GB601 MBA Capstone 1 1906D Assignment and R.docx

GB601 | MBA Capstone
1
1906D
Assignment and Rubric | Unit 1 and 2
Important: This Assignment is due in Unit 2 due to the
extensive research required to
complete it successfully. You should begin working on this in
Unit 1 in order to set
yourself up for success. Submit your completed assignment to
Unit 2: Assignment
Dropbox.
Ethical Considerations in Global Expansion
In Unit 1 you formed a team and started the process of growing
your simulation
company. As you saw in the Conscious Capitalism videos, and
in this Linda Fisher Thornton
video-Leading From A Strong Moral Center, having a strong
commitment to your values and
ethical stance is critical to business growth, especially as your
company grows and you expand
into other countries and cultures.
In this assignment, you will research many facets that will be
important to consider as

you decide which country(ies) your simulation company should
expand into. For example, you
will discuss the four principles of Conscious Capitalism.
Further, you will discuss the role of
government operating as a business. Additionally, you will
research three markets for possible
expansion, and highlight economic and cultural considerations.
Then, with your simulation
company’s values as a backdrop, you will recommend and
justify country(ies) for expansion of
your business.
This Assignment explores the professional skills of;
• Global awareness
• Awareness of ethical issues and responsibilities
• Make ethical decisions and solve problems
• Work effectively in teams
Assignment Goal and Thought Process
Goal: As a Conscious Capitalism based business, how can we
use these principles to help us
determine which governments ((Amsterdam [Holland], Rio de
Janerio [Brazil], Bangalore
[India])., the countries under consideration expansion) would be
the best match to ensure
successful expansion into this country.
Thought Process
• Business decisions are based on a variety of data points
including, sales, profit, cultural
match. Your goal as a business leader is to make decisions that

have the best chance of
success so you will need to incorporate as much data as possible
before making your
decisions.
http://library.books24x7.com.lib.kaplan.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=62
104
2
1906D
• If you were going to be presenting to your management in a
real-world situation, and
requesting funds to support your expansion plan, you will need
all of this data to be seen
as credible and win support for your plan.
• The role of government and official policies have an important
impact on the growth of
their nation(s).
• In your simulation, you will be creating plans to expand to any
or all of these 3 areas,
Amsterdam, Rio de Janerio, and Bangalore and need to have a
foundation for making
these choices to augment the traditional sales and profit goals.
The 4 principles of
Conscious Capitalism can be an additional data source for
decision making
• As governmental policies will play a large role in our success

when expanding we need
to know the following;
o Can a government operate as a business?
o How can we view governments through the lens of Conscious
Capitalism to help
us make our expansion recommendations? While the principles
are usually
applied to business, can we apply them to governments?
o What is the culture of each country under consideration for
expansion and how
many principle(s) of Conscious Capitalism do they follow?
o How does this information help us make expansion
recommendations, if our goal
is to expand to countries that have the strongest link to these
principles?
Assignment Details and Rubric-
In a 4-6 page APA formatted paper excluding text, diagrams,
and other visual/oral aids as
appropriate, address the following:
• Section 1- The principles of Conscious Capitalism are usually
applied to a business, but
to help us make these choices, we will be applying them to the
governments of the
countries under consideration for growth but first need to
answer these questions;
o What are the four principles of Conscious Capitalism?
Describe each of the

principles.
o Should we view government as a business in order to
eventually apply the
principles of Conscious Capitalism? What information does the
research show on
this topic? Present a balanced analysis covering the pros and
cons of this
approach. You will need to use at least 3 scholarly sources to
support your
thoughts in Section 1 in addition to the readings for this week
o In general, how would you use the principals of Conscious
Capitalism to analyze
the possible markets and their governments for expansion goals?
• Section 2 -Research the markets that you can expand into from
your home base in NYC
(Amsterdam [Holland], Rio de Janerio [Brazil], Bangalore
[India]). Do NOT discuss NYC
as you are already operating from this location.
o Create a profile for each of the expansion areas (Amsterdam
[Holland], Rio de
Janerio [Brazil], Bangalore [India]). Include the following
information.
• Economic data, i.e., population, Gross National Product (GDP)
• Cultural data; i.e., Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

3
1906D
• Which of the 4 principles of Conscious Capitalism are
demonstrated by
the government of the country?
• Section 3 – Recommendations for expansion. Using the results
of this analysis and
knowing the cultural profile your company leadership has
already creating, make
detailed recommendations for expansion progression. This
should include;
o Include in-depth description of your company, its products,
and other relevant
information to support the recommendations.
o The logic that you are using to support your
recommendations. This can include
the projected sales and profit information, the links to
Conscious Capitalism, any
other factors which formed your recommendations.
As you work in this Assignment you may want to share your
information in the team space so
the team can use it in the decision-making process. Remember
that differences in opinion are a
great tool for discussion and increased effectiveness in decision
making.
This assignment will be due in Unit 2 due to the extensive
research required to complete
it successfully

Unit 1 and 2 Individual Assignment: Ethical Considerations in
Global Expansion Submit
your individual work to the Unit 2: Assignment Dropbox.
Unit 1 and 2 Individual Assignment: Ethical Considerations in
Global Expansion
Criteria
Maximum
Points
• What are the four principles of Conscious Capitalism?
Describe each of the
principles.
• Should we view government as a business in order to
eventually apply the
principles of Conscious Capitalism? What information does the
research show
on this topic? Present a balanced analysis covering the pros and
cons of this
approach. You will need to use at least 3 scholarly sources to
support your
thoughts in Section 1 in addition to the readings for this week.
• In general, how would you use the principals of Conscious
Capitalism to analyze
the possible markets and their governments for expansion goals?
30
• Create a profile for each of the expansion areas (Amsterdam
[Holland], Rio de
Janerio [Brazil], Bangalore [India]). Include the following
information.

