested) is high.
 If the purpose of prisons is to keep
people from being criminals, and
to teach those that crime does not
pay; are the prisons failing?
Death Penalty and Bias
 Capital punishment is
the most extreme
measure the state takes
against criminals.
 It is a very divisive issue
on moral and
philosophical grounds
 The death penalty is not
administered evenly
 Factors like geography,
social class gender are
factors in who is given
the death penalty
Mental Illness
 Mental Illness is when society “medicalizes” it
 Medicalization of deviance created when psychoanalysis was founded in the
late 1800’s,deviance related to mental illness was seen as a medical condition
that needed to be treated
 Some mental illness is organic and chemical (depression). Some are defined
by society (ADD)
 When something becomes deviant in ways that disturbs others and a
satisfying explanation can’t be found to explain it, mental illness is seen as the
cause
 Thomas Szaz describes these as behaviors not mental illness. Szaz thinks
that mental illness as an explanation is a myth to get nonconforming , or
deviant individuals to conform, to accept societies definition of “normal”
 Szaz explains that deviant or bizarre behavior depends on a person’s
particular experience in life, not an illness in the mind.
 Szaz’s research demonstrates the power of socialization and social structures
that underlie deviant behavior
Assignment

 Read pages 176-177 answer the three

question in the “For Your Consideration” box.

 Due Tomorrow- What theory best fits why

we commit crimes (functionalist, conflict or
symbolic interaction)? According to the
theory you agree with, what should be done
about crime in the United States.