Soci 325 Final (Dumas)

Define Nativism

a collective action/response involving hostility to preserve culture (American culture) (those who wanted a return to the good old days when white people dominated America)

Outline the origins of the ecology approach/social disorganization theory

the ecology approach originated with the Chicago School of Sociology

What did Albion Small do?

created the first department of sociology (the Chicago school of sociology)

At the time of the Chicago school of sociology, what did most professors beleive?

that social space (ecology) was responsible for crime ad deviance (using the Milgram shock experiment)

What was the milgram experiment?

teachers ask students a question behind closed doors, if they got it wrong the participant would be ordered to shock the student. Found that most participants were willing to administer a fatal shock when told to, and argued it was due to the local environment

What were the three main influences of the Chicago School?

Durkheim and his ideas on mechanical and organic solidarity, the population growth of Chicago, and WW1; stock market crash; industrialism; and the suppression of union activism and academics

What were the three main points Thomas and Znaniecki came up with in response to the Polish Peasant?

"Old world" rural values did not work in the "new world".

Social controls were difficult to exert over family members.

The cultural clashes that occurred led to an absence of a normative order and created an "anything goes" mentality. This led to the perfect breeding ground for crime and deviance. (This is the most important point)

Label Burgess and Park's Concentric Zone Model

Below from inside -> out

1. Central business district

2. Transitional zone (where the action [crime and deviance] is) (made up of new immigrant groups, deteriorated housing, factories, abandoned buildings)

3. Working Class Zone (single family tenants)

4. Residential Zone (Single family housing with yards and garages)

5. Commuter Zone (suburbs)

What are the problems with the Concentric Zone Model?

Not all cities are industrial cities, if the transitional zone is the issue what can we do to fix it, they failed to study/acknowledge corporate crimes

What are Shaw and McKay's four conclusions regarding the ecological model of crime and deviance?

1. social problems were spatially produced (they found most crimes occured in the transitional zone)

2. transition zone had the highest levels of social problems

3. Transition zone was always the highest regardless of which ethnic group was inhabiting it (its the space, not the people)

4. all types of social problems exist (mental disorders, prostitution, suicide, etc.)

What was Rodney Stark's conclusion on cynicism?

moral cynicism increases opportunities for crime and increased motivation for crime (he looked at the city, rather than the person, being responsible for crime)

On the documentary "How to Kill a Human Being", what was the overall conclusion on the best way to murder prisoners?

Hypoxia as there's no pain, but some disagreed as they believed criminals should suffer (oof)

How did Downes and Rock refer to Merton's strain theory, why?

As equivalent to "Big Bang" theory. Though problematic, it was the first "meta-theory" and helped spur several others including cultural deviance theories

T/F: Downes and Rock argued that crime and deviance have pathological origins (meaning they were the result of pure socialization)

True

What is the difference between Learning Thoery and Differential Association?

Nothing... lol

What are Sutherland and Cressey's 9 proponents to learning theory?

1. criminal/deviant behaviour is learned

2. criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with other persons

3. the principal part of learning this behaviour occurs within intimate personal groups

4. when this behaviour is learned, the learning includes: techniques of committing the crime and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes (this point is very important)

5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes [conventional norms] as favorable or unfavorable

6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favourable to the violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law

7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity (this is a very important point)

8. The process of learning criminal [deviant] behaviour by association with criminal and anti-criminal [deviant and antideviant] patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning (the same processes one uses to learn to speak, play hockey, read, etc. are used)

9. While criminal [deviant] behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values since non-criminal [nondeviant] behaviour is an expression of the same needs and values. (Kind of important)

What are the 5 techniques of neutralization?

1. Denial of responsibility (the perpetrator is more acted upon than acting) [like the Nazi's arguing they were following orders under the threat of death]

2. Denial of Injury (differentiate between what is Mala in Se [bad in nature] and Mala Prohibita [prohibited by law])

3. Denial of Victim (Delinquent accepts responsibility for their actions, and accepts that the actions involve injury, BUT the actions were not wrong in the circumstances)

4. Condemning the condemners (the delinquent shifts the focus of attention from his own deviant acts to the motives and behaviour of those who disapprove of his actions [the "because you suck I don't" mentality])

5. Appeal to higher loyalties (the motive is for the benefit of others rather than the self [saying you did what you did for a higher purpose])

Why is learning theory appealing?

Its appealing cause you can reduce your responsibility for deviant behaviour, and if you can learn deviance, you can unlearn it and learn conformity

What were Kornhauser's 3 criticisms?

Learning Theory must suggest that:

1. Wo/man has no nature (it must mean that all we are is what we have absorbed from our environment)

2. socialization is perfect and complete (untrue)

3. Sub/cultural variability is unlimited (learning theorists argue that, when you're a kid, you're good, but then you fall into a subgroup and become deviant)

According to Kornhauser, and Dumas, is learning theory useless?

Yes, the criticisms from Kornhauser suggest that the theory is purely descriptive rather than analytical

what are the 4 sanctions that learning theory suggests to remedy deviance; why are they appealing?

1. Imitative control (guiding people to good decisions)

2. Group unlearning (like Alcoholics Anonymous)

3. Operant psychology (modification techniques that can be used to change behaviour)

4. Aversion therapy (like shock therapy)

Learning theory is attractive as it offers many ways to change kids/people rather than just locking them away

What are the 4 main criticism/problems with learning theory?

1. Deterministic Thinking (If you mix yourself up with 'bad' people, you will become 'bad')

2. No human nature (how can you prove there's an absence of something abstract?)

3. How do we learn? (they need to be more precise on this as people learn differently)

4. Unlimited subcultures (how do we define those who have been socialized into conformity, then revert to deviance?)

What are the 5 attributes to moral panics?

