Download Chapter 6 Deviance and Crime

Chapter 6
Deviance and Crime
Chapter Outline
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What Is Deviance?
Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on
Deviance
Postmodernist Perspectives on Deviance
Chapter Outline
Crime Classifications and Statistics
• The Criminal Justice System
• Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future
• The Global Criminal Economy
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Deviance
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Any behavior, belief, or condition that violates
social norms in the society or group in which
it occurs:
– drinking too much
– robbing a bank
– laughing at a funeral
What Is Social Control?
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Practices that social groups develop to
encourage conformity to norms, rules, and
laws and to discourage deviance.
What Is Social Control?
Internal social control takes place when
individuals internalize norms and values and
follow those norms and values in their lives.
• External social control involves negative
sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors
and punish rule breakers.
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Functionalist Perspective
Deviance serves three functions:
1. Deviance clarifies rules.
2. Deviance unites a group.
3. Deviance promotes social change.
Merton’s Strain Theory of
Deviance TQ
Mode
Method
Conformity
Accepts approved goals, pursues them
through approved means.
Innovation
Accepts approved goals; uses
disapproved means.
Ritualism
Abandons society’s goals; conforms to
approved means.
Merton’s Strain Theory of
DevianceTQ
Mode
Retreatism
Rebellion
Method
Abandons approved goals and approved
means.
Challenges approved goals and
approved means.
Deviant type
Goals
Means
Conformist
Yes
Yes
Innovator
Yes
No
Ritualist
No
Yes
Retreatist or
revolutionary
No
No
Opportunity Theory
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Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
(1960) suggested that for deviance to occur,
people must have access illegitimate
opportunity structures:
– Circumstances that provide an opportunity
for people to acquire through illegitimate
activities what they cannot achieve through
legitimate channels.
Functionalist Perspectives
Theory
Strain theory
Opportunity
theory
Key Elements
Deviance occurs when approved
means of reaching approved goals is
blocked.
Lower-class delinquents subscribe
to middleclass values they can’t
attain. They may achieve goals
illegitimately.
Functionalist Perspectives
Theory
Social control/
social bonding
Key Elements
When ties to family and friends are
weak, individuals are likely to engage
in criminal behavior.
Interactionist Perspectives
Theory
Differential
association
Labeling theory
Key element
Deviant behavior is learned in
interaction with others.
Acts are deviant because they have
been labeled as such.
Interactionist Perspectives
Theory
Key element
Primary
/secondary
A person accepts the “deviant”
label and continues to engage in
“deviant” behavior.
Conflict Perspectives
Theory
Key Elements
Critical approach
The powerful use the criminal
justice system to protect their
interests.
Feminist approach
Liberal- deviance arises from
discrimination.
Radical- focuses on patriarchy
Socialist - focuses on capitalism and
patriarchy
Differential Association Theory
Perspectives
States that people have a greater tendency to
deviate from societal norms when they
frequently associate with individuals who are
more favorable toward deviance than
conformity.
• From this approach, criminal behavior is
learned within intimate personal groups such
as one’s family and peer groups
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Differential Reinforcement
Theory
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Criminologist Ronald Akers (1998) combined
differential association theory with elements
of psychological learning theory to create
differential reinforcement theory.
– If a person’s friends and groups define
deviant behavior as “right,” they are more
likely to engage in deviant behavior.
– If a person’s friends and groups define
deviant behavior as “wrong,” the person is
less likely to engage in that behavior.
Social Bond Theory
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The probability of deviant behavior increases when a
person’s ties to society are weakened or broken.
According to Hirschi, social bonding consists of
– attachment to other people
– commitment to conformity
– involvement in conventional activities
– belief in the legitimacy of conventional norms.
Figure 7.4 Elements of Social Bond Theory
Labeling Theory
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States that deviance is a socially constructed process
in which social control agencies designate certain
people as deviants, and they, in turn, accept the
label and begin to act accordingly.
Focuses on the variety of symbolic labels that people
are given in their interactions with others.
The act of fixing a person with a negative identity,
such as “criminal” is directly related to the power of
those who do the labeling and those being labeled.
Postmodern Perspective
Theory
Key Element
Power, knowledge, and social control
are intertwined.
Knowledge is
power
Example: Methods of prison
surveillance make prisoners think they
are being watched all the time,
giving officials power over the inmates.
Stages in the Labeling Process
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If individuals accept a negative label, they are more
likely to continue to participate in the type of behavior
the label was initially meant to control.
Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has
been labeled a deviant accepts the identity and
continues the deviant behavior.
Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has
been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the
behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.
How the Law Classifies Crime
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Crimes are divided into felonies and
misdemeanors.
– A felony is a serious crime such as rape,
homicide, or aggravated assault, for which
punishment typically ranges from more
than a year’s imprisonment to death.
– A misdemeanor is a minor crime typically
punished by less than one year in jail.
How Sociologists Classify
Crime
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Sociologists categorize crimes based on
how they are committed and how society
views the offenses:
1. conventional (street) crime
2. occupational (white-collar) and
corporate crime
3. organized crime
4. political crime
Functions of Punishment
Retribution
– The punishment should fit the crime.
• Social protection
– Restrict offenders so they can’t commit
further crimes.
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Functions of Punishment
Rehabilitation
– Return offenders to the community as lawabiding citizens.
• Deterrence
– Reduce criminal activity through a fear of
punishment.
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Global crime
The 1994 United Nations Conference on
Global Organized Crime estimated that about
$500 billion per year is accrued in the global
trade in drugs alone.
• Today, profits from all kinds of global criminal
activities are estimated to range from $750
billion to more than $1.5 trillion a year.
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Reducing Global Crime
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Requires a global response, including:
– Cooperation of law enforcement agencies,
prosecutors, and intelligence services
across geopolitical boundaries.
– Regulation by the international community
to control international money laundering
and trafficking in people and controlled
substances such as drugs and weapons.