SOCI 325 Midterm 2 Dumas

Epistemologies

ways of knowing our social world

The pathological approach to crime began with the work of?

Cesare Lombroso

According to Lombroso, where did deviance originate?

the body

Lombroso argued that criminals were?

atavists

Atavism

the reversion to a former state

Gone were the days of what?

the "reasonable criminal" and religious interpretations of deviance

What tendency do criminals have?

being fugly

What did Lombroso bring into the study of deviance?

science and multicausal analysis

Lombroso alerted academics of what?

the potential of biology to affect deviance

He believed so strongly in this idea that he argued for what?

he argued that a normal man required no punishment for murder, because he would most likely not commit the act again

Lombroso revealed that punishment should?

fit the criminal and not always the crime ( as opposed to rational punishment )

What do the pathological and demonic perspectives have in common?

a focus on the body

Dugdale and the Jukes

A Study in Crime, Pauperism, and Heredity. Dugdale was impressed by the number of blood relatives in prison. He analyzed over 150 years of family information and found that crime and poverty were inherited. It seemed intuitively accurate to posit that genetics must have an impact on deviance.

Samuel Hokins Adams

Criticized dugdale's book. he notes that there were similar rates of deviance found in respectable families, suggesting that deviants are found in all kinds of families.

Goddard and the Kallikaks

During the American Revolution, Martin Kallikak (a respectable young soldier) indulged himself in an affair with a feeble-minded barmaid. The liaison resulted in a child. He ultimately abandoned the mother and child and pursued a relationship with a "good girl". They also had children. What happened? The feeble-minded side had many deviant offspring whereas the "good girl" side had nothing but conformity.

What does the Goddard and the Kallikaks case tell us?

genetics must have something to do with deviant actions.

What flaws in this study did Goddard admit to?

1. Difficulties in obtaining unbiased family records.

2. Intelligence testing was considered to be very subjective.

3. Never considered social factors to account for the differences though he later admitted to errors of interpretation.

What did Freud believe?

he believed everyone possesses three distinct components to their personalities, the id, the superego, and the ego.

The Id

instinctual energies

The Superego

inculcation of society's norms ( the part of your brain that has taken in all social rules )

The Ego

in between, balancing act

What can an overly strong Id lead to?

a life of crime, these people do not have the personality to resist temptations that present themselves

What can an overly strong superego lead to?

they may not display a clear personality of their own

What does the Iceberg Analogy represent?

The conscious ( above water ) and unconscious ( underwater ) mind

Where is the Id located in the Iceberg Analogy?

Completely submerged underwater

Where are the superego and ego located in the Iceberg Analogy?

Above water

Turner and Edgley

Drugcraft has replaced witchcraft, and it is impossible to identify causes and effects

What did Szaz believe?

It is not hearing voices that constitutes psychiatric disease, it is whose voices are being heard.

"If you talk to God, you are praying, if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you are schizophrenic."

What is related to schizophrenia?

Lower social-economic status and marital status ( chemical malady surfaced three times more often among the single than among the married )

Problems with pathology

Pfohl argues that the pathological approach "promises much but delivers little". Wrought with methodological errors, it often practices "political repression"

Functions of Crime

there are four ways in which deviance contributes to the normative order

What are the 4 ways deviance contributes to the normative order?

1. It sets boundaries

2. It enhances group solidarity

3. It maintains innovative functions

4. It reduces tensions

Problems of Functionalism

1. False Teleology

2. Tautology

3. No theory of crime/ deviance

4. Non- disprovable

5. Beneficial?

False Teleology

the explanation of phenomena by their purpose and not their cause. looking at the positive effect of something and saying that's why it works. essentially claiming purpose = causation

Tautology

Circular reasoning ( because it exists it must be functional, if it were not functional it wouldn't exist )

What is an example of a tautology related to prostitution according to Davis?

Prostitution would not exist if it were not functional

What are some factors mentioned by Davis that are associated with the functionality of prostitution?

Crime, poverty, repressive governments, deviance, etc.

Theory

The epistemology of science demands that we generate causal statements about how social life works.

