Sociology Midterm #2 GDAC

Merton’s Deviance Typology

Merton’s Deviance Typology

a diagram comparing cultural goals and institutionalized means

Target Hardening

Taking practical measures to control the criminal’s ability to commit crime by promoting the use of crime-deterring technologies and practices. (eg. community policing, private security services, house alarms, gated communities)

Ianni’s Black Mafia

The inability of black and brown “mafia” to escape urban poverty through illegal means as the Italians did due to their dependence on drug trade

Pager’s Marked

Study focused on difficulties in employment post incarceration arguing for the understanding of re-entry policies. Found that white men charged with felonies were equally preferred for jobs as black men with clean records.

Garland’s Peculiar Institution

Discusses the political institutions and historical processes that explain the continuing use of the death penalty in the United States. Argues that the state’s relative autonomy from the nation, the local control of the power to punish, and the political dominance of small groups explain the historical development of capital punishment in America.

Molotch’s Against Security

Asks if the securitization of numerous public spaces across the United States has indeed created a safer society or if it has made us more fearful and less safe. He claims that we should rely on human decency to help one another and prevent deviant behavior. “Our efforts to weed out deviants not only may be ineffective but also may make it more difficult to live together in a society”

Rios’ Punished

Describes the lived experience of young Black and Hispanic American men in Oakland, California where negative interactions with police officers are a regular occurrence. This effect not only their daily lives but also the way in which they perceive themselves and their long-term life trajectories. Claims that punitive policing created a culture of mistrust and resistance to authority, and even those who seldom broke the rules were perceived negatively by others in their community.

Braithwaite’s Types of Shaming

Suggested that shaming practices can take two forms and that reintegrative shaming should be used to rebuild a deviant individual’s social bonds to the community as a means of deterring future criminal conduct.

How do the changing racial categories used in the census help demonstrate that race is socially constructed?

They reflect how society's understanding and categorization of race evolves based on cultural and political shifts, rather than being grounded in fixed biological realities

How does color blindness maintain racial inequality?

It fails to acknowledge white privilege and perpetuates inequalities that can only be addressed by explicit attention to racial differences.

What does McIntosh mean by “an invisible weightless knapsack”?

The invisible weightless knapsack is a tool belonging to white people that is filled with over 40 special circumstances and provisions that a person of color cannot expect in their daily life (eg. renting or purchasing housing in an area where one wants to live, turning the TV on and immediately seeing others who look like you, go shopping alone without being harassed or followed, etc.)

Why is the idea of a microaggression problematic to some?

They believe the idea of microaggression is damaging because it encourages a victim mentality, spurs anger, and encourages people to jump to negative conclusions in ambiguous situations.

Massey and Denton’s American Apartheid

Argues that the history of racial segregation and its urban form, the Black ghetto, are responsible for the perpetuation of Black poverty and the continued polarization of Black and White people. Claims until policy makers, social scientists, and private citizens recognize the crucial role of such institutional discrimination in perpetuating urban poverty and racial injustice, the United States will remain a deeply divided and troubled society.

According to Castles and Miller, which four trends are likely to characterize migration in the near future?

Acceleration, Diversification, Globalization, Feminization

Borjas’ view of immigration

Since the United States has attracted “lower-quality” immigrants with less education and few marketable job skills, they are more reliant on government assistance. Because recent immigrants will likely earn 20 percent less than native-born Americans for most of their working lives, large-scale migration of less-skilled workers will harm the economic opportunities of less-skilled natives—particularly African Americans. They increase the number of workers in the economy, creating additional competition in the labor market.

Simon’s view on immigration

Immigrants benefit the U.S. economy by joining the labor force and paying into the federal revenue system for their whole lives. Immigrants are a cultural asset to the United States. Because human beings have the intelligence to adapt to their surroundings, the more immigrants that come to the United States, the larger the pool of potential innovators and problem solvers our nation will have.

How do the key ideas of socialist feminism challenge the main themes of liberal and radical feminism?

It introduces the intersect between social class and womanhood. Rejects the liberal notion that true equality is possible in a society whose social and economic structures are fundamentally flawed. Departs from radical feminism due to the belief that women should work with men to fight class oppression.

Glassdoor Study of College Majors

Found that women focus on fields associated with caring and nurturing, whereas men tend to pursue fields that emphasize logic and analysis. The majors women tend to choose (social work, nursing, education) are precisely those fields that garner the lowest earnings after graduation, whereas men are channeled into majors with high economic returns (engineering and computer science).

Williams on Glass Escalator

Men’s (particularly when straight and white) rapid ascent up the hierarchy when they work in female-dominated professions. Employers single out male workers in traditionally female jobs and promote them to top administrative jobs in disproportionately high numbers. They face invisible pressure (can be positive like mentoring or negative like prejudice) to stay in place and work harder as if on a moving escalator.

