SOCI 201 Finale - Dumas

1. crime and deviance 2. race & ethnicity II 3. Sex and Gender 4. Religion

Reiman and Leighton (2013)

- crime is a "carnival mirror"; the reality of crime differs from how media presents it.

What is the typical criminal? What is the reality?

Typical: young, black, poor, urbanized, male.
Reality: more pervasive & costly crime is in fraud, taxes, consumer deception, medical malpractice and property crime (white collar crime - edwin sutherland)

What are norms?

expectations of human behaviour

Deviance?

non - normative behaviour (violate a norm)

Crime? How do crimes defer from deviance? Give an example.

breaking law.
- Some crimes are not deviant. Ex: exceeding speed limit
- Deviances can also be non criminal. Ex: tattoo entire body

John Hagan

a famous criminologist and sociologist

How did he split crime? Give examples

1. Consensus crime (mala in se): VERY harmful, harsh sanctions (ex: murder)
2. Conflict crime (mala prohibita): unserious crime (ex: distracted driving)

What are the types of controls? Which is most / least effective

1. Formal Control: state & institutions (LEAST EFFECTIVE)
2. Informal Control: friends, family and peers
3. Internalized self - control (MOST SUCCESSFUL)

Give an example of each control

1. Formal Control: police
2. Informal: steal candy & mom makes you put it back
3. Internalized self - control: you don't hit someone b/c you know it's wrong

Why is crime a "dark figure"? What are the statistics?

- We do not know how much crime is truly happening.

- 1.8 million reported crime each year
- 48% of REPORTED crime is property crime
- 20% is violent (doesnt have to be VIOLENT; ex: politely robbing someone is still violent crime).
- the rest is "other" offenses (mischief)

What is the crime funnel?

1. ALL crime: Undetected/unreported crime (100%)
2. Detected but unreported crime
3. Reported crime (police do not record all reported crimes)
4. Founded crime (recorded by police)
5. Taken to court (can be acquitted)
6. Convicted
7. Incarcerated (in prison)

What are the flaws of the crime funnel?

--> it is by the state's definition of crime (which can be manipulated)
--> police only discover 10% of crime on their own

How do academics aim to resolve the flaws?

By using victimization survey

Who coined the term "moral crusader"?

Howard Becker

What are Moral Crusaders? What about Moral Entrepreneurs? What can their actions result in?

- Crusaders: they believe serious evil exists that must be eliminated; so they try to change the behaviour of others

- Entrepreneurs: has something to gain
-> This can result in moral panics

What are the steps to Moral Panics?

1. Concern: awareness that group in question may be harmful
2. Hostility: "they" become folk devils (deviant / othering)
3. Consensus: large # (doesn't have to be majority) of ppl become concerned abt group
4. Disproportionality: exaggerated fear (> harm)
5. Volatility: arise & fade away quickly

What are the theories to how Laws are Created?

1. Pluralists
2. Conflict Theorists
3. Postmodernists

1. Pluralists

- argue that laws reflect what SOCIETY deems important.
- everyone has a say in the construction of laws

2. Conflict Theorists

- argue that the bourgeoisie constructs the laws.
- lower classes are criminalized

3. Postmodernists

- society SOCIALLY constructs crime.
- those who generate & spread crime news control the law
- things are COORDINATED (insignificant topic gets a lot of traction)
- ex: social media, professors, etc.

Strain theory - Who?

Functionalism; Robert K. Merton

What does the Strain Theory suggest?

- people behave deviantly when they are strained
- crime & deviance are the result of rising expectations & failing realizations

!! What are the group's in Merton's Typology? !!

1. Conformity:
2. Innovation:
3. Ritualism
4. Retreatism
5. Rebellion

1. Conformity

--> Accepted the culturally induced goals
--> Have the ability to achieve these goals

2. Innovation (+ give ex.)

--> Accepted culturally induced goals
--> do NOT have the means to achieve these.

- most common
Solution? They may deviate by selling drugs for ex.

3. Ritualism & ex.

--> do NOT accept culturally induced goals
--> DO have the ability to achieve those goals.
Ex: rich parents

4. Retreatism & ex.

--> have NOT accepted culturally induced goals
--> do NOT have the ability to achieve them anyways
Ex: CRIMINAL!!!

5. Rebellion

--> reject AND REPLACE culturally induced goals
Ex: Political radicals.

