Social Deviance Exam 3

what percentages of (1) all adults and (2) young adults engage in alcohol abuse?

Adult rate of alcohol abuse: 4.65%

Young adult rate of alcohol abuse: 6.95%

(this is out of 60% of adults who drink alcohol)

What is the current legal limit for blood alcohol level (BAC) for driving in the U.S.?

BAC of .08 or higher

What is the current legal limit in Utah?

BAC limit in Utah is .05

What was the cultural attitude toward alcoholic beverages in Europe in the Middle Ages?

• They were positive throughout most of European history

• Drinking alcohol was considered helpful and medicinal

  • This is seen in the term agua vitae - water of life - referring to alcohol

  • Believed to strengthen the body and prolong life

What 3 factors influenced the rise of “drinking as a social problem” during the Industrial

Revolution in Europe?

• As agricultural practices and land ownership changed during the industrial revolution, peasants found in harder to support themselves in rural villages and many of them moved from the country side into cities to find a way to make a living - they didn’t have the same social support - this led to more dangers when they were drunk

• Several new types of alcohol were created during this time. These new drinks were distilled liquors that had higher alcohol concentrations (vodka, gin, brandy, etc.) (more than beer and wine)

• Peasants took new jobs in cities that were more dangerous. If they were drunk, they could get hurt more easily in these new jobs than in their older ones.

Which of these factors was highlighted in Hogarth’s paintings “Beer Street” and “Gin

Lane”?

Beer lane - happy and safe

gin lane - peoples lives ruined from alcohol

What was the prevalent cultural attitude toward alcoholic beverages among the North American colonists?

• The attitude was largely one of acceptance and appreciation

• They drank very heavily

What were “Temperance Tales” and how are they related to the Prohibition movement?

• Temperance tales were stories that told of a person who had been living a good life, but became an alcoholic, and their lives crumbled around them

• They painted drinking as the road to ruin which helped pave the way over time for the prohibition movements success

  • raising awareness

  • shaping public opinion

  • framing alcohol as a societal problem

What was the biggest flaw in social control policies during Prohibition?

• There was not enough law enforcement to handle the problem

  • people found ways around the law to get alcohol and continued to demand it

Who was E. M. Jellinek, and what was his contribution to the study of alcoholism? What were the data or “cases” that Jellinek used to develop a model of alcoholism?

• He is the father of the disease concept of alcoholism because he created a famous model of the stages of alcoholism

  • He built this theory of stages by focusing on stories told by members of alcoholics anonymous

What is the basic idea of the social learning theory approach to problem drinking?

• Alcohol abuse is a learned behavior acquired through social interaction

  • Individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and justifications associated with drinking from the people around them (family and peer groups)

    • How to drink

Proscriptive norms

These are social norms that define certain kinds of behavior as totally unacceptable, meaning the social group does not accept any drinking of alcohol.

Groups with proscriptive norms prohibit drinking altogether and hold abstinence as their ideal.

ex. LDS church

Permissive Norms

These are social norms that accept and support specific kinds of behavior, in this case, accepting and even encouraging drinking.

ex. party schools/frats

Prescriptive Norms

These are social norms that focus on how specific kinds of behavior should be conducted, meaning they permit drinking within certain limits and situations. (drink in moderation)

Groups with prescriptive norms have clearly defined limits on appropriate drinking behavior, specifying when, where, and how much alcohol is acceptable.

ex. Japanese American cultures

Ambivalent Norms

These are social norms that are in conflict with each other, often giving contradictory and mixed messages about what is appropriate and inappropriate drinking behavior.

Groups with ambivalent norms lack unified normative guidelines regarding drinking.

ex. US social media (encourages it and then condemns it at different times)

What are examples of medical and punitive responses to problem drinking?

Medical

• focus on treatment for problem drinking

• medications

• alcoholics anonymous

Punitive

• assess jail fines, revoking driver’s licenses, etc.

• legal restrictions

What is the “contextual response” to reducing problems associated with drinking? What are some examples of that kind of approach?

• focuses on reducing problems associated with drinking by dealing with drinking environments or contexts

  • ex

    • serving food where drinking occurs

    • providing transportation so people don’t drive drunk

    • encouraging protective social relationships (designated driver)

According to Wechsler and Weuthrich in their book on college binge drinking, what percentage of college students engage in binge drinking? How do they define binge drinking?

• Over half of US college students are occasional binge drinkers

  • more than 75% of males living in frat houses

• binge drinking is commonly defined as five drinks for a man, and four for a woman

What does the term “second-hand effects” of drinking refer to? Can you give 2 examples of second-hand effects?

• The effects experienced by those who are not drinking

  • Having to take care of a drunk friend leads to an inability to study or to lose sleep

  • Drunk driving can affect innocent bystanders

What are the common categories of drug use and abuse in the U.S.?

