CRIM104 Midterm

Critical conception of deviance

Critiques the existing social system that creates norms of oppression

Folkways

Everyday norms that do not generate much upset if broken

Laws

The strongest norms, as they are backed by official sanctions

Mores

“Moral norms” that may generate outrage if broken

Normative conception of deviance

Assumes there is a general set of norms of behaviour, conduct, and conditions on which all people can agree

Norms

Rules of behaviour that guide people’s actions

Pathologizing

A problem-based approach to deviance that focuses on the individual as medically/psychologically abnormal

Positivist perspective

A deterministic approach that focuses on “factual” knowledge acquired through observation and measurement

Prevention programs

Programs and policies that seek to keep people away from crime and deviance; conforming

Rehabilitation programs

Focused on changing individual behaviour after an individual has already engaged in deviant behaviour

Relativist perspective

Assumes that the definition of deviance is constructed based on interactions with those in society

Scientific method

Analysis and implementation of a rigorous, replicable, and objective strategy to gain info about our world

Social constructionist perspective

Assumes behaviours are not inherently deviant but that they become so when the definition of deviance is applied to them

Sociological imagination

The ability to see the link between our personal lives and experiences and our social world

Suppresion

The act of restraining something, like a behaviour or activity, by authority or force

Theory

A set of assumptions and propositions used for explanation, prediction, and understanding

Body modification

Piercing, scarification, extreme tattooing, constructive surgery, etc.

Elite deviance

Criminal and deviant acts committed by large orgs. and individuals with prestige/influence; may result in physical, moral, and/or financial harm

Physical deviance

Two types: Violating norms of what people are expected to look like + physical incapacity or disability

Polygamy

A subculture in which men are encouraged to take multiple wives

Positive deviance

Intentional behaviours that depart from community norms in honourable ways; under debate

Self-injury

Harming oneself by cutting, burning, biting, etc.

Sexual deviance

Varies greatly based on community and culture; sexual acts seen as being outside of the norm

Stigma

A mark of deviance; negative label or perceived deviance often leads to worse life outcomes

Subcultures

A distinct group within the larger culture that has its own subset of norms, values, behaviours, or characteristics

Anomie

A state of normlessness where society fails to effectively regular the expectations or behaviours of its members

Conflict subcultures

Cloward and Ohlin; develop in disorganized neighbourhoods where young people are deprived of both convention and illegitimate opportunities; frustration and violence

Criminal subcultures

Cloward and Ohlin; develop in poor neighbourhoods where there is some level of organized crime and illegitimate opportunity for young people growing up in the area

General strain theory

Agnew; suggests that strain at the individual level may result from the failure to achieve valued goals and also from the presence of negative reactions or stimuli

Institutional anomie theory

Messner and Rosenfeld; major institutions in the US (family, school, politics) are all dominated by economic institutions; emphasis on monetary success leads to crime and deviance

Relative deprivation

Perspective suggesting that socioeconomic inequality has a direct effect on community crime rates

Retreatist subcultures

Cloward and Ohlin; a subculture revolving around drug use, drug culture, and relative isolation from the larger society

Status frustration

Cohen; strain of working-class people when measured against other class standards that they struggle to attain

Strain

Lack of opportunities for conventional success may lead to strain, which can manifest in anger, frustration, and deviance

Structural impediments

Obstacles on the road to conforming success (eg. lack of education)

Cross-sectional designs

Involve data that are collected at only one point in time, such as a survey distributed in a classroom

Zone in transition

An area of a city that houses poorest people (often immigrants) as they secure financial security; many different populations “transition” in and out

Cultural deviance theory

Emphasizes the values, beliefs, rituals, and practices of societies that promote certain deviant behaviours

Definitions

Attitudes, values, and beliefs related to legal and moral codes of society

Differential association

Social interactions with deviants as opposed to conventional others

Differential location in social structure

Social and demographic characteristics of individuals that define or influence their position or role in the larger social structure (eg. age, sex, class)

Differential reinforcement

The balance of rewards and punishments (anticipated or actual) that follow from deviant behaviours

Differential social locations in groups

One’s position or role in the social groups they are part of

Imitation

Observing behaviour and reenacting modeled behaviour in actuality or in play

Reinforcement

An act or thing that strengthens a behaviour

Social structure

Organization of society, often hierarchical, that affects how and why people interact and the outcomes of those interactions

Theoretically defined structural variables

Measures based on social theories of deviance

Deinstitutionalization

Encourages keeping offenders/mentally ill in the community, to the extent of doing so being reasonable. Less disruption, labelling, and stigma

Looking-glass self

Cooley; suggests that individuals define themselves at least in part based on social interactions and the perceptions of others

Master status

A status that proves to be more important than most others

Nonintervention

The policy of avoiding intervention and action for as long as possible

Primary deviance

Common instances where individuals violate norms without viewing themselves as being involved in a deviant social role

Reintegrative shaming

A reaction to deviant behaviour that views the offender as a good person who has done something wrong; encourages repair and forgiveness

Residual rule breaking

Deviance for which there exists no clear category; acts that are not yet crimes draw attention and make societal audience uncomfortable

Restorative justice

Victims, offenders, and the community coming together to ensure offenders take responsibility for their wrongdoing, in order to restore the harm they have caused

Secondary deviance

When an individual engages in deviant behaviour as a means of defence, attack, or adjustment to the problems caused by the reactions to them

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Once an individual is labeled, that individual’s self-conception may be altered, causing them to deviant and live up to the negative label

Symbolic interactionism

Micro-level relativist sociological perspective that is focused on individual and the meanings they attach to objects, people, and interactions around them

Content analysis

Reviewing records of communication and systematically searching, recording, and analyzing themes and trends in those records

Covert observation

Refers to public observation where the researcher does not let the human subjects know that they are a researcher, and that they are being studied

Ethics in research

Ensuring that participants consent to participate in research and that confidentiality is maintained

Ethnography

The study and recording of human society and subcultures

Experiments

Requires subjects to be randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition

Field research

Involves getting out into the environment and studying human behaviour as it exists in the real world

Human subjects

Living persons being observed for research purposes

Institutional review board

Independent group that reviews research to protect human subjects from potential harms of the research

Operationalization

The process that researchers use to define how a concept is measured, observed, or manipulated in a study

Overt observation

Studies in which the researcher makes human subjects aware that they are being observed

Participant observation

Research activity where the researcher is actively involved in the behaviours being studied

Pure observation

Form of study in which participants do not see the researcher or even know that they are being observed

Quasi-experimental designs

Do not require a control group for research purposes

Response rate

The number of people in a survey divided by the number of people in the defined sample

Sample

A group of people taken from a larger population and studied or surveyed

Secondary data

Data collected by other researcher that may be used/reanalyzed by another researcher

Survey

Participants are asked question(s) in order for the researchers to gather information