What is the Learning Theory? Give examples

- Ronald L. Aker

1. Differential Association (Edwin Sutherland): people learn crime just like any other behaviour; by interacting with other deviants
--> ex: peer pressure
2. Tabula Rasa: born with blank state; learn how to commit crime & attitudes to accomplish it by subgroups
--> ex: techniques of neutralization (Sykes & Matza): taught that x crime is ok = rid us of guilt

What is the Control Theory?

- Travis Hirshi (also social bonds theory) & Micheal R. Gottfredson

--> Being deviant is really enjoyable; the real question is WHY do ppl conform?:
1. TAUGHT self control by parents, etc.
2. GIRLS are more controlled than boys b/c of increased pressure This has implications later in life (ex: take less risk)

What is the Labelling Theory? By who? Give Ex.

• Howard Becker
  1. People behave deviantly b/c they are labelled by society as such
  --> this is because internalized self - control is the most successful form of control

Crime in Canada?

--> decreased since 1991, but higher since 1960s
--> more crime in Western Canada than Eastern Canada
--> higher incarceration rate than India, Japan, Western Europe BUT lower than Russia & USA

Why are sociologists interested in studying crime?

--> many correlations of crime: age (younger), sex (men), social class (poor), & visible minority status
--> diff group membership = diff tendency to engage in crime

Reena Virk

Victim of a crime due to her visible minority status

Why do Racial Crimes occur?

1. biological
2. psychological
3. normative explanation
4. split market theory

1. Biological Theory is also know as...? By who?

Primordialism - Van Den Berghe

Primordialism meaning

-> ethnic grouping is natural and encoded in our genes

What are the effects?

-> Discrimination, prejudice, ethnocentrism are inevitable & natural behaviours
-> these features of society will likely continue b/c we can't eradicate our nature

What are the problems of this theory?

1. People will hurt members of their own racial / ethnic group
2. People of DIFF groups will work tgth on anti racist campaigns

What are eugenics? By Who?

Controlling breeding to make "good genes"
- Henry Goddard

Where did Eugenics occur? When?

Nazy Germany and Canada (1920s and 30s)

Why did Eugenics occur? Who did it target?

Canadian doctors concerned about immigrants mixing with Canadian population.
Believed they had physical and mental defects

What did they do?

Alberta & BC: sterilization campaigns.

What was the barrier to sterilization? What were the results of this?

1) Parental consent, removed in Sterilization Act (1937)
2) 25% of FN and Metis were sterilized, but they only made up 2.5% of population

How did it end?

The Act was removed in 1971, but the fear of genetic defects continued.

According to ____, what were the 3 races?

-> Rushton; a University of Western Ontario psychologist
-> Negroids, Caucasoids, & Mongoloids

What were the differences?

-> Mongoloids are smarter, less agressive, & commit less crimes
-> Negroids have a biological disposition towards crime & are less smart.

Why was Rushton's research flawed?

-> uses the concept of race & treats it as unproblematic.
-> Does not account for differences in the ways crime is measured in diff countries
-> These methodological errors make others believe he's racist.

2. Psychologist - A.K.A?

Frustration Agression Theory:
-> Frustration leads to aggression (Ex: hitler blames Jews, Marc Lepine blames women)

-> Some people have authoritarian personalities.

3. Normative Theory

-> Prejudice and Discrimination is passed down generations & socialized into children.

Where does Normative theory originate from? What does it suggest causes prejudice?

-> Functionalism
-> Prejudice is the result of group norms; therefore they exhibit discriminatory behaviour.

What can prejudice and discrimination be explained by?

a) a person's definition of situation
b) reference group norms

Who disagreed with this? What did he question?

Robert K. Merton (also a functionalist).
He questioned why some people failed to think and act in racist fashion when exposed to racist sentiment and why some are racist even when group norms dictate fairness.

What did he argue and suspect?

-> Discrimination occurs before prejudice.
-> Suspected that more people inculcated in "success" norms but don't have the means to attain success. So, people discriminated to benefit themselves then rationalized actions with prejudice

What was John Porter's famous text?

The Vertical Mosaic

What did John Porter believe?

There are 2 groups: Charter and Entrance
-> Charter: colonizers at the top of the hierarchy; set up rules for others who want to enter to follow.
-> Entrance: immigrants; at the bottom

Who did Merton's causal analysis benefit?

