AIA 1005 Introduction To Anthropology and Sociology - Deviance & Social Control PDF

AIA 1005 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 6 DEVIANCE & SOCIAL CONTROL 1 What is Deviance Deviance (penyimpangan) is generally defined as any act that violates a social norm (or the recogniz...

AIA 1005 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 6 DEVIANCE & SOCIAL CONTROL 1 What is Deviance Deviance (penyimpangan) is generally defined as any act that violates a social norm (or the recognized violation of cultural norms). Norms guides almost all human activities, so the concept of deviance is quite broad. How do we know whether an act violates a social norm? At least three factors are involved in determining what deviance is: time, place and public consensus or power. 2 Time – what constitutes deviance varies from one historical period to another. Place – the definition of deviance varies from one place to another. Public consensus or power – whether given act is deviant depends on public consensus. 3 Most of the deviant acts studied by sociologists – such as homicide, robbery and rape – involve violating a criminal law; hence they are criminal deviance. Crime is the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law. 4 What deviant actions or attitudes, whether negative or positive, have in common is some element of difference that causes us to think of another person as an “outsider” (H.S. Becker, 1996). 5 Deviance can be negative or positive. Negative aspects of deviant behavior includes: Intolerance – people who are part of the social norm might try and harm those who are not. Lack of education / resources – because society’s limited idea what is normal or is not normal, this may lead to depression and even suicide. Stagnation of society – although society is dynamic in nature, but society does not want to change, so anything new or different is bound to cause a ripple. 6 7  ALEA 1109 Anorexic person 8 Positive aspects of deviant behaviour includes: Free-thinking – lets people do what feels right for them, rather than following a social norm which may or may not be right for every person. Open-mind / education – teaches others that not everyone in the world is the same, and that not everyone who is different is not a bad person. 9 10 11 Social Control Social Control refers to attempts by society to regulate people’s thought and behavior. Often this process is informal (when parents scold or praise their children), but in cases of serious deviance, it may involve the criminal justice system, the organizations – police, courts and prison officials – that respond to alleged violations of the law. There are two forms of social control: i. Internal ii. External 12 Internal Social Control Internal social control is the process of internalizing the norms of society and accepting them as valid. It operates through the process of socialization, that is learning and adopting the norms of the society or a particular group or collectivity within the society. When one accepts the norms of society as valid the norms are internalized. Thus, a person feels guilty if they engage in behavior society considers wrong. Because there are always some people, usually a minority, who don't accept the legitimacy of the norms, society turns to 13 external social control. External Social Control External social control refers to the society's effort to bring those who "stepped outside the lines" back into line. It is made up of the system of rewards and punishments, sanctions, that persons, parties, and agents use to induce others to conform to a norm. Thus, a positive sanction is a reward and a negative sanction is a punishment. A great deal of social control is coercive and repressive; it relies on punishment and force. 14 A positive sanction is a socially constructed expression of approval. Society uses positive sanctions to reward people for following norms. Positive sanctions can be formal, such as an award or a raise. They can also be informal and include words, gestures, or facial expressions. Positive sanctions includes increase in allowances, smiles, promotions, hugs and presents. 15 A negative sanction is a socially constructed expression of disapproval. Like positive sanctions, negative sanctions can range from formal to informal. A speeding ticket or a prison sentence is a formal negative sanction. A raised eyebrow or a stare is an informal negative sanction. Negative sanctions includes critiques, fines, jail or even killed. 16 Informal social control is exercised by society without stating any rules or laws. It is expressed through norms and customs. Social control is performed by informal agents on their own in an unofficial capacity. Traditional societies mostly embed informal social control culture to establish social order i.e frowning, smiling, criticizing, praising, being warm, shunning, shame, sarcasm or disapproval. Social discrimination and exclusion are included in informal control at extreme deviant cases. Informal is effective in small group settings including friends, family, neighborhood, work group and others. However, in some large and complex societies, informal social control and disapproval is ignored easily. At such situations, it is 17 necessary to follow the formal one. Formal social control is implemented by authorized agents including police officers, employers, military officers, and others. It is carried out as a last option at some places when the desired behavior is not possible through informal social control. The situations and severity where formal control is practiced varies with countries. This is practiced through law as statutes, rules, and regulations against deviant social behavior. It can also be conducted through some formal sanctions including fines and imprisonment that are determined and designed through legislation by elected representatives. Courts or judges, military officers, police officers, school systems or teachers, and government agencies or bureaucrats, enforce 18 formal control. STUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO DEVIANCE Durkheim’s Basic Insight (1964) Emile Durkheim stated that deviance, including crime, is functional, for it contributes to social order. It performs four essential functions: 1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms – As moral creatures, people prefer some attitudes and behaviors to others. There can be no good without evil and there can be no justice without crime. 19 2. Deviance clarifies moral boundaries - a group's ideas about how people should act and think and affirms norms. People draw a boundary between right and wrong. 3. Deviance promotes social unity - by reacting to deviants, group members develop a "we" feeling and collectively affirm the rightness of their own ways. 4. Deviance promotes social change - if boundary violations gain enough support, they become new, acceptable behaviors. 