Glass Cliff

When women are promoted to higher positions during times of crisis or turmoil or amid an economic recession, when the chance of failure is more likely.

Flexibility Stigma

Men facing a stigma if they take parental leave, cut back on their hours, or take family-friendly work in order to balance child care with paid employment

How do inequalities in the home, especially with regard to housework and child care, reflect larger gender inequities in society?

By perpetuation traditional gender roles where women are primarily responsible for domestic labor, impacting a woman’s overall social status and power dynamics in society. Employers tend to believe that a woman will put motherhood over her career, whether she has children or not.

Describe ways that traditional expectations associated with male gender roles harm men and their families.

They undermine the quality of a man’s personal relationships, freedom to choose professions that mesh with their own interests, physical and mental health, involvement in child care, life spans, and increased violence.

Stigmatizing Shaming

Related to labeling theory by which a criminal is labeled as a threat to society and is treated as an outcast. Marginalizes the individual and reinforces that person’s criminal conduct, perhaps leading to future criminal behavior and higher crime rates. [John Braithwaite]

Reintegrative Shaming

People central to the criminal’s immediate community—such as family members, employers and coworkers, and friends—are brought into court to state their condemnation of the offender’s behavior. At the same time, these people must accept responsibility for reintegrating the offender back into the community. [John Braithwaite]

Acceleration

Migration across borders that occurs in greater numbers than ever before

Diversification

Countries receiving immigrants of many different types—in contrast with earlier times, when particular forms of immigration, such as labor immigration or refugees, were predominant.

Globalization

Migration becoming more global, involving a greater number of countries as both senders and recipients.

Feminization

A growing number of women migrants reflecting changes in the global labor market, including the growing demand for domestic workers, the expansion of sex tourism, “trafficking” in women, and the “mail-order brides” phenomenon.

Norms

Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it. All human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another, varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment.

Deviance

Modes of action that do not conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society. What is regarded as deviant is as variable as the norms and values that distinguish different cultures and subcultures from one another. Forms of behavior that are highly esteemed by one group may be regarded negatively by others.

Deviant Subculture

A subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority.

Sanction

A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior.

Laws

Rules of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power.

Crime

The result of any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority

Anomie

A concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Émile Durkheim to refer to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior

Relative Deprivation

Deprivation one feels by comparing oneself with a group.

Differential Association

An interpretation of the development of criminal behavior proposed by Edwin H. Sutherland, according to whom criminal behavior is learned through association with others who regularly engage in crime

Labeling Theory

An approach to the study of deviance that suggests that people become “deviant” because certain labels are attached to their behavior by political authorities and others

Primary Deviation

According to Edwin Lemert, the actions that cause others to label one as a deviant

Secondary Deviation

According to Edwin Lemert, following the act of primary deviation, secondary deviation occurs when an individual accepts the label of deviant and acts accordingly

Conflict Theory

The argument that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature

Control Theory

The theory that crime is the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and controls that deter it. Control theorists hold that criminals are rational beings who will act to maximize their own reward unless they are rendered unable to do so through either social or physical controls.

White-collar Crime

Criminal activities carried out by those in white-collar, or professional, jobs

Corporate Crime

Offenses committed by large corporations in society. Examples of corporate crime include pollution, false advertising, and violations of health and safety regulations.

Cybercrime

Criminal activities by means of electronic networks or information technologies. Electronic money laundering, personal identity theft, electronic vandalism, and monitoring electronic correspondence are all emergent forms of cybercrime

Community Policing

An approach to policing that emphasizes crime prevention rather than law enforcement to reintegrate policing within the community.

Gender Binary

The classification of sex and gender into two discrete, opposite, and nonoverlapping forms of masculine and feminine.

Gender Nonconforming

Identifying as a gender other than male or female, or not identifying with a particular gender at all.

Transgender

Identifying as or expressing a gender identity that differs from a person’s sex at birth

Intersectionality

A sociological perspective that holds that our multiple group memberships affect our lives in ways that are distinct from single group memberships. For example, the experience of a Black woman may be distinct from that of a White woman or a Black man.

Sex

The biological and anatomical differences distinguishing females and males

Gender

Social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex. Gender refers not to the physical attributes distinguishing men and women but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity.

Intersex

Describes individuals possessing some combination of both male and female genitalia.

Gender Identity

How individuals see and describe their own gender.

Cisgender

Describes individuals whose gender identity matches their biological sex.

Gender Expression

How a person chooses to convey gender identity through behavior, voice, mannerisms, and other external characteristics.

Sexual Orientation

An individual’s enduring emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to other people.

Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM)

The broad label applied to populations that include, but are not limited to, individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, and/or intersex.

Gender Role Socialization

The learning of gender roles through social factors such as schooling, the media, and family.

Social Construction of Gender

The learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others.

