Download CHAPTER 7 Deviance and Social Control

Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
Deviance and Social Control
Lecture Outline
I.
What Is Deviance?
A.
Deviance is behavior that violates the norms of a particular society. A deviant
B.
person is one who violates or opposes a society's most valued norms.
The ways in which a society prevents deviance and punishes deviants are known
as social control. Police, prisons, and mental hospitals are among the official
institutions responsible for applying social control. Less threatening forms of
deviance are controlled through the everyday interactions of individuals.
II.
Dimensions of Deviance
A.
Three dimensions-power,
culture, and voluntary versus involuntary behavior-
are the major determinants operating to produce the forms of deviance that are
B.
typical of a particular society.
The term stigma refers to a personal attribute that is deeply discrediting.
Stigmatized individuals may deviate from some societal norms but are not
necessarily social deviants. True social deviants are people whose acts constitute a
denial of the social order.
c.
Crime is usually defined as an act, or the omission of an act, for which the state
can apply sanctions. But which behaviors constitute crime, and what degree of
sanction is appropriate, are controversial questions.
1.
Many sociologists claim that some crimes are victimless. Others argue that
even victimless crimes inflict damage on society.
2.
The most serious, most frequently occurring crimes are called index crimes
3.
D.
because they are included in the FBI's crime index.
Victimization surveys show that the overall rate of serious crime in the
United States is two to three times higher than the reported crime index.
Deviant behaviors can be categorized in terms of the degree of consensus on
whether they are deviant and on the appropriate degree of sanction. As a culture's
values and norms change, so do its notions of what kinds of behavior are deviant
and how strongly they should be sanctioned.
E.
Individuals may belong to a subculture in which a particular form of deviant
behavior is practiced. Although the group's behavior may be deviant according to
Deviance and Social Control
the norms of society, the behavior of its members is not considered deviant within
the group.
III.
Theoretical Perspectives on Social Deviance
A.
Biological Explanation of Crime
1.
Cesare Lombroso claimed to have proved that criminals were throwbacks
2.
3.
to primitive, aggressive human types.
William Sheldon postulated that body type was correlated with crime.
Some modem researchers have concluded that both biology and social
environment playa role in producing criminals.
B.
Early sociological explanations viewed crime as a form of "social pathology" that
was bred in the slums and infected innocent residents of those communities.
C.
Robert Merton constructed a typology based on the theory that some social
structures exert pressure toward crime or conformity. He hypothesized that people
who do not accept cultural goals or the accepted means of achieving them would
D.
follow other-possibly criminal or deviant-alternatives.
Cultural conflict can lead to situations that encourage criminal activity, as can be
E.
seen in the example of Prohibition.
Marxian sociologists believe that legal definitions of deviant behavior are
imposed by the rich and powerful to protect their own interests. Definitions of
criminal behavior are applied more forcefully to the poor and the working class
F.
than to the upper classes.
Recruitment is a term that refers to the question of why some, but not all, people
in a given social situation become deviants. Production is a term that describes
the creation of new categories of deviance in a society.
1.
Edwin Sutherland argued that whether a person becomes a criminal or not
is determined largely by the comparative frequency and intimacy of his or
her contacts with criminal or law-abiding behavior. This process is called
2.
differential association.
According to interactionists, deviance is produced by a process called
labeling, meaning a societal reaction to certain behaviors that labels the
offender as deviant.
3.
Howard Becker proposed that a person's normal development can be seen
as a series of progressively increasing commitments to conventional norms
and institutions. Commitment emerges out of the interactions that create
social bonds.
Chapter 7
4.
Sociologists call engaging in deviant acts primary deviance. Behaviors
appropriate to someone who has already been labeled as deviant are called
secondary deviance.
IV.
Crime and Social Control
A.
Ecological data, such as demographic variables, are an essential starting point for
research on the incidence of crime.
B.
As societies become more complex, they develop specialized, more or less
coercive institutions to regulate their members' behavior.
1.
Advocates of capital punishment claim that it deters people from
2.
committing terrible crimes, but this claim is not supported by research
findings.
The burden on the courts is reduced by plea bargaining, in which an
3.
accused person pleads guilty to a lesser charge.
Prisons are total institutions whose functions are said to be deterrence,
rehabilitation, and retribution.
