W05: Sociological Approaches to Deviance

Classical criminology

Demonic (1400-1700)

Classical (1700-1800)

Classical deviance

1700 - 1800

Deviance = violation of social contract

Explanation: free will and hedonism

Remedies: imprisonment

Demonic

Deviance = evil

Explanation: moral weakness, temptation

Remedies: exorcism, execution

Cesare Lombroso

Atavism

Tattooing

Female offenders

Homosexuals

Garofalo and Ferri

Later work, and three major classes of criminal

Displacement of his theory

Atavism

Biological theories of crime

Cesare Lombroso

‘evolutionary throwback’, “born criminal”

a person who has not developed at the same pace as the rest of society

3 major classes of criminal

1. **pseudo-criminals**: involuntary, non-perverse crime, in self-defence
2. “**criminaloids**“: crimes of circumstance
3. **professional criminals**: behave legally and also commit crimes

Criminal classifications

1. Born criminals
2. Moral imbeciles/ insane criminals
3. Criminal epileptics
4. Criminals by passion
5. Occasional criminals

Positivist school

Founded by Cesare Lombroso

→ Led by Ferri and Garofalo

Attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement quantification of criminal behaviors

Homosexuality

categorized by Lorenzo as “insane criminals”

regarded as “pederasts” for men

“tribadismo” for female-female relationship

Tattooing

Lombroso believed that criminals had less sensitivity to pain and touch → signs of lack of morality, remorse → prefer vanity, impulsivity, vindictiveness, and cruelty

Functionalism

* Elements in society are interconnected and interrelated
* Well-functioning societies require value consensus, social cohesion, and social control
* Social change or inequality may create social disorganization and strain, sometimes leading to deviance and crime
* Crime strengthens social cohesion by renewing the public’s commitment to social boundaries

Symbolic interactionism

* Society is a product of continuous face-to-face interactions


* Deviance is a social accomplishment and rarely is practiced solo
* Socialization and labeling shape deviant identities and subcultures
* Social problems are socially constructed

Critical theories

* Conflict and change are basic features of social life
* Crime is a response to conflict, change and inequality
* Conflicting groups promote contesting notions of “deviance” and “crime” to impose control on others, → often result in intensified conflicts
* Social inequality increase the likelihood of self-interested crime

Functionalist theories

* Robert Merton’s ***strain theory***
* Shaw and McKay’s ***social disorganization theory***
* Travis Hirschi’s ***social bond theory***
* Gottfredson and Hirschi’s ***general theory of crime***

Interactionist theories

* Edwin Sutherland’s ***differential association theory***
* Edwin Lemert’s ***primary and secondary deviance***
* Howard Becker’s ***labelling theory***
* William Chambliss’ ***saints and the roughnecks***

Critical theories

* Thornsten Sellin’s ***culture conflict theory***
* ***Instrumental and structural Marxism***
* Richard Quinney’s ***social reality of crime***
* ***Rational choice theories***

Anomie

Durkheimian

a state of alienated “normlessness”

→ ppl suffer from this, they are not tied to the social order as securely as usual

→ feel released from the normal controls on their behavior.

Social disorganization theory

Shawn and McKay - the Chicago School

Explains __ecological differences__ __in levels of crime__ based on structural and cultural factors shaping the nature of the social order across communities.

Modernization

Industrialization

Immigration

Urbanization

Emile Durkheim

Inspire functionalism by “normality of crime”

* Crime is “normal” in several senses
* Universal and unavoidable
* Violating social boundaries → criminals (deviants) help renew a commitment to those social boundaries
* Punishment of crime strengthens social bonds and reminds people of the need to obey the rules

Suicide

Durkheimian

Social changes disrupt traditional norms and values → gap between peoples’ goals or expectations and their means of achieving them

Functions of social institutions

Durkheim

* __Family functions__: reproduce, regulate, and nurture members of society
* __Economy function__: regulate the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services

Social disorganization theory’s implication

Explain the higher rates of crime and deviance in urban vs rural areas

→ Crime rates were highest in the “transitional” inner-city neighbourhoods (poor, with heavy immigration)

Strain theory

or Anomie theory

Robert Merton

crime and other forms of deviance increase when the social structure prevents people from achieving culturally defined goals by legitimate means