• Economic data, i.e., population, Gross National Product (GDP)
• Cultural data; i.e., Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
• Which of the 4 principles of Conscious Capitalism are
demonstrated by the
government of the country
50
4
1906D
Recommendations for expansion. This should include;
o Include in-depth description of your company, its products,
and other relevant
information to support the recommendations.
o The logic that you are using to support your
recommendations. This can include the
link to Conscious Capitalism, any other factors which formed
your recommendations
20
General writing and APA compliance 10
Total 110
Important: This Assignment is due in Unit 2 due to the
extensive research required to complete it successfully. You
should begin working on this in Unit 1 in order to set yourself
up for success. Submit your completed assignment to Unit 2:

AssignmentDropbox.Ethical Considerations in Global
Expansion
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Deviance, Crime
and Violence
Angela Barian, and Patrick Sharkey, Princeton
University
Deviance, Crime and Violence
Page 2
A N G E L A B A R I A N , A N D PAT R I C K S H A R K E
Y, P R I N C E T O N
U N I V E R S I T Y
INTERPRETING DEVIANCE
What does it mean to be deviant?
Social control, stigma, and labeling

THEORIES AND PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE
Functionalist theories
Conflict theories
Social bonds, lovable freaks , and criminals
CRIME AND VIOLENCE
What is a crime? Who is a criminal?
The context of crime
VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES AND BEYOND
The rise and fall of American violence
Why is the United States more violent than similar nations?
CRIME, PUNISHMENT, AND THE PREVENTION OF
VIOLENCE
The Great American Crime Decline
The police and the prison
The next model of criminal justice

INTRODUCTION
We want to begin by talking about a very popular book. It
recently sold more than 125 million copies
around the world—more than the wildly-successful Twilight
series. More than the Little House on the Prairie
books. More than Pippi Longstocking, Winnie the Pooh, and the
entire James Bond series. The book rights
were sold in at least 37 countries. Worldwide, five media
conglomerates fought for the film rights. The film
adaptation made more than $571 million, breaking box office
records. When the trailer to the sequel was
released on YouTube, in 24 hours it became the
most-watched trailer of all time. What is this
enormously successful, widely-read book? Fifty
Shades of Grey—a book in which a billionaire
begins a sadomasochistic sexual relationship
with a young college student, has her sign a
dominant/submissive contract forbidding her
from touching or looking at him during sex, and

eventually beats her with a belt.
In 1905, psychologist Sigmund Freud
classified sadomasochism as a sexual perversion borne out of
psychological disorders linked to childhood.
Since then, it has been associated with sexual deviance. And the
Fifty Shades trilogy generated a fair bit of
controversy. But how deviant could it really be, if it’s that
popular? For that matter, what makes any
behavior deviant, or even criminal? Is there some objective line
for normative versus deviant versus criminal
behavior? Does it depend upon the number of people who
engage in it? Or the written law where you live?
Does it depend on where—or when—you live?
We’ll investigate these questions in this chapter. We’ll start
with the concept of deviance, or
behaviors that violate social norms. We’ll discuss who violates
societal rules, under what circumstances, and
how.
We’ll then move from deviance to the issue of crime, with a
specific focus on one form of deviance
and crime: violence. We'll trace the history of how society has
explained and responded to criminal behavior

and provide a sociological perspective on crime and violence. In
the conclusion, we’ll move from the
abstract to the concrete: How has violence changed over time,
and what can be done to prevent it?
(Source)
https://pixabay.com/en/mask-handcuffs-roses-red-roses-red-
2095267/
Page 4
INTERPRETING DEVIANCE
nd what
isn’t?
members?
What does it mean to be deviant?
In 2007, the majority of Americans said they opposed
same-sex marriage. Many states passed gay marriage bans, and
it

was only fully legal in one state (Massachusetts). But since
then,
public opinion has moved toward acceptance. One way we can
see this is in positive depictions of gay and lesbian characters,
which have proliferated in the media since 2007. By 2013, over
three quarters of Americans said that a family member, friend,
or
coworker had come out to them.1 In 2015, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that all states must recognize same-sex marriages.
And in the last decade, public opinion has more than reversed
itself: Americans now favor allowing gay marriage two-to-one.2
We can reasonably say that public opinion about same-
sex marriage is a reflection of public opinion about gay people.
That means for some people in the U.S., being gay used to be
considered deviant, but now isn’t. The point here is that
understandings of deviant behavior rely on social agreement. So
what does it mean to be deviant?
As we noted in the introduction, deviance refers to behaviors
that violate social norms, or common
expectations for behavior. Norms are connected to the values

and beliefs of the culture in which they exist. In
some cultures it’s considered too informal to remove your shoes
upon entering someone’s house. Yet in
others, it’s considered offensive not to remove them. Norms
vary in importance; some violations are
extremely serious, others go unnoticed. Sociologist William
Graham Sumner developed a typology that can
Figure 1: Support for Same-Sex Marriage
(Source)
http://www.people-press.org/2017/06/26/support-for-same-sex-
marriage-grows-even-among-groups-that-had-been-skeptical/
Page 5
help us understand different types of norms. Folkways are the
least serious norms. They mainly refer to
customs, traditions, and etiquette. Social sanctions for violating
them are also the least severe.3 Imagine, for
example, someone eating a Snickers bar with a knife and fork,
as in the Seinfeld episode “The Pledge Drive”
(search YouTube for a clip). While we might think it’s odd for
someone to eat a Snickers this way, there

aren’t likely to be any long-term consequences if someone does
so.
Mores (pronounced MORE-ays) are more seriously protected
norms. They reflect a deeper sense of
morals and values, and sanctions for violating them are often
much stronger.4 Take the example of Amy
Robertson, a Kansas high school principal who invented the
name of a fake university and used it on her
resume. When the high school newspaper researched her for a
story and discovered she had lied about her
credentials, Robertson resigned in shame. Finally, laws
represent the most highly codified level of norm;
they are usually written down, and there are serious
consequences if you don’t follow them. These norms are
important enough that the community agrees that violating them
requires binding punishment. We’ll cover
laws in more depth in the second half of the chapter.
Social control, stigma, and labeling
A common fashion tip is that horizontal stripes should only be
worn by thin people, since they make
people look wider. There are a lot of fashion “dos” and “don’ts”
based on body shape and size. But there’s
also a burgeoning “fatshionista” movement for fat people who
want to explicitly break rules of what you

