Deviance and Social Control PDF
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This document discusses the concept of deviance from a sociological perspective. It explores different theories related to deviance, such as differential association and labeling theory. The text also briefly covers the concept of social control and how norms are crucial for social life.
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My own notes - “It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant.” ⇒ the relativity of deviance. - Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others. - This principle holds b...
My own notes - “It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant.” ⇒ the relativity of deviance. - Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others. - This principle holds both within a society and across cultures (groups within the same society). - This principle also applies to a specific form of deviance known as crime. ↪Making a huge profit on business deals in America vs. in China, “profiteering”. - Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any act to whichpeople respond negatively– it does not mean that they agree that an act is bad, just that people judge it negatively. All of us are deviants of one sort or another, for we all violate norms from time to time. - To be considered deviant, a person does not even have to do anything. “stigma” These include violations of norms of ability (blindness, deafness, mental handicaps) and norms of appearance (a facial birthmark, a huge nose), and involuntary memberships, such as being a victim of AIDS or the brother of a rapist. The stigma can become a person’s master sta- tus, defining him or her as deviant. How Norms Make Social Life Possible - No human group can exist without norms, for norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable. - Without norms, we would have social chaos. - Norms lay out the basic guidelines for how we should play our roles and interact with others. - In short, norms bring about social order on which our lives are based. - Deviance undermines pre- dictability, the foundation of social life. Thus, we develop a system of social control. Sanctions -* negative sanctions , positive sanctions - Most negative sanctions are informal. - Whether you consider the breaking of a norm merely an amusing matter that warrants no sanction or a serious infraction that does, however,depends onyour perspective. Let’s suppose that a woman appears at your college graduation in a bikini. You might stare, laugh, and nudge the person next to you, but if this is your mother, you are likely to feel that different sanctions are appropriate. In Sum: In sociology, the term deviance refers to all violations of social rules, regardless of their seriousness. The term is neutral, not a judgment about the behavior. Deviance is relative, for what is deviant in one group may be conformist in another. Consequently, we must consider deviance from within a group’s own framework, for it is their meanings that underlie their behavior. Competing Explanations of Deviance: Sociobiology, Psychology, and Sociology Sociobiologists assume that genetic predispositions lead people to such deviances They established three theories: - (1) intelligence—low intelligence leads to crime; - (2) the “XYY” theory—an extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime; and - (3) body type—people with “squarish, muscular” bodies are more likely to commit street crime— acts such as mugging, rape, and burglary. How have these theories held up? No, most people who have these supposedly “causal” characteristics do not become criminals. Psychologists also focus onpersonality disorders.Their supposition is that deviating individuals have deviating personalities and subconscious motives drive people to deviance. There is no inevitable outcome of any childhood experience or any particular personality. Sociologists search for factors outside the individual. They look for social influences that “recruit” people to break norms – external influences such as socialization, membership in subcultures, and social class. Deviance is relative; thus, why should we expect to find something constant within people to account for a behavior that is conforming in one society and deviant in another? I. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective A basic principle of symbolic interactionism is that we are thinking beings who act according to our interpretations of situations. 1. Differential Association Theory From the different groups we associate with, we learn to deviate from or conform to society’s norms. The different groups with which we associate (our “differential association”) give us messages about conformity and deviance, and we end up with an “excess of definitions”, resulting in an imbalance— attitudes that tilt us in one direction or another – to conform or to deviate. These groups include:families(↪ families that areinvolved in crime tend to set their children on a lawbreaking path); Friends, Neighborhoods, and Subcultures; Prison or Freedom? (we help to produce our own orientations to life. By joining one group, we help to shape the self. ↪ a feminist group vs. a group of women who shoplift. Their choice of groups points them in different directions– producing social change vs. criminal activities.) 