Chapter 6: Deviance and Crime

1. Chapter 6: Deviance and Crime

2. Objectives (slide 1 of 2) 6.1 Overview: Understanding Deviance and Crime • Explain the concept of deviance as a social construct. • Analyze how societies exert control. • Discuss the psychological views of deviance. 6.2 Functionalist Perspectives • Explain the structural-functional approach and the four positive functions of deviance. • Compare and contrast opportunity theory and strain theory. 6.3 Symbolic Interactionism • Describe symbolic interactionism’s perspective on deviance and the major theories associated with it.

3. Objectives (slide 2 of 2) 6.4 Conflict Perspectives • Discuss the social conflict perspective, distinguishing between different social constructs as they relate to deviance. 6.5 Crime • Give examples of various categories of crime. • Discuss and compare the attributes of at least two categories of crime. 6.6 Crime Statistics • Discuss age, race, gender, and social class as they relate to crime statistics. 6.7 The Criminal Justice System • Describe the criminal justice system in the United States and the roles played by the police, courts, and corrections.

4. What Is Deviance and Who Defines It? • Deviance: The violation of norms of a group, society, or one’s peers • Crime: A violation of criminal law

5. Social Control • Social control: Efforts by society to regulate people’s behavior and thoughts. • Negative sanctions: Actions directed against a person or persons in response to an act of deviance • Ostracism: Excluding someone from the normal activities of a group • Positive sanction: An action aimed at a person that seeks to reward good behavior and encourage the person and others to continue such acts

6. Explanations of Deviance • Personality theory argues that some personalities are more impulsive and more likely to exceed the bounds of acceptable behavior. • Containment theory argues that some people are less able to constrain their impulses and behavior by deferring pleasure. • Learning theory argues that deviance is socially learned. • The frustration-aggression hypothesis argues that unfulfilled or blocked needs lead to aggressive behavior.

7. Functionalist Perspectives • Social order: A level of social organization based on institutions, customs, and patterns of interaction capable of providing the conditions for their continuing survival • Functions of deviance: • Society’s response to deviance clarifies moral boundaries. • Deviance promotes social unity. • Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. • Deviance can promote necessary social change.

8. Strain Theory • Cultural goals: Widely shared objectives such as having financial success • Institutionalized means: Legitimate means, such as job opportunities and education, for achieving goals • Conformity: When an individual both subscribes to the cultural goals of society and has access to legitimate means for achieving them • Forms of deviance: • Innovation: The idea of accepting cultural goals (wealth) but rejecting accepted means in favor of unconventional ways of achieving those goals (crime). • Ritualism: When someone rejects cultural goals while continuing to pursue legitimate means. • Retreatism: When a person drops out of society, participating only minimally. • Rebellion: When someone rejects these goals and accepted means and actively offers an alternative.

9. Opportunity Theory • Illegitimate opportunity structures: Having ready access to illegal means • When someone has little or no access to legitimate opportunities and has easy access to illegitimate opportunities, criminal subcultures likely result.

10. Symbolic Interactionism: Differential Association Theory • Differential association theory: A theory that argues that people are more likely to be deviant to the extent that they are exposed to deviants • Differential association: The tendency of someone to spend more time with some individuals and less with others

11. Differential Reinforcement Theory • Differential reinforcement theory: A theory that argues that individuals learn criminal behavior through differential association, differential reinforcement, definitions of acceptable acts, and imitation • Definitions of acceptable acts: Views of which acts are tolerable and which are unacceptable • Differential reinforcement: The selective reward of some acts and punishment of others • Imitation: When an individual copies the behavior of others

12. Control Theory • Social bond theory: A theory that argues that everyone is tempted by opportunities for deviant behavior, but deviant acts are less likely when the individual’s bonds to society are strong • Control theory: A theory that argues that people have an inner control system supported by a conscience, internalized morality, a desire to be good, religious principles, fear of punishment, and a sense of integrity

13. Labeling Theory (slide 1 of 2) • Labeling theory: A theory that argues that an act becomes deviant only when it is labeled as deviant by others • Primary deviance: Occasional minor deviance that does not affect an individual’s reputation or self-image • Secondary deviance: When an individual is labeled a deviant by others and comes to see him- or herself as a deviant • Stigma: A distinctive, strongly negative label that marks the person as socially unacceptable or disgraced

