Introduction to Sociology_SOC 101 vu

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Objectives
1. To provide an exciting and challenging introduction to sociology by picking up
material from everyday life. The students will be introduced to basic concepts of
sociology;
2. To learning to think sociologically i.e. cultivating sociological imagination.
Interpreting the dynamics of varying human behavior dispassionately in a wider
context; and
3. To the applicability of sociological insights to behavior of people operating in
different work situations.
Methodology
• There will be 45 lectures each of 50 minutes duration.
• The lectures will be delivered in mixture of English and Urdu.
• The lectures will be supported by slides presentation where necessary.

 THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY

Lecture 01
Definition
Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies.
No sociology as a distinct discipline before the advent of 19th century.
Three factors led to the development of sociology
• The first was the industrial revolution.
• The second factor that stimulated the development of sociology was imperialism.
• The third impetus for the development of sociology was the success of the natural
sciences.
The First Factor
By the mid 19th century Europe was changing from agriculture to factory
production. Emergence of new occupations as well as new avenues of employment
away from the land.
• Masses of people migrated to cities in search of jobs. Pull and push factors.
• People in these industrial cities developed new ideas about democracy and
political rights.
Second Factor
Europeans successfully conquered many parts of the world. They were exposed to
radically different cultures. Startled by these contrasting ways of life, they began to ask
why cultures differed.
Third Factor
People moved to question fundamental aspects of their social world. They started using
the scientific method (systematic observation, objectivity) to the study of human
behavior.
Auguste Comte
The idea of applying the scientific method to the social world, known as positivism, was
apparently first proposed by Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Comte became interested in the two interrelated issues:
social order (social static) and social change (social dynamics).
Comte concluded
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What holds the society together (Why is there in a social order)?
What causes it to change?
• The right way to answer such questions was to apply the scientific method to social life.
• There must be laws that underlie the society.
• Discover these principles by applying scientific method to social world.
• Apply these principles for social reform.
Science of Sociology
This will be a new science and Comte named it as Sociology (1838) – the study of
society. Comte is credited with being the founder of sociology.
Other early pioneer names:
Herbert Spenser (1820-1903)
Englishman.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
German.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
French
Max Weber (1864-1920)
German.
 The Fields of Sociology
Big diversity in fields of interest.
• Biosociology
• Collective Behaviour/Social Movements
• Community
• Comparative Sociology//Macrosociology
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology/Delinquency
• Cultural Sociology
• Demography
• Development/Modernization
• Deviant Behaviour/Social Disorganization
 Economy and Society
 Education
• Environmental Sociology
• Ethnomethodology
• History of Sociology/ Social Thought
• Human Ecology
• Industrial Sociology
• International development/Third World
• Law and Society
• Leisure/Sports/Recreation
• Marriage and the Family

 Mass Communication/Public Opinion

• Mathematical sociology
• Medical Sociology
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• Methodology: Qualitative Approaches
• Methodology: Quantitative Approaches
• Micro computing/Computer Applications
• Military Sociology
• Occupations/Professions
• Penology/Corrections
• Political Sociology
• Race/Ethnic/Minority Relations
• Religion
• Rural Sociology
• Small Groups
• Social Change
• Social Control
• Social Networks
• Social Organizations/formal/complex
• Social Psychology
• Socialization
• Sociological Practice/Social Policy
• Sociology of Aging/Social Gerontology
• Sociology of Art/Literature
• Sociology of Knowledge
• Sociology of Language/Social Linguistics
• Sociology of Markets
• Sociology of Mental Health
• Sociology of Science
• Sociology of Sex and Gender
• Sociology of Work
• Sociology of World Conflict
• Stratification/Mobility
• Theory
• Urban Sociology
• Visual Sociology
Source: American Sociological association Guide to Graduate departments, 1992: 290-
308.