“can” and “can’t” wear. One such example is “fatkinis,” bikinis
for bigger women. As one self-described
fatshionista said, “As plus size women, we are always told to
dress to flatter/slim or to blend in. I do exactly
the opposite. I break every plus size fashion rule there is and I
look amazing while doing so. I like to push the
boundaries of what is acceptable in plus size fashion. No one
else has the power to dictate or influence how I
dress myself because I dress to please me, not others. I hope
that others do the same.”5
Rules may be made to be broken, but no one can deny they
exist. Rules govern what we can and
can’t do, what we can and can’t say, what we can and can’t
wear. But we might ask, says who? Who makes
the rules? And who enforces them?
Most rules aren’t enforced through the formal legal system, but
rather through informal social
control, or the ways societies try to influence members’
behavior to maintain social order. Societies can
exert this social control in many ways. One is through moral
panics. Moral panics are over-heated, short-
lived periods of intense social concern over an issue.6
Sociologist Howard S. Becker argued that in a moral

panic, moral entrepreneurs push for increased awareness of and
concern over an issue.7 There’s usually
heightened social concern over it, increased hostility toward
those deemed responsible, and some degree of
Page 6
agreement over both the problem and who’s responsible.8 In
addition, moral panics burn hot, but quick.
There is usually outsized concern over the problem, given its
actual threat to society, and as a result, the
concern usually passes.9
One recent example of a moral panic occurred in 2013,
when mass media outlets began covering the then-new app
Snapchat. Because snaps disappeared after a certain amount of
time, moral entrepreneurs raised concern that it could be used as
a
“sexting app.” To these entrepreneurs, Snapchat typified what
they
called “sexting culture.” News stories routinely shared instances
of

teens sending and receiving (and screen-shotting) lurid images.
Stories even circulated about teenagers who were charged with
child pornography for sending nude images of themselves. In
reality, very few teens actually sext; the number is probably
around
7%.10 Eventually, the sexting aspect of Snapchat received less
and
less coverage. This moral panic burned hot, but burned out
quickly.
Despite the panicked nature of sexting coverage, it’s
important to acknowledge that some teens have suffered after
sending nude images of themselves over the internet. Some
teens
caught sexting had to put themselves on a sex-offender registry,
a
designation that sticks literally for life and can impact where
people
can live or what jobs they can get.11 In the language of
sociologist
Erving Goffman, those teens bear social stigma. Stigma occurs
when some characteristic of an individual or group is seen as

inferior or undesirable and leads to social rejection.12
Which attributes are stigmatized varies greatly by context. For
instance, in Mauritania, fatness is so
admired in women that little girls are force-fed so they gain
weight.13 But in modern American culture,
obesity is so stigmatized that people may make sure to eat only
“healthy” foods in public, or pay for
expensive weight-loss bootcamps. After years of trying to
“cover” their stigma, some fat people even feel the
need to “come out” to their friends and family.14 “Coming out”
for fat people isn’t a simple declaration of
their weight; it’s a “refusal to cover.”15 As Kathleen Lebesco
writes, coming out as fat is making a public
Fatshionistas like to break
societal fashion rules. (Source)
http://bit.ly/2vNwtxW
Page 7
declaration of “choosing to no longer pass as on-the-way-to
thin,” and acknowledging their stigmatized
status.16

The reaction to our behavior can change the way
we see ourselves and our identity, possibly even
reinforcing the behavior. Labeling theory contends that
deviance isn’t really about the act itself, but is negotiated
socially through reactions to the act.17 When someone is
labeled as an “outsider,” they are treated differently.
Smoking marijuana may not change someone much, but
being labeled a pothead may shift how a person is treated
and how she sees herself.18 Selling drugs happens in
almost every city and town across the U.S., but in some
communities the police more actively target drug distribution,
prosecutors more aggressively punish
offenders, and the criminal justice system delivers harsher
sentences. Even if the behavior is the same in a
wealthy suburb and a poor city neighborhood, the treatment of
the behavior leads to very different
consequences.
Taking all of this into account, how do we determine what is
deviant? The key sociological point is

that in any society, deviance is a relationship between
individuals and larger social landscapes. As morality
shifts (and it always does), enforcement of norms shifts, too.
Review Sheet: Interpreting deviance
Key Points
• Determining what is deviant relies on social agreements
between community members.
• Lines between deviant and non-deviant behavior are upheld
through enforcement of
social norms.
• Social norms vary in degree of importance and how severely
violations are punished.
• Societies enforce norms through processes of social control.
• One way to exert social control is through moral panics.
• Deviance is a relationship between individuals and larger
social landscapes.
Moral panics about Snapchat have largely subsided.
(Source)
https://pixabay.com/en/business-man-smartphone-phone-
2056029/

Page 8
Key People
• William Graham Sumner
• Karl Mannheim
• Erich Goode & Nachman Ben-Yehuda
• Howard S. Becker
• Erving Goffman
Key Terms
• Deviance – Behaviors that violate social norms.
• Norms – Expectations for behavior.
• Folkways – Norms about customs, traditions, and etiquette.
• Mores – More seriously protected norms that reflect the
morals and values of a social
group.
• Laws – Most seriously protected norms; codified and require
specific enforcements.

