Download Chapter 6 Deviance and Crime

Chapter 6
Deviance and Crime
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What Is Deviance?
Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance
Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
Chapter 6
Deviance and Crime
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Postmodernist Perspective on Deviance
Crime Classifications and Statistics
The Criminal Justice System
Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future
The Global Criminal Economy
Deviance
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Deviance is a formal property of social
situations and social structure.
Deviance is conferred by audiences.
Deviance is relative and it varies in its degree
of seriousness.
Functionalist Perspectives
Deviance is universal because it serves three
important functions:
1. Deviance clarifies rules.
2. Deviance unites a group.
3. Deviance promotes social change.
Strain Theory
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People feel strain when they are exposed to
cultural goals they are unable to obtain.
Merton identified ways people adapt to cultural
goals and approved ways of achieving them.
Merton’s Five Modes of Adaptation
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Conformity - people accept culturally
approved goals and pursue them through
approved means.
Innovation -people accept culturally
approved goals but adopt disapproved means
for achieving them.
Merton’s Five Modes of Adaptation
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Ritualism - people give up on societal goals
but not the approved ways of achieving them.
Retreatism - people abandon approved goals
and the approved means of achieving them.
Rebellion - people challenge the approved
goals and advocate an alternative set of goals
or means.
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspectives on Deviance
Three approaches:
1. Differential association and Differential
reinforcement theory
2. Control theory
3. Labeling theory
Differential Association and
Differential Reinforcement
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Differential association theory - people are
more likely to become deviant when they
associate with people who are deviant.
Differential reinforcement theory - deviant
behavior and conventional behavior are
learned through the same social processes.
Control Theory: Social Bonding
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Deviant behavior is related to the strength of
social bonds:
1. Attachments to other people.
2. Commitment to conformity.
3. Involvement in conventional activities.
4. Belief in conventional values and norms.
Labeling Theory
Stages in the labeling process:
1. Primary deviance - initial act of rule
breaking.
2. Secondary deviance - acceptance of
identity as a deviant.
3. Tertiary deviance - normalizing deviant
behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
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People in positions of power use the law to
protect their own interests.
Laws ensure that individuals at the bottom of
the social class do not infringe on the property
or threaten the safety of those at the top.
Feminist Perspectives
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Liberal feminism - women's deviance is a
rational response to gender discrimination.
Radical feminism - women's deviance and
crime is related to patriarchy.
Socialist feminism - women's deviance and
crime is the result of women's exploitation by
capitalism and patriarchy.
Sociologists Classifications of
Crime
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Conventional or street crime
Occupational or white-collar crime
Corporate crime
Organized crime
Political crime
Crimes and Criminals
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Rates of arrest are higher for males than
females at every age and for most offenses.
Individuals from all social classes commit
crimes; they simply commit different kinds of
crime.
Young males of color between the ages of 12
and 24 have the highest victimization rates.
Functions of Punishment
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Retribution
Social protection
Rehabilitation
Deterrence
The Future of Deviance and Crime
in the U.S.
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People agree that crime is an important issue
but are divided over what to do about it.
The best approach for reducing delinquency
and crime is prevention.
As long as racism, sexism, classism, and
ageism exist, people will see deviant and
criminal behavior through a selective lens.