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 THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Lecture 02
Definition
Perspective means a view or an outlook or an approach or an imagination
Sociological Perspective
An approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social
context.
Human lives seem to follow certain predictable pattern
• Our lives do not unfold according to sheer chance.
• Nor do we decide for ourselves how to live, acting on what is called ‘free will’.
For human beings the existence of society is essential
• For the survival of human child
• For social experience – Nurture
Cases of isolated children
Anna Discovered at age 5
Isabelle Discovered at age 6
Genie Discovered at age 13
Seeing the general in the particular
Identifying general patterns in the behavior of particular people.
Society acts differently on various categories of people (children compared to adults;
women compared to men).
General categories to which we belong shape our experiences.
 Age is social construction
 Societies define the stages of life differently
 Gender is also a social construction
 Society affects what we do.
Suicide – a personal matter. Individuality in social context. Look at the social
forces that are at work.
 Society determines who we are
Sociological imagination
People should develop the ability to understand their own lives in terms of larger social
forces.
This is called sociological imagination.
(C. Wright Mills).
Think sociologically – cultivating sociological imagination.
Benefits of sociological perspective
The sociological perspective helps us to assess the truth of community held assumptions.
The sociological perspective prompts us to assess both the opportunities and the
constraints that characterize our lives.
The sociological perspective empowers us to participate actively in our society.
The sociological perspective helps us recognize human variety and confront the
challenges of living in a diverse world.

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THEORETICAL PARADIGMS
Lecture 03
Definition
Theory is a statement of how and why specific facts are related.
Definition
Paradigm is a basic image of society.
A theoretical paradigm provides a basic image of society that guides thinking and
research.
Salient paradigms
The structural-functional paradigm:
Sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and
stability.
The paradigm is based on the idea that:
1. our lives are guided by social structure i.e. relatively stable patterns of behavior.
2. Social structures can be understood in terms of their social functions. Its consequences
for the society.
All social structures contribute to the operation of society.
Society is similar to human body (Spencer).
Durkheim was primarily concerned with the issue of social solidarity.
R. K. Merton looked at functions in a different way:
1. The consequences of any social pattern are likely to differ for various categories of
people.
2. People rarely perceive all the functions of a social structure.
3. Not all the effects of any social system benefit everyone in society.
Critical evaluation
How can we assume that society has a “natural” order?
The Social-conflict Paradigm
The social conflict framework sees society as an arena of inequality that generates
conflict and change.
There is an on-going conflict between dominant and disadvantaged categories of people
--- rich and poor, white and the colored, men in relation to women.
Schooling perpetuates inequality by reproducing the class structure in every new
generation.
Conflict sociologists not only try to understand the inequality in society but also try to
influence to reduce inequality in society.
Critical evaluation
It largely ignores how shared values and interdependence can generate unity among
members of a society.
To a great extent this paradigm has political goals
The Symbolic-interaction Paradigm
The symbolic-interaction paradigm sees society as the product of the everyday
interactions of individuals.
Human beings are the creatures who live in the world of symbols, attaching meaning to
virtually everything. Symbols attached to reality (material or non material).
Meanings attached to symbols. Symbols as the basis of social life. We define our
realities. Understand any social setting from the point of view of the people in it.
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SOCIOLOGY AS SCIENCE

Lecture 04
Goals of Science
• To explain why something happens.
• To make generalizations.
• To make predictions.
Procedure: sensory experiences.
Researcher would develop clear observational criteria: This approach is called Positivism.
Characteristics of Scientific Method
1. Empirical
2. Verifiable
Intuitions and revelations are out
3. Cumulative
3. Cumulative
4. Self-Correcting
5. Deterministic
6. Ethical and ideological neutrality
7. Statistical Generalization
8. Rationalism
Any knowledge that is created by applying scientific method is to be called as science.

