Download Chapter 8 – Deviance and Social Control

Chapter 8 – Deviance and Social Control
Learning Objectives
 Define "deviance" and understand why deviance is relative from a sociological
perspective.
 Know why human groups need norms to exist and, consequently, develop a system of
social control for enforcing norms.
 Describe some of the sanctions human groups use to enforce norms, including
shaming and degradation ceremonies.
 Differentiate between biological, psychological, and sociological explanations of why
people violate norms.
 Talk about deviance from the symbolic interactionist perspective, describing and
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applying the various components of differential association theory, control theory,
and labeling theory.
List and discuss the five techniques of neutralization.
Know from the functionalist perspective which functions deviance fulfills for society.
Understand strain theory and discuss its social implications.
Talk about the role power plays in defining and punishing deviance while discussing,
from the conflict perspective, how the criminal justice system legitimates and
perpetuates social inequality.
Describe the different ways street crime and white-collar crime are perceived by the
public and treated by the criminal justice system.
Discuss the reasons for and implications of "get tough" policies on crime in the United
States.
Address the ramifications of the growing prison population in the United States and
how the way society addresses crime is related to the conflict perspective.
Talk about the gender, social class, and racial-ethnic biases in the death penalty.
Explain why crime statistics may be misleading and should be interpreted with caution.
Know what is meant by the medicalization of deviance and why some sociologists view
mental illness as more of a social, rather than biological, condition.
Explain why the United States needs to develop a fairer and more humane approach to
dealing with deviance.
Chapter Summary
Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of rules and norms. From a
sociological perspective, deviance is relative. Definitions of "what is deviant" vary across
societies and from one group to another within the same society. Howard S. Becker described
the interpretation of deviance as, "It is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act that
makes something deviant." This coincides with the symbolic interactionist point out that it is
not the act itself but the reactions to the act that make something deviant. In some cases, an
individual need not do anything to be labeled a deviant. He or she may be falsely accused or
discredited because of a birth defect, race, or disease. Even crime is relative when interpreting
the deviance of the actor.
Deviance is based on adherence and violation of norms. Human groups need norms to exist.
By making behavior predictable, norms make social life possible. Consequently, all human
groups develop a system of social control, which involves formal and informal means of
enforcing norms. Those who violate these norms face the danger of being labeled deviant.
Violators can expect to experience negative sanctions for the violation of norms. Members of
society who conform to societal norms, especially those who go above and beyond what is
commonly expected, receive positive sanctions. In some societies, such as the Amish,
shaming is a common negative sanction.
Biologists, psychologists, and sociologists have different perspectives on why people violate
norms. Biological explanations focus on genetic predispositions, psychologists concentrate on
abnormalities within the individual (commonly known as personality disorders), and
sociologists look at social factors outside the individual.
Symbolic interactionists interpret deviance through the following social theories: differential
association theory (people learn deviance from the groups with whom they associate), control
theory (people generally avoid deviance because of an effective system of inner and outer
controls), and labeling theory (people are directed toward or away from deviance by the labels
others pin on them).
Functionalists contend that deviance is functional for society; it contributes to the social order
by clarifying moral boundaries, promoting social unity, and initiating social change.
Furthermore, according to "strain theory," people who are unable to achieve cultural goals
(such as wealth or high status) through legitimate means are likely to experience strain,
which, in turn, can lead to deviant and/or criminal behavior. In addition to strain theory,
functionalists stress theories addressing illegitimate opportunity structure in society.
Conflict theorists note that power plays a central role in defining and punishing deviance. The
group in power imposes its definitions of deviance on other groups, then use the law and
criminal justice system to maintain its power and privilege over those other groups.
Reactions to deviance in the United States include everything from mild sanctions to capital
punishment. Since the 1980s, the United States has adopted a "get tough" policy on crime
that has imprisoned millions of people. Prisoners are generally much younger than average
American, nearly 90 percent male, and disproportionately African American.
Since crime statistics are produced within a specific social and political context for particular
purposes, they must be interpreted with caution. Power plays a central role in which behaviors
are defined as crime, and how actively "criminal behaviors" are prosecuted and/or punished.
For example, although street crime is given the greatest attention by the media, white collar
crime actually costs the American taxpayers more. Even cases of gross negligence that causes
death are funneled into administrative hearings that result in little more than a fine for the
corporation. The definition of crime is subject to change, however, and how various acts are
treated by society changes with shifts in power and public priority.
Since the early twentieth century, there has been a growing tendency toward the
medicalization of deviance, viewing deviance, including crime, as mental illnesses. Thomas
Szasz offers another perspective, claiming that mental illnesses are neither mental nor illness.
Rather, they are problem behaviors that are related to people's particular experiences in life.
Since deviance is inevitable, the larger issues include finding ways to protect people from
those forms of deviance that harm themselves and/or others, tolerating deviant behaviors that
are not harmful, and developing systems of fairer treatment for deviants.