Conflict theorists, such as Satzewich

Satzewich

believe that struggle to accumulate wealth in capitalist societies are to blame for prejudice and discrimination.

Immigrants are blamed for the poor economic situation experienced by members of the proletariat

What is the result of this?

-> Chinese Head Tax
-> Exclusionary rules (Continuous Voyage Clause)
-> Systemic discrimination: visible minority wages

4. Split Market Theory - Who and what did they believe?

Edna Bonacich - believed there are 3 groups

What were the 3 groups? What's the effect?

1. Capitalist / Business
2. Highly paid (white) labour
3. Low paid (non - white) labour
--> business class benefits from working class fighting. They perpetuate this conflict via discriminatory employment practices

Define Sex and Gender

Who was the first to define Sex and Gender in a Sociological way?

Sex: biological traits of males & females. Includes chromosomes, gonads, sex organs, hormones.

Gender: social, cultural, psychological traits of males & females.

- Ann Oakley: British feminist & sociologist

What is compulsory heterosexuality? Who popularized it and what is is also known as?

Adrienne Rich // heteronormativity.

Straightness is the assumed & enforced norm. Anything else is deviation.

Sexual Continuum - Who and what?

Alphard Kinsey:
- b/c the natural world rarely deals w/ discrete categories
- 0: completely hetero; 6: completely homo
- Most are in the middle (bisexual)

What else did Alphard Kinsey find?

- Men do more pre/extramarital and prostitue sex.

- N/A for women having sex with prostitutes
- Men have more homosexual experiences (orgasms), and are more bisexual and completely homosexual.

What is the Fruit Machine?

In Canada, the RCMP tested purged gay people b/c they were a "security threat" and "irrational"

Caster Semenya - What?

- Intersex runner. She "failed" a gender test. She has to take testosterone meds if she still wanted to compete.

David Reimer

- Penis burnt off in circumcision, parents believed gender and sex were 100% malleable so he became female.
- Research found gender has both a neurological component and biological features like genitals and hormones. The brain helps to shape our gender.

Who is Margaret Hamilton

- A software engineer; this was a 'woman's job' back then.

When did jobs become gendered? What does this cause for feminized jobs?

- After WWI
- Feminized jobs involved emotional labour (term coined by Arlie Hochschild), has disadvantages, low salary, less job protection, fewer benefits.

—> ex: Gin Craze in 1700s London, England.

—> ex: scientific management / Taylorism / formal rationalization = clerical (boring) work for women

The belief in 2 sexes has resulted in ___ and ____?

a belief in 2 genders and different realities for each gender.

What does Essentialism mean? What was the purpose?

- Belief that gender is biological & determine's a person's nature. Men and women are fundamentally different; & therefore must have different life options.
- Purpose: maintain status quo, =/ in politics, etc.

What were essentialist's arguments? Explain each & if it was debunked.

1. Brain Studies: pink vs blue brain (debunked)
2. Sociobiology: Edward O. Wilson (entomologist). Those who adapted to environmental changes reproduce; men and women learn reproductive strategies to succeed. COUNTER-research: men and women both seek same thing: love & kindness
3. Freud: Odepius (male) and electra (female) complex. Men and women face different developmental challenges, & resolve them with heterosexual conduct.

Criticisms of Essentialism

1. Social constructionists
2. Historical & cultural variability
3. Declining gender differences
4. More flaws in Essentialism

What is Social Constructionists? Give examples (2)

- most sociological thinking. Gender is shaped by human constructs, not biology.
- Warfare, conquest, and plough agriculture: Male-dominated activities.
- Capitalism (Marx): Biggest defeat for women; women's household work is devalued.

Historical and Cultural Variability - by who? Give examples & a conclusion.

Margaret Mead:
- Arapesh in New Guina have reversed gender roles
- Rape rates vary widely across cultures
Conclusion: Societal changes & cultural variation occur w/o genetic changes.

Declining Gender Differences

- No differences in verbal ability, women better at math than men, minor spatial differences.

Flaws in Essentialism (4)

1. Sociobiologists have not identified the genes causing gender differences.
2. Essentialists generalize from averages, ignoring huge variations.
3. Essentialists exaggerate the unchangeability of gender differences (ex: egalitarian societies have less age gap in relationships)
4. Essentialists ignore the role of power & =/ in shaping gender differences.