STEPS IN SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

Lecture 05
1. Broad area of interest identified
2. Exploration/ consultation
3. Problem definition
4. Theoretical framework
5. Hypothesis(s)/research question(s)
6. Research design
7. Data collection/ processing
8. Testing hypothesis(es)/answering research question(s)
9. Report writing

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SOCIAL INTERACTION

Lecture 06
Definition
Social interaction is the reciprocal influencing of the acts of persons and groups.
Social interaction tends to be repetitious, therefore, it is patterned and to this extent is
predictable.(Greetings)
 Components of social interaction
1. Social status
2. Role
3. Social construction of reality
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4. Communication
Social status
Social status is a recognized social position of a person in a social situation.Who we are
in relation to others.
Other concepts related to social status:
Status set: All the statuses a person holds at a given time Ascribed and achieved status:
A social position some one receives at birth or assumes involuntarily in life is an ascribed
status.
Achieved status refers to a position that some one assumes voluntarily.
Master Status: status that has an exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping
a person’s entire life.One’s occupation for example.
1. A status that has an exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping a
person’s entire life.One’s occupation for example.
2. Role
A behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status.
Other aspects of role:
a. Role set: No. of roles attached to a single status.
b. Role conflict: Incompatibility among roles corresponding to two or more statuses.
C. Role strain: Incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status.
D. Role Exit: “Process of becoming ex”
3. Social construction of reality
Process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction.
Situations that we define as real Social construction of life span of people into childhood,
adulthood, and old age.
4. Communication
Need language for action and interaction to take place.

SOCIAL GROUPS
Lecture 07
Group has different meanings
It is a number of people who share:
* Physical closeness.
* Some common characteristic.
* Some organized pattern of recurrent interaction.
* Consciousness of membership together.
Category:
People who have some status in common.
Crowd:
A temporary cluster of individuals who may or may not interact at all.Too transitory, too
impersonal.
Types of group
Primary group:
Primary group is a small group whose members share personal and enduring
relationships. Bound by primary relations. Family.

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Secondary group:
A large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity.
Formal, impersonal, segmental. Weak emotional ties. Goal oriented. Coworkers. Party.
In-group and Out-group
In-group is a social group commanding a member’s esteem and loyalty.
Out-group: A social group toward which one feels competition and opposition.
Membership may overlap
Group size
The Dyad: 2 members.
The Triad: 3 members.
Smaller the group the more intense the interaction but less the stability.
Reference group:
A social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations or decisions.
Such groups can be models.
Social distance
Degree of closeness or acceptance we feel toward another group.
Stereotype:
Group shared image of another group or category of people.
Social networks
These are webs of social relationships in which people engage for the purpose of meeting
a variety of needs.
Examples of Social Networks
• Kin networks
• Bartering networks
• Urban neighborhood networks
• Occupational and professional networks
• Global networks
A New Group
• The emergence of electronic communities
• The internet users.

Formal Organizations
Lecture 08
Formal organizations
Formal organizations are large, secondary groups that are organized to achieve
their goals efficiently.
Rationalization
Formal organizations are the product of rationalization of society which means
the acceptance of rules, efficiency, and practical results as the right way to approach
human affaires.
Formal organizations
As a result of rationality, formal organizations, secondary groups designed to
achieve explicit objectives, have become central feature of contemporary society.

