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Glossary
Basic Sociological Terms for the Study of the CJS
Agency: the ability to act upon.
Bureaucracy: a formal organization that is rationally designed according to a set of rules and hierarchical
authority in order to complete tasks efficiently
Crime: intentional act or omission committed without justification or defense which is in violation of criminal
law and punishable by the state
Definition of situation (a.k.a. Thomas theorem) "If people define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences."--W.I. Thomas
Due process: equal treatment before the law; the constitutional mandate that criminal proceedings, from police
to corrections, follow established rules or principles, that similar cases be handled in a similar fashion, and that
a no person shall be adjudicated guilty without sufficient safeguards against state power
Empirical: knowledge derived from experiment or systematic observation of the physical or social world;
capable of being tested or replicated/falsified
Etiology: the study of causation
Formal sanction: a response to a violation of a codified rule by an agent of an official organization designated
to enforce that rule
Formal social control: efforts by official agencies, acting in their designated capacity, to constrain and direct
the conduct of people
Ideology: collective belief about the ideal world; collective conceptual frame that people use to understand the
world and construct moral judgments, and that prompts us toward particular actions; also called a dominant
narrative.
Informal sanction: a response to a violation of a norm by people with no particular legal authority to regulate
that behavior
Informal social control: efforts by people acting unofficially to enforce norms, mores, folkways, etc.
Law: rules of conduct established by the government that the citizens must follow
Level of analysis: “slice” of the world being examined, ranging from individual to globe.
Myth: a falsity: 1) that has some discernible reality or a kernel of truth, 2) that distorts the facts, 3) that people
hold as a true, non problematic, and naturalized understanding of the world, and 4) that influences behaviors,
attitudes, policy, and etc. Often used to indicate fallacious knowledge about a particular social phenomenon,
e.g. child abduction and drug use.
Norms: collectively held informal and formal rules of proper behavior which guide and impede behavior;
standards of acceptable behavior.
Operational definition: (N.) when variables are written in terms that can be observed or measured; inferencebased analysis, as opposed to direct observation.
Propaganda (Though a complex issue, I will provide a simplistic operational definition): advocacy of one side
of an issue with the intent of influencing attitudes of a mass (i.e. impersonal) audience; overt or covert; may use
words, pictures, gestures, separate from information, inquiry, instruction, private debates, education, etc.
Public policy (or policy): a course of action or inaction chosen by government authorities that is intended to
achieve societal goals
Relativity: the phenomenon of aspects of culture (language, norms, values, social practices, etc.) emerging
from social contexts and varying over time, across space, and across people
Sanction: audience-based reaction to a perceived violation of a norm or rule that is meant to ensure that the
individual or group complies with the norm or rule; a source of social control that delineates boundaries of
acceptable conduct. Although sanctions can be positive (rewards) and negative (punishment), we will use this
term to refer only to the latter; otherwise we will use the term "positive sanctions."
Semiotics: the study of language systems, esp. regarding how they maintain existing social arrangements,
inequalities, and power structures.
Social control: concerted efforts to constrain and direct the conduct of people by inducing conformity and
preventing non conformity. Although this encompasses a wide range of social phenomenon, stretching from
educational socialization to propaganda to incarceration, we will use this term to refer to punishments
Social engineering: purposive efforts by the government (or other organization) to change the beliefs,
attitudes, and behavioral patterns of a section of the population, e.g. family planning, tax incentives, seat belt
laws, propaganda, and public education
Social institution: a system of material resources (buildings, technology, etc.), non-material resources
(organizations, laws, norms, values, ideologies, etc.), and social relationships that meet some particular need of
the people
Social movement: collective and deliberate action to bring about specified and enduring social change.
Social structure: the predictable and established patterns of behavior and social relationships.
Socialization: learning of a social structure and culture, as well as identity.
Society: a people who share a semi-stable network of social institutions, social structures, and culture, as well
as a geographical region.
Status quo: "existing state"; the existing distribution of power within a society
Stratification: unequal distribution of a scarce resource, such as money, power, opportunities and life chances,
health care, and prestige.
Symbol: something that represents more than itself; basis of language, ideology, identity, and abstraction.
System: 1. multiple parts, 2. that work toward specified goals or tasks, and 3. are interdependent
Systemic agency: the influence social institutions exert on our behaviors, values, choices, prejudices, desires,
etc., as well as the actions of other organizations and systems
Theory: broad explanatory model; explanation of how parts of the world relate to other parts; may or may not
include hypothesis testing