Economic Inequality (5)

- Double Work Day: women work for a wage & for free at home.
- Sex Segregation: the feminization of certain jobs.
- Sex Typing: BOTH genders experience stereotyping based on sex.
- Glass ceiling: women plateau & don't get highest paying positions (less CEOs)
- Non standard work: Women seasonal, temporary, no benefit work; less rewarding but less risk.

Social Inequality

Gender stratification:
- Men hold more power, prestige & wealth than women.
--> power: ability to impose one's will on others
--> prestige: social ranking & respect
--> wealth: economic resources to pay for life's necessities

What caused the increase of women in labour forces? Since when?

- Increased since 1961
- b/c there's an increase in demand for service sector workers
- decrease in the number of children born
- family finances

Why do women make less than men?

1. Gender differences in the characteristics that influence pay rates
2. Sex segregated, non - standard work
3. Simple discrimination - even in the same jobs, women make less
4. General devaluation of women's work

Example of Political Power?

- Canada has had only 1 female PM: Kim Campbell
- inherited position after Brian Mulroney
= PC lost party status

Types of Feminisms?

1. Socialist
2. Radical
3. intersectional

Socialist Feminism: problem + solution?

- Capitalism & patriarchy are the 2 sources of women's oppression
- BOTH must be altered/ eliminated to free women.
- Capitalists benefit from women's work; including raising children for free
--> Solution: laws of the state CAN be changed for + social change. But, when the state intervened w/ social programs, the federal debt increased

Radical Feminism

- Capitalism has little to do w/ female oppression
- The male state is oppressive, b/c men, by nature are agressive & need to dominate.
- The state is the ENEMY not ally

intersectional - Who? What is Interlocking Matrix of Domination?

- Crenshaw

• Interlocking Matrix of Domination: gender stereotypes + (STRONGER) racial prejudice

- Oppression exists in many forms & it is cumulative.
- Gender is a SOCIAL construct
- Activism is based on outlining how gender is socially constructed & can eliminated unwanted equality.

How are Social Images perpetuated?

- mass media pushes beauty norms to pressure women towards conformity

What is the Social Self? Who?

- by George Herbert Mead: sociologist
- I: subjective & initiates action
- Me: objective, we perceive ourselves from others' standpoint
- Generalized other: how we internalize social norms

Explain "The Body Beautiful"

by Mathews (2000)

- Girls suggested they were NOT passive victims of beauty images
- Looking better = access to social groups & power
- Other girls (not boys) were the most important audience & their harshest critic.
- She identified 4 groups in Lethbridge, AB (continued)

Mathew's 4 groups are...

1. the Elite
2. the Wannabees
3. the Life in the Middle
4. the Fringe

Who is Richard Dawkins?

- atheist who believes atheists are oppressed
- they are forced to accept / endure ideas they disagree with.

What is Bibby's definition of religion? What does religion suggest?

- system of meaning for interpreting the world.
- unified system of belief w/ a supernatural referent.
- suggests our existence has meaning

What is humanist perspectives? What do they suggest? Give an example

- Human centred beliefs; often science based.
- suggest that life has no meaning, we have to give it meaning
- Ex: communism (Marx)

How do sociologists study religion?

- from a scientific perspective
- develop theories & hypotheses & test them w/ rigorous scientific method.

In Canada, what is the least/most religious province? According to who?

- According to Reginald Bibby
- BC has least religion, AB is second.
- You get more religious as you move East (Atlantic Canada).

According to Bibby, why is this the case?

- few are turning to TRADITIONAL religion b/c of the lack of spiritual connection.

What is Marx's beliefs on religion?

1. It is a human creation
2. It is the "opium of people" --> sedative
3. it maintains an =/, exploitative society (by instilling false consciousness; an instrument of hegemony)
4. It delays the inevitable transition to communism
5. It will eventually fade away

What is Durkheim's beliefs on religion?

1. It is a social / human construction
2. It contributes to the collective conscience (= moral community)
3. It identifies this as sacred (special) and profane (daily tasks)
4. it will continue to impact people & their behaviour b/c it's functional
—> society = god (totem)

What does Durkheim believe the Functions of Religion are? (6)

1. Fosters cohesion
2. Offers support during crisis
3. Addresses ultimate questions (ex: what happens after we die)
4. Provides social services
5. Legitimizes political authority BUT:
6. CAN influence social change

• “gap filling function”