• Legal recreational drugs

  • coffee and other caffeine products, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, marijuana (some states)

• Legal medical use

  • pharmaceutical drugs (ADHD, weight loss, pain, etc)

• Illegal medical or instrumental use

  • The use of ADHD stimulants like Ritalin as a study drug by college students

  • Athletes using steroids

• Illegal recreational use

  • recreational use of opioids for pain relief

Rank the following drugs from the most commonly used to the least common: marijuana, methamphetamine, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and illegal use of prescription opioids.

1. marijuana

2. prescription opioids

3. powder cocaine (only 2% of US adults use it annually)

4. methamphetamine, crack cocaine, heroine

How much more likely are African Americans to be in prison for drug offenses in comparison to White Americans?

African Americans make up about 14% of the US population, but they make up over 50% of drug offenders in state prisons (overrepresented)

How confident are researchers that respondents fairly accurately self-report their use of drugs when participating in SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health?

• Researchers believe that self report data is accurate

  • as long as they are allowed to report anonymously and don’t believe they will be punished for accurately reporting their use - people seem to be willing to report

What kinds of drugs are difficult to get use data on in that survey? Why?

Hard street drugs

• even with large sample sizes there is not enough to be able to do a good statistical analysis

• many hard drug users are either homeless or in prison - so they are hard to access

How was illegal drug use perceived in Medieval Europe? How were those accused of drug abuse treated?

• it was viewed as an evil act associated with satanic cults and rituals

  • often identified as witches or sorcerers and then killed

What was the reason for the “Opium Wars” in China in the mid-1800s?

• Western societies wanted to ship and sell opium to the Chinese people, even though the Chinese Government deemed it illegal.

• European businessmen wanted to sell opium in China because there was an imbalance of trade

• Europeans wanted products the Chinese had (silk cloth) but they did not want what the Europeans had to offer in return

• So they started growing opium in Indonesia and selling it to China to get money coming back to them - led to the Chinese supported by other countries including the US to intervene

How was drug use regulated in the United States from the founding of the country through the 1800s?

• There was a very lenient policy for drugs

What is “punitive prohibition”?

an approach to drug control that primarily relies on police and the criminal justice system as the main methods for addressing drug abuse.

• punished those who used and sold drugs

When was the Harrison Act was enacted? What were the two major drugs the Harrison Act focused on?

• Harrison Act was made law in 1914 outlawing cocaine and opioids (around WW1)

What was the drug that the Federal Narcotics Bureau focused on in the 1930s and 1940s?

• In 1930s and 40s, the Federal Narcotics Bureau turned its focus on marijuana

Journalistic and other media accounts of the dangers of drugs often build on racial fears that associate specific drugs with particular racial groups. You should know which racial/ethnic groups were most associated with campaigns against the following: opium, marijuana, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine.

opium - China men were said to use opium to seduce and numb women into prostitution

marijuana - Mexicans.

crack cocaine - black Americans

meth - lower class whites

What does the term “pharmaceutical determinism” mean?

The qualities of the drugs itself will determine how it affects people. The focus is soley on the drug itself.

How did Norman Zinberg’s research challenge the assumption of pharmaceutical determinism?

He looked at soldiers returning from Vietnam with heavy heroin use and he found that surprisingly they were able to quit on their own.

• this was at odds with pharmaceutical determinism, suggesting that there was something more than just the drug involved

• Effects of drugs based on three factors

  • Drug - the drug itself

  • Set - the mental state of the user

  • Setting - the physical and social setting in which the drug is used

What are the major ways in which hard street drugs are taken into the body?

• smoke

• snort

• inject

• eat/chew

• absorb through the skin

What is the most intense and quick mode of delivery of a drug high?

Smoking

What have been the major policies of the War on Drugs? What has the impact of these policies been?

• The main approach of the war on drugs has been punitive prohibition

• The impact of these policies is that we have lots of drug users in prison

  • they then get paroled and have trouble findings jobs or getting an education

How did the Higher Education Act of 1998 treat drug-related offenses?

• this act made students convicted for drug related offenses ineligible for Federal education, grants, loans, or for work assistance

What percentage of federal inmates today are in prison for drug-related crimes?

50% - nearly half of this percentage is for marijuana offenses

What did then President, Barack Obama’s Fair Sentencing Act change in terms of the federal sentencing disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine?

• Crack cocaine has been associated with African Americans

• Affluent white Americans also used cocaine, they just used more powder cocaine than crack

• When the 1980s laws were enacted there was a 100 to 1 disparity in the amount of crack vs powder cocaine that would require a 5 year federal minimum sentence for possession

  • A person arrested with 5 grams of crack and another person with 500 grams of powder both faced a 5 year mandatory minimum prison sentence

• This imbalance was lessened during Obamas Presidency

  • brought down to a 20 to 1 disparity

What were the requirements for eligibility to be considered for a reduced prison sentence under President Obama’s 2014 clemency program?

• he offered a presidency program to reduce prison sentences for some drug users

  • You had to have served at least 10 years in prison with good conduct and have no history of violence

What is the “harm reduction” approach to drug abuse? You should be able to give at least two examples of kinds of “harm reduction” policies.

