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Documente Cultură
Lect 10/ Wk 11
Road Map
SA returned from Wk 10
All 4 sets of MTT questions
posted on IVLE
MTT to be returned from Wk 12
Wk 13/ Review Lecture:
Response to your questions, if
any.
Wk 14: Reading Week. Email for
appointment.
Wk 15: Final Exam (50%)
Final Exam
Closed book
6 Choose 2
No sections
Covers all 11 lecture topics
Questions may straddle topics
2 to 3-pp answers for each
question
Write with passion and
conviction
Key Questions
When is an act or behavior
considered deviant?
What is the difference between
deviance and crime? How is the
difference related to social
control?
What have power and social
conditions got to do with
deviance/crime?
How do we explain
Social Control
Social Control: regulate behavior,
ensure conformity, social order and
stability.
Sanctions:
approved/disapproved
(positive/negative)
Formal/ informal
CRIME
breaks the
law;
Violation
DEVIANCE
behaviors
which differ
from the
normal
Question:
Is crime deviance?
Is deviance
necessarily a crime?
Social
diversions
MINOR
(cf.
folkwa
ys)
Social
deviations
Conflict
crimes
SERIOU
S (cf.
taboos)
Consensus
crimes
Strain Theory:
Possible responses
Legitimate Means
accept
reject
Cultura acce
l
pt
Goals
Conformity
Innovation
(turning to
crime)
rejec
t
Ritualism
(follow the
rule)
Retreatism
(drop-out,
unconventiona
l)
New Goals
New Means
Rebellion
(support
alternatives)
Subcultural Theory
Cohen (1955), Cloward and Ohlin (1960)
Access to Illegitimate opportunity structure-deviant/criminal subcultures.
Conflict subcultures: engage in violence out
of frustration and a desire for respect (to be
somebody; to display nerve)
Retreatist subcultures: drug, alcohol abuse.
Techniques of neutralization: justification.
A paradox: conformity to subculture.
Learning Theory
Becoming a marijuana users (Becker,
1962); Differential Association
Theory (Sutherland, 1939)
Contact with deviant groups, which
could be class-based.
Deviance is learned through face-toface interaction and socialization.
Labeling Theory
What constitutes deviance depends on how
others (powerful people, authority figures)
respond to the action.
Lemert (1951, 1972):
Primary deviance: passing episodes of
violation with no effect on the persons selfconcept.
Secondary deviance: labeling may lead a
person to take on a deviant identity. Selffulfilling prophecy.
Label comes with a stigma (negative), which
operates as a master status, an overriding
Not
Noticed
Noticed
Labeled as a
Violation
Norms
Apply
Sanction
Not
Sanctioned
Not
Labeled
Control Theory
Hirschi and Gottfredson (1969)
Control is necessary to ensure
conformity to norms/laws.
Differential degree/effectiveness of
socialization and/or self-control
explains gender, age, marital status
differences in criminal behavior.
Conflict Theory
All norms and laws generally reflect
the interests of the rich and powerful.
Powerful people have the resources
to resist deviant labels.
Widespread belief that norms and
laws are natural and good masks
their political character.
Parting Shots
Depends on social context, can differ across
time and space.
Not the act itself, but how it is viewed.
Power is a key dimension: enacting laws,
labeling violators.
Where is the Social? opportunity structure,
social environment, learning process,
socialization, power relations, type of society.
A puzzle: How can we explain rising prison
population (moral panic) in the face of declining
crime rates (aging population, abortion)?
Thank you.