Functionalism does not explain how norms arise, why they arise, and how widely they are accepted.

The approach does not specify how modes of punishment become accepted by society.

Non-Disprovable

Functionalism is non-disprovable. This means that it cannot be refuted scientifically. It is always correct.

This is true to the extent that the approach is plagued by tautology and teleology.

Functionalism maintains that even dysfunctional characteristics are somehow functional (famine, war, sexual assault, poor grades etc.)

Beneficial?

Sanctioning deviance and deviant acts is said to be functional by structural functionalists.

By functional, they mean functional for society at large.

Many have argued, however, that such sanctioning may be rather dysfunctional. ( For example, the Supreme Court of Canada has argued that prostitution laws are harmful to sex workers. )

Kai Erikson

Erikson used court records to reconstruct the role of deviance among Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Erikson's first finding

1. For each punishment, moral boundaries were clarified.

( each time the community moves to censure deviance, it sharpens the authority of the violated norm. the norm is more clearly identified as important to society. )

Erikson's second finding

2. The definitions of deviance were clarified by the values of society.

( norms varied with what is punished. men who fear witches soon find themselves surrounded by them; men who become jealous of private property soon encounter eager thieves )

Erikson's third finding

3. Most importantly, he notes that the volume of deviants remained relatively constant over a 30-year period.

"Does the fear of deviance create deviance, or does deviance create fear? "

( In our post-911 society, will we find more acts of terrorism suggesting a greater problem than what actually exists? )

What is considered "the world's oldest profession"?

prostitution

What did Kingsley Davis argue?

he argued that prostitution would never be eliminated because of the important social functions it served

Why does prostitution exist?

for physiological and sociological reasons

Physiological

Davis noted that females do not have periods of anoestrus (complete unresponsiveness to sexual stimuli). Different from other mammals because it is conditioned (sexual stimuli).

Sociological

Social dominance. The degree of dominance determines how bodily appetites will be satisfied.

3 aspects of prostitution that must be recognized

1. Causes

2. The rate of prostitution

3. Individual causes for seeking a prostitute

Is prostitution only economically motivated?

no

Would raising wages for women eliminate prostitution?

No, this logic ignores the demand side of the equation. Not only poor women engage in this behaviour and it existed in the Soviet Union.

The functions of prostitution

1. Male need for sexual adventure and experimentation. Men have a much higher need for sex (including unusual sex) that may not be met by their wives.

2. Less attractive men may not find sex so readily. Prostitutes make this possible.

3. Prostitution then, functions to keep the family (with all of its societal benefits i.e. procreation, love etc.) intact.

Davis argues that from time to time society rounds up?

well-known prostitutes and "johns", but does little to abolish the practice

Functionalism is a?

problematic theory for the explanation of crime and deviance

Functionalism persists since its intellectual dominance in the?

1930s, 1940s, and 1950s

Anomie

without purpose or normlessness

Durkheim's two different meanings to anomie

1. an anomic division of labour

2. an anomic mental state of an individual

The Division of Labour

Recall that Durkheim made much of the transition of society from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity.

Mechanical Solidarity

a state in which people "in the simplest societies" are bonded due to their similarities.

Organic Solidarity

Characteristic of modern industrial societies. The division of labour is indicative of the existence of a social contract to which people agree.

Anomie is the natural result of?

the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity

As the division of labour grows dramatically...

human greed and desire generate social problems

Anomie results when?

social institutions are unable to morally constrain human desires

What did Durkheim believe Marx had done?

Reversed the primary causal order.

Durkheim: anomie --> class conflict

Marx: class conflict --> anomie

Durkheim and Suicide

Durkheim said suicide is, at its root, an instance of social deviance.

4 types of suicide

1. Anomic

2. Egoistic

3. Altruistic

4. Fatalistic

Anomic Suicide

suicide that occurs as a result of insufficient social regulation

Fatalistic Suicide

suicide that occurs as a result of too much social regulation ( slaves )

Egoistic Suicide

suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social group ( single vs married, protestants vs catholics )