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Chapter 9 Deviance
I. What Is Deviance? A. Deviance is defined as the recognized violation of cultural norms. What deviant actions or attitudes have in common is some element of difference that causes us to regard another person as an outsider. 1. One category of deviance is crime, the violation of a societys formally enacted criminal law. B. Deviance calls forth social control, attempts by society to regulate peoples thoughts and behavior. 1. The criminal justice system is a formal response to an individuals alleged violations of law from police, courts, and prison officials. C. The biological context. 1. Genetic research seeks possible links between biology and crime. D. Personality factors. 1. Reckless and Dinitzs containment theory suggests that strong moral standards and positive self-image can keep boys from becoming delinquent. 2. Critical review. Most crimes are committed by people who are psychologically normal. E. The social foundations of deviance: 1. Deviance varies according to cultural norms. 2. People become deviant as others define them that way. 3. Both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power. II. The Functions of Deviance: Structural-Functional Analysis. A. Emile Durkheim: The functions of deviance: 1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. 2. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries. 3. Responding to deviance promotes social unity. 4. Deviance encourages social change. 5. Kai Eriksons classic study of the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay brings Durkheims theory to life. B. Mertons strain theory. 1. The strain between our cultures emphasis on wealth and the limited opportunity to get rich gives rise, especially among the poor, to theft, the sale of drugs, or other street crime. 2. Mertons four types of deviance (responses to failure): a. Innovation. b. Ritualism. c. Retreatism. d. Rebellion.

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C. Deviant subcultures. 1. Cloward and Ohlin extended Mertons theory, proposing that access to illegitimate opportunities for success is also problematic. As a result of this, three different types of delinquent subcultures may arise: a. Criminal subcultures. b. Conflict subcultures. c. Retreatist subcultures. 2. Albert Cohen suggests that delinquency is most pronounced in lower-class youths because they have the least opportunity to achieve conventional success. 3. According to Walter Miller, deviant subcultures are characterized by: a. Trouble. b. Toughness. c. Smartness. d. A need for excitement. e. A belief in fate. f. A desire for freedom. D. Critical review. 1. Durkheims work remains important, but communities do not always come together in reaction to crime. 2. Mertons theory explains some types of crime better than others and ignores the fact that not everyone seeks success in conventional terms of wealth. 3. The general argument that deviance reflects the opportunity structure of society falls short in assuming that everyone shares the same cultural standards for judging right and wrong; focuses undue attention on the behavior of the poor; and falsely implies that everyone who breaks the rules will be defined as deviant. III. Labeling Deviance: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis. A. Labeling theory is the idea that deviance and conformity result, not so much from what people do, but from how others respond. 1. THINKING CRITICALLY BOXDeviant (Sub)Culture: Has it Become O.K. to Bread the Rules? 2. Primary deviance refers to passing episodes of norm violation; and secondary deviance is when an individual repeatedly violates a norm and begins to take on a deviant identity. 3. A stigma is a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a persons self-concept and social identity, operating as a master status. a. Stigmas are often attached in formal rituals called degradation ceremonies. 4. Stigmas are deepened by retrospective labeling, the interpretation of someones past consistent with present deviance. People may also engage in projective labeling. 5. Labeling difference as deviance: Thomas Szasz argues that mentally ill is a label we attach to people who are only different and concludes that we should abandon the concept of mental illness entirely. B. The medicalization of deviance is the transformation of moral and legal issues into a medical condition.

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1. Whether deviance is defined morally or medically has three profound consequences. a. It affects who responds to deviance. b. It affects how people respond to deviance. c. It affects whether the deviant is regarded as being personally competent. C. Edwin Sutherlands differential association theory suggests that all deviance is learned in groups. D. Hirschis control theory. 1. Control theory states that social control depends on imagining the consequences of ones behavior. 2. Hirschi asserts that conformity arises from four types of social controls: a. Attachment. b. Commitment. c. Involvement. d. Belief. E. Critical review. 1. Labeling theory is most applicable to minor forms of deviance. 2. The consequences of deviant labeling may vary. 3. Not everyone resists deviant labeling. IV. Deviance and Inequality: Social-Conflict Analysis. A. Principles of deviance and power: 1. The norms of any society generally reflect the interests of the rich and powerful. 2. The powerful have the resources to resist deviant labeling. 3. The laws may be inherently unfair. B. Deviance and capitalism: Steven Spitzer suggests that deviant labels are chiefly applied to those who impede the operation of capitalism. C. White-collar crime consists of crimes committed by persons of high social position in the course of their occupations. 1. It is usually controlled by civil rather than criminal law. 2. Most white-collar criminals are treated leniently. D. Corporate crime refers to the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf. E. Organized crime is a business supplying illegal goods or services. F. Critical review. 1. Social-conflict analysis falsely assumes that laws benefit only the rich. 2. It implies that crime arises only in societies that treat their members unequally.