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Social Relations
Social relations in formal organizations are impersonal, formal, and planned.
Types of Formal Organizations
• Utilitarian Organizations
• Normative Organizations
• Coercive Organizations
Utilitarian Organizations
Just about everyone who works for income is member of utilitarian organization,
which pays its members to perform the jobs for which they were hired.
Normative Organizations
People join normative organizations not for income but to pursue goals they
consider morally worthwhile.
Coercive Organizations
These organizations have involuntary membership.
Members are physically and socially separated from ‘outsiders’ or ‘civil society’.
Bureaucracy
It is an organizational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks
efficiently.
Characteristics Ideal Bureaucracy
Broadly there are six characteristics.
1. Specialization
There is a division of labor in the bureaucracy and each member has a specific
task to fulfill.
2. Hierarchy of offices
• Bureaucracies arrange the personnel in a vertical ranking. Authority ranking.
• Usually with fewer people in higher positions, the structure takes the form of a
bureaucratic “pyramid”.
3. Written Rules and Regulations
Rationally enacted rules and regulations control not only the organization’s own
functioning but also its larger environment.
4. Technical Competence
A bureaucratic organization expects its officials and staff to have the
technical competence to carry out their duties, and regularly monitor worker performance
5. Impersonality
*Rules take precedence over personal whims.
*Members of a bureaucracy owe allegiance to the office, not to a particular person.
6. Formal, Written Communication
• Heart of bureaucracy is not people but paperwork.
• Over time, this correspondence accumulates into vast files.
 Problems of Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy can dehumanize and manipulate individuals.
• Bureaucracy poses threat to personal privacy and political democracy.

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* Bureaucratic Alienation
• Efficiency vs. potential to dehumanize the people.
• The environment gives rise to alienation where human being is reduced to a part
of big bureaucratic machinery.
*Bureaucratic Inefficiency and Ritualism
• Preoccupation with rules and regulations.
• Ritualism stifles individual’s creativity.
• The resultant corruption.
* Bureaucratic Inertia
• The tendency of the bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate themselves.

CULTURE
Lecture 09
Definition
• Culture is the patterns of behavior and the products of patterns of behavior.
• Man made part of the environment.
• Culture includes the values, beliefs, behavior, language, norms, and material
objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
Do non-humans have a culture?
Non-humans guided by instincts.
Biological programming.
Humans guided by culture.
Social programming.
Specific Features of Culture:
* Universality
* Variability
* Learned
* Shared
* Transmitted
* Changing
Three similar terms
• Culture: Shared way of life.
• Nation: A political entity within designated borders.
• Society: The organized interaction of people in a nation or within some other
boundary.
Components of culture
Five basic components:
• Symbols:
Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture.
Language
• A system of symbols that allows members of a society to communicate with one
another.
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• Language a major means to the transmission of culture.
Is language uniquely human?

CULTURE
Lecture 10(continue)

Values and beliefs:

• Values are culturally defined standards of desirability – what ought to be.
• Beliefs are specific statements that people hold to be true.
Examples of values
• Equal opportunity, Achievement and success, Material comfort, Activity and
work, Science, Freedom, Physical fitness, Health, Punctuality, Wealth, Education,
Competition, Merit, Honesty, Dignity of labor, Patriotism, Justice, Democracy,
Environmental protection, Charity, Development. Values: inconsistency and conflict.
Norms
• Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members.
Shared expectations.
• Proscriptive: Mandating what we should not do.
• Prescriptive: What we should do.
Mores and Folkways:
• Mores (More-ays) are society’s standards of proper moral conduct. Notions of
right/wrong.
• Folkways are customs for routine, casual interaction. Proper dress, greetings.
“Ideal” Culture and “Real” Culture
• Ideal culture: Social patterns mandated by cultural values and norms. Ideal values
and norms.
• Real Culture: Actual social patterns that only approximate cultural expectations.
• Statistical norms Ideal culture: Social patterns mandated by cultural values and
norms. Ideal values and norms.
Material and Non-material
Culture
Intangible: Non material aspects.
• Tangible: Material aspects.
New information technology.
Cultural Diversity:
Acceptable forms of behavior vary widely from culture to culture.