• Social control – Ways societies try to influence members’
behavior to maintain social
order.
• Moral panics – Overheated, short-lived periods of intense
social concern about an issue.
• Moral entrepreneurs – People who try to influence societies
toward increased
awareness of and concern over the violation of social norms.
THEORIES & PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE
On July 15, 1974, a Florida television morning-show host
named Christine Chubbuck decided to start
her broadcast of Suncoast Digest with footage of a shooting that
occurred at a restaurant the previous night.19
When the film footage wouldn’t roll, she smiled strangely. She
looked down at her desk and read: “In
keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in
blood and guts—and in living color—you are
going to see another first: attempted suicide.” She then pulled a
.38 caliber revolver from under her desk and

shot herself in the back of the head.20 Christine Chubbuck
killed herself on live television.
Page 9
Why did she do it? According to news reports, she was
extremely depressed.21 But they also reported that it was more
complicated than that. She didn’t have any friends or romantic
partners.22 She was socially awkward and had trouble
connecting
with others. She felt that the fact that she was a 29-year-old
virgin
reflected poorly on her as a woman. At the time of her death,
she
lived at home with her mother and brother.23 And she was often
angry about the sensationalistic focus of the news; her stories
would get bumped to make room for what employees at the
station called “blood and guts” stories.24 This hindered her
career
and put her at odds with the station manager.

Christine Chubbuck’s suicide could have been spurred by
personal and psychological problems. But it could also have
been
caused by Chubbuck’s disconnection from the larger
community, her hopelessness about the future, or a
mismatch between her goals and the available means to achieve
them. She may have taken on the identity of
outsider, further disconnecting her from society. There are a
number of sociological theories of deviance that
could help explain this kind of incident. Though they come from
different perspectives, all seek to
understand the role social relations play in why and how people
engage in deviant behavior.
Functionalist theories of deviance
Émile Durkheim argued that deviance is a social fact that is
inevitable and stable in societies.25
Deviance is a constant, and stabilizing, element of social life.
This may seem counter-intuitive, but
functionalist theories of deviance begin with the idea that
deviance serves a social purpose, a function. One
of these purposes is affirming our social agreements about right
and wrong. For example, how do you know

it’s not okay to loudly pass gas in a crowded elevator? You
weren’t born with this knowledge. You learned
it. And for a lot of us, we learned it because we ourselves were
once in a crowded space where someone
loudly passed gas. What happens next? Others in the area shoot
each other looks. They may roll their eyes or
look shocked, laugh or frown. Whatever it is, they communicate
disapproval. And that communication,
according to functionalist sociologists, is instructive. It shows
us social lines of acceptable behavior. Further,
when we publicly condemn someone who has violated social
rules, we aren’t necessarily doing it for them;
we’re doing it for us. By shooting each other looks, we’re all
coming together to affirm that passing gas
A reporter gives an on-location report.
(Source)
http://bit.ly/2eG4MUB
Page 10
wasn’t okay. We’re repairing the temporary societal rift that
happens when someone breaks the rules. We’re

putting the societal fabric back together. This, Durkheim
argued, strengthens social cohesion, the degree to
which we identify with and maintain social rules and
connections.
But what if everyone thinks a deviant behavior is just fine?
Durkheim recognized that sometimes,
deviant behavior isn’t met with disdain, but is tolerated or even
welcomed. Functionalism argues that this is
one of the primary ways social change occurs. Think about
women wearing pants, interracial marriage, and
openly gay legislators. While normative (that is, accepted and
expected) in many communities today, all of
these were considered deviant at some point. When people push
social boundaries, sometimes they spur
change.
Robert K. Merton borrowed from Durkheim’s concept of social
cohesion and anomie to explain
deviance. Durkheim defined anomie as situation in which we do
not have clear morals or social expectations
to guide our behavior. Merton believed that anomie, and
ultimately deviance, occurs when there is a
mismatch between socially-endorsed goals and the socially-
endorsed means to achieve these goals.26 In an
ideal society, there would be legitimate, accepted means for

everyone to reach their goals. In reality,
acceptable means aren’t equally available; not everyone has the
same chances to succeed. Imagine a group of
high school students who want to go to college so they can get
good jobs. Some will find a relatively easy
path, but others will have significant roadblocks. Some went to
underfunded schools that couldn’t afford
computers or even books; others went to schools with state-of-
the-art technology. Some are undocumented;
others have citizenship. Some have to take care of sick family
members; some don’t. Some just can’t afford
it. Others have their tuition and living expenses paid for by
parents. These students all have the same goal.
They just don’t have the same access to resources. And this can
cause significant stress.
The stress that results from anomie, this mismatch of goals and
means, may lead some to adapt by
engaging in deviant behavior. Merton calls this strain; it forms
the basis of strain theory. Merton
understood that deviant behavior can be a function of the social
situations in which people find themselves.
But he also understood that individuals adapt to these situations
differently. He described five adaptations to
strain, based on the possible mismatch between goals and the

means a person has available. 27 Conformity is
an adaptation in which individuals accept both the socially-
approved goals (and the values that come with
them) and have the means to achieve them (so they can follow
norms). Think about the person voted “Most
Likely to Succeed” at your high school. Those people usually
worked toward success, and did so in the way
that society deems legitimate. Most people are conformists.
Page 11
Conforming ducks. (Source)
A second adaptation is innovation, which can arise if someone
shares socially-approved values and
goals, but rejects the means to achieve them. They may use new,
unapproved methods to achieve the same
goals. In the documentary Crips & Bloods: Made in America,
many former gang members talked about
being locked out of traditional clubs and groups as children in
the 1960s. As one gang member says:
The most significant thing was when I went to join the Boy

