Chapter%206%20Deviance%20and%20Crime

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Chapter 6Deviance and Crime

• What Is Deviance?
• Functionalist Perspectives on Deviance
• Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance
• Conflict Perspectives on Deviance

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Chapter 6Deviance and Crime

• Postmodernist Perspective on Deviance
• Crime Classifications and Statistics
• The Criminal Justice System
• Deviance and Crime in the U.S. in the Future
• The Global Criminal Economy

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Deviance

• Deviance is a formal property of social
  situations and social structure.
• Deviance is conferred by audiences.
• Deviance is relative and it varies in its degree
  of seriousness.

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Functionalist Perspectives

• Deviance is universal because it serves three
• important functions
• Deviance clarifies rules.
• Deviance unites a group.
• Deviance promotes social change.

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Strain Theory

• People feel strain when they are exposed to
  cultural goals they are unable to obtain.
• Merton identified ways people adapt to cultural
  goals and approved ways of achieving them.

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Mertons Five Modes of Adaptation

1. Conformity - people accept culturally approved
   goals and pursue them through approved means.
2. Innovation -people accept culturally approved
   goals but adopt disapproved means for achieving
   them.

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Mertons Five Modes of Adaptation

1. Ritualism - people give up on societal goals but
   not the approved ways of achieving them.
2. Retreatism - people abandon approved goals and
   the approved means of achieving them.
3. Rebellion - people challenge the approved goals
   and advocate an alternative set of goals or means.

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Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives on Deviance

• Three approaches
• Differential association and Differential
  reinforcement theory
• Control theory
• Labeling theory

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Differential Association and Differential
Reinforcement

• Differential association theory - people are
  more likely to become deviant when they associate
  with people who are deviant.
• Differential reinforcement theory - deviant
  behavior and conventional behavior are learned
  through the same social processes.

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Control Theory Social Bonding

• Deviant behavior is related to the strength of
  social bonds
• Attachments to other people.
• Commitment to conformity.
• Involvement in conventional activities.
• Belief in conventional values and norms.

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Labeling Theory

• Stages in the labeling process
• Primary deviance - initial act of rule breaking.
• Secondary deviance - acceptance of identity as a
  deviant.
• Tertiary deviance - normalizing deviant behavior
  by relabeling it as nondeviant.

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Conflict Perspectives on Deviance

• People in positions of power use the law to
  protect their own interests.
• Laws ensure that individuals at the bottom of the
  social class do not infringe on the property or
  threaten the safety of those at the top.

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Feminist Perspectives

• Liberal feminism - women's deviance is a rational
  response to gender discrimination.
• Radical feminism - women's deviance and crime is
  related to patriarchy.
• Socialist feminism - women's deviance and crime
  is the result of women's exploitation by
  capitalism and patriarchy.

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Sociologists Classifications of Crime

• Conventional or street crime
• Occupational or white-collar crime
• Corporate crime
• Organized crime
• Political crime

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Crimes and Criminals

• Rates of arrest are higher for males than females
  at every age and for most offenses.
• Individuals from all social classes commit
  crimes they simply commit different kinds of
  crime.
• Young males of color between the ages of 12 and
  24 have the highest victimization rates.

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Functions of Punishment

• Retribution
• Social protection
• Rehabilitation
• Deterrence

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The Future of Deviance and Crime in the U.S.

• People agree that crime is an important issue but
  are divided over what to do about it.
• The best approach for reducing delinquency and
  crime is prevention.
• As long as racism, sexism, classism, and ageism
  exist, people will see deviant and criminal
  behavior through a selective lens.