Chapter 1: Sociological Approaches to Deviance

The three C's

Careers, Cultures, Communities

Functionalism

Beliefs based on each institution having a function or role to perform in society.

Social Structure Theory

How features of the larger social structure may 'produce' deviance and crime.

Durkheim Anomie

• Functionalism
• Mental illness increased when stress levels shift within societies
• Crime is unavoidable and helps others commit to social boundaries

The Chicago School

• Functionalism
• Urban (poor) neighbourhoods
  • Social disorganization (differential organization)
• Modernization disrupts traditional lifestyles
• Deviant lifestyles can be passed on

Robert Merton

• Functionalism
• Anomie
  • Promotes material success but deals out unequal opportunities for achieving it
  • 5 responses
  • Conformity
  • Innovation
  • Ritualism
  • Retreatism
  • Rebels

Conformity

• Robert Merton
• Accepting the goal and the means
  • Getting a job at a bank to make money

Innovation

• Robert Merton
• Accepting the goal, but not the means
  • Getting a job as a drug dealer to make money

Ritualism

• Robert Merton
• Rejecting the goal, but accepting the means
  • Getting an English degree instead of Nursing

Retreatism

• Robert Merton
• Rejecting the goal and the means without alternative
  • Get a boring, low paying job

Rebels

• Robert Merton
• Rejecting the goal and means with alternatives
  • Becoming a drug dealer and valuing drugs

Cloward and Ohlin

• Functionalism
• Two types of opportunity structure (lawful and criminal)
  • 'criminal gangs'
  • 'violent gangs'

Durkheim Egoism

• Functionalism
• Less likely to commit suicide when there are clear rules in social behaviour, sense of responsibility
• Weak social ties = egoism (excessive individualism)

Social Networks and Deviant Careers

• Functionalism
• People only conform if it gives them rewards they value
• Having either a deviant or conforming social network will keep you in that lifestyle type

The Chicago School (Family Bonds and Delinquency)

• Functionalism (family bonds)
• social disorganization = broken families = less control over children

Hirchi: Cause of Delinquency

• Functionalism (family bonds)
• Relationship with parents is the most important
• Social control through the 'social bond'
  • Belief
  • Attachement
  • Commitment
  • Involvement

Hagan

• Functionalism (family bonds)
• Traditional families have more control on females, leaving males 'free to deviate'

Reiss

• Functionalism (family bonds)
• When families don't reinforce social norms, the child is more likely to become deviant

Hirchi: Social Bond Theory

• Functionalism (parent attachment)
• Stresses the importance of attachment to others as the foundation of conformity
• Family rituals (sit-down dinners) create stability and cohesion
  • Less deviant children

Parenting Styles

• Functionalism (parent attachment)
• Authoritative
• Authoritarian
• Unengaged
• Permissive

Authoritative Parenting

• Parenting style
• High acceptance
• High control

Authoritarian Parenting

• Parenting style
• Low acceptance
• High control

Unengaged Parenting

• Parenting style
• Low acceptance
• Low control

Permissive Parenting

• Parenting style
• High acceptance
• Low control

Parental Control

• Functionalism (parent attachment)
• Parents should show concern through rule-enforcement

Gottfredson and Hirschi

• Functionalism (self-control)
• Low self-control = more likely to commit crimes
• Absence of social bonds is only a symptom of the true cause of deviance; low self-control

Symbolic Interactionism

Focusses on the process of interpreting and responding to other's actions through social definitions of reality and how social processes arise out of this.

Herbert Blumer

• Symbolic Interactionism
• Meanings arise out of social interactions

Labeling Theory

• Symbolic Interactionism
• Being fixed with a deviant label increases deviant behaviour through it's impact on one's sense of self

Development of Self and Socialization

• Symbolic Interactionism
• The process by which people develop their sense of self is the same process used when internalizing culture

Jean Piaget

• Symbolic Interactionism (self development)
• Young children are egocentric
• Sense of self and sense of others develop simultaneously
• Self is an ever-changing thing, emerging from social interactions

Edwin Sutherland

• Symbolic Interactionism (differential association)
• People imitate those around them
  • Actions are culture-based, not individual

Prus and Grills

• Symbolic Interactionism (differential association)
• 'Deviance' only exists when it's labeled as such

Akers

• Symbolic Interactionism (differential association)
• People chose between deviance and conformity based on what they get out of it

Charles Cooley

• Symbolic Interactionism (social reaction of labels)
• People form concepts of self based on how others see them

Edwin Lemert

• Symbolic Interactionism (social reaction to labels)
• People will engage in deviant behaviour after being labeled in order to fit their new self-image

The Chicago School: Howard Becker

• Symbolic Interactionism (social reaction to labels)
• Everyone is capable of deviant behaviour and everyone fails to conform from time to time

The Definition of the Situation

• Symbolic Interactionism
• Through interactions, people create, share, learn, and pass down meaning

The Construction of Social Problems

• Symbolic Interactionism
• Social problems are socially constructed/created

Blumer

• Symbolic Interactionism (social problems)
• Social recognition
  • Potential social concern
• Social legitimating
  • Recognizing it as a serious threat to social stability

Moral Panic

• Symbolic Interactionism (social problems)
• Moral panics occur when society has trouble adapting to big changes
• Mass media can shape awareness and attitudes towards social problems

Critical Theories

The unequal distribution of wealth or power and the ways people react by breaking the rules.

Collins

• Critical Theories
• Powerful members of society make laws that are to their advantage by convincing others that inequality is unavoidable or deserved

Karl Marx

• Critical Theories
• Conflict arises from hierarchical relations of dominance and subordination

Dominant Ideology

• Critical Theories
• Serves to justify prevailing inequalities and the interests of dominant groups

Max Weber

• Critical Theories
• Conflict arises from groups competing to capture and protect their resources

Usurpation

• Max Weber
• The capture and protection of necessary group resources

Sellin

• Critical Theories
• Children of immigrants were stuck between the norms they brought (old country) and North American norms (new country)
• Deviance is the outcome of a social a political struggle (inner-group power struggle), and not individual abnormality

Critical Criminology Theory

• Critical Theories
• Deviance is based on class conflict and inequality towards it

Austin Turk

• Critical Theories (critical criminology)
• Conflict occurs when there are behavioural and cultural differences between authority and subordinates

Quinney

• Critical Theories (critical criminology)
• Crime should be understood within a political process context
  • Let people with power maintain dominance over those with less power

Feminist Approach

• Critical Theories
• Focused on relation of dominance and subordination between men and women

Radical Feminism

• Critical Theories (feminist)
• Belief that patriarchy is the main cause of female oppression

Feminist Theory

• Critical Theories (feminist)
• Works under unique set of assumptions
• Our notions on gender are the result of social arrangement in society

Feminism as Politics

• Critical Theories (feminist)
• Attempts to change the circumstances around the way men and women live their lives

Androcentric

When something is male-dominated

Feminist Research

• Critical Theories (feminist)
• The gendering of experiences
• The experiences of other victimized groups
• People in power promote theories as social constructs

Postmodern Approaches

• Critical Theories
• Any claim to a single, knowable truth is false
• Is there such thing as normality?

Postmodernism and Science

• Critical Theories (postmodernism)
• Establishes norms through surveillance and control, turns abnormality into normality

Michel Foucault

• Critical Theories (postmodernism)
• All modern society is a prison
• The goal of discipline is not revenge, but reform (coming to live by society standards/norms)

Rational Choice Theory

• Critical Theories (postmodernism)
• Most individuals and organizations balance benefits and cost of activities, even if they're criminal