slide 1 © 2005 the mcgraw-hill companies, inc. all rights reserved. mcgraw-hill slide 1 social...

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© 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.McGraw-Hill

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Crime, Devianceand Social Control

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Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

• Norms — rules or standards of proper behavior formed by interacting individuals

• Deviance — behavior or condition of being that is in violation of or departs from social norms

• Social control — means of minimizing socially deviant behavior

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Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

• Sanctions — social control in form of punishment or rewards– Negative sanctions — social

control in form of punishment meted out to those who exhibit deviant behavior

– Positive sanctions — social control in form of rewards given to those who conform to the norms and abide by the rules of society

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The Social Construction of Deviance

• Social construction of deviance— creation of ideas regarding people and their relationships to others by members of a social group; for example, the idea that there are biologically distinct races, some of which are inferior to others

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• If deviant behavior is social construction, then, in theory, any act could be considered deviant by someone. Who makes your laws? Whose definition of deviance is dominant?– Label — identifying or descriptive

word or phrase, often with a negative connotation when applied to people

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• Dominant groups within a society typically have power to decide what is deviant and what is not, even though in a heterogeneous society people might differ in what they consider deviant.

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The Role of Power in Defining Deviance

• Norms that Restrict Women– Appearance Norms — standards of

attractiveness, often applied to women- based upon what men (those with power) desire. Women’s appearance norms based upon what appears attractive to men.

– Motherhood Norms — standard of behavior holding that normal women want to have children; women who do not have children or who choose not to have children are exhibiting a form of deviant behavior

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Deviance and Resistance

• Deviance as Behavior versus Deviance as Being– Groups with power tend to define themselves

as normal (their language is the “normal” one and so is their dress- everything else is “exotic” or “abnormal”) and those they dominate are described as “the other.”

– Remember the devalued “master status”. Who assigns “status”?

– Physical structuring of everyday environment communicates who is a “normal” member of society. The “objective” world.

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• Resistance to Being Labeled Deviant for One’s Behavior– One of most familiar settings in

struggle over being labeled deviant takes place in the courtroom.•Stigma — negative mark that

discredits a person’s worth- Goffman- (exam question),

• Explanation for recidivism

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• Resistance to Being Labeled Deviant for One’s Being– Often requires persons who make up “the

other” to openly question the legitimacy of the dominant group’s judgments and assertions

– The “Outsider”- might be defined as “the other” by the dominant groups but challenges that definition.

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Crime as Deviance

• Crime —violation of the law• Bias in the Treatment of Different

Types of Crime– FBI UCR does not report on white-collar

and corporate crime- (as Marx said, the state is a committee that manages the affairs of the bourgeoisie)

– Gives impression that crime is only done by individuals, and mostly poor individuals.

intent

Act

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Crime as Deviance

• The Case of White-Collar and Corporate Crime– White-collar crimes — violations of

the law by individuals in the course of their occupations or profession

– Corporate crimes — violations of the law by corporations in their policies or operating procedures, mostly for the sake of profit or corporate benefit

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Crime as Deviance

Figure 9.1

Four Measures of Serious Violent Crime: 1973-2001

Source: U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior

• Physiological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to a physical peculiarity or malfunction or to heredity or bio-chemical causes.

• Psychological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to emotional problems or unusual personality traits that often result from experiences with family members or others

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• Social-psychological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to conditions in people’s immediate social environment and group- social interaction.

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• Sociological explanations — attribute deviant behavior to societal factors outside the control of individuals- Public Issues- having to do with the structure of society and labeling by the powerful.– Reductionism — process that

reduces complex ideas or information to simple causes

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• Physiological Explanations– 1. Lombroso- 1876;– Low foreheads, protruding jaws,

prominent ears, hairy, have long arms2. William Sheldon's athletic types

Compared body type with criminal history and concluded that delinquency was most common among athletic types

3. Biochemical imbalance, testosterone etc.• These are too simplistic, samples

aren't random.

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Psychological

• Psychological Explanations– No psychological traits seem to

clearly distinguish deviants from non-deviants

– “good boys” have strong super egos, “bad boys” have weak conscience or super egos

– Reckless and Dinitz

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• Social-Psychological Explanations– Sutherland’s Differential

Association Association Theory — deviant behavior results from an individual associating with people who are already disposed toward deviant behavior

– Deviance is a learned behavior.– Doesn’t explain spontaneous crime

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior– Hirshi’s Control Theory — deviant

behavior results from the absence of social control or constraints

Attachment (to your community), opportunity (available in your society), involvement (with your community), belief (about the rightness of your values).

– Containment Theory — deviant behavior limited in society because of internal (personal) and external (societal) controls to such behavior.

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior– Social Reinforcement — deviant

behavior results from the belief that the rewards of deviant behavior outweigh the punishments

– Labeling Theory — draws attention to how people come to be labeled as deviants and the impact of this label on the individuals and their subsequent behavior

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior– Edwin Lemert’s Primary and

Secondary Deviance.

– Secondary Deviance, internalization of the label- Goffman’s Stigma: a powerful negative label that damages a person’s self concept.

Deviant career begins

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• Sociological Explanations- – Merton’s Opportunity Structure

Theory — deviant behavior results from a society that stresses the importance of material success as cultural goals but does not provide all members with the same means to achieve that success- leads to MODE OF ADAPTATION.