4.
Studies of prisons have attempted to show what can be done to increase
the deterrent effects of prison and prevent it from becoming a community
that socializes criminals.
5.
Sociologists who have studied prisons agree that the least successful
aspect of prison life is rehabilitation.
Deviance in the United States Before the Civil War
...
.
...
..
..
...
KillingNativeAmellcans
lynchingofAfricanAmericans
Prostitution
Wifeorchildbeating
Politicalcorruption
Corporate
crime
Abortion
Indebtedness
Illegitimacy
Divorce
Adultery
Majorfefoniesagainstwhites
Treason
Homosexuarlty
A Typology of Deviance in the United Stat'!'~
...
..
.
..
..
..
Recreational
drugs
Homosexuality
Abortion
Schizophrenia
Driving
whileintoxicated
Publicdrunkenness
Corporate
crime
Wifeorchildbeating
.
SaleofwhiskeyduringProhibition
Prostitution
.
Abortionbefore1973Supreme
Courtruling
Majorcrimes(felonies!
Treason
ST-24CRIMERATESOVERTIMEANDACROSSREGIONSIN THEUNITEDSTATES
1972
1982
1996
Crime Index, total
3,961
5,604
5,079
Violentcrime
Property crime
401
3,560
571
5,033
634
4,445
Murder
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravatedassault
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
9
23
181
189
1,141
1,994
426
9
34
239
289
1,489
3,085
459
7
36
202
388
943
2,976
526
* Rate per 100,000inhabitants,calculatedon numberof
offensesbefore rounding.
Source:StatisticalAbstract, 1998.
TABLE7,2
The Crime Rate, * by Region of the United States, 1995
Northeast
Midwest
South
West
Crime Index, total
4,180
4,751
5,742
6,083
Violentcrime, total
Murder
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravatedassault
Property crime, total
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
611
6.2
24.9
260
319
3,570
758
2,296
516
588
6.9
40.1
182
359
4,164
741
2,821
451
738
9.8
40.9
212
474
5,004
1,137
3,337
530
770
9.0
38.6
242
481
5,312
1,121
3,435
766
* Offensesknownto the police,per 100,000population.
Source:FBI, 1997.
United States
Russia
South Africa
ngland & Wales
Spain
Canada
Australia
Italy
Netherlands
Germany
n
I
.1
France
I .
I
Sweden
Switzerland
Japan
Incarceration rate (number of people in prison per 100,000 population)
SOURCE: Marc Mauer, "Comparative Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends,
The Sentencing Project, 2003, www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/pub9036.pdf.
FIGURE 7.1 Incarceration Rates in Selected
Industrialized Nations
Introduction to Sociology, 5th
Copyright
<C>
2005 W. W. Norton & Com
METROPOLITAN
RATE
TYPE 0 F
CRIME
Violent crime
Murder
Forcible rape
Robbery
Assau It
Property crime
Burglary
Larceny
Auto theft
(PE R 100,000
POPULATION)
RURAL
RATE
545.6
6.2
33.8
173.4
332.3
212.6
3.6
23.8
16.7
168.5
3,863.5
768.5
1,696.1
558.2
2,596.4
498.6
1,005.0
132.8
SOURCE: U.S. Bureauof the Census, 2002, Table 313, p. 203.
VIOLENT
800
700
.ic:L
600
o
oo! 500
o
...
:-
..Iii
-
-_.
Iii
m
1iii_1ii
CRIMES
-
.
---- ----
--- -
1993
1994
1996
1993
1994
g
... 400
i
300
2
&!
200
100
o
6,000
5,000
CD
A.
o
i
go
--
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1990
1991
1992
1995
1997
1998
1999
Murder (includes nonnegligent manslaughter)
Forciblerape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
.......
-I
4,000
1989
PROPERTY CRIMES
-I
g 3,000
~
iCD 2,000
1ii
II:
1,000
o
--
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Motor vehicle theft
Burglary
Larceny/theft
SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation,UniformCrime Report, 2002. Table 1, p. 66.
FIGURE 7.2 Crime Rates in the United States, 1983-1999
Introduction to Sociology, 5th ed.
