Sociology Chap. 8

Deviance

the recognized violations of cultural norms 

• All deviance actions or attitude (negative or positive) have some element of difference that cases us to the of another person as an “outsider” 

• Existence can also cause deviance (age, gender, race, etc.)

Social control

attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behaviour

Crime

the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law

Criminal justice system

the organizations (police, courts, and prisons) that respond alleged violations of the law

Cesare Lombrose (1876)

• Used to think that criminal looked more apelike and stand out physically 

• Biological causes

William Sheldon

General body structure might predict criminality (young, muscular boys)  

Walter Reckless and Siman Dinitz (1967)

• Psychological approach 

• Containment theory 

• “Good boys” can handle frustration and “bad boys” had a weaker conscious 

• Good boys = less run-ins with police 

3 social foundations of devience

1. Deviance varies according to culture 

2. People become deviant as others define them that way 

3. How societies set norms and he they define rule breaking both involve social power 

Merton’s Strain Theory

• Robert Merton 

• Society can be set up in a way that encourages too much deviance. Specifically the type that people engage in depending on whether society provides the means to achieve cultural goals 

Conformity

lies in pursuing cultural goals through approved means 

• Someone who gains prestige and wealth through talentschooling, and hard work 

• Not everyone can achieve this, therefore innovation comes into play 

Innovation

 using unconventional means (street crime) rather than conventional means (heard work at a straight job)

Ritualism

people who stick to the rules 

Retreatism

rejecting both cultural goals and conventional means so that a person in effect drops out 

Rebellion

reject the cultural definition of success and the convention means of achieving it and form counterculture supporting alternatives to the existing social order

Richard Cloward and Llyod Chin (1966)

• Crime results from readily accessible illegitimate (illegal) opportunity 

• Relative opportunity structure 

• Criminal subcultures

Albert Cohen

Delinquency is more common among lower class youths because they have the least opportunity to achieve conventional success

Delinquency subcultures

characterized by:

1. Trouble 

2. Toughness

3. Smartness 

4. A need for excitement 

5. A belief in fate

6. A desire for freedom 

Criminal subcultures

conflict and retreatist

Conflict subcultures

armed street gangs that engage in violence out of frustration and desire of respect 

Retreatist subcultures

 deviants drop out and misuse alcohol or other drugs  

Elijah Anderson

“Live by the code of the street” after some negative event

Labelling theory

the idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions

Edwin Lemert

Primary and Secondary Deviance

Primary deviance

 provoke a slight reaction from others and have little effect on a person's self-concept (skipping school, underage drinking, etc.)

Secondary deveince

individuals may be benign to change (talking, acting, dressing a different way, etc.)

• Occurs when a person used deviant behaviour as a means of defense, attack, or adjustment to the probes created by a  societal reaction 

stigma

 a powerfully negative label that greatly changed a person’s self concept and social identity 

• A master status

retrospective labelling

distorts a person's biography by being highly selective, typical deepens a deviant identity 

protective labelling

 using the person’s deviant identity to predict future actions 

Sutherlands differential association theory

• Edwin Sutherland 

• A person’s tendency toward conformity or deviance depends on the amount of contacts with others th encourage or reject conventional behavior 

• Peers encourage behavior 

Hate crime

a criminal act against a person or a person’s property by an offender motivated by a racial or other bias 

• Expression of hostility toward someone's race, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, physical disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression 

• Gender influences how we define deviance because people commonly use different standards to judge the behaviour of women and men 

Crime must have 2 elements

1. The act

2. Criminal intent (matter of degree, ranging from wilful conduct to negligence) 

Types of crime

against a person, property, or victimless

Crimes against the person

• Violent crimes - crimes that direct violence ot the threat of violence against others 

• Ex: assault, threats, homicide, kidnapping, etc.

Crimes against property

• Property crimes - crimes that include theft of property belonging to others 

• Ex: theft, breaking and entering, possession and trafficking, forgery

Victimless crime

• Violations of law that are no obvious victims and crimes without complaints 

• Ex: illegal drug use, prostitution, gambling

race and ethnicity correlated crime rates

• 70% of arrests are White people 

• But based on representation in general population, arrest rate for Black people was higher

5 conclusions of crime rate associated with race and ethnicity

1. Racialized groups tend to be underrepresented in arrest data and prison population

2. Members of black and indigenous communities are expected and are overrepresented

• Canada's crime rate drops, but number of indigenous people incarcerated continues to rise

• Socioeconomic status affects crime rate and likelihood to engage in street crime

• Turn to crime to survive or escape poverty 

• Indigenous and non-indigenous family patterns differ 

• Single parenting = less supervision - greater risk of living in poverty

3. Police arrest members of the black and indigenous community more readily and leads citizens to report those two categories more willingly 

4. Crime is racialized 

• Overemphasized

• Ex: illegal immigrants, gangs, and terrorists 

5. Some categories of the population have unusually low rates of arrest 

Carding

 police collect identifying information during street checks 

• More likely to target members of black and indigenous communities 

Fundamental justice

 criminal justice system must guarantee procedural fairness and operate according to the law 

• Innocent until proven guilty, cant be denied reasonable bail, cant be tried twice for the same crime, freedom of unreasonable search or seizure, have the right for a speedy trial 

3 things everyone charged with a crime must receive…

1. Fair notice of legal processings 

2. The opportunity to present a define during a hearing on the charged, which must be conducted according to law 

3. A judge or jury that weighs evidence impartially 

police

• Primary point of contact between society and the criminal justice system 

• Maintain public order by enforcing the law

6 factors to size up a situation

1. More serious = more likely to make an arrest 

2. Account victim's wishes in deciding whether or not to make an arrest 

3. Odds of arrest increase the more uncooperative a suspect is 

4. More likely to take someone into custody if they have been arrested before

5. The presence of observers prompts police to take stronger control of a situation 

6. More lonely to arrest an indigenous or black person

Court

determines if someone is guilty or innocent

Plea bargaining

 a legal negotiation in which a prosecutor reduces a charge in exchange for a defendant's guilty plea 

• Spears the system time and expense of trials 

• Pressures defendant to plead guilty 

punishment

a mean of social control

4 reasons/justifictaions of punishment

Retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, societal protection

retribution

an act of moral vengeance by which society makes the different suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime

deterrence

The attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment 

rehabilitation

a program for reforming the offender to prevent later offences 

social protection

rendering an offender incapable if further offenses temporarily though imprisonment or permanently by execution

criminal recidivism

 later offences by the people previously convicted of crimes 

death penalty

• 1539 executions in US from 1977 to 2021 

• Most are men, white, and have low socioeconomic status 

• Abolished in canada

4 reasons why death penalty rates have gone down

1. Crime rate has come down 

2. Public concern of the death penalty being applied unjustly

3. Judges and jurors are now promoted to sentencing offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole 

4. Prosecuting capital cases is very costly  

community based correlations

correctional programs operating within society at a large rather than behind prison walls

3 main advantages of community-based correlations

1. Reduce coast 

2. Reduce overcrowding prisons 

3. Allow for supervision of convicts while eliminating the hardships of prison life and the stigma that accompanies going to jail 

probation

• Policy permitting a convicted offender to remain in the community under conditions imposed by a court, including regular supervision

• Attend counseling, drug treatment programs, hold a job, etc.  

• Have meeting with a probation officer, fail to show up may involve in going to jail 

parole

Policy of releasing inmates from prison to serve the remainder of their sentence in the local community under the supervision of a parole officer

sentencing circle

• Indigenous communities 

• Offender, victim, elder, and community members through a  process emphasizing on remedying the harm done and preventing it from occurring in the future