– Cultural Goals VS. Means available to attain them = opportunity structure or Strain Theory

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Deviant Subculture

• Walter Miller (1970)-characteristics of criminals

1. Trouble as way of life2. Toughness- physical strength3. Street Smartness4. Need for Excitement5. Belief in fate- lacking control over your

life6. Desire for freedom

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Code of the Street

• Elijah Anderson• Loss of jobs, no opportunity, and the

rejection by the outside wider society results in the development of a

• “street code”- a survival mechanism by those who live under these circumstances

• (test question on Code of the Street)

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Objective Opportunity feeds into psychological readiness

• “The accumulation of advantages at the very top parallels the vicious cycle of poverty at the very bottom. For the cycle of advantages includes psychological readiness as well as objective opportunities: just as the limitations of lower class and status positions produce a lack of interest and self-confidence…Energetic aspiration lives off a series of successes; and continual petty failure cuts the nerve of the will to succeed.” (C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. 1956:111)

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior– Deviance and Capitalism

•Marxist theory of deviance — sociological explanation for deviant behavior that suggests that such behavior within the working class results from sense of alienation, low wages, and unemployment, and a wider society that punishes those that

don’t accept their role in society.

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Explanations for Deviant Behavior– In capitalist society, members are

not owners of the means of production.• Lacks power to get its needs met•Alienation — being alien to yourself

and others, the subject (you) becomes an object, a thing to be manipulated for “use-value” in a capitalistic system.

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Crime and Punishment

• Dominant groups have power to identify behaviors deserving of negative sanctions.– Affluent can afford private attorneys– Race- African American males are

imprisoned ten times more often than white males

– White collar and corporate crimes often receive lower penalties, if any at all, few are prosecuted

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Crime and Punishment

Table 9.1

Persons under Adult Correctional Supervision: 1990, 1995-2001

Source: Laureen E. Glaze, “Probation and Parole in the United States, 2001,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin,

April 2002, p. 1.

Year

Total Estimated Correctional Populationa

Community Supervision Incarceration

1990

199519961997b

1998b

1999b

20002001Percent change, 2001-01Average annualPercent change,1995-2001

4,350,300

5,342,9005,490,7005,734,9006,134,2006,340,8006,445,100

6,592,800

2.3%

3.6%

2,670,234

3,077,8613,164,9963,296,5133,670,4413,779,9223,826,2093,932,751

2.8%

3.4%

Probation Parole Jail Prison

531,407

679,421679,733694,787696,385714,457723,898731,147

1.0%

1.2%

405,320

507,044518,492567,079592,462605,943621,149631,240

1.6%

3.7%

743,382

1,078,5421,127,5281,176,5641,224,4691,287,1721,316,3331,330,980

1.1%

3.6%

Note: Counts are for December 31, except for jail counts, which are for June 30. Jail and prison counts include inmates held in private facilities. Totals in 1998 through 2001 exclude probationers held in jail or prison.aBecause some offenders may have multiple statuses, totals were rounded to the nearest 100.bCoverage of probation agencies was expanded. For counts based on the same reporting agencies, use 3,266,837 in 1997 (to compare with 1996); 3,417,613 in 1998 (to compare with 1997); and 3,773,624 in 1999 (to compare with 1998). The average annual percent change was adjusted for the change in coverage.

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• The U.S. has the biggest prison population in the world and the highest rate of prisoners per capita of all countries. One of every 32 adults in the U.S. is either in jail, on parole or on probation (BBC news report, 26 August, 2002). Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. population grew by 21% but federal inmates soared by 312% - OFFICIAL numbers i.e. from the government.

• In 2004, 61% of prison and jail inmates were of racial or ethnic minorities (USA today, 4/24/2005)

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Do Societies “Need” Deviant Behavior?

• Functionalistic theory of deviance — Deviant behavior is a necessary and possible even desirable thing.

• Criminals perform a service to society in that their crimes anger and upset members of society who then come together and become more cohesive as a group. i.e. social solidarity

• Norms as “boundaries” (Kai Ericson). Deviants defines boundaries for all to see, thus society needs a continuous “supply” of deviants to show the rest of society the consequence of violating norms.

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Deviance and Social Change

• People may intentionally violate norms to draw attention to social conditions they consider wrong.– Civil rights movement– Whistle blowers—people who speak

out to the mass media about such issues as unsafe corporate practices, unethical and illegal acts, etc.

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Institutionalized Corporate Crime- the causes

• Of course there may be corrupt men in sound institutions but when institutions are corrupting, many of the men who live and work in them are necessarily corrupted. In the corporate era, economic relations become impersonal and the executive feels less personal responsibility. Within the corporate world of business, war-making and politics, the private conscience is attenuated and the higher immorality is institutionalized. It is not merely a question of a corrupt administration in corporation or army or state, it is a feature of the corporate rich,...deeply intertwined with the politics of the military state

• C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite 1956:343

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CRIME & THE STATUS SYSTEM

“In a society in which money-makers have had no serious rival for repute and honor* (i.e. status), the word "practical" comes to mean useful for private gain, and "common sense", the sense to get ahead financially. The pursuit of the moneyed life is the commanding value, in relation to which the influence of other values has declined, so men become easily morally ruthless in the pursuit of easy money and fast estate building.”(C. Wright Mills, Diagnosis of Our Moral Uneasiness, 1952)* Who has greater repute and honor in our society: Donald Trump or a Sunday School teacher?

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