Sociology of Deviance Flashcards

Flashcards covering conversion theory (Lofland & Stark), strain theory and adaptations (Merton), and the concept of righteous slaughter (Katz).

Becoming a World Saver Model (Lofland & Stark)

A theoretical perspective explaining the sequence of conditions through which a person comes to accept a socially marginal religious movement's worldview and become a committed member.

Tension (Lofland & Stark Model)

An acutely felt, enduring discrepancy between a person's desired or ideal condition and the actual life situation they experience, such as loneliness, family conflict, or financial hardship.

Turning Point (Lofland & Stark Model)

A moment of transition, disruption, or instability in a person's life—such as moving, losing a job, or ending a relationship—when prior routines and commitments are weakened, making them open to a new identity.

Affective Bonds (Lofland & Stark Model)

Positive emotional attachments, including friendship, affection, trust, and love, between a prospective convert and existing group members that foster trust in an otherwise unfamiliar or stigmatized worldview.

Neutralization of Outside Attachments

The state of having few, weak, absent, or neutralized social ties outside a group, leaving prospective converts without sufficient external support to counterbalance their growing connection to group members.

Intensive Interaction

Frequent, sustained, and close contact with group members that reinforces teachings, manages doubts, supplies emotional support, and converts tentative or verbal acceptance into total commitment.

Verbal Conversion vs. Total Conversion

Verbal conversion consists of merely stating that one accepts a group's beliefs, whereas total conversion means becoming an active, committed participant in the group.

Primary Aim of Merton's Anomie Paper

To discover how social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in society to engage in nonconformist rather than conformist conduct.

Two Elements of Social Structure (Merton)

1) Culturally defined goals, purposes, and interests serving as a frame of aspirational reference; 2) Institutionalized means that define, regulate, and control acceptable modes of achieving those goals.

Conformity (Merton)

The most common mode of adaptation in which an individual accepts both culturally defined goals ($+$) and institutionalized means ($+$), achieving an effective equilibrium.

Innovation (Merton)

A mode of adaptation where an individual accepts cultural goals ($+$) but rejects institutionalized means ($-$), utilizing conventionally forbidden but effective means like theft, fraud, or organized crime.

Ritualism (Merton)

A mode of adaptation in which cultural goals are abandoned ($-$) but institutionalized means are compulsively accepted ($+$), resulting in rule-following without regard for the original objective.

Retreatism (Merton)

The least common mode of adaptation in which an individual rejects both cultural goals ($-$) and institutionalized means ($-$), dropping out of society because legitimate means are unavailable and cheating is rejected.

Merton's Typology of Adaptation Matrix

A classification scheme mapping an individual's acceptance ($+$) or rejection ($-$) of cultural goals and institutionalized means across Conformity ($+ / +$), Innovation ($+ / -$), Ritualism ($- / +$), and Retreatism ($- / -$).

Structural Pressure to Innovate

The concept that strain is unevenly distributed across the class structure, placing the heaviest pressure to innovate on lower classes whose legitimate pathways to success are blocked.

Righteous Slaughter (Katz)

Homicides that emerge quickly and passionately with indifference to legal consequences, committed by assailants who view their actions as defending communal values or moral standards.

Katz's Control Questions

Three analytical questions regarding typical homicides: 1) What is the killer trying to do? 2) How does he understand himself, his victim, and the scene at the fatal moment? 3) With what sense or sentience is he compelled to act?

Defending the Good (Katz)

The belief held by a killer that the victim has violated a fundamental moral standard, leading the assailant to perceive their violence as defending eternal human values, property rights, or sanctity.

Three Requirements for Righteous Slaughter

1) Interpreting the victim's behavior as an attack requiring a last stand; 2) Transforming humiliation into uncalculated rage; 3) Violently marking the victim's body to reconsecrate the assailant as good.

Sacrificial Slaughter (Katz)

The result of a righteous slaughter in which death occurs from the assailant violently marking the victim's body to honor the offense suffered and restore their own sense of basic worth.