Chapter 6: Social Control and Deviance

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key sociological concepts, theories, and classifications of deviance and social control from Chapter 6.

Crime (Formal Deviance)

A type of deviant behavior that violates formal rules or laws; while all crimes are deviant, not all deviant behaviors are crimes.

Social Control

Mechanisms that create compliance with norms in individuals.

Negative Sanction

Punishment given to those who break social norms.

Positive Sanction

Rewards given to those who conform to the norms of society.

Informal Social Sanctions

Sanctions that come from individuals within a social group, representing the unspoken rules of social life.

Formal Social Sanctions

Mechanisms by which rules or laws prohibit deviant behavior, written by officials of specific organizations such as governments or universities.

Social Construction of Deviance

The understanding that deviance is defined by society and varies in three distinct ways: geographically, historically, and by subgroup.

Social Cohesion

Social bonds; how well people relate to each other and get along on a day-to-day basis.

Mechanical Solidarity

Emile Durkheim's term for social cohesion based on the sameness of parts or members, characteristic of pre-modern societies that tend to rely on punitive justice.

Organic Solidarity

Emile Durkheim's term for social cohesion based on difference and the interdependence of specialized parts or members, characteristic of modern societies that tend to rely on rehabilitative justice.

Punitive Justice

Justice focused on making the violator suffer, thereby defining the boundaries of acceptable behavior for the society.

Rehabilitative Justice

Justice that examines the specific circumstances of an individual transgressor and attempts to find ways to rehabilitate him or her.

Strain Theory

Robert Merton's theory arguing that deviance occurs when a society does not provide all members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals, creating a gap between widely shared goals and the means to attain them.

Conformist

In Merton's strain theory, an individual who accepts both the socially approved goals of society and the means of achieving them.

Innovator

In Merton's strain theory, an individual who accepts the goals of society but rejects the accepted means, finding new or innovative ways to attain those goals.

Ritualist

In Merton's strain theory, an individual who rejects the goals of society but continues to strictly adhere to the accepted means of achieving them.

Retreatist

In Merton's strain theory, an individual who rejects both the goals of society and the means of achieving them.

Rebel

In Merton's strain theory, an individual who rejects both established societal goals and means, actively working to create new goals using new means.

Labeling Theory

A theory arguing that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels form the foundation of their self-identity.

Primary Deviance

The initial instance of deviant behavior that first attracts a deviant label.

Secondary Deviance

Subsequent instances of deviant behavior that occur after and as a direct result of receiving a deviant label and reacting to people's expectations.

Stigma

A negative social label that changes others' behavior toward a person and fundamentally alters that person's own self-concept and self-identity, contributing to high recidivism rates.

Differential Association Theory

Edwin Sutherland's theory proposing that deviant behavior is learned through social interaction and that individuals are recruited and taught deviance by people within their social networks.

Broken Windows Theory

A theory explaining how social cues signal whether local, informal social norms permit deviant behavior, influencing whether individuals will act deviantly.

Street Crime

Crime committed in public spaces, typically associated with violence, gangs, and poverty, resulting in theft-related costs of approximately $\text{\$17.2 billion}$ annually in the U.S.

White-Collar Crime

Crime committed by a professional against a corporation, agency, or institution, costing the U.S. an average of $\text{\$300 billion}$ per year.

Corporate Crime

A specialized category of white-collar crime committed specifically by the officers or executives of a company.

Deterrence Theory

A philosophy of criminal justice stating that crime results from a rational calculation of costs and benefits, and is best prevented when punishment is perceived as certain, swift, and appropriately severe.

General Deterrence

A method of crime prevention that punishes offenders to discourage the broader public from committing similar crimes by demonstrating the consequences of illegal acts.

Specific Deterrence

A method of crime prevention that punishes an individual transgressor so that the direct experience of penalties discourages that specific offender from committing crimes in the future.

Societal Benefits of Deviance

Positive outcomes of deviant acts, which include clarifying moral boundaries, uniting society against common transgressors (functionalist perspective), and fostering social change (conflict perspective).