Chapter 5
Deviance and Crime
The Nature of Deviance
Theories of Deviance
Crime and the Criminal Justice System
McGraw-Hill © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.
5-2
Deviance and Crime
Whether something is deviant depends on who is evaluating it
When important norms (rules) violated, norms and social control function to maintain social organization, social relationships, and meanings that underlie them
Conformity and deviance – behavior that violates a norm –
characterize social life.
Deviance is not inherent in certain forms of behavior; rather, it is a
property conferred upon particular behaviors by social definitions
Definitions of deviance vary greatly in reference to time,
place, and group, and when sociologists study behavior that they
refer to as deviant, they are not implying that the behavior is
immoral or wrong.
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The Nature of Deviance
Deviance: behavior a considerable number of people in a society view as reprehensible and intolerable
The Relativity of Deviance
Deviance relative and matter of social definition
Etoro of New Guinea- Etoro believe that humans have a special life force they call the hame.
“The relativity of deviance means simply that there are many moralities across societies and over time and that we cannot understand deviant behavior and the reactions to it without knowing the normative context in which they occur.”
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The Nature of Deviance
The Relativity of Deviance (continued)
When people differ regarding definitions of deviant behavior, it becomes question of which individuals and groups will make their definitions prevail
Example: white southerners who supported the civil rights movement in the South in the 1960s were clearly deviant in that setting (Durr, 1985), though their behavior was a moral response to an immoral racist social order.
Definitions of deviance change
5-5
The Nature of Deviance
Dysfunctions of Deviance
Interferes with institutional life
Can lower morale of non-deviants
Erodes societal trust
Functions of Deviance
Promotes conformity
Clarifies boundaries
Strengthens the censuring group
Warn non-deviant majority
5-6
Social Control and Deviance
Social control regulates behavior within a society
Functionalists see it as indispensable
Conflict theorists see it as tool of powerful groups
5-7
Social Control and Deviance
Three main social control processes
Internalization of society’s normative expectations
Internalization of norms: process by which individuals incorporate within their personalities standards of behavior prevalent within larger society
Because deviance is not a property inherent in behavior but a property conferred upon it by social definitions, it depending on his environment.
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Social Control and Deviance
Social control processes (continued)
Structure of social experience: Our society’s institutions also shape our
experiences. We are culture-bound.!
Formal and informal sanctions
Formal sanctions: reactions of official agents of social control such as courts, and the principal’s office in the high school.
Informal sanctions: reactions to deviance that occur in small communities, in groups of friends, and in the family
We conform to the norms of our society because we realize that to do otherwise is to incur punishment.
Break rules: dislike, hostility, gossip, ridicule, ostracism,—even imprisonment and death—
Conformist wins praise, popularity, prestige, and other socially defined good things.
5-9
Theories of Deviance
Anomie and control grew out of functionalism; cultural transmission
Labeling emerged from symbolic interactionism;
Conflict theory is the application of the conflict perspective to deviance.
Anomie Theory- Durkheim’s anomie theory that emerged from the functionalist perspective
Durkheim’s anomie: social condition in which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms that they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting.
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Theories of Deviance Merton’s Theory of Structural Strain
Conformity-accept the cultural goal of material success and the institutionalized means to achieve this goal are available
Innovation- individuals hold fast to the culturally emphasized goals of success, but because the institutionalized means to achieve the goals are not available, they pursue their goals in innovative ways.
Ritualism- losing touch with success goals while abiding compulsively by the institutionalized means.
Retreatism- individuals reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means without substituting new norms.
Rebellion-reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means and substitute new norms for them.
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Theories of Deviance
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5-13
Theories of Deviance
Cultural Transmission Theory
Chicago sociologists contended youths become delinquent because they associate and make friends with other delinquents
Sutherland’s Theory of Differential Association
Differential association: individual’s cultural conditions help determine his/her likelihood of and attitudes towards deviance
5-14
Theories of Deviance
Conflict Theory
Individuals victimized by capitalist oppression are driven by their struggle to survive to commit acts that the ruling class brands as criminal
Quinney’s Theory of Class, State, and Crime
U.S. legal system reflects interests and ideologies of ruling capitalist class
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Theories of Deviance
Labeling Theory
Labeling people as deviants has consequences for them
Secondary deviance: deviance individuals adopt in response to the reactions of other individuals
People labeled “deviant” typically find themselves rejected and isolated
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Theories of Deviance
Control Theory
Why don’t people deviate?
Hirschi: Elements of the Social Bond
Societal bond is crucial
Attachment to others
Involvement in the society’s conventional activities
Commitment to other people
Belief in host society’s values
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Crime: act of deviance prohibited by law
Criminal justice system: reactive agencies of the state, including the police, courts, and prisons
5-18
Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Forms of Crime
Violent and property crime
8 index crimes (people, property)
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Theft
Motor vehicle theft
Arson
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5-21
Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Forms of Crime (continued)
Juvenile crime
Peak ages 13-14 (property), 18-19 (violent)
Organized crime: large-scale bureaucratic organizations that provide illegal goods and services in public demand
Italian (Mafia), Chinese gangs, Columbian and Cuban (drugs), southern white moonshiners
Hate crime: crimes of hatred and prejudice
Motivated by race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Forms of Crime (continued)
White-collar and corporate crime: crime most commonly committed by relatively affluent persons, often in the course of business activities
Crime committed by government
Genocide
Arms shipments
Bribery and corruption
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Forms of Crime (continued)
Victimless crime: offense in which no one involved is considered a victim
Hi-tech crime: attempts to commit crime through the use of advanced electronic media
Identity theft
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Drugs and Crime
Obvious connection between drugs and crime
Nearly half of U.S. adults will use drugs illegally
America’s “War on Drugs” seems to focus primarily on arrests
Drug use on rise among Americans of college age
5-25
Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Race and Crime
African-Americans in U.S. are 13% of population, but represent 28% of arrests for index crimes and 43% of prison population (2009-2010)
Peterson and Krivo: structural disadvantage
Familial, employment, and political effects
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
Women and Crime
25.5% of all arrests in 2010: 19.5% of violent and 27.6% of property crimes
Majority of runaway and prostitution arrests are of women
Women’s participation in violent crime much lower than men’s
Females seem to perceive legal sanctions as more threatening
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Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
The Criminal Justice System
The police
First agents of the state
15% of time spent dealing with crime
Community-based policing
The courts
Adversary system
95% of criminal convictions are now by guilty plea, and most of those are the result of plea bargaining
5-29
Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
The Criminal Justice System
Prisons
Population steadily increasing
U.S. has highest incarceration rate in world
Purposes of imprisonment
Punishment
Rehabilitation
Deterrence
Incapacitation
5-30
5-31
The Criminal Justice System
Capital punishment: imposition of death sentence for a capital offense
43 executions in 2011
In 2010, 53 people were removed from death row because their sentences or conviction were overturned
Other penalties and approaches
Probation
Parole
Home confinement