CULTURE
Lecture 11(continue)

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Culture by social class:

• High Culture: Cultural patterns of the elite.
• Popular Culture: Cultural patterns that are widespread.
• Culture of Poverty: Cultural patterns shared by the poor.
Sub-culture:
Cluster of patterns that set apart some segments of society’s population.
Multiculturalism
Recognizing cultural diversity and promoting the equality of all cultural
traditions.
Counterculture:
Subculture which is in active opposition to the dominant culture.
Cultural Change
The alteration of culture over time.
Cultural Lag
• Cultural elements change at different rates.
• The different rate of change in the two integrated elements of culture can result in
one element lagging behind the other. “William Ogburn”
• May disrupt the system.
Causes Of Change
• Invention: the process of creating new cultural elements.
• Discovery: finding something that already exists.
• Diffusion: The spread of cultural traits from one society to another.
Ethnocentrism:
• The practice of judging another culture by the standard of one’s own culture.
• Considering one’s own culture as superior.
Xeno-centrism
• Considering other’s culture as superior to one’s own.
Cultural Relativism
The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.
A Global Culture:
We are globally connected through:
The global economy.
Global communication.
Global migration.
Culture And Human Freedom
• Culture as constraint: We are prisoners of culture.
• Culture as freedom: gives the opportunity to make and remake the world.

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SOCIALIZATION:
Human Development
Lecture 12
Assumptions
• New born having the capacity to become a member of human society.
• New born cannot become social being unless there is interaction with other
human beings.
Nature
• Contribution of heredity:
• Physical and psychological characteristics can be transmitted through heredity
• May be taken as potential.
• Opportunities to be provided for the development of potentials.
• Society provides the opportunities.
• Without such opportunities the potential is lost.
Cases of Isolates
• Anna - discovered at age 5.
• Isabelle – discovered at age 6.
• Genie – discovered at age 13
Provision Of Learning Situations
• Group provides learning situations
• Group provides guidance.
• Group controls the behavior.
Socialize Acts
• Imitation
• Experimentation
• Adjustment
• Nature And Nurture
Physical characteristics determined by nature. Nurture provides social interpretations.
Socialization
The lifelong learning experience by which individuals develop human potential
and learn patterns of their culture.

Product of Socialization

SELF

UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIALIZATION

PROCESS
Lecture 13

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Sigmund Freud’s Model
Divided self into 3 parts:
• Id : Represents the human being’s basic drives which are unconscious and
demand immediate satisfaction.
• Un-socialized desires and impulses, rooted in biology.
Ego:
Person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of
society
Awareness of self (I).
Super-ego
Operation of culture within individual. Ideals and values internalized which form the
conscience. For Freud there is ongoing conflict between id and superego.
People through their culture control the id. This is repressive.
George Herbert Mead:
The Social Self
Self, a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self awareness
Self a product of experience.
Series of steps:
1. Self develops over time and only through experience.
• Interaction with society provides the experience.
2. Social experience is the exchange of symbols. Language as a means to experience.
3. To understand intention, one must understand the situation from another person’s point
of view. Internalize the attitudes of others. “Generalized other” No conflict.
Charles H. Cooley:
The Looking Glass Self
• Others represent a mirror.
• What we think ourselves depends on what we think others think of us.
* Our perception of how we look to others.
* Our perception in their judgment of how we look.
* Our feelings about these judgments.

Self-feelings, self concept, self image.

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
Lecture 14
Agents of Socialization
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They are the people and groups that influence our self- concept, emotions, attitudes, and
behavior.
The Family
• Family has major impact.
• Matter of survival.
• Provision of learning situations.
• Begin the lifelong process of defining ourselves. Who we are? [male/female,
family status]
• Socialization by social class.
The School
• Manifest functions: formal schooling.
• Latent functions: Hidden curriculum – inculcating values of patriotism,
democracy, justice, honesty.
• Learning national and universal values.
The Peer Group
• A social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in
common.
• Provides an escape from adult supervision. Group identity.
• Peer groups are compelling.
The Mass Media
• Impersonal communication directed to large audiences.
• Provides entertainment + socialization [shape the self].
• Concerns of people about the contents of portrayal.
• Has become more powerful
THE RELIGION
• Influences morality – a key component in ideas of right and wrong about all
aspects of life.
• Legitimacy of inequality.