Scouts…. My mother takes me up.
The scoutmaster—uh, he was nice. But he tells my mother,
‘well, I don't know.’ ‘Cause it was a
white troop…. We couldn't be Cub Scouts, couldn’t be Boy
Scouts, couldn’t be Explorer Scouts,
we couldn’t get involved in organized activity that would take
us anywhere that would bear us
any kind of good fruit, you see. So, we built an auxiliary
alternative.
These young men shared socially-approved goals: they sought a
group to call their own, skills
development, self-sufficiency, and wealth. Deprived of socially
approved means to achieve this, they created
street gangs that achieved the same goals, but in illegitimate
ways.
Table 1: Adaptations in Merton’s Strain Theory
Mode of Adaptation Cultural Goals Institutionalized Means
Conformity + +
Innovation + -
Ritualism - +
Retreatism - -
Rebellion +/- +/-

https://pixabay.com/en/animals-ducks-water-bird-run-2000586/
Page 12
A third adaptation is ritualism, in which people follow socially-
approved means to success, but reject
the goals. Consider someone who wants to be an actor, but acts
primarily in local stage productions that
aren’t particularly well-attended. The actor accepts that making
it in Hollywood and winning an Oscar are
probably not in his future, but he still behaves in normative
ways by continuing to audition and do the best he
can to succeed. This is ritualism.
Fourth is retreatism. Retreatists reject both the socially-
prescribed goals and the normative means to
achieve those goals. They simply withdraw. A common example
is the hippie of the 1960s. Hippies rejected
both social goals (amassing money, a 9-to-5 job, a spouse and
kids with a house in the suburbs) and the
means to achieve them (wearing a suit and tie every day,
following the boss’s orders, waiting until marriage

to have sex). However, a lot of hippies didn’t retreat forever.
Many went on to lead very normative lives and
pursue socially-approved success. Take businessman Richard
Branson. There’s a rumor this high-school
dropout spent two years squatting in a London basement with 20
other people.28 Now, as the co-founder of
the multinational Virgin Empire, he’s worth over $5 billion and
has been knighted by the Queen of England.
Not quite a retreat from goals or means, in the end.
Last is rebellion. Some people reject both social goals and
means, but instead of retreating, they try
to disrupt the system—what Merton calls rebellion. This
adaptation is the most threatening to existing social
arrangements, and is often associated with people we see as
dangerous. One example is Ted Kaczynski. A
child prodigy who went to Harvard when he was 16, he
eventually quit his job as a professor and went to live
alone in the woods in Montana. While there, he developed an
anti-society manifesto. He also started sending
homemade bombs through the mail. Not knowing his identity,
the FBI called him the Unabomber. He sent
letter bombs over the course of 20 years, killing three people.
Finally arrested in 1996, Kaczynski now lives

in a federal penitentiary.29
Why do people solve their problems (or adapt) in one way, but
not others? Richard Cloward and
Lloyd Ohlin’s opportunity theory attempts to provide an
answer.30 Cloward and Ohlin focus on illegitimate
means.
Consider an example: many people are frustrated by a lack of
opportunity to succeed through
legitimate means, like the formal labor market. A lot of people
face barriers to a good education, a poor job
market, and other hardships. And many might think of engaging
in deviant acts as a result. But not all of
them do. Why? Cloward and Ohlin argue that we don’t all have
the same opportunity to act in deviant
ways.31 Opportunity theory states that some people (those
living in poverty in highly-populated cities, for
example) may be more likely than others to be exposed to
deviant subcultures. The deviant subculture’s
Page 13
proximity and norms of delinquency provide an illegitimate

opportunity to take on the role of deviant.32 So,
what separates the deviant from the non-deviant? Cloward and
Ohlin suggest that in many ways, it comes
down to access.33
Conflict theories of deviance
Have you ever come up against a rule or norm that you thought
was unfair? Have you ever thought
about who has the power to enforce these rules? Are those in
power always right, and so-called deviants
always wrong? Who do the rules and norms benefit, anyway?
Rather than focus on why people engage in
deviant behavior, conflict theories of deviance ask how rules
and norms are shaped by power relations in a
society.
Here’s a classic example. In
1963, civil rights leaders were busy
strategizing about how to bring racial
discrimination to the attention of a
reluctant White public. Reverend James
Bevel had the idea that children should
publicly march in Birmingham,

Alabama, to better show the horrors of
racial segregation.34 In May 1963, the
Children’s Crusade began; children
marched with picket signs.
Birmingham’s commissioner of public
safety at the time was Eugene “Bull”
Connor, a notorious supporter of
segregation, the legally-enforced separation of Blacks and
Whites. As the children marched, Connor ordered
the police to bring out fire hoses, batons, and attack dogs and
turn them on the children before arresting
them.35 Some of these children were as young as six.36 The
Children’s Crusade was one of many turning
points in the Civil Rights Movement. News coverage of children
being beaten with clubs and sprayed with
fire hoses sparked a gradual change in public opinion among
whites. President Kennedy announced his
intention to pursue national civil rights legislation.37 Pressure
mounted, and the city of Birmingham
negotiated a “truce” with Martin Luther King.38 The city also
fired Bull Connor.39

A segregated drinking fountain. (Source)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jim_Crow_law_examples
_by_state#/media/File:%22Colored%22_drinking_fountain_from
_mid-20th_century_with_african-american_drinking.jpg
Page 14
At the time, segregation was the norm in Birmingham, as well
as the law. This march broke the law
because the children didn’t have permits to march (of course,
Connor’s commission wouldn’t have granted
permits even if they had applied for one). The Children’s
Crusade also violated social norms of its place and
time. But most people today would surely say it was the morally
correct stance, and courageous as well. So,
who created these laws? Who upheld the norms, and why? Who
did these laws and norms benefit, and at
whose expense? These are key questions for conflict theorists of
deviance.
Karl Marx didn’t specifically write about the sociology of
deviance. Nevertheless, his work laid the
basis for conflict theorists who are interested in how deviance
and crime are a function of wealth and power.

Marx argued that the wealthy class of “owners” in society
centralizes its power and influence. One way they
secure this power is by occupying leadership positions in
government and other “authority institutions.” This
allows the wealthy to be the primary creators of laws, which are
designed to maintain and build their power
and influence.
In The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills
expands on and modernizes this idea. Mills
argued that power lies in the hands of a few
political, corporate, and military leaders.40 These
leaders operate in the same social and
professional circles, Mills says. They come from
similar backgrounds, go to the same schools
together, play golf together. The group is so
homogeneous that they tend to share values and
beliefs, or a worldview.41 One result is
remarkable levels of cooperation and agreement
in terms of …

48 contexts.org
stealing a bag
of potato chips
and other
crimes of
resistance
by victor m. rios
Artwork by Andrew Huerta
at STATE UNIV COLL on August 15,
2013ctx.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://ctx.sagepub.com/
49w i n t e r 2 0 1 2 c o n t e x t s
to wear fitted khakis, rather than his customary baggy jeans.
He agreed, on the condition that he would wear his white Nike
Air Force Ones, a popular basketball shoe at the time. These
shoes had been in and out of style in the urban setting since
the early 1980s. By 2002, a famous rapper, Nelly, created a
popular song named “Air Force Ones,” and famous basketball
players such as Kobe Bryant wore these shoes during games.