2. Control Theory Most of us fight temptations to break society’s norms. We find that we have to stifle things inside us—urges, hostilities, desires of various sorts. There are two control systems that work against our motivations to deviate. - Inner controls: our internalized morality (conscience,religious principles, ideas of right and wrong), fears of punishment, feelings of integrity, and the desire to be a “good” person. - Outer controls:consist of people who influence usnot to deviate (family, friends, and the police). - The stronger our bonds are with society, the more effective our inner controls are. - Bonds are based onattachments(our affection andrespect for people who conform to mainstream norms),commitments(having a stake insociety that you don’t want to risk, such as a respected place in your family, a good standing at college, a good job),involvements (participating in approved activities), andbeliefs(convictionsthat certain actions are morally wrong). - This theory can be summarized as self-control, says sociologist Travis Hirschi. The key to learning high self-control issocialization, especiallyin childhood. Parents help their children to develop self-control by supervising them and punishing their deviant acts, and even use shame to keep their children in line. Apply control theory by concentrate on the pushes and pulls in the example of whether to take the Ecstasy or not - The pushes toward taking the drug: your friends, the setting, and your curiosity. - The pulls : Inner controls (voices of your conscience and your parents, fears of arrest and the dangers about illegal drugs). Outer controls (the uniformed security guard) 3. Labeling theory - Such a reputation would give people a different expectation of your character and behavior. - Labeling theory focuses on the significance of reputations (how they help set us on paths that propel us into deviance or that divert us away from it.) Rejecting Labels: five techniques of neutralization to deflect society’s norms. 1. Denial of Responsibility:using excuses and rationalizingto deny taking accountability of one’s action. ↪ “I’m not responsible for what happened because...” , “it was an “accident.””, or they saw themselves as “victims” of society. 2. Denial of Injury: ↪ “It wasn’t wrong because no onegot hurt.” 3. Denial of a Victim:They thought of themselves asavengers. ↪ get revenge for an unfair grade, “crooked” store owners. Even if they did accept responsibility and admit that someone had gotten hurt, they protected their self-concept by claiming that the people “deserved what they got.” 4. Condemnation of the Condemners: Deny that others hadthe right to judge them because the “judges ” are “a bunch of hypocrites.” ↪“Who are they to accuse me of something?” 5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties: loyalty to the gang moreimportant than the norms of society. ↪ “I had to help my friends. That’s why I got in the fight.” Embracing Labels: The Example of Outlaw Bikers. Some people revel in a deviant identity. Their status among fellow members of a subculture is vastly more important than any status outside it. ↪ Outlaw bikers see the world as “hostile, weak, and effeminate.” They pride themselves on breaking its norms and getting in trouble, treating women as lesser beings, looking “dirty, mean, and generally undesirable,” and regarding themselves as losers. The Power of Labels: The Saints and the Roughnecks. It was due tosocial classthat people perceive theseboys so differently. - The Saints came from middle-class families while the Roughnecks were from working-class families, leading teachers and the authorities to havedifferent expectationsfrom each group and they saw what they expected to see. - Their social class affectedtheir visibility, equippedthem withdistinct styles of interaction. Consequently, while teachers and police let the Saints off with warnings, they came down hard on the Roughnecks. - Although the matter is complex, because it involves theself-conceptandreactions that vary from one individual to another, we can note that labelsopen and close doors of opportunity – lock people out of conforming groups and push them into almost exclusive contact with people who have been similarly labeled. (deviant in every day usage is emotionally charged with a judgment of some sort. ) In Sum:Symbolic interactionists examine how people’sdefinitions of the situation underlie their deviating from or conforming to social norms.Theyfocus on group membership (differential association), how people balance pressures to conform and to deviate (control theory), and the significance of people’s reputations (labeling theory). II. The Functionalist Perspective Deviance is functional for society, for it contributes to the social order. Its three main functions are: 1. Devianceclarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms. - A group’s ideas about how people should think and act mark its moral boundaries. Deviant acts challenge those boundaries. Punishing deviants affirms the group’s norms and clarifies what it means to be a member of the group. 2. Deviancepromotes social unity. - To affirm the group’s moral boundaries by punishing deviants fosters a “we” feeling among the group’s members. In saying, “You can’t get away with that,” the group affirms the rightness of its own ways. 3. Deviancepromotes social change. - Groups do not always agree on what to do with people who push beyond their accepted ways of doing things. Some group members may even approve of the rule-breaking behavior. Boundary violations that gain enough support become new, acceptable behaviors. Deviance, then, may force a group to rethink and redefine its moral boundaries, helping groups—and whole societies—to adapt to changing circumstances. Strain Theory: How Social Values Produce Deviance Society tries to motivate everyone to strive for success by arousing discontent—making people feel dissatisfied with what they have so they will try to “better” themselves to wantcultural goals, success of some sort, such as wealth or prestige. Butaccess to the institutionalized means is unequalized. Strain refers to the frustrations people feel when they want success but find their way to it blocked. If mainstream rules seem illegitimate, you experience a gap “anomie”, a sense of normlessness. Reactions to these cultural goals and institutionalized means: 1. Conformity–using socially acceptable means to tryto reach cultural goals. ↪ get good jobs, a good education. ↪ If well-paid jobs are unavailable, they take less desirable jobs. 2. Deviant