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