Black and Latino youths in Oakland sometimes even wore them
to more formal events such as high school proms, quincea-
ñeras, and weddings. I asked Ronny why he insisted on wear-
ing these shoes in a professional setting. He replied, “Because
professionals wear them.”
Many of the boys I worked with in my research believed
they had a clear sense of what courteous, professional, and
“good” behavior was. Despite their attempts to present
themselves with good manners and good morals, their idea
of professional behavior did not match mainstream ideas of
professional behavior. This in turn created what I refer to as
misrecognition. When the boys displayed a genuine interest in
“going legit,” getting a job, or doing well in school, adults
often could not recognize their positive
attempts and therefore criminalized them.
The boys had grown up in an envi-
ronment which had deprived them of the
social and cultural capital they needed

to progress in school and the labor mar-
ket. Therefore, they developed their own
alternative social and cultural capital, which they used to sur-
vive poverty, persist in a violent and punitive social ecology,
prevent violence, avoid incarceration, and attempt to fit into
mainstream institutions. Education scholar Tara Yosso develops
a framework for understanding and using the capital marginal-
ized communities develop—what she calls community cultural
wealth. She argues that marginalized communities have always
generated community cultural wealth that’s allowed them to
survive and resist. Sociologist Martín Sánchez-Jankowski has
recently discussed poor people’s ability to organize their social
world and maintain social order as “persistence.” According
to Sánchez-Jankowski, contrary to the popular academic belief
that poor people live in a disorganized world where they have a
limited capacity to generate “collective efficacy” (the ability of
a community to solve its own social problems), the urban poor
shape their behaviors around making sense of and creating

social order within a marginal context. Organic capital, then,
is the creative response the boys in this study developed in
the midst of blocked opportunity and criminalization. Despite
being well-intentioned, though, these efforts were often not
well received by mainstream institutions.
Ronny’s story is indicative of how many of the boys
attempted to tap into mainstream institutions but failed. As
they encountered rejection, they returned to the resilience and
survival strategies that they had developed in their neighbor-
hoods. I continued to prepare Ronny for his interview, helping
him develop “acceptable” cultural capital. We prepared with
mock questions: “Why do you want to work for us?” I asked
him. He responded, “I am a hard worker.” “That’s a good
start,” I said. “How about expanding that and telling them
that you’re also a team player and that you enjoy the restau-
rant atmosphere?” Ronny nodded. The day of the interview, I
walked into the restaurant separately from Ronny. To calm his
nerves I told him, “You look great, man. This job is yours!”

He looked sharp: a professionally dressed, athletically built,
charismatic, tall, African American young man with a charming
Organic capital is the creative response
the boys developed in the midst of blocked
opportunity and criminalization.
Ronny was called in for a job interview
at Carrows, a chain restaurant that served
$9.99 sirloin steak and shrimp. He called
me up, asking for help. I loaned him a
crisp white dress shirt, which I had pur-
chased at a discount store when I worked
as a server at a steak house during my
undergraduate years. I convinced Ronny
Contexts, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 48-53. ISSN 1536-5042, electronic
ISSN 1537-6052. © 2012 American
Sociological Association. http://contexts.sagepub.com. DOI
10.1177/1536504212436496 at STATE UNIV COLL on August
15, 2013ctx.sagepub.comDownloaded from
50 contexts.org
dimple every time he smiled. I was certain he would get the

job. I sat down for lunch at a booth, in an attempt to observe
Ronny being interviewed. I looked at the menu and, with a
knot in my gut, nervous for Ronny, ordered what I knew would
eventually give me a worse stomach ache: a Mile-High Chipotle
Southwest Burger. I sat about twenty feet away from the table
where Ronny sat with a manager.
Ronny tried to use his charisma to connect with the man-
ager, but she kept her distance and did not look at Ronny,
seemingly uninterested in what he had to say. At the end of
the interview, Ronny stood abruptly and walked away from
the manager, with no handshake or smile. He went outside.
I ordered my burger to go, paid my bill, and met him in the
parking lot. As I headed to the door, I turned to look in the
manager’s direction, and she was greeting a White male youth.
She smiled, gave him her hand, and offered him a place to sit.
Ronny’s first contact with her was not this friendly. I walked
outside to meet Ronny, who sat on the hood of my car.
I asked for a debriefing. He told me that he had a good

feeling and that the manager had seemed to like him. I asked
him to walk me through the interview. He had followed the
plan flawlessly. I was proud of him. “You followed the plan.
You did a great job,” I told him. “Why didn’t you shake her
hand when you left?” I asked. “’Cause,” Ronny replied. “Why
not?” I scolded. “Because it was a white lady. You not sup-
posed to shake a white lady’s hand. They be scared of a nigga.
They think I’ma try to take their shit or fuck ’em. I just said
thanks and walked out.” Ronny did not get the job.
Ronny did all he could to land the job, but the limited
resources at his disposal for showing respect may have kept him
from getting the position. In this case, he believed that not
shak-
ing the manager’s hand would show respect; instead, Ronny
may have been perceived as a rude kid not able to hold employ-
ment in a restaurant environment. I asked Ronny to tell me how
he learned about not shaking white women’s hands. He told
me that his white female teachers had asked him to keep his