paths: The remaining four deviant responses represent reactions to the strain people feel between the goals they want and their access to the institutionalized means to reach them. a. Innovation – accept the goals of society but use illegitimate means to try to reach them. ↪ Crack dealers, embezzlers, robbers, and con artists. b. Ritualism – become discouraged and give up on achieving cultural goals yet still cling to conventional rules of conduct. ↪ Burnout teachers (remain in the classroom but teach without enthusiasm) c. Retreatism – reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them. ↪ Stop pursuing success and retreat into alcohol or drugs. *Although their path to withdrawal is considerably different,women who enter a convent or men a monasteryare also retreatists. d. Rebellion – convinced that their society is corrupt, rebels; reject both society’s goals and its institutionalized means. They seek togivesociety new goals, and new means for reaching them. ↪Revolutionaries. In Sum: Strain theory underscores the sociological principle thatdeviants are the product of society. Mainstream social values (cultural goals and institutionalized means to reach those goals) can produce strain (frustration, dissatisfaction). People who feel this strain are more likely than others to take the deviant (nonconforming) paths. Illegitimate Opportunity Structures: Social Class and Crime 1. Street Crime The most common route to success, the school system. Run by the middle class, schools are at odds with the background of the poor. What the poor take for granted is unacceptable, questioned, and mocked. ↪ their speech (nonstandard grammar & obscenities), punctuality and poor preparation in reading. Facing such barriers, the poor are more likely to drop out of school. - Educational failure slams the door on most legitimate avenues to financial success, which opens an alternative door to success: “hustles” such as robbery, burglary, drug dealing, prostitution, pimping, gambling, and other crimes, attracting disproportionate numbers of the poor. 2. White-Collar Crime. Like the poor, the forms of crime of the more privileged classes also match their life situation. ↪ cheating medicare, evading income tax, bribing public officials, and embezzling are. ↪ Corporate crime: The firm “swept” money from its customers’ credit cards, even from the cards of people who had died. Caught red-handed once again—even stealing from the dead—in 2008 this company was forced to pay another $18 million (Read 2008).Not one of the corporate thieves at Sears, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, or Citigroup spent a day in jail. - Under federal law, causing the death of a worker by willfully violating safety rules is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Gender and Crime Gender, a feature of society, pushes us, as male or female, into different corners in life, gender offers and nurtures some behaviors while it withdraws and dries up others. The social changes of gender order opened business and the professions to women also brought new opportunities for women to commit crime. In Sum: Functionalists stress that just as thesocialclasses differ in opportunities for income and education, so they differ in opportunities for crime.As a result, street crime is higher among the lower social classes and white-collar crime higher among the higher social classes. The growing crime rates of women illustrate how changing gender roles have given women more access to what sociologists call “illegitimate opportunities.” III. The Conflict Perspective Class Crime, and the Criminal Justice System Comparing a crime committed by a manufacturing company which wasn’t put into trials and only had to pay a fine and a crime committed by poor people who are caught stealing cars punished those individuals by imprisonment shows that a legal system that proudly boasts “justice for all” is so inconsistent. The Law as an Instrument of Oppression Conflict theoristsregardpowerandsocialinequalityasthemaincharacteristicsofsocietyand stressthatthepowereliteusesthecriminaljusticesystemtoprotectitspositionofpowerandprivilege. They point out that the law is really an instrument ofoppression,atooldesignedbythepowerfulto maintain their privileged position. Theworkingclassandthosebelowthemposeaspecialthreattothepowereliteastheyholdthe potentialtorebelandoverthrowthecurrentsocialorder.Topreventthis,thelawcomesdownhardon its members who get out of line. Their street crimes threaten the social orderthatkeepstheelitein power,andtheyarepunishedseverely.FromthisclasscomemostoftheprisoninmatesintheUnited States.Thecriminaljusticesystemdoesnotfocusontheexecutivesofcorporationsandtheharmthey do.Yettheviolationsofthecapitalistclasscannotbeignoredtotally,foriftheybecometoooutrageous oroppressivetheymightoutragetheworkingclass,encouragingthemtoriseupandrevolt.Toprevent this,aflagrantviolationbyamemberofthecapitalistclassisoccasionallyprosecuted,receivinglotsof publicity. The powerful, however, are usually able to bypass the courts altogether, appearing instead before an agency that has no power to imprison (such as the Federal Trade Commission). These agencies aredirectedbypeoplefromwealthybackgroundswhosympathizewiththeintricaciesofthe corporateworld.Itistheywhooverseemostcasesofmanipulatingthepriceofstocks,insidertrading, violating fiduciary duty, and so on. Racial–ethnic minorities and homosexuals have more political power today. InSum:Conflicttheoristsstressthatthepowereliteusesthelegalsystemtocontrolworkers andtostabilizethesocialorder,allwiththegoalofkeepingitselfinpower.Thepoorposeathreat,for iftheyrebelasagrouptheycandislodgemembersofthepowerelitefromtheirplaceofprivilege.To prevent this, the power elite makes certain that heavy penalties come down on those whose crimes could upset the social order. Reactions to Deviance ThereisahugeincreaseintheU.S.prisonpopulation.IntheU.S.,62%areyoungerthan35,and are predominantly men. -
