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Explore the sociological definitions, theories, and forms of deviance and crime, including terrorism as an international crime, and debunk society's myths surrounding deviant behavior. Learn about the labeling theory, mental illness, social stigmas, and substance abuse.
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Chapter 6 Deviance and Crime
Chapter Outline • Defining Deviance • Sociological Theories of Deviance • Forms of Deviance • Crime and Criminal Justice • Terrorism as International Crime: A Global Perspective
Defining Deviance • Behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms. • Behavior that departs significantly from social expectations.
Sociological Definition of Deviance • Stresses social context, not individual behavior. • Recognizes that not all behaviors are judged similarly by all groups. • Recognizes that established rules and norms are socially created.
Debunking Society’s Myths • Myth: • Deviance is bad for society because it disrupts normal life. • Sociological perspective: • Deviance tends to stabilize society. By defining some behavior as deviant, people affirm the social norms of groups. In this sense, society creates deviance to some extent .
Defining Deviance • This distributed photo of a woman being executed by the Taliban illustrates the extreme sanctions that can be brought against those defined as deviant by a powerful group. • This photo mobilized world condemnation of the Taliban regime for its treatment of women.
Smoking and Deviance • Once considered “cool”, smokers are now considered to be deviants, scorned as polluters, and often banished to outside office buildings, as here.
Durkheim: Three Types of Suicide • Anomic - disintegrating forces in society make an individual feel lost and alone. • Altruistic - for the sake of a higher cause. • Egoistic - occurs when people feel totally detached from society.
Question • _______ suicide occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone.
Answer: anomic • Anomic suicide occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone.
The Navajo • Strong ties among the Navajo produce social integration, resulting in the fact that the Navajo have one of the lowest suicide rates of any group in the United States, and also lowest among other Native American tribal groups.
Merton’s Structural Strain Theory • Culture establishes goals for people. • Social structures provide, or fail to provide, the means for people to achieve those goals. • Imbalance between cultural goals and structurally available means can compel individuals into deviant behavior.
Social Control Agents • From the point of view of conflict theory, social control agents play a significant role in defining deviant behavior.
Social Control Theory: Hirschi • Travis Hirschi developed social control theory to explain the occurrence of deviance. • According to social control theory, deviance occurs when a person’s (or group’s) attachment to social bonds is weakened. • Most of the time people internalize social norms because of their attachments to others. • When that bond is broken, deviance occurs.
Symbolic Interaction Theories Differential Association • Deviant behavior is learned through interaction with others. • People pass on deviant expectations through their social groups and networks.
Symbolic Interaction Theories Labeling Theory • Responses of others is most significant in deviance. • A person may become deviant because of a label, even if he/she did not engage in deviant behavior.
Deviant Communities • Some deviance develops in deviant communities, such as the “skinheads” shown here marching in a Ku Klux Klan rally protesting the Martin Luther King,Jr. holiday. • Such right-wing extremist groups have become more common in recent years.
Debunking Society’s Myths • Myth: • Mental illness is an abnormality best studied by psychologists and physicians. • Sociological perspective: • Mental illness is subject to a significant labeling effect. Those who study and treat mental illness benefit from combining a sociological perspective with medical and psychological knowledge.
Social Stigmas • A stigma is an attribute that is socially devalued and discredited. • People with stigmas are defined in terms of their presumed deviance. • In hiding their stigma, they isolate themselves from communities where they can find support.
Substance Abuse • Patterns of use vary by many factors such as age, gender, and race: • People under age 25 are more likely to use marijuana and cocaine and binge drink. • Men are more likely than women to be problem drinkers and drug abusers. • African Americans and Hispanics are less likely to drink than Whites and are far less likely to be binge drinkers.
Question • A ________ is an attribute that is socially devalued and discredited.
Answer: stigma • A stigma is an attribute that is socially devalued and discredited.
Conformity • This man’s extreme spiked hairdo shows deviant behavior in society but rigid conformity to the norms of the peer group or deviance community
Question • Did you ever use marijuana during your senior year in high school? • Yes • No
Question • I believe that underage drinking is an important social problem in our society. • Strongly agree • Agree somewhat • Unsure • Disagree somewhat • Strongly disagree
Crime and Deviance • Crime is a type of deviant behavior, but not all deviant behavior would be called crime. • Deviance becomes crime when it is designated by the institutions of society as violating such a law or laws. • Criminology is the study of crime from a scientific perspective.
Classifications of Crimes • Personal crimes - murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery • Property crimes - burglary, larceny, auto theft, arson
Classifications of Crimes • Victimless crimes - gambling, illegal drug use, prostitution • Hate crimes - assaults and other malicious acts motivated by bias
Question • Have you ever stolen little things worth between $2 and $50? • Yes • No
Question • Have you ever stolen things worth more than $50? • Yes • No
Debunking Society’s Myths • Myth: • The only real crimes are offenses such as robbery, assault, murder, and the like. • Sociological perspective: • Examples of what people do not usually consider to be crimes are “elite” crimes such as income tax evasion, insider trading, embezzlement, and faulty business accounting practices.
Organized Crime • This dinner gathering of HBO’s “Sopranos” gang illustrates both the hierarchy and group cohesion that characterizes organized crime.
White-collar or Elite Crime • Examples: embezzlement, insider trading, tax evasion • In terms of dollars, white-collar crime is much more consequential for society than street crimes.
White collar Crime • Andrew S. “Fast Andy” Fastow, former chief financial officer of the Enron corporation, is being taken to court by FBI agents. • Martha Stewart the media/household tycoon, spent five months in prison for stock fraud.
Organized Crime • Crime committed by organized groups, typically involving the provision of illegal goods and services to others. • Organized crime syndicates include any group that exercises control over large illegal enterprises, such as the drug trade, illegal gambling, prostitution or weapons smuggling.
Corporate Crime and Deviance • Occurs in the context of a formal organization or bureaucracy and is sanctioned by the norms and operating principles of the organization. • Can occur within any of organization: corporate, educational, governmental, or religious. • Example: Sexual assault of youths by Catholic priests, and the attempted cover-ups by assigning offending priests to parishes in different towns or states.
Race, Class, Gender and Crime • Certain groups are more likely than others to commit crime given that crime is linked to patterns of inequality in society. • Sociologist Ramiro Martinez Jr. explored the connection between rates of violence in Latino communities and the degree of inequality in 111 U.S. cities. • His research shows a clear link between likelihood of lethal violence and socioeconomic conditions for Latinos in these different cities.
Race and Crime • Minorities constitute 25% of the population of the United States but are more than 33% of the people arrested for property crimes and almost 50% of the people arrested for violent crimes. • Sociological research has shown that police discretion is strongly influenced by class and race judgments.
