Deviant Behavior Exam 2

Micro level theories

Theories about individuals and interactions (labeling theory, symbolic interaction, differential association, social learning); best studied with interviews, direct observation, qualitative research and experiments

Macro level theory

Theory about neighborhoods and social structure (social disorganization); best studied with content analysis, surveys and mapping

Symbolic interaction

Micro level theory of how meaning is created in context; labeling theory has its roots here

Labeling theory

How people are perceived and labeled has lasting effects on how they are treated and their opportunities; deviance is a status imposed on someone and may not involve rule breaking

Looking glass self (Cooley)

The idea that we imagine how others see us

Impact of power on labeling

People with power can more easily impose a deviant label on someone with less power and reject labels placed on themselves

Primary deviance (Lemert)

Incidental norm violation by someone who does not see themselves in a deviant role; can trigger labeling

Secondary deviance (Lemert)

Deviance used as a means of defense, attack or adjustment to others' reactions to the person; leads to the self-fulfilling prophecy

Role engulfment

Going fully into the label you were given; comes after the reaction and before secondary deviance

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Disadvantaged groups are labeled delinquent, which changes their self-concept so they deviate and fulfill the label

Master status

A status more important than all of a person's other statuses; a deviant label can become one

Residual rule breaking

A form of primary deviance with no clear category; not a crime but unsettling to society, and it can activate labeling (tied to mental illness)

Rosenhan's study

"On Being Sane in Insane Places"; 8 sane people got themselves admitted to hospitals as schizophrenic, then acted normally; stays averaged 19 days and none was found sane ("schizophrenia in remission")

Reintegrative shaming (Braithwaite)

The offender is seen as a good person who did a bad deed; disapproval is communicated with respect and the person can rejoin society

Stigmatization

The offender is treated as a bad person

Restorative justice

The state works with the victim and offender to reduce the harm of the act

Nonintervention

A hands-off approach to juvenile misbehavior that removes moral judgment from juvenile courts so youths are not institutionalized

Audrie and Daisy

Tied to reintegrative shaming and restorative justice; look at the punishment piece (did it condemn the act while allowing reintegration, or stigmatize the offender?)

Matsueda

Found that parents' informal labels strongly affected adolescents' reflected appraisals, which affected delinquency

Rosenfield

Found that perceived stigma had a significant negative relationship with the quality of life of people with mental illness

Criticisms of labeling theory

Does not ask why people commit acts; neglects structural inequality and concentrated disadvantage; but labeling rarely helps and often makes behavior worse

Social disorganization theory

Explains deviance and crime across neighborhoods; people do not want unsafe neighborhoods, but structural conditions keep them from working together; macro level

Shaw and McKay

Chicago school researchers who mapped the home addresses of delinquent boys; delinquency clustered near the CBD and dropped in each zone farther away

CBD

Central Business District

Zone 2

The zone in transition closest to the CBD, home to the newest immigrants, the poorest and least educated; has the highest delinquency

3 factors of high-delinquency neighborhoods

Poverty, population turnover, racial/ethnic homogeneity

Kornhauser

Split classical theories into cultural, strain and social disorganization; framed social disorganization as a macro level control theory

Sampson and Groves

Tested social disorganization with mediating variables

Mediating variable

A variable in the middle that strengthens or weakens the effect of structural factors on delinquency

Broken windows theory (Wilson and Kelling)

Disorder leads to more disorder and serious deviance, so police should crack down on minor disorder

Collective (neighborhood) efficacy

Social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene for the common good; mediates structure and crime

Individual efficacy

An individual's ability to accomplish a task

Parental efficacy

Parents' ability to control their children through attachment, rules, supervision and social support

Tautological (critique of social disorganization)

True by definition and not testable, because social disorganization was confused with delinquency itself

Differential association (Sutherland)

Deviance is learned through interaction with others, mainly in intimate groups, including techniques and motives

Most important proposition (Sutherland #6)

An excess of definitions favorable to deviance over definitions unfavorable to it increases the likelihood of deviant acts

Differential associations may vary in

Frequency, duration, priority and intensity

Frequency

How often someone is exposed to definitions

Duration

How long the exposure lasts

Priority

How early in life someone is exposed

Intensity

The respect or admiration held for the person providing the definitions

Social learning theory (Akers and Burgess)

Adds operant conditioning to differential association; learning is enhanced by social and nonsocial reinforcement

Operant conditioning

Learning is enhanced by social and nonsocial reinforcement

Akers' 4 concepts

Differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement and imitation

Definitions (Akers)

Attitudes, beliefs and rationalizations that define behavior as good or bad, right or wrong; favorable, neutralizing or reproachful

Differential reinforcement

The balance of anticipated and actual rewards and punishments that follow behavior

Imitation

Observing modeled behavior

Differential social organization

Structural correlates of crime, such as a community's age or gender composition or its unemployment rate

Differential location in the social structure

Social and demographic characteristics that set your position in society

Theoretically defined structural variables

Variables such as anomie, class oppression and patriarchy

Differential social location in groups

Membership in groups such as family, neighborhood peer groups, school or work, and sports or recreation groups

Cognitive or intellectual deviance (Goode)

Deviance in beliefs, such as being an atheist

Cultural and subcultural deviance theories

Stress the values and practices of a society or subgroup that promote deviance; sometimes grouped with social learning, but Akers rejects that grouping