Copyright
0 2005
W. W. Norton & Company
CRIME
PERCENTAG E MALE
Murder
89.2
98.6
89.7
79.8
86.7
63.0
83.5
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Theft
Auto theft
Arson
84.8
Note: Data represent arrests (not charges), estimated by the
FBI.
SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime
Report, 2002, Table 42, p. 251.
-
80
-
---
----
----
70
---
60
..!
~ 50
G)
Q
o
~
~
o~
42.1
40
...
..
G)
Q.
G)
'I
30
a=
---
20
-- --- -- - ---
10
o
Total
White
male
White
female
u.s. Bureau of the Census, 2003, Table313, p. 203.
Black
male
Black
female
1,600,000
~I
i--r
+
1,400,000
-+---
j
I
I
---+
1,200,000
c
-
.2
... 1,000,000
1\1
:iQ.
o
c
o
800,000
.~
600,000
D-
I:L.
---
--+~--
400,000
200,000
o
1925 1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
Year
1970
1975
SOURCE: Marc Mauer, "Comparative Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends;
The Sentencing Project, 2003, www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/pub9036.pdf.
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2,500,000
=---t
2,000,000
I
I
I
= 1,500,000
-~
G)
r-~
l
I
I
~
E
u.I 1,000,000
500,000
o
1982
1986
1990
1994
- -
60
--'#.
S
I!
1998 1999
--,.--.
40
G)
E
'C
u
....
c
G)
'0 20
:>
t
I
I
+1
I
I
I
I
I
!
o
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998 1999
SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 2004, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/viortrdtab.htm
and www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/eande.htm.
FIGURE 7.5 Justice Employment and Crime Rates
Introduction to Sociology, 5th ed.
Copyright
Ci 2005 W. W. Norton & Company
"II
(n
( II \ h: I
11"''''''1"
,II 1"'"1'''''
1\1" ,,"
110'\
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PEItSPECTlVE
DfSCIJPTION
CllTlQUE
IIOLOCICALTHIOIIES
Crimeand -forms01dIManca
Ire eeneticaIlr de8IrrniI8I.
ThIM
The dIMant 01crimNI petJOn...
pradua 01a 81Od1Jsicknesl801.
ciald~.
A papuIIt naIIan. bur CIsaedi8ed
Dewianceand ern resultflam ...
failure01social strudanI to func.
..DoesnaIexplainwe.,
into .Iba......people
... d.m..
fUR call tJIII
aol...oI.
dII~
.
lion~.
hey IOCieIy
.,.
...
.
Pfd~..Jon.---
.
itSUI-
no realtheofy01causality.
ducesill ownforms01~
.- s",
0',.
Cultural conftict CI'NIes 0pportunities for deviance and criminal pin
in dwianllubaltlures
(e..., pr0hibitions cru8t oppartunilies for 01.
pnized crime).
ExrJair.s.nanuw,...
01....
"'i
.;~
Capitalism produces poor and powmallei who may r80ft to
crime eo survNe. The rich employ
theirown...
iObr8Iklawsand
.~.'
enhance their power and weIIIh.
. I .t.
in 1III8riII
Di6elerrlMl8lOCiMion
CriminalCIf8S mull flam reauiImenI into crinw! arouPS based on
auoc~
and i,*,~
aiminals.
wi8h
DeNnce is cru8ed by arouPSIhaI
haw the power eoattKh IaIs to
others, rnarkinaparticul. people as
0UISideB.h is exhfIlefy difficultto
shed a label once it has been ac.
quired, and the labeled petJOn
lendseo~
manner.
inthe
I
ExceIIenIexpIaNIion 01r«:uitmenI but naI as dfeaM in explainin8 ~
Qre8I.
Not always suppor8ed by empirical
evidence. People an also use ..
bets (e drunk,)to chanp Iheir
behavior.
ST.22 MERTON'SMODESOFADAPTATION
AND EXAMPLES
Conformity
+
I
Innovation
+
I
-
Ritualism
Retreatism
+
+
-
Conformity
The working poor
The suburban family
Innovation
The mugger
The embezzler
The stock
manipulator
The resigned
bureaucrat
The hedonist
The
skidding
I
- -- - .. -
I The bohemian
Ritualism
I The chronic
welfare recipient
Retreatism I Thewino or junkie
"IVI"
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