SOCIALIZATION AND THE LIFE COURSE

Lecture 15

Socialization and the Life Course

• Life course is a biological process
• Life course as five distinct stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, the
middle years, and old age.

Significance of the Life Course

• Life course is a social construction.

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• Stages present transitions that require learning new and unlearning familiar
routines.
• Each stage is affected by other factors like one’s social location.
• Life experiences vary due to when, in history of society, he was born.

Childhood – first 12 years

• Time for learning and play.
• Situation in developed and developing countries vary.
• Issue of child labor.
• Concept of childhood rooted in culture.
• “Hurried childhood” syndrome.
Adolescence –About age 13-19
• Physiological changes to puberty.
• Socially constructed.
• Establishing some independence and learning specialized skills.
• Emotional and social turmoil. Intergenerational conflict.
• Develop youth culture.

Young Adulthood – ages 20-39

• Personalities formed
• Manage responsibilities personally
• Adjustment with spouse an issue.
• Bring up children in their own way
• Many conflicting priorities.
Middle years – ages 40-60
• Assess actual achievement.
• Children grown up.
• Health concerns. Physical decline
• Has there been a self-fulfillment.
Old Age – about mid 60s
• Societies attach different meanings old age.
• Old people assumed to have amassed wisdom.
• Old are conservative unimportant, obsolete.
• Pick new roles.

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SOCIAL CONTROL AND DEVIANCE
Lecture 16
Social Control

A group’s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms.

Social Order
A group’s usual and customary social arrangements, on which members depend
and on which they base their lives.
Deviance
• It is the recognized violation of cultural norms.
• It is not the act itself, but the reaction to the act, that makes it deviant.
• Social construction of deviance
The concept of deviance can be applied both to individual acts and to the activity of
groups.
Deviant group behavior may result in deviant sub-culture.

Crime

• The violation of norms that are written into laws.

• Cultural relativity of crime: Honor killing, homosexuality, polygamy, cousin

marriages.
Deviance and crime are not synonymous – may overlap.
Deviance is much broader than crime.
Crime applies only to that act which breaks the law.
Deviants

• People who violate the norms and rules.

• People react to their behavior negatively.

Stigma
• “Blemishes” that discredit a person’s claim to a ‘normal’ identity.
• Violation of norms of ability (mazoor, facial birth mark, obesity).
• Also involuntary membership in groups (relatives of criminals/victims of AIDS
Juvenile Delinquency

• It refers to the violation of legal standards by the young.

• Young is a relative concept.

Labeling (Bad-name)
• Some people tagged with a negative social label that radically changes a person’s
self –concept and social identity. Operates as master status.
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• People in power impose the labels. Person gets isolated.
• Labeling a child as delinquent.
Primary and Secondary Deviance
• Actions that provoke only slight reaction from others and have little effect on a
person’s self-concept is primary deviance. An initial act of stealing may be ignored.
• When other people notice deviance and make something of it. Label him.
Repeatedly violates.

THE SOCIAL FOUNDTIONS OF DEVIANCE

Lecture 17

The sociological perspective

* All behavior deviance or conformity is shaped by society. Thus:
* Society lays the foundation of deviance.
Three
dimensions of deviance
1. Cultural relativity of deviance.
No thought or action is inherently deviant; it becomes deviant only in relation to
particular norms.
THEREFORE:
Cultural relativity --3 basic principles
1. Behavior must be viewed from the framework of the relevant culture.
2. What is deviant to one group may not be deviant to others.
3. Principle 2 holds within a society as well as across cultures.
1. Sociologists remain non-judgmental
They consider deviance from within a group’s own framework, for it is their
meanings that underlie their behavior.
2. Who defines deviance?
People become deviant as others define them that way.
Definitions come from people.
These definitions are actually the social norms of the people.
3. Both rule making and rule breaking involve social power.
* Each society is dominated by a group of elite.
* They make the decisions for rule making.
* Rules protect the interests of elite.
Is deviance
dysfunctional?
Apparently it is. But for Durkheim there is nothing abnormal about deviance.
Deviance is functional
It contributes to the functioning of the society in four ways.
1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
Any conception of virtue rests upon an opposing notion of vice.