distance, white women on the street would clasp their purses
when they saw him walking by, and white female store clerks
would nervously watch him when he walked into an establish-
ment. Ronny had been socialized from a young age to overcom-
pensate around white women to show he was not attempting
to harm or disrespect them. This behavior may have been a
result
of the stereotyped expectations of black men as criminals and
sexual aggressors, deeply rooted in American culture.
Ronny applied for multiple jobs. After about a dozen
applications and three failed interviews, he became discour-
aged. He reported being asked by other managers about his
“drug habits” and “criminal background.” Ronny decided to
abandon the job-search process and instead invested $20 in
pirated DVDs; a few hours later, he’d made $50 from the ille-
gally copied movies. He reinvested the $50 in a backpack full of
pirated DVDs, and after a few weeks, Ronny had made enough
to buy a few new pairs of glossy Air Force Ones. However, the
six to ten hours he spent in front of the grocery store, waiting

for customers for his DVDs, made him a measly $20 or $30
a day—certainly not worth the risk of getting arrested for a
federal offense.
Still, Ronny, like many of the other boys, preferred to take
on the risk of incarceration and the low wages that this under-
ground entrepreneurship granted him in order to avoid the
stigma, shame, and feeling of failure that the job-application
process produced for him. Misrecognition of genuine attempts
to do well in school, the labor market, or their probation pro-
gram led to frustration—and to producing alternatives in which
the boys’ organic capital could be put to productive use.
resistance identities
In feeling excluded from a network of positive cre-
dentials, education, and employment opportunities, young
people develop creative responses that provide them with
the necessary tools to survive in an environment where they
have been left behind and where they are consistently crimi-
nalized. Resistance identities, according to sociologist Manuel

Castells, are those created by subordinated populations in
response to oppression. These identities operate by “exclud-
ing the excluder.” Some, like the boys I
studied, develop practices that seem to
embrace criminality as a means of con-
testing a system that sees them as crimi-
nals. Similarly, sociologist Richard Quinney
argues that poor people engage in crimes
such as theft as “acts of survival” in an
economic system in which their well-being is not fulfilled by
other collective means. He further argues that some poor and
working-class people engage in “crimes of resistance,” such as
sabotaging workplace equipment and destroying public prop-
erty, as a form of protest against their economic conditions.
The young men in this study constantly participated in
everyday acts of resistance that baffled teachers, police offi-
cers, and community-center workers. From the perspective
of the adults, these transgressions and small crimes were

Feelings of exclusion from a network of positive
credentials, education, and employment
opportunities led to resistance identities.
51w i n t e r 2 0 1 2 c o n t e x t s
ridiculous: the risk of being caught was high and the benefit
derived from the deviant act was minuscule. This frustration
led adults to abandon empathy for the boys and to apply the
toughest sanctions on them. “If they’re going to act like idiots,
I am going to have to give them the axe,” explained one of the
gang task-force officers.
Many of the adults I interviewed believed the boys’ defi-
ance was “stupid.” Sarcastic remarks often followed when a
youth purposely broke a simple rule, leading him to be ostra-
cized, kicked out of class, or even arrested. Why would the
boys break the simplest of rules knowing there would be grave
consequences? For the boys, though, breaking the rules was

resisting a system that seemed stacked against them. In many
ways, criminality was one of the few resources the boys could
use in response to criminalization.
the stolen bag of chips
One fall afternoon, I met with fifteen-year-old Flaco, a
Latino gang-associated young man from east Oakland. We
joined three of his friends as they walked to their usual after-
school hang out, Walnut Park. They decided to make a stop at
Sam’s Liquor Store. I walked in with them, noticing a sign that
read, “Only two kids allowed in store at one time.” I realized
they were breaking the store rule by entering in a group of four
Ill
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st
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ti
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K
el
ly
52 contexts.org
and pretended to walk in separately to see how the store clerk
would respond to their transgression. I stood in the back of the
store as Flaco walked up the candy-bar aisle—keeping a good
distance between himself and the Snickers, Twix, and Skittles,
to show the clerk, who was already staring him down, that he
was not attempting to steal. He grabbed a candy bar, held it
far away from his body, walked a few steps, and placed it on
the counter. Many of the boys in this study often maintained
their distance in the candy or soda aisles at stores to show they
were not attempting to steal. Store clerks in the neighbor-
hoods I studied were always apprehensive of customers: they
watched people from the moment they walked in, had surveil-

lance cameras set up, and one clerk had taped up pictures of
himself holding an AK-47. The clerk at Sam’s may have been
concerned that too many kids in his store meant that he could
not keep an eye on all of them.
A balding, middle-aged, Asian American male, the clerk
pointed to the door and yelled, “Only two kids allowed in the
store at a time!” The three youths in line to pay for their items
looked at the clerk and at each other. Mike, closest to the
entrance, responded, “We ain’t doing shit.” The clerk replied,
“I am going to call the police!” Mike grabbed a twenty-five-
cent bag of Fritos Flamin’ Hot chips, lifted it up in front of the
clerk’s face, and said, “You see this? I was gonna pay for it, but
now I ain’t paying for shit, stupid mothafucka.” He rushed out
of the store with the bag of chips, as the clerk called the police.
The rest of the youngsters dropped the snacks they were in
line to purchase and ran out. I walked up to the store clerk and
gave him a quarter for Mike, who had stolen the chips. Infuri-
ated, the clerk said, “It’s too late. The police are on their way

to get the robbers.”
I was not able to track down the boys until a few days
later. When I ran into Flaco, he informed me that the police
had arrested Mike that day for stealing the twenty-five-cent
bag of chips. After interviewing the boys and observing the
store clerk’s interactions with them in the days and weeks after
this event, I found that Mike’s “irrational” behavior had actu-
ally changed the way the store clerk interacted with the boys.
The boys believed the clerk had begun to treat them with more
respect—he avoided provoking negative interactions with the
boys, even if it meant allowing a few more youths into the store
than policy allowed. While even Mike’s peers believed that his
actions were “crazy,” they also acknowledged that something
significant had changed. For example, Flaco thought Mike had
overreacted, but because of Mike, Flaco felt respected by the
store clerk the next time he went in the store: “Mike fucked up.
He was acting hyphy [crazy] that day. He should have paid the
guy… But because of what he did, me and my dogs go into the

