Week 4: Social deviance and control

Deviance: any transgression of socially established norms

Crime: the violation of laws enacted by society - formal type of deviance both subject to social sanction punishable by law

ex. Looting

• legally defined as a crime- involves the unlawful taking of property during state of emergency

• also considered deviant behavior -violates widely held social norms about morality, property rights, and communal responsibility

Deviance: social constructed - what is considered deviant behavior is not inherent or absolute

Social Control: mechanisms that create normative compliance individuals

Formal Social sanctions: mechanisms of social control by which rules or prohibit deviant criminal behavior

Informal social sanction: the usually unexpressed by widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life

Social Cohesion: mechanical and organic solidarity adaptive function

• clarifies norms, and increases conformity-strengthens social bonds amount the people reacting to the deviant

• can help lead to positive social change

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

Labeling theory: the belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label the and their reactions to those labels over time for the basis of their self-identity

• deviance created by the social process of labeling

• social groups create deviance bey setting rules for what is right and wrong

• labeling wrongdoers as outsiders

• deviants are not born; they are made

Primary deviance: the first act of rule breaking that may lead to a new label of "deviant" thus influencing how people think about and act toward you

Secondary deviance: subsequent acts of rule breaking that occur after primary deviance and as a result of your new deviant label and people's expectations of you

Broken windows: minor acts of deviance must be controlled in order to avoid a spiral of crime and social decay

• social context and social cues impact the way that individuals behave

• any sign of disorder in a community encourages more serious deviance

• a controversial policy strategy

Purposes of incarceration:

• retribution: offender should "pay" for their actions

• dissuade from committing crime

• remove offenders from society

• educate to prevent further crime

Felon disenfranchisement: the restriction of denial of voting right for individuals convicted of felonies, often persisting beyond incarceration