14. Labeling Theory (slide 2 of 2) • Degradation ceremony: A public ritual in which one’s stigmatized status is made known • Techniques of neutralization: Strategies often used by individuals to excuse or justify actions that might otherwise be viewed negatively • Tertiary deviance: When people attempt to redefine stigmatizing acts, characteristics, or identities as normal or even virtuous

15. Social Conflict Perspective • Social conflict perspective: A theory that emphasizes competing interests of groups of people having different amounts of power and how those having more power use it to exploit those with less power

16. Deviance in the Conflict Perspective Deviance and Power Deviance and Capitalism Activities that do not support the economic system are considered deviant. • Social class and power influence what is considered deviant and how it is treated.

17. Feminist Theory • Feminist theory: A theory that looks closely at ways in which men and women are treated regarding deviance and crime and how those differences are influenced by gender

18. Crime (slide 1 of 2) • Criminology: The scientific study of crime and its causes • Crimes against persons: Crimes involving the threat of injury or force against people • Crimes against property: Crimes involving stealing or damaging property

19. Crime (slide 2 of 2) • White-collar crime: Crime committed by relatively affluent white-collar workers, usually in the course of conducting their daily business activities • Corporate crime: Illegal acts conducted by or on behalf of a corporation • Organized crime: Crime committed by collections of criminals who coordinate activities much like a business. • Cybercrime Crime: Crimeexecuted with the use of a computer and usually over the Internet.

20. Violent Crime • Violent crime: Crime that attempts to harm a person • Hate crime: A crime against persons or property when the offender is motivated by bias • Terrorism: The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian population to further some political or social objective

21. Other Types of Crime • Political crimes: Crimes committed within or directed against a political system • Juvenile delinquency: All of the usual crimes that might be committed by adults, such as theft, arson, and murder but are committed by minors. • Victimless crimes: Violations of the law that have no obvious victims

22. Crime Statistics Crime statistics play a crucial role in the study of crime. What sociologists look for in these statistics are trends over time, such as rapid increases or reductions in certain kinds of crime.

23. Street Crime: Criminal Profile (slide 1 of 2) Age Gender Men are twice as likely to commit property crimes and five times more likely to commit violent crimes. • People ages 15-19 are twice as likely to be arrested as people ages 35-39.

24. Street Crime: Criminal Profile (slide 2 of 2) Race Social Class Poor people are viewed with less respect and so are more likely to be viewed as criminals. • Blacks are 2.7 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes and four times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes than whites.

25. Crime Victims (slide 1 of 2) Age Gender Males are 16% more likely to be victims of violent crime than females. • Teens and young adults are more likely to be victims of violent crime than older adults.

26. Crime Victims (slide 2 of 2) Race Social Class The lower your household income, the more likely you are to be a victim. • Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be victims of crime.

27. The Criminal Justice System • Criminal justice system: The social institution whose primary purpose is to exert formal social control in a society • Due process: The stipulation that the criminal justice system must operate within the bounds of law

28. Police and Courts Police Courts Plea bargaining: A formal negotiation in which defendants agree to plead guilty rather than appear in court • Police discretion: The power of police to exercise judgment in their interactions with suspects

29. Punishment and Corrections • Recidivism rate: The rate at which former prisoners are rearrested, reconvicted, and re-imprisoned

30. Historical Reasons for Imprisoning Criminals • Retribution: Punishment to seek vengeance • Deterrence: The attempt to discourage criminal behavior through punishment • Rehabilitation: The process of helping criminals become productive citizens • Societal protection: Seeking to remove offenders from society to make them incapable of further crimes

31. Alternatives to Imprisonment • Community-based corrections: Correctional programs operating outside traditional prisons in the community at large. • Probation: Allows a convicted offender to be supervised in the community under conditions imposed by the court instead of going to prison • Parole: Release of a prisoner to serve the remainder of his or her sentence in the community supervised by the court

32. The Death Penalty • In 2009, 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries. • 8,864 were sentenced to death in 52 countries. • Countries that executed the most convicts: • China: 1,700 • Iran: 350 • Saudi Arabia: 100 • United States: 37