20 Robert K. Merton ‘Strain Theory’ (1968) Robert Merton developed strain theory to analyze what happens when people are socialized to desire cultural goals but denied the institutionalized means to reach them. Specifically, the extent and type of deviance people engage in depend on whether a society provides the means (such as schooling and job opportunities) to achieve cultural goals (such as financial success). Conformity lies in pursuing cultural goals through approved means. 21 Combining a person’s view of cultural goals and the conventional means to obtain them allowed Robert Merton to identify various types of deviance. 22 Conformity - those who generally do not engage in deviant behavior, conform to, accept cultural and social norms, and through legitimate means of obtaining them. Innovation - goals such as wealth and power are accepted, but the means of attaining these goals is deviant from social norms or using illegitimate means to achieve goals. Ritualism - is the opposite of innovative deviance. Instead of accepting the goals and rejecting the means, the ritualistic deviant rejects the goal but accepts the means (giving up on achieving cultural goals but23 clinging to conventional rules of conduct). Retreatism - is a combination of both innovative and ritualistic deviance. Rejects both the goals of society and the legitimate means of obtaining these goals (transients, drug addicts, vagrants or the habitually unemployed) Involves a conscious choice (individual who remains in their circumstances by their own free will instead of by force). Rebellion - revolutionaries, terrorists and certain gangs. These individuals reject both the cultural means of society and the venues for obtaining them. Unlike the retreatist they pursue alternatives and seek to replace existing cultural norms with those in the counter culture (rejecting cultural goals and means, and in addition, 24 seeking to replace those goals). 25 SYMBOLIC INTERACTION APPROACH TO DEVIANCE Howard Becker ‘Labelling Theory’ (1966) Labeling theory refers to the idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those action (the view that the labels people are given affect their own and others' perceptions of them). Labeling theory stresses the relativity of deviance, meaning that people may define the same behavior in any number of ways. 26 Petikan daripada: Harian Metro, Sabtu 15 Oktober 2011 Luahan Hati Anak Luar Nikah Status Mohamad bin Abdullah, 35, sebagai anak luar nikah mula menekan hidupnya apabila dia seringkali terkandas setiap kali mahu mendirikan rumahtangga sejak 1999. Kata Mohamad, keluarga calon gadis pilihan kerap bertanya mengapa beliau berbinkan nama berlainan dengan nama bapa (angkat) yang menjadi ketua rombongan semasa meminang. Oleh kerana tidak mahu menjadi salah faham di kemudian hari, mereka mengambil pendekatan berterus terang. "Saya cuba berlaku jujur menceritakan latar belakang hidup kerana tidak mahu ia menjadi masalah selepas perkahwinan kelak. "Saya bimbang jika ada orang kampung atau saudara mara terlepas cakap sehingga saya di tuduh penipu.“ Malang sekali pendekatan terbuka yang di ambil oleh Mohamad telah menyebabkan pinangan di tolak bulat-bulat atas alasan tidak sanggup bermenantukan anak haram. Malah kata Mohamad, ibu seorang calon pilihannya pernah menghina dan menyifatkan anak luar nikah sama tarafnya dengan haiwan serta tidak layak berkahwin dengan manusia suci. "Mungkin jodoh saya hanya sesuai dengan gadis yang juga dilahirkan sebagai anak luar 27 nikah," keluhnya lagi. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DEVIANCE Edwin Lemert (1951, 1972) Primary deviance as fleeting acts that are not absorbed into an individual's self-concept. 28 Secondary deviance as deviant acts that are absorbed into one's self-concept (when a person begins to employ…deviant behavior as means of defense, attack, or adjustment to the… problems created by societal reaction). 29 STIGMA Stigma according to Erving Goffman (1963) refers to a powerfully negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. As people develop a stronger commitment to deviant behavior, they typically acquire a stigma. A stigma operates as a master status, overpowering other aspects of social identity so that a person is discredited in the minds of others and becomes socially isolated (convict, drug addicts, criminal etc.) 30 CONFLICT APPROACH TO DEVIANCE Deviance is results from social inequality. Norms, including laws, reflect the interests of powerful members of society. Deviance is political and people with little power are at high risk of being labeled deviant. The state's machinery of social control represents the interests of the wealthy and powerful; this group determines the laws whose enforcement is essential for maintaining its power. 31 The law is an instrument of oppression, a tool designed to maintain the powerful in privileged positions and keep the powerless from rebelling and overthrowing the social order. When members of the working class get out of line, they are arrested, tried and imprisoned in the criminal justice system. Who or what is labeled deviant depends on which categories of people hold power in a society. As Richard Quinney (1977) puts it, ‘Capitalist justice is by the capitalist class, for the capitalist class, and against the working class’. 32 CRIME Crime, or the violation of a written law, is a specific kind of deviance. What constitutes a crime varies from society to society. In our society, sociologists have identified three general categories of crime: 1.Crimes against the person: an act of violence is either threatened or perpetrated against a person (mugging). 2.Crimes against property: involving the theft of property or certain forms of damage against the property of another (arson). 3.Victimless crimes: crimes in which laws are violated, 33 but there is no identifiable victim (prostitution) White-collar Crime In 1939 Edwin H. Sutherland (1893–1950), a sociologist, first used the phrase white-collar criminal in a December 27, 1939 speech to the American Sociological Association. In his 1949, he defined white-collar crime as "approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.“ Sutherland believes criminal behavior is learned from interpersonal interaction with others. 34 Corporate Crime Sometimes whole companies, not just individuals, break the law. Corporate crime is the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf. Organized Crime Organized crime is a business supplying illegal goods or services. In most cases, organized crime involved the sales of illegal goods and services, often sex, drugs and gambling to willing buyers. Other forms of crime – juvenile crime, crime against 35 women, street crimes etc. ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF PUNISHMENT: 1. Retribution – an act of moral vengeance by which society makes the offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime (‘an eye for an eye’) 36 2. Deterrence – the attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment. 37 3. Rehabilitation – a program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses. 38 4. Societal Protection – rendering an offender encamped of further offenses temporarily though imprisonment or permanently by execution. 39