1. Concern

2. hostility

3. consensus

4. disproportionality

5. volatility

What is another name for labelling thoery?

the societal reactionsit perspective

What is the central belief of labelling theory?

that there is nothing inherently deviant about non-normative behaviour, but there might be something wrong with those who label too easily

what are the 3 main aspects labelling theorists are interested in?

1. The socio-historical development of deviant labels

2. the application of labels to certain types of people at certain places and times

3. symbolic and practical consequences of labels

What did Howard Becker do?

wrote a book called "The Outsiders" that argued that there are rule creators and rule enforcers

(argued the former have a strong desire to work on moral crusades, while the latter are simply concerned with the application of rules)

(also argued that enforcers are mostly concerned with justifying their positions)

What were Lemert's two types of deviance?

1. Primary deviance (involving instances where individuals violate norms without viewing themselves as being deviant) [any deviant behaviour a person enters into]

2. Secondary Deviance (Includes the person engaging in deviant behaviour as a means of self-defence for society and the label they have been given)

What was the labelling process, according to Lamert?

1. primary deviance (committing the deviant act)

2. reaction to behaviour (someone finding out you did what you did)

3. Role engulfment (like experiencing a self-fulfilling prophecy)

4. secondary deviance

5. stigma

6. master status (developing the identity you carry with you wherever you go)

What two things do labelling theorists argue can be done to make society a better place?

1. decriminalize victimless crimes

2. least restrictive control over deviants as possible (utilizing young offenders acts)

What are the three main critiques of labelling theory?

1. the causal critique (labelling theorists do not explain what causes primary deviance)

2. the normative critique (functionalist perspective who argue that deviance is an action that violates a real social norm, not some arbitrary label)

3. the structural critique (conflict thoerist perspective, they argue that labelling theorists explain the context where behaviour takes place, but fail to address capitalism)

what is the central assumption behind Control theories?

that crime and deviacne is the result of a lack of control/restraint

what are Travis Hirschi's Four components to a person's bond to society?

1. attachment

2. commitment

3. involvement

4. belief

What is the major difference between control theories and Sutherland's learning theory?

Control theorists argue learning is constant and control is variable, while learning theorists argue learning is variable and control is constant

What would learning and control theorists say about criminal clustering?

Control: such grouping shows deviants seek out others who are like them

Learning: argue that this is evidence of differential association

What do Gottfredson and Hirschi argue best explains crime and deviacne?

aging combined with low levels of self control

what are 2 problems with Gottfredson and Hirschi's approach?

1. they don't explain what they mean by "aging"

2. they fail to adequately address gender, arguing females are more socializable than males

What do self-control theorists argue is the nature of criminality?

low self-control, resulting from poor parenting

What are 3 criticisms of Control Theory?

1. It doesn't explain why some people become drug dealers, drug users, and violent offenders

2. It fails to explain gender, ageing, and what type of criminal a person will become

3. It fails to explain why males offend far more often than females

what issue did neo-marxists and conflict theorists have with labelling theorists?

they argued they ignored the context in which crime and deviance takes place, and ignored the forces of capitalism

What did Liazos mean when he stated learning theory is "the sociology of nuts, sluts, and perverts"?

criticized labelling theorists, arguing they inappropriately labelled people by ignoring capitalism

What were the three biases Liazos identified in Labelling theory?

1. It attempted to humanize deviants

2. too focused on sensationalism

3. the 'Top dogs' were left untreated (didn't address the bourgeoisie)

How is corporate crime viewed, in comparison to street crime?

as less serious than street crime

According to Marx, what caused criminality?

Capitalism

According to Marx (and the conflict perspective), what derives power in our society, and what is our system based on?

Power is driven by wealth accumulation

Our system is based on exploitation, and capitalism is based on criminogenic exploitation

How does Marx argue we define deviance?

in relation to the economy, how much money you make/have, and if you work or not

What are the three different logical routes to take in the Conflict Perspective?

1. wealth provides more resources to protect oneself from prosecution

2. poverty and need casues crime

3. We share a societal illusion that corporate crimes are deemed inevitable, while individual actions are considered criminal

What did Willem Bonger argue?

that economic conditions caused crime and deviance

Also: capitalist societies generate the need and desire for crime, yet punish those most victimized by social inequality

What does the base-superstructure approach illustrate?

Marx's theory of material reality and how it shapes each one of us

What are the three institutions (pillars) in the base-superstructure model?

1. Law

2. Religion

3. Education

All three are held up by capitalism and, in turn, hold up the dominant ideologies

What were the four themes postmodernists focus on?

1. meaning

2. social difference

3. discourse analysis

4. deconstruction

What do postmodernists believe about the world?

there is no objective world that had not been subjectively interpreted (there is an objective world, but we all interpret it in our own subjective ways)

What do postmodernists believe is essential for understanding crime and deviance?

Ideological forces are key to understanding crime and deviance, and the manners in which knowledge is produced are key

What are the four key ideas postmodernists share?

1. language structures though (the language we use makes us think in a certain way)

2. there are no objective truths, only different ways of interpreting the social world (VERY IMPORTANT)

3. There are many truths, social theories are merely 'grand narratives' (VERY IMPORTANT)

4. Social change must be based upon exposing the controlling elements disguised by language (deconstructionism)

How does the Conflict perspective explain crime and deviance?

we must turn our attention to the economic context in which crime and deviance occurs

What is an issue with deconstructionism?

there is no endpoint

Why is the rejection of 'grand narratives' problematic?

Which knowledge should be privileged? How do we determine someone to be an 'expert' in a field?