Sociology of Deviance, Social Control, and Stratification

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering classical theories, mechanisms of social control, typologies of suicide, deviance, deterrence, and systems of stratification based on Chapters 6 and 7 of SOC 204.

Deviance

Any behavior that goes against the established norms of a society.

Informal Deviance

Minor infractions of social norms that do not violate formal rules or codified laws, such as cutting in line or talking loudly in a library.

Formal Deviance

Infractions that violate officially codified rules or laws, such as committing a crime or breaching a university student code of conduct.

Social Sanction

A positive or negative reaction to behavior used to reinforce or punish compliance with social norms and maintain social control.

Mechanical Solidarity

Émile Durkheim's term for social cohesion based on sameness and shared moral consensus, characteristic of simpler or tribal societies where individuality is largely suppressed.

Organic Solidarity

Émile Durkheim's term for social cohesion in modern, complex societies, where social bonds are maintained through mutual interdependence and a specialized division of labor.

Collective Conscience

The overarching, shared social sense of right and wrong that transcends the individual and guides moral behavior in a society.

Punitive Punishment

Swift and severe punishment typical of societies characterized by mechanical solidarity, designed to avenge an infraction against the collective conscience and the fabric of society.

Restitutive Punishment

Punishment characteristic of societies with organic solidarity, focused on restoring social relationships and repairing damage between individuals or entities.

Social Integration

How closely an individual relates to others in their social group and how deeply embedded they are in their community and networks.

Social Regulation

The degree of social control, predictability, and rules that direct and regulate an individual's daily behaviors in society.

Egoistic Suicide

Suicide resulting from extremely low levels of social integration, leading to profound feelings of isolation, meaninglessness, and hopelessness.

Altruistic Suicide

Suicide resulting from excessively high levels of social integration, where an individual sacrifices their life out of an overwhelming sense of duty to their group or society.

Anomic Suicide

Suicide resulting from a lack of social regulation and predictability, triggered by anomie (a state of normlessness) during dramatic social or economic disruptions.

Fatalistic Suicide

Suicide resulting from excessive social regulation, occurring when an individual's life is overly regimented, controlled, and devoid of personal autonomy.

Strain Theory

Robert Merton's theory that deviance occurs when there is a mismatch or strain between socially accepted goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them.

Conformist (Merton's Typology)

An individual who accepts both society's cultural goals of success and the socially approved, legitimate means to achieve them.

Ritualist (Merton's Typology)

An individual who accepts and adheres to socially legitimate means but rejects or scales back the overarching societal goals of wealth or advancement.

Innovator (Merton's Typology)

An individual who accepts society's goals of wealth and success but rejects legitimate means, using illegitimate or deviant strategies to achieve those goals.

Retreatist (Merton's Typology)

An individual who rejects both society's cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them, effectively withdrawing from social life.

Rebel (Merton's Typology)

An individual who rejects existing cultural goals and institutionalized means while actively seeking to tear down the system and replace them with new goals and systems.

Labeling Theory

A symbolic interactionist perspective proposing that individuals internalize labels applied to them by others or institutions, which then shapes their social identity and future behavior.

Primary Deviance

The initial, first instance of breaking a social rule or norm that causes a deviant label to be applied to an individual.

Secondary Deviance

Subsequent deviant behavior that occurs as a result of an individual accepting, internalizing, and acting out their applied deviant label.

Stigma

A severe, negative social label that alters how society perceives and treats an individual and profoundly modifies that individual's self-concept.

Broken Windows Theory

A criminological theory asserting that visible signs of physical disorder in a neighborhood signal a lack of social control, generating fear, community withdrawal, and an escalation of serious crime.

White-Collar Crime

Nonviolent crime committed by professionals or executives in a corporate setting against a business, organization, or the public, such as insider trading.

Deterrence Theory

The crime-prevention philosophy that assumes people are rational calculators and that deviance can be reduced if legal punishments are swift, certain, and severe.

Specific Deterrence

A form of criminal deterrence aimed specifically at preventing an individual convicted offender from reoffending in the future.

General Deterrence

A form of criminal deterrence that uses the punishment of an offender as a public example to discourage the rest of society from committing the same crime.

Recidivism

The reversion of an individual back to criminal behavior, quantified by the rate at which formerly punished offenders are rearrested and recharged.

Total Institution

An institution, such as a prison, that dictates and controls all aspects of daily life, frequently stripping individuals of their previous social identities.

Panopticon

An architectural prison design analyzed by Michel Foucault as a metaphor for modern disciplinary techniques, where inmates self-monitor and discipline their behavior because they never know when guards are observing them.

Stratification

Structured, systemic social inequality characterized by hierarchical ranking of individuals into distinct layers based on social categories such as class, race, and gender.

Private Property (Marxian/Rousseauian)

Property and productive assets specifically designed and used to generate surplus commodities and profit, identified as the core driver of social inequality.

Personal Property

Goods and possessions owned for personal use and daily living (such as clothing or a home), rather than for generating surplus profit.

Malthusian Population Trap

Thomas Malthus's idea that population growth outpaces resources and that assisting impoverished people merely delays their suffering, arguing natural checks like famine preserve balance.

Dialectic

A two-directional relationship between two oppositional forces or ideas whose conflict and dialogue lead to a higher-order synthesis and resolution.

Historical Materialism

Karl Marx's approach stating that the material economic base and mode of production fundamentally shape the superstructure of ideas, culture, and institutions in a society.

Ontological Equality

The philosophical or religious belief that everyone is fundamentally equal in the eyes of God, which renders material inequality on Earth secondary because rewards or justice will occur in an afterlife.

Equality of Opportunity

The standard of equality asserting that everyone must face identical rules and have fair access to pursuit of status and wealth, making unequal outcomes legitimate and fair.

Equality of Condition

The standard of equality stating that society must actively intervene to alter starting points and compensate for systemic disadvantages so that everyone begins on a level playing field.

Equality of Outcome

The standard of equality asserting that all members of a society should ultimately receive the same distribution of resources and rewards regardless of the rules or initial opportunities.

Free Rider Problem

A collective action issue where individuals fail to contribute effort toward a shared group outcome, hoping that other members will perform the work while they still enjoy the benefits.

Horizontal Social Mobility

Movement from one social role or occupational position to another that occupies a comparable rank without changing vertical social class status.

Vertical Social Mobility

The upward or downward movement of an individual or group between different social strata or income levels.

Structural Mobility

Mobility that is driven by macroeconomic, technological, or institutional changes that shift the distribution of available jobs across an entire society.

Exchange Mobility

A zero-sum concept of mobility asserting that because social strata hold a fixed proportion of positions, one individual moving upward necessitates that another is pushed down.

Estate System

A politically and legally codified system of stratification that distributes power, rights, and privileges unequally by law, allowing only limited and rare social mobility.

Caste System

A religiously or morally justified system of hereditary stratification marked by strict social closure, ascribed statuses, and virtually nonexistent social mobility.

Class System

An economically based stratification system characterized by relational, oppositional groups and loose, imperfect possibilities for social mobility.

Contradictory Class Locations

Positions in a class system where an individual occupies a role that mediates between opposing class interests, such as a manager balancing worker needs and owner expectations.

Status Hierarchy System

Max Weber's model of stratification based on human capital and the distribution of social prestige, honor, or esteem rather than strictly on economic class.

Meritocracy

A society or system where access to status, wealth, and power is distributed strictly on the basis of individual effort, talent, and ability.

Power Elite

C. Wright Mills's concept describing the disproportionate concentration of societal decision-making power within three centralized institutional pillars: major corporations, the federal government, and the military.