5 types of responses to strain

Robert Merton

* ***Conforms***: accept the culturally acceptable goals and means
* ***Innovates***: accept the culturally acceptable goals but reject the means
* ***Ritualists***: reject goals but accept the means
* ***Retreatists***: reject both goals and means
* ***Rebels***: reject both the goals and the means → substitute with a different goal

Merton’s conclusion

(1) Strain (anomie) is normal and inescapable

(2) adaptations to strain are normal and inescapable

(3) adaptations described above make possible the persistence of an unequal, acquisitive society → help capitalism and inequality to survive

→ Crime and deviance are normal (even necessary) under the conditions of social inequality

Shawn and McKay’s conclusion

High-crime neighborhood were “differently disorganized” (has their own cultural values and norms, that happened to be different from the dominant culture)

→ some have *deviant services centres*

→ the existence and persistence of criminal/ deviance subcultures conflicts with dominant culture

Robert Agnew

modern developer of strain theory

Strains lead to crime when:


1. unjust
2. high in magnitude
3. low social control
4. create pressure/ incentive to engage in criminal coping

Differential illegitimate opportunity

Cloward and Ohlin

Extend on Merton’s theory

poor people may lack both *legitimate & illegitimate* ways of reaching their desired goals

→ we have to look at both kinds of __opportunity structure: law-abiding and criminal__.

Delinquent behaviors

Cloward and Ohlin

flourish among poor people when *illegitimate* opportunities for success are more available than *legitimate* ones.

→ often support criminal subcultures

→ gangs

Social control theories

Concerned with explaining why most people conforming to the rules and do not become deviant or criminal

Hirschi’s causes of delinquency

Social control theory

findings: a child’s relationship with parents is the most important factor in determining his/ her involvement in delinquent activities

4 elements of social bond

Hirschi


1. Belief
2. Attachment (to others and their opinions)
3. Commitment (to the social reward of conformity)
4. Involvement

Hagan et al.

Explain gender difference in delinquency → reflects gender norms and treatment difference between boys and girls

→ expect changes if family relationships become more egalitarian

Hirschi’s social bond theory

people who have strong social bonds with others will follow the unwritten social norms of society as opposed to those who have weak relationships

→ stresses importance of attachment to friends, family, and society

3 strongest influences on attachment

supervision

identity support

instrumental communication

Gottfredson & Hirschi

“…people who lack self-control will tend to be impulsive, insensitive, physical (opposed to mental), risk taking, short-sighted, and nonverbal, and they will tend therefore to engage in criminal and analogous acts”

Hoffman

3 basic types of disciplining techniques

* **Power assertion:** threatening a child with punishment
* **Love withdrawal**: threatening/ actually reducing signs of affection to the child
* **Induction**: showing the child good behavior by example and explaining its value

→power assertion and love withdrawal appeals to parents who lack the knowledge, time, patience, energy, or inclination to teach rules inductively

General theory of crime

Gottfredson and Hirschi

proposes that we can organize all of the known facts about crime and criminals around the general concepts of self-control

Functionalist approach to explain deviance

stress the importance of value consensus, value stability, social cohesion, social involvement, social control, and the internalization of morality as factors determining deviant and conforming behaviors.

Herbert Blumer

1. human beings act toward things on the basis of the meaning that things have for them
2. These meanings “arise out of social interaction”
3. Social action results from a “fitting together of personal lines of action”

Interactionist approach to explain deviance

importance of meanings, stigmatization, and the effect of external labeling on sense of self as factors determining deviant and conforming behaviors.

→ all this behavior is the human need to make sense of life, self and society

Labelling theory

Howard Becker

being fixed with a deviant label may even increase deviant behavior due to the label’s negative impacts on one’s social status, “life chances”, and sense of self

2 areas that labelling theory impact on Canada

* Respect to juvenile delinquency
* Mental illness (i.e. deinstitutionalization)

→ concern that being exposed to the institutionalized environment creates and reinforces:

* negative self-images among patients
* slows down recovery & reintegration into the community

Symbolic interactionists’ questions

how people become the people they are?

How the “self” (self-control) develop?

How people reach new understandings about a situation and proper behaviour in that situation?