Key Terms in Chapter Eight
capital punishment: The death penalty. (p. 219)
capitalist class: The wealthy who own the means of production and buy the labor of the working
class. (p. 215)
control theory: The theory developed by Walter Reckless that two control systems—inner
controls and outer controls—work against our tendencies to deviate. (p. 204)
corporate crime: Crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation. (p. 212)
crime: The violation of norms that are written into law. (p. 199)
criminal justice system: The system of police, courts, and prisons set up to deal with people who
are accused of having committed a crime. (p. 214)
cultural goals: The legitimate objectives held out to the members of a society. (p. 208)
degradation ceremonies: Rituals designed to strip an individual of his or her identity as a group
member and resocialize an individual; for example, a military boot camp. (p. 201)
deviance: The violation of rules or norms. (p. 199)
differential association: Edwin Sutherland’s term to indicate that associating with some groups
results in learning an “excess of definitions” of deviance and, by extension, in a greater
likelihood that one will become deviant. (p. 203)
genetic predispositions: Inborn tendencies, in this context, to commit deviant acts. (p. 202)
hate-crime: crimes to which more severe punishments are attached because they are motivated
by hatred (dislike, animosity) of someone’s race-ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,
disability, or national origin. (223)
illegitimate opportunity structures: Opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of
life. (p. 211)
institutionalized means: legitimate and accepted ways of reaching cultural goals. (p. 208)
labeling theory: The view, developed by symbolic interactionists, that the labels people are given
affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior either
into deviance or into conformity. (p. 205)
marginal working class: The most desperate members of the working class, who have few skills,
little job security, and are often unemployed. (p. 215)
medicalization of deviance: To make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying
illness that needs to be treated by physicians. (p. 223)
negative sanction: A punishment or negative reaction for disapproved behavior, for deviance. (p.
201)
personality disorders: The view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual
to violate social norms. An example is anti-social personality disorder (p. 202)
police discretion: The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest
someone for an offense or to overlook the matter. (p. 223)
positive sanction: A reward or positive reaction for approved behavior, for conformity. (p. 201)
recidivism rate: The proportion of people who are rearrested. (p. 219)
serial murder: The killing of several victims in three or more separate events. (p. 220)
social control: A group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms. (p. 199)
social order: A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend
and on which they base their lives. (p. 199)
stigma: “Blemishes” that discredit a person’s claim to a "normal" identity. (p. 199)
strain theory: Robert Merton’s term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large
numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success) but withholds from many
the approved means to reach that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of
an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal. (p.
209)
street crime: Crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary. (p. 202)
techniques of neutralization: Explanations given by people as a way of rationalizing their
deviant/criminal behavior. (p. 206)
white-collar crime: Edwin Sutherland’s term for nonviolent crimes committed by people of
respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations; for example, bribery
of public officials, securities violations, embezzlement, false advertising, and price
fixing. (p. 212)
working class: Those who sell their labor to the capitalist class. (p. 215)
Key People in Chapter Eight
Howard Becker: Noting the sociological dimensions of deviance, Becker observed that “it is not
the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant.” (p. 198)
William Chambliss: Chambliss’ study of the Saints and Roughnecks showed how labels work to
open doors of opportunity for individuals who are assigned positive labels and,
conversely, close doors of opportunity for individuals who are assigned negative labels.
(p. 207)
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin: Cloward and Ohlin identified some of the illegitimate
opportunity structures that are woven into the texture of urban life, such as robbery, drug
dealing, and prostitution. (p. 211)
Emile Durkheim: Durkheim identified the three primary functions deviance contributes to the
social order: 1) clarifies moral boundaries and affirms social norms; 2) promotes social
unity and 3) promotes social change. (p. 208)
Robert Edgerton: Edgerton, an anthropologist, studied how differently human groups react to
similar behavior. (p. 199)
Harold Garfinkel: Garfinkel created the term “degradation ceremonies” to describe formal
attempts to brand someone as an outsider. (p. 201)
Erving Goffman: Goffman used the term “stigma” to refer to characteristics that discredit
people’s claim to a “normal” identity. (p. 198)
Travis Hirschi: Hirschi observed that the stronger people’s bonds are with society (that is, their
attachments, commitments, involvements, and beliefs), the higher is their level of selfcontrol. (204)
Ruth Horowitz: Studying a lower-class Chicano neighborhood in Chicago, Horowitz discovered
how associating with people who have a certain concept of “honor” can propel deviance
in young men (committing criminal acts in order to defend or protect their honor). (p.
203)
Martin Sánchez Jankowski: Studying street gangs, Jankowski discovered that gang members
joined gangs for access to money, recreation (including drugs and women), anonymity in
committing crimes, self-protection, and to help protect their community from other
neighborhood gangs and/or outsiders. (p. 212)
Robert Merton: Merton developed strain theory to analyze the deviance that develops when
people are socialized into desirable cultural goals but fail to achieve them through
legitimate institutional means, or simply reject the cultural goals. (p. 209)
Donald Partington: Examining all executions for rape and attempted rape in Virginia between
1908 and 1963, Partington uncovered the racial bias in the death penalty during that era
in Virginia. (p. 220)
Walter Reckless: Reckless developed control theory to show how people generally avoid
deviance because of an effective system of inner controls (self-control) and outer controls
(legitimate authorities). (p. 204)
Edwin Sutherland: Capturing the essence of differential association theory, Edward Sutherland
used the term “differential association” to indicate that people learn to either deviate from
or conform to society’s norms through the different groups with whom they associate.
Sutherland also introduced the term “white-collar crime” to refer to crimes that people of
respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations. (p. 203)
Gresham Sykes and David Matza: Sykes and Matza uncovered the five techniques of
neutralization that delinquents, as well as other deviants, typically employ to rationalize
their deviant behaviors. (p. 206)
Thomas Szasz: Condemning the medicalization of deviance, Szasz argued that mental illnesses
are neither mental nor illness; rather, they are problem behaviors that are related to
people’s particular experiences in life. (p. 223)
Mark Watson: Studying outlaw bikers, Watson observed how these bikers embraced their
deviant labels—