The approach is based on the notion that people are going to use drugs and what we want is to minimize the harm that comes from that

ex. needle exchange programs so that people are not using dirty needles and infecting each other

ex. safe house - injection sites with supervision - and naloxone who may overdose

ex. education programs - on the dangers of drugs use

How many states allow medical marijuana use? Recreational use?

Medical - 37

Recreational - 18

What is the position of the U.S. federal government regarding marijuana?

Marijuana is still listed as a schedule 1 drug - which means it is defined as a drug with no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse

What is street prostitution?

Those who solicit “Johns” off the street in public places

What are massage parlors?

Sites for prostitution in cities that don’t allow brothels and try to fly under the radar of law enforcement

What are brothels?

houses or establishments where prostitution takes place. indoor setting

What is an escort service?

Out call sex workers who may travel to meet “Johns” (usually at hotels)

What are some of the main challenges that deviance researchers face in studying sex work?

• Difficulty in counting sex work (there is a wide range of activities)

• Challenges of getting close and developing relationships

• Dangerous situations

• limited funding

What does the term “courtesan” mean?

a woman who was a paid mistress of a wealthy man

What has been the typical cultural contexts in which courtesans are common?

Common in societies where wives are not allowed to have social life outside of the home. The wife role in these societies is focused on child bearing and domestic life

or catered to sexual needs of wealthy men

Why did Lombroso believe that “the primitive woman was always a prostitute?”

He believed that only primitive women had a sex drive

How were “primitive women” different from “civilized women” according to Lombroso?

As women became civilized, evolution enabled them to lose any sexual urgence

What are the different ways in which prostitution has been responded to? Specifically, how

have prostitutes been treated in terms of physical punishment, imprisonment (esp. in workhouses), and segregation from “good people.”

Physical Punishment

• whippings, brandings, cutting of ears or noses, etc.

Imprisonment

• in jails or workhouses, segregating them from “good people” (exiled)

explain what is meant by the “Gilded Age of U.S. Prostitution” and prostitution as the “Great Social Evil.”

Gilded Age

• late 1800s early 1900s

• When rich men in America flaunted their wealth in lavish displays of mansions, yachts, etc.

• During this era there were many high end brothels in the US catered to wealthy men

Social Purity Movement

• Considered prostitution a great social evil

• pushed to eradicate prostitution

• There was an overlap in the US military clamping down on prostitution to reduce venereal disease among soldiers

According to the Kinsey Report, how much did prostitution decline in the U.S. between 1926 and 1948?

declined by ½ - 2/3

• the reason for the decline

  • laws involving sex work

  • family life and spousal relationship changes

  • growing acceptance of birth control (condoms)

  • rise of companionate marriage

How has the Internet Age changed sex work in terms of (1) prostitutes connecting with johns, (2) pornography, and (3) policing of sex work?

(1) prostitutes connecting with johns

• Online ads and access

(2) pornography

• easy to access

(3) policing of sex work

• easier to take people down when looking at online information

How do anomie & social structure theory and social learning theory analyze young women’s becoming involved in sex work?

Anomie & Social structure theory

• argues that people who can’t easily achieve valued goals by more acceptable means may turn to less acceptable/illicit means

• people who lack legitimate opportunities for work may turn to sex work

Social Learning Theory

• those who turn to sex work usually do it because they learned about it from their peers

• peers introduce them to sex work and encourage their participation

define and explain the differences between the “oppression paradigm,”

“empowerment paradigm,” and “polymorphous paradigm” of sex work/prostitution.

Oppression Paradigm

• sex work is bad because it harms women

Empowerment Paradigm

• sex work is good and empowering

• offers opportunities to make money and have some control over their lives and bodies

Polymorphous Paradigm

• Views sex work and prostitution as taking many forms with different potential outcomes in terms of harm and benefit

What does the “girlfriend experience” or GFE refer to in terms of sex work?

it refers to sex work in which people engage in more intimate and romantic actions as opposed to just quick impersonal sex

• usually their clients want personal and intimate romantic activities

Identify the basic differences among the three types of strip clubs studied by Mindy Bradley-Engen (hustle clubs, show clubs, and social clubs)

Hustle Clubs

• relatively crude “meat market” strip clubs with strippers competing with each other for customers

• A lot of prostitution occurs

• high number of dancers

Show Clubs

• high end models and well off business men

• interactions with dancers are regulated

• beauty pageant atmosphere

• costs more money

Social Clubs

• local social vibe

• supportive social interactions

• smaller number of dancers

• respectful

• less money but also less stressful

What are the various strategies used today to control sex work in the U.S., including policing, rehab programs, “john shaming,” and legalization/regulation.

Policing

• response to citizen complaints

• heavier surveillance around common streets

Rehab

• help sex workers leave prostitution

• specialized courts to handle these cases

John Shaming

• programs focused on the demand side

• john schools

• publicly revealing identities

Legalization and Regulation

• strip clubs subject to regulations

• licensing rules

What is the Red Umbrella Project? What are some of the things that this organization does?

A sex worker advocacy program that provides social support and legal advocacy for sex workers

• pushing against laws that allow women to be charged with prostitution because they have condoms on them