Differential association theory

Edwin Sutherland (inspired by Piaget)

* Deviant behavior is learned in association with others in __intimate social relationships__
* Views about deviance are learned through communication with others who share the cultural meaning (“definition”) of particular deviant behavior
* __Deviant behavior occurs when people share an excess of favorable definitions of deviance__, compared to unfavorable ones

Looking glass self

Cooley

stress the importance of self in the process of socialization

role of social environment in the development of self-concept

Social reaction theory

Edwin Lemert

**Primary deviance -** behavior that departs from a social norm yet causes NO long-term consequences for the offender

**Secondary deviance** - rule-breaking acts that __follow from__, and __react__ to __the imposition of a deviant label__

→ deviance are more likely to engage in deviant behaviors because that fits in with their new self-image, social opportunity

Howard Becker’s labelling theory

* Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as an outsider
* Deviance is not a quality of the act → but a consequence of the application by the others of rules and sanctions to an “offender”
* Deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied → deviant behavior is behavior that people so label

the definition of the situation

We must understand an actor’s definition of the situation because people will act meaningfully in relation to their definition of reality, not ours.

Blumer’s stages of social problem development

1. Social recognition
2. Social legitimizing

→ in both stages, many people are involved in discussing, defining, and building a shared sense of ”the problem”

Moral panic

Stanley Cohen

* Determines the success of the construction of a social problem
* During this period, a certain group becomes the focus of widespread public attention
* Feature stereotypical representations by the mass media
* The tendency for those “in power” to pronounce moral judgement
* Develop when society cannot adapt to dramatic social changes

Culture conflict theory

Thornsten Sellin

conflict is greatest if one group’s conduct norms have been institutionalized in the criminal code, making that group’s point of view dominant in the society

→ forces subordinate culture to either __assimilate__ or __maintain their culture and undergo continued conflict__

Instrumental Marxism

or elite model

policy makers in government and positions of power tend to “share a common business or class background, and that their decision will reflect their business or class interests”

Darendorf

following Weber

power is embedded in the structural relations between competing institutions and between competing groups

Structural Marxism

state functions to serve the long-term interests of the Bourgeoisie

Austin Turk

instrumental Marxist

focused on legal conflict and criminalization

the conflict between authorities and subjects is sharpest when the power differences between them are compounded by cultural differences

→ subjects may lack established mechanisms for bargaining with those in authority → crime

Social reality of crime

Richard Quinney

* Crime is a definition of human conduct created by authorized agents in a politically organized society
* Criminal definitions describe behaviors that conflict with the interest of those with the power to shape __public policy__
* Criminal definitions are applied by those in power to shape the enforcement and administration of __criminal law__
* Behavior patterns are structured in relation to criminal definitions
* Conceptions of crime are constructed and spread by communication
* The social reality of crime is constructed by:
* The formulation and application of criminal definitions
* The development of behavior patterns related to criminal definitions
* The construction of criminal conceptions

Feminist theory

Assumes:

* All personal life has a political dimension
* Both public and the private spheres life are gendered
* Women’s social experience routinely differs from men’s
* **Patriarchy** - or male control - structures the way most societies work
* Because of routinely different experiences and differences in power, women’s and men’s view of reality differ

Rational choice theory

the reasons individuals might purposely set out to commit criminal acts

what matters most for controlling crime is the swiftness and certainty of deterrence

→ use to explain large-scale, economic crime

Feminist research

* the gendering of experiences
* the problem of victimization (intersectionality)
* the problem of truth finding

Postmodernism

unmasking ideologies that protect the dominant social order and its ideologies

* reality is fragmentary
* we all have personal, biased, often, conflicting accounts
* *The Truth* is false and illusory

Foucault

* all modern society is a prison - a Panopticon
* knowledge is a tool for social control
* society relies on structures of dominance, control, and surveillance that, in turn, rely on expertise
* all modern institutions discipline their subjects through techniques of surveillance and control.

→ power and knowledge are inextricably linked

→ control is achieved more by the internal monitoring of those who are controlled than by heavy physical constraints

→ Survelleillance is the instrument through which modern discipline has replaced pre-modern sovereignty as the fundamental power relation

3 primary techniques of control

hierarchical observation

normalizing judgement

examination