2. There are no absolute answers about deviance
What people agree is deviant differs in various
societies and subcultures, and it may change over
time.
Some things that were deviant are now widely
accepted.
Change takes time and is accompanied by significant
disagreement.
Introduction
4. Deviance is a violation of established contextual,
cultural, or social norms, whether folkways, mores, or
codified law.
It can be minor (nose picking) or major (murder)
Deviance
5. Deviance has a negative connotation, BUT
Deviance is not necessarily bad
It can foster social change
Deviance
6. Labeling of something as deviant depends on many
factors
– location
– audience
– who commits the act
– context
Notions of deviance vary across culture and time
Whether something is deviant depends on society's
response to the act
Deviance
7. Social control is the regulation and enforcement of
norms.
The goal of social control is to maintain social order -
an arrangement of practices and behaviors on which
society's members base their daily lives.
The means of enforcing the rules are known as
sanctions.
Social Control
8. Sanctions can be positive - rewards given for
conforming to norms
Sanctions can be negative - punishments for violating
norms.
Sanctions can be formal or informal
Informal sanctions - emerge in face-to-face social
interactions.
Formal sanctions - ways to officially recognize and
enforce norm violations.
Social Control
10. Functionalists are concerned with the way different
elements of a society contribute to the
whole. Deviance is a key component to a functioning
society.
Functionalism
11. Emile Durkheim:
– The Essential Nature of Deviance
– Durkheim argued that deviance is a necessary part of a
successful society.
– Deviance
• challenges societies norms - causes social change
• reaffirms currently held norms
• teachers others what the norms are
Functionalism
12. Robert Merton - Strain Theory
– Deviance is an inherent part of a functioning society.
– Strain Theory - socially accepted goals play a part in
determining whether a person conforms or deviates.
• Societal Goals - we are encouraged to achieve the
American Dream of financial success
• Institutional Means - The proper way to achieve a societal
goal
Functionism
13. Robert Merton – Strain Theory
– Modes of Adaptation:
• Conformity
• Innovation
• Ritualism
• Retreatism
• Rebellion
Functionism
14. Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay - Cultural Deviance
Theory
– Cultural Deviance Theory - conformity to the prevailing
cultural norms of lower-class society causes crime.
– Socioeconomic status correlated to race and ethnicity
results in higher crime rate.
– The mix of cultures and values created a smaller society
with different ideas of deviance, and those ideas were
transferred from generation to generation.
Functionism
15. Sampson & Groves –
– Poverty, ethnic diversity, and family disruption in given
localities had a strong positive correlation with social
disorganization.
– Social disorganization is associated with high rates of
crime and delinquency - or deviance
Functionism
16. Conflict theory looks to social and economic factors as
the cause of crime and deviance
Conflict Theory
17. Karl Marx: An Unequal System
– Conflict theory was greatly influenced by Karl Marx.
– Society falls into two groups:
– The wealthy who control the means of production - the
bourgeois
– The workers who depend on the bourgeois for survival -
the proletariat
– The bourgeois control government, laws, and authority
agencies to maintain and expand their positions.
Conflict Theory
18. C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite
– The Power Elite - a small group of wealthy and influential
people at the top of society who hold the power and
resources.
– The rules of society are stacked in favor of a privileged
few who manipulate them to stay on top.
– They decide what is criminal and what is not.
Conflict Theory
19. Crime and Social Class
– Crimes committed by the wealthy and powerful remain an
under-punished and costly problem within society.
– Those who hold power are the ones who make the laws.
– The powerful make laws that benefit themselves, and the
powerless suffer the consequences.
Conflict Theory
20. Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical approach used
to explain how societies come to view behaviors as
deviant or conventional
Symbolic Interactionism
21. Labeling Theory
– Examines the ascribing of a deviant behavior to another
person by members of society
– What is considered deviant is determined by the
reactions of others to behaviors
Symbolic Interactionism
22. Lemert
– Primary Deviance - a violation of norms that does not
result in any long-term effects on the individual's self-
image or interactions with others.
– Secondary Deviance - occurs when a person's self
concept and behavior begin to change after his or her
actions are labeled as deviant by members of society.
– Master Status - a label that describes the chief
characteristic of an individual. Secondary deviance may
become one's master status.
Symbolic Interactionism
23. Edwin Sutherland: Differential Association
– Individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to
them who provide models of and opportunities for
deviance.
– Deviance is a result of differential socialization
processes.
– May explain why crime is multigenerational
Symbolic Interactionism
24. Travis Hirschi: Control Theory
– Social control is directly affected by the strength of social
bonds and the deviance results from a feeling of
disconnection from society.
– Four types of social bonds that connect people to society:
• Attachment to others
• Commitment to investments we make in the community
• Involvement or participation in socially legitimate activities
• Belief in common values in society
Symbolic Interactionism
26. Crime - is a behavior that violates official law and is
punishable through formal sanctions.
– There is a difference between what is deviant and what is
criminal.
Legal codes - maintain formal social control through
laws, which are rules adopted and enforced by a
political authority.
Introduction
27. Violent crime
Nonviolent crimes
Street crime
Corporate crime
Victimless crime
Hate crimes
Types of Crimes
28. FBI's UCR - the FBI gathers crime data from law
enforcement agencies to create the Uniform Crime
Reports which is published annually. These reflect
only crimes known to the police.
Crime Statistics
29. BJS's NCVS -
The Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys 160,000
people in the U.S. about crimes they've experienced.
These are self-report studies - data gathered using
voluntary response methods.
The NCVS measures crime victimization, sometimes
unreported, and includes more detail than the UCR.
Public Perception of Crime
The UCR and NCVS can't measure all crimes, but
general trends can be determined.
Crime Statistics
30. Crime rates have been consistently falling since the
early 1990s.
Public perception is that crime rates are increasing
Public perception is affected by the media and results
in increased fear of crime
Crime Statistics
31. Definition - an organization that exists to enforce a
legal code.
The U.S. Criminal
Justice System
32. The police are a civil force in charge of enforcing laws
and public order
Exist at the federal, state, and local level
– Federal: enforce federal law - FBI, ATF, DHS, etc.
– State - enforce statewide laws - highway patrol
– Local - limited jurisdiction
Police
33. Definition - system that has the authority to make
decisions based on law.
Divided into federal, state, and local courts
– Federal courts - deal with federal matters. Judges are
selected by the President with the consent of
Congress. There are federal trial, appellate, and the
Supreme Court
– State courts - appellate and courts of last resort in the
state
– Local courts - trial courts that handle criminal and civil
cases
Courts
34. Definition - charged with supervisiong individuals who
have been arrested, convicted, and sentenced for a
criminal offense.
Incarceration rates are increasing, and the US has the
highest incarceration rate in the world.
Corrections
35. Jail - temporary confinement - for those awaiting trial
and sentenced to less than a year
Prison - houses those sentenced to longer than a year.
Parole - conditional release from a prison or jail under
supervision
Probation - supervised time as an alternative to prison
Corrections