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2. Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms

* Moral boundaries are laid down.
* Deviant to explain his behavior.
* Clarify the boundaries.
3. Deviance promotes social unity
The group collectively affirms the rightness of its own ways.
Helps in developing ‘we’ feelings.
4. Deviance promotes social change
* Deviants push a society’s moral boundaries.
* Deviants point out alternatives.
* Boundary violations that gain enough support become new, acceptable behavior.

EXPLANATIONS OF CRIME
Lecture 18

Why do people violate norms? Explanations:

• Biological
• Psychological
• Sociological
Biological Explanation:
Looking for answers within individuals.
Focus on genetic predispositions toward deviance and crime.
Three biological theories
• Body type (squarish, muscular)
• The XYY theory. Extra Y in males.
• Low intelligence theory.
C.Lombroso an Italian physician.
Compared 400 prisoners with 400 army soldiers (1876).
Criminals had distinctive physical features.
Theory flawed.
The XYY Theory
An extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime. But: Most criminals have the normal
XY combination. Most men with XYY combination are not criminals.
How about women?
Intelligence –
Low intelligence leads to crime.
Some criminals are very intelligent, and most people of low intelligence do not commit
crimes.
Psychological explanations focus on
• Abnormalities within the individual –Personality disorders.
• Psychopaths – withdrawn, emotionless, and impulsive.

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• Are all psychopath traits inevitably criminal
Sociological explanation
• Look for factors outside individual.
• Deviance is relative.
• Variation in social influence.
• External influences like socialization, subculture, social class.
Differential Association
(E. Sutherland)
• Influence of people with whom we associate.
• Different groups to which we belong give us messages about conformity or
deviance. More of one than the other.

EXPLANATIONSOF CRIME
Lecture 19(Continued)
Control theory (Reckless)
Two control systems:
1. Inner control system, superego. conscience.
2. Outer control system. Family, friends, subculture.

How strong are the controls determines deviance.

Hirschi’s control theory
• Social control lies in anticipating the consequences of one’s act.
• Linked conformity to four types of social control:
• Attachment.
• Commitment
• Involvement
• Belief
Strain Theory -- (Merton)
How social values produce crime
• Acceptance of cultural goals.
• Access to institutionalized means.
• Acceptance of goals but the non-availability of means to achieve creates strain.
• Strain leads to the feeling of anomie – normlessness.
Matching goals to means
. .
Mode of
Strain adaptation Goals Means
No Conformists + +
yes Innovators + -
Yes Ritualists - +
Yes Retreatists - -
. Yes Rebels +/- +/-.
+ = accept - = reject
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Labeling (Becker)
• Deviant behavior is that which people so label. Labeling – stigmatization.
• Labeling itself is means to amplification.
• Influences one’s sense of self-identity. Accepts the label.
Illegitimate opportunity:
Explaining social class & crime
• Blue collar crimes: Failure of lower class kids. Find illegitimate opportunities for
meeting their needs – robbery, burglary. Much publicized. Own subculture.
• (Cloward and Ohlin)
White-collar crime (Sutherland)
Crimes committed by people of hi social class. Less visibility.
Conflict Theory
• Deviance is deliberately chosen in response to social inequalities.
• Counterculture groups engage in distinctly political acts. Kidnapping, mugging,
terrorism.
• Crime -- a disguised form of protest against inequality – social justice, power,
politics.

SOCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CRIME

Lecture 20

Perception
• Increase in prevalence and seriousness of crime.
• People presently more afraid of crime than in the past.
Crime statistics not reliable:
Partial reporting and partial recording
• Majority of petty crimes never reported.
• For violent crimes, victims choose not to contact police.
• Crimes actually recorded.
• Police force expanded.
• Crime rates not reduced.
• No reduction in fear of crime.
• Little improvement in police image.
Social distribution of crime by:
• Gender
• Age
• Social class
• Ethnicity
Gender and Crime
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• Crimes highly concentrated among men.
• Higher ratio of men to women in prison.
• Contrast between the types of crime men and women commit.
Age and Crime
* Crime rates rise sharply during adolescence and peak in late teens.
* Street crimes are associated with young working class males.
Social Class and Crime
• Impression: More criminality in lower class.
• Many wealthy and powerful people commit crimes. Affluent criminals.
White-collar Crime
• Crimes committed by persons of high social status and respectability in the course
of their occupation (Sutherland).
• Distribution of W. C. crime hard to measure
Cost of W. C. Crimes
• Cost of W. C. crimes is much higher than those by lower class.
• In USA in 1986, amount of money involved in W. C. crime was 40 times higher
than in ordinary crimes.
Corporate Crime
Offenses committed by large corporations.
These can be:
• Administrative,
• Environmental,
• Financial,
• Labor,
• Manufacturing, and
• Unfair trading practices
Organized Crime
• The form of business that appears to be legal but actually illegal.
• Smuggling, gambling, large-scale theft and protection rackets. Mafia.
• Transnational networks.
Ethnicity and crime
• Both race and ethnicity are correlated to crime rates i.e.
• People of color are overly criminalized.
• Different ethnic backgrounds are related to crime rates.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION:
Introduction and Significance
Lecture 21
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Social Differentiation
• Social strata are levels of social statuses
• Organized system of such strata is social stratification.
• SS refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
Four Basic Principles
1. Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a reflection of individuals.
2. Social stratification persists over generations.
3. Social stratification is universal but variable.
4. Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs.
Change in Status
• Closed social system: status determined by birth. System supported by culture.
• Open social system: Status determined by individual achievement.

Measuring Social Status

• Subjective method.
• Reputational method.
• Objective method.

Significance of Social Class

Social class influences:
• The life chances of individuals.
• Physical and mental health.
• Family life.
• Education/employment opportunities.
• Crime and criminal justice.
• Lifestyles.

THEORIES OF CLASS AND STRATIFICATION-I

Lecture 22
Two Perspectives:
• Conflict
• Functionalist
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Social Stratification and Conflict:
Social stratification benefits some people at the expense of others.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Class and Conflict
Two Classes:
• Owners of the means of production
• Workers on the means of production
Pre-industrial societies:
* Land Owners
(Aristocrats, gentry)
* Producers
(Serfs, slaves, peasantry)
Industrial Societies:
• Owners of new means of production: Bourgeoisie (boorzhwahze)
• Property-less workers – (Proletariat)
Relationship between the classes:
• Exploitative
Surplus Value:
• Value of product of labor Minus
• Value of labor= Surplus – Profit
Pauperization:
• The process by which the working class grows increasingly impoverished.
• Inequality grows.
Capitalist strengthened by:
• Intergenerational passing of opportunity and wealth.
• Law of inheritance .
• Exclusive elite schooling.
Result :
The capitalist society reproduces the class structure in each new generation.
Marx saw:
Great disparities in wealth and power made class conflict inevitable.
Marx believed:
Oppression and misery would drive the proletariat to organize, challenge
the system, and overthrow the capitalist system.
According to Marx:
Through revolution the capitalist system is replaced by socialist system resulting
in classless society.
Principle of classless society
• From each according to his ability
• To each according to his need
Critical Evaluation
• How do we motivate people – requires unequal rewards.
• Wages of workers increased.
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• All workers don’t support the Labor Party.
• Emergence of other classes (Petite bourgeoisie)
• Religion as the pain killer for oppression.

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