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Chapter 6. Deviance and Crime. Questions for you…. Think of a situation in which you were labeled as a “deviant.” How did the label make you feel? Did you embrace or reject the label? How is deviance more about how people respond to the person labeled as deviant?
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Chapter 6 Deviance and Crime
Questions for you… Think of a situation in which you were labeled as a “deviant.” How did the label make you feel? Did you embrace or reject the label? How is deviance more about how people respond to the person labeled as deviant? How is deviance a matter of “relativity”?
Chapter Outline What Is Deviance? Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance Conflict Perspectives on Deviance Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance Postmodernist Perspectives on Deviance
Chapter Outline (con’t) Crime Classifications and Statistics The Criminal Justice System Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future The Global Criminal Economy
Deviance • Any behavior, belief, or condition that violates social norms in the society or group in which it occurs: • drinking too much • robbing a bank • laughing at a funeral
Deviance and Society Deviance can vary from culture to culture. Deviance can vary from time to time within the same culture. Through social change, what was once deviant can become the “norm.”
Deviance and Social Inequality Issues of social inequality affect group experiences and overall treatment in the criminal justice system.
How Much Do You Know About Peer Cliques, Youth Gangs, and Deviance? • True or False? • Street crime has a much higher economic cost to society than crimes committed in executive suites or by government officials.
How Much Do You Know About Youth Gangs, and Deviance? • False • Although street crime—such as assault and robbery—often has a greater psychological cost, crimes committed by persons in top positions in business or government have a far greater economic cost, especially for U.S. taxpayers.
How Much Do You Know About Youth Gangs and Deviance? • True or False? • Juvenile gangs are an urban problem; few rural areas have problems with gangs.
How Much Do You Know About Youth Gangs, and Deviance? • False. • Gangs are frequently thought of as an urban problem because central-city gangs organized around drug dealing have become prominent in recent years; however, gangs are found in rural areas throughout the country as well.
What Is Social Control? Practices that social groups develop to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance.
What Is Social Control? Internal social control takes place when individuals internalize norms and values and follow those norms and values in their lives. External social control involves negative sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors and punish rule breakers.
Polling Question • Do you favor or oppose federal legislation banning the manufacture, sale, or possession of semi-automatic assault guns, such as the AK-47? • Favor • Oppose • Don't know
Functionalist Perspective Deviance serves three functions: Deviance clarifies rules. Deviance unites a group. Deviance promotes social change.
Opportunity Theory • Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin (1960) suggested that for deviance to occur, people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures: • Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.
Differential Association Theory Perspectives States that people have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with individuals who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity. From this approach, criminal behavior is learned within intimate personal groups such as one’s family and peer groups
Differential ReinforcementTheory • Criminologist Ronald Akers (1998) combined differential association theory with elements of psychological learning theory to create differential reinforcement theory. • If a person’s friends and groups define deviant behavior as “right,” they is more likely to engage in deviant behavior. • If a person’s friends and groups define deviant behavior as “wrong,” the person is less likely to engage in that behavior.
Social Bond Theory • The probability of deviant behavior increases when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken. • According to Hirschi, social bonding consists of • attachment to other people • commitment to conformity • involvement in conventional activities • belief in the legitimacy of conventional norms.
Labeling Theory States that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviants, and they, in turn, accept the label and begin to act accordingly. Focuses on the variety of symbolic labels that people are given in their interactions with others. The act of fixing a person with a negative identity, such as “criminal” is directly related to the power of those who do the labeling and those being labeled.
Stages in the Labeling Process If individuals accept a negative label, they are more likely to continue to participate in the type of behavior the label was initially meant to control. Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts the identity and continues the deviant behavior. Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.
How the Law Classifies Crime • Crimes are divided into felonies and misdemeanors. • A felony is a serious crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment typically ranges from more than a year’s imprisonment to death. • A misdemeanor is a minor crime typically punished by less than one year in jail.
Polling Question • Did you ever use marijuana during your senior year in high school? • Yes • No
How Sociologists Classify Crime • Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offenses: • conventional (street) crime • occupational (white-collar) and corporate crime • organized crime • political crime
Polling Question • Have you ever been arrested? • Yes • No
Functions of Punishment • Retribution • The punishment should fit the crime. • Social protection • Restrict offenders so they can’t commit further crimes.
Functions of Punishment • Rehabilitation • Return offenders to the community as law-abiding citizens. • Deterrence • Reduce criminal activity through a fear of punishment.
Polling Question • From the following list, what do you feel should be the most important function of prison? • Punish people for crimes they committed. • Rehabilitate people who have crimes. • Protect society by locking away criminals. • Serve as a warning to would-be lawbreakers. • Make people pay back society for the crimes they have committed. • Don't know
Global crime The United Nations Conference on Global Organized Crime estimated that about $600 billion per year is accrued in the global trade in drugs alone. Today, profits from all kinds of global criminal activities are estimated to range from $750 billion to more than $2 trillion a year.
Reducing Global Crime • Requires a global response, including: • Cooperation of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and intelligence services across geopolitical boundaries. • Regulation by the international community to control international money laundering and trafficking in people and controlled substances such as drugs and weapons.
1. ________ is any belief, behavior, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs. • Deviance • Mores • Taboos • Crime
Answer: A • Deviance is any belief, behavior, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs.
2. The "good worker" is often an example of what type of adaptation in Strain Theory? • innovation • ritualism • retreatist • conformity
Answer: B The "good worker" is often an example of ritualism in Strain Theory.
3. Punishment is seen as serving four functions. Which item below is NOT one of those functions? • innovation • deterrence • retribution • social protection
Answer: A Punishment is seen as serving four functions. Innovation is NOT one of those functions.