sto’, and the guy don’t say shit. We all go in like five deep—
like
‘what?’—and dude don’t say shit no more.”
When I asked Mike why he had stolen the bag of chips, he
responded, “That fool was trippin’. He should’ve come correct.
I was gonna pay him. You saw, I had the money in my hand….
That fool knows not to fuck with us anymore. …I did get taken
in for that, but it don’t matter. They gave me probation and
shit. I’ll just keep it cool now since that fool will keep it cool
now too.” In Mike’s worldview, fighting
for dignity at the cost of giving up his free-
dom had paid off. Though Mike’s actions
resulted in his commitment to the criminal
justice system, he was very aware of this
risk when he stole the bag of chips. He had grown frustrated at
the treatment he had received at school, by police, and then at
the store. This frustration, and a deep desire to feel respected,
led Mike to willfully expose himself to incarceration. In the
end,

Mike lost his freedom, coming under the supervision of the
criminal justice system. Nonetheless, Mike gained a sense of
dignity for himself and his peers.
I also asked Mike, “Why didn’t you steal something more
expensive?” He told me that he thought about it, but, in the
moment, he didn’t care what he took. He wanted to prove a
point to the clerk: “Not to fuck with me.” It wasn’t about sav-
ing a quarter, accumulating the most valuable commodity he
could get his hands on, or stealing because he was poor and
wanted to eat a bag of chips. Although he may have had a
desire for any or all of the above, he stole the chips to redeem
himself for being shamed and feeling disrespected. In the end,
despite facing further punishment, Mike and his friends felt
that their actions were not in vain; they had won a small battle
in a war they were so tired of losing. Authority figures expected
the boys to follow their rules, and the boys expressed a deep
desire “to be left alone” and remain free; one of the only
resources they had to feel respected within the system was to

actively engage in behaviors that defied the rules of the game.
This, in turn, led to further misrecognition and criminalization.
defiance as resistance
Defiance constituted a temporary success to the boys.
Watching interactions between the boys and authority figures
was often like watching a life-sized game of chess, with a rook
strategically moving in response to a queen’s movement. A
police officer would get out of his car, the boys would posture;
an officer would grab a young man, his friends would prepare
This self-defeating path led to trouble but also a
sense of agency and dignity.
53w i n t e r 2 0 1 2 c o n t e x t s
to run; an officer would humiliate one of the boys, and the
boy would respond by not cooperating or by cursing back. As
one side moved to repress, the other moved to resist. The boys
were almost always captured and eliminated from the chess

board, but not before they had encroached on the opponent’s
territory, changing, if even subtly, the game.
Mike and Ronny were searching for something beyond
immediate gratification. They did not want to follow the rules
to gain social rewards like a good grade, a legitimate bag of
chips, completing a probation program, or becoming a “nor-
mal” citizen. Instead, the boys chose a road that at first seemed
futile and ignorant, a self-defeating path that led them into
more trouble but eventually provided
them with a sense of agency and dignity
against criminalization.
In mocking the system, these young
people gained a sense of empowerment.
However, these same strategies added
fuel to the criminalization fire. Many
realized that they were actively stoking
that fire, but they believed it was worth the negative conse-
quences. Maintaining a sense of dignity—feeling accepted and

respected—was a central struggle. The boys consciously chose
to fight for their dignity, even if it meant risking their freedom.
crimes of resistance
Many of the young men self-consciously “acted stupid”
as a strategy to discredit the significance of a system which
had excluded and punished them. These deviant politics gar-
nered attention from the youth control complex, frustrating
its agents: the police, school personnel, and others. This frus-
tration led to more punishment, which led to a deeper crisis
of control in the community. In the end, it was this crisis of
control, when institutions were not able to provide a sufficient
amount of social order, the young men consciously perceived
to be a successful result of their defiance. As Flaco put it,
“They
trying to regulate me, right? So if they can’t regulate me, then
that means they not doing their job. So my job is to not-what’s
that word?-confirm [conform].”
The boys consistently chose to act “bad” in circumstances
in which adults expected them to act “good.” Almost all the

acts that led to an arrest for violating probation were com-
mitted as conscious acts of resistance; in the boys’ accounts,
they knew they were facing severe consequences but decided
to break the rules to make a point. This may have been their
way of resisting what they perceived to be unfair treatment
and punishment. These transgressions served as a resource for
feeling empowered and for gaining redress for the humiliation,
stigma, and punishment they encountered even when they
were being “good.” Because they reported that they com-
mitted their transgressions as a way of “getting back at the
system,” as Ronny explained, I am calling these acts deviant
politics, by which I mean the political actions—the resistance—
that youth labeled by society as “deviant“ use to respond to
punishment that they ubiquitously encounter.
Boys who resisted often suffered real and drastic conse-
quences. Sometimes, they did not even realize that they were
resisting. Often, they were simply, as they called it, “getting
stupid,” meaning that they acted “bad” for the sake of being

“bad.” These kinds of practices had few long-term positive
outcomes for any of the boys in the study.
In an environment in which there were few formal ave-
nues for expressing dissent, which the boys believed to be
extremely repressive, they developed forms of resistance they
believed could change, even if only temporarily, the outcome
of their treatment. The boys believed they had gained redress
for the punitive social control they had encountered by adopt-
ing a subculture of resistance based on fooling the system.
Their crimes of resistance, which made no sense to the system,
were fully recognizable to those who had been misrecognized
and criminalized.
Victor M. Rios is in the sociology department at the University
of California, Santa
Barbara. This is adapted from his new book Punished: Policing
the Lives of Black
and Latino Boys.
Breaking the rules meant resisting a system;
criminality was one of the few resources the
boys could use in response to criminalization.

GB601 MBA Capstone 1 1906D Assignment and R.docx

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