Hegemonic Masculinity

Social norms dictating that men should be strong, self-reliant, and unemotional

Biological Essentialism

The view that differences between men and women are natural and inevitable consequences of the intrinsic biological natures of men and women.

Feminist Theory

A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequality in society and to work to overcome it.

Liberal Feminism

The form of feminist theory that posits that gender inequality is produced by unequal access to civil rights and certain social resources, such as education and employment, based on sex. Liberal feminists tend to seek solutions through changes in legislation that ensure that the rights of individuals are protected.

Radical Feminism

The form of feminist theory that posits that gender inequality is the result of male domination in all aspects of social and economic life.

Patriarchy

The dominance of men over women. All known societies are patriarchal, although there are variations in the degree and nature of the power that men exercise as compared with women. One of the prime objectives of women’s movements in modern societies is to combat existing patriarchal institutions.

Black Feminism

A strand of feminist theory that highlights the multiple disadvantages of gender, class, and race that shape the experiences of non-White women. Black feminists reject the idea of a single, unified gender oppression that is experienced evenly by all women, and argue that early feminist analysis reflected the specific concerns of White, middle-class women.

Transnational Feminism

A branch of feminist theory that highlights the way that global processes—including colonialism, racism, and imperialism—shape gender relations and hierarchies

Postmodern Feminism

The feminist perspective that challenges the idea of a unitary basis of identity and experience shared by all women. Postmodern feminists reject the claim that a grand theory can explain the position of women in society, or that there is any single, universal essence or category of “woman.” Instead, postmodern feminism encourages the acceptance of many different standpoints as equally valid.

Gender Inequality

The inequality between men and women in terms of wealth, income, and status

Gender Typing

Women holding occupations of lower status and pay, such as secretarial and retail positions, and men holding jobs of higher status and pay, such as managerial and professional positions.

Glass Ceiling

A promotion barrier that prevents a woman’s upward mobility within an organization.

Sexual Harassment

Unwanted sexual advances by one individual toward another, in which the first person persists even though it is clear that the other party is resistant.

Sex Segregation

The concentration of men and women in different occupations

Human Capital Theory

The argument that individuals make investments in their own “human capital” to increase their productivity and earnings.

Rape

The forcing of nonconsensual vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse.

Minority Group

A group of people in a given society who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality compared with the dominant group within that society.

Race

A socially constructed category rooted in the belief that there are fundamental differences among humans, associated with phenotype and ancestry.

Ethnicity

Cultural values and norms that distinguish the members of a given group from others. An ethnic group is one whose members share a distinct awareness of a common cultural identity, separating them from other groups. In virtually all societies, ethnic differences are associated with variations in power and material wealth. Where ethnic differences are also racial, such divisions are sometimes especially pronounced.

Racism

The attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics. Racism is one specific form of prejudice, focusing on physical variations among people. Racist attitudes became entrenched during the period of Western colonial expansion, but seem also to rest on mechanisms of prejudice and discrimination found in human societies today.

Prejudice

The holding of preconceived ideas about an individual or group, ideas that are resistant to change even in the face of new information. Prejudice may be either positive or negative.

Stereotyping

Thinking in terms of fixed and inflexible categories.

Scapegoats

Individuals or groups blamed for wrongs that were not of their doing.

Discrimination

Behavior that denies to the members of a particular group resources or rewards that can be obtained by others. Discrimination must be distinguished from prejudice: Individuals who are prejudiced against others may not engage in discriminatory practices against them; conversely, people may act in a discriminatory fashion toward a group even though they are not prejudiced against that group

White Privilege

The unacknowledged and unearned assets that benefit Whites in their everyday lives.

Institutional Racism

The idea that racism occurs through the respected and established institutions of society rather than through hateful actions of some bad people.

Racial Microaggressions

Small slights, indignities, or acts of disrespect that are hurtful to people of color even though they are often perpetrated by well-meaning Whites.

Scientific Racism

The use of scientific research or data to justify or reify beliefs about the superiority or inferiority of particular racial groups. Much of the “data” used to justify such claims is flawed or biased.

Apartheid

The system of racial segregation established in South Africa.

Assimilation

The acceptance of a minority group by a majority population, in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture.

Melting Pot

The idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behavior drawing on diverse cultural sources.

Pluralism

A model for ethnic relations in which all ethnic groups in the United States retain their independent and separate identities yet share equally in the rights and powers of citizenship.

Multiculturalism

A condition in which ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life.

Immigration

The movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement.

Emigration

The movement of people out of one country to settle in another.

Diaspora

The dispersal of an ethnic population from an original homeland into foreign areas, often in a forced manner or under traumatic circumstances.

Affirmative Action

Policies that grant preferential treatment to groups regarded as disadvantaged or subject to discrimination.

Genocide

The systematic, planned destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

Ethnic Cleansing

The creation of ethnically homogeneous territories through the mass expulsion of other ethnic populations.