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V. Deviance, Race, and Gender. A. Hate crimes are criminal acts carried out against a person or a persons property by an offender motivated by racial or other bias. B. Gender is an important variable affecting deviant labeling and other aspects of deviant behavior. 1. THINING ABOUT DIVERSITY: RACE, CRIME, AND GENDER BOX Hate Crimes: Do They Punish Actions or Attitudes? 2. SEEING OURSELVES BOXNational Map 91: The Risk of Violent Crime across the United States. The risk of becoming a victim of violent crime is highest in low-income, rural counties that have a large population of men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. VI. Crime. A. Crime involves two components, the act itself and criminal intent or mens rea. B. Types of crime: 1. Crimes against the person involve direct violence or the threat of violence against others. 2. Crimes against property involve theft of property belonging to others. 3. Victimless crimes are violations of law in which there are no readily apparent victims. C. Criminal statistics show crime rising between 1960 and 1990, but declining through 2003. 1. Victimization surveys may provide more accurate data. D. The street criminal: A profile. 1. Age. Official crime rates rise sharply during adolescence and peak in the late teens, falling thereafter. 2. Gender. Men are arrested more than twice as often as women for property crimes. In the case of violent crimes, the disparity is even greater, with a five-to-one ratio. 3. Social class. Street crime is more widespread among people of lower social position. Yet the link between class and crime is more complicated than it appears on the surface. 4. Race and ethnicity. Both race and ethnicity are strongly correlated to crime rates, although the reasons are many and complex. E. Crime in Global Perspective: The U.S. crime rate is high. Two factors which may help to explain this are: 1. Our cultures emphasis on individual economic success. 2. The extensive private ownership of guns. F. WINDOW ON THE WORLD: Global Map 9.1Capital Punishment in Global Perspective. The death penalty does not exist in eighty-five countries and territories. VII. The U.S.Criminal Justice System A. Due Process. 1. The criminal justice system must operate within the bounds of the law. The concept of due process means that anyone charged with a crime must receive: a. fair notice of the proceedings b. a hearing on the charges conducted according to law and with the ability

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to present a defense. c. a judge or jury that weighs evidence impartially. B. Police. 1. The police serve as the primary point of contact between the population and the criminal justice system. 2. Police quickly size up a situation in terms of six factors: a. How serious is the alleged crime? b. What is the victims preference? c. Is the suspect cooperative or not? d. Have they arrested the suspect before? e. Are bystanders present? f. What is the suspects race? C. Courts. 1. Plea bargaining is a legal negotiation in which the prosecution reduces a defendants charge in exchange for a guilty plea. D. Punishment. Four basic reasons to punish: 1. Retribution is an act of moral vengeance by which society subjects an offender to suffering comparable to that caused by the offense. 2. Deterrence is the attempt to discourage criminality through punishment. a. Specific deterrence demonstrates to the individual offender that crime does not pay. b. In general deterrence, the punishment of one person serves as an example to others. 3. Rehabilitation involves reforming the offender to prevent subsequent offenses. 4. Societal protection is rendering an offender incapable of further offenses temporarily through incarceration or permanently by execution. 5. Critical review: a. Punishment deters some crime, yet our society has a high rate of criminal recidivism, the subsequent offenses by people convicted of crimes. b. The death penalty has limited value as a general deterrent. c. Prisons do little to reshape attitudes or behavior in the long term. E. Community-Based Corrections 1. Community-based corrections are correctional programs located within society at large rather than behind prison walls. Such programs have the advantage of reducing prison overcrowding, reducing costs, and allowing for supervision of convicts, while eliminating the stigmatizing hardships of prison life. 2. One form of community-based corrections is probation: a policy of permitting a convicted offender to remain in the community under conditions imposed by a court and subject to regular supervision. 3. A related strategy is shock probation: a policy by which a judge orders a convicted offender to prison for a length of time, but then stipulates that only a portion of the sentence will be served in actual incarceration. 4. Parole is a policy of releasing inmates from prison to serve the remainder of their sentences supervised within the local community. 5. Evaluations of probation and parole are mixed. 6. APPLYING SOCIOLOGY BOXViolent Crime is DownBut Why?

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a. A reduction in the youth population b. Change in policing. c. More prisons. d. A better economy. e. The declining drug trade.

Chapter Objectives 1) Define deviance. 2) Evaluate the general biological and psychological explanations of deviance and criminality. 3) Identify three social foundations of deviance. 4) List the functions of deviance identified by Emile Durkheim. 5) Explain Mertons strain theory of deviance and identify and describe four types of deviant responses. 6) Characterize deviant subcultures. 7) Outline the major dimensions of labeling theory, including the concepts of primary and secondary deviance, stigma, degradation ceremonies, and retrospective and progressive labeling. 8) Evaluate the consequences medicalization of deviance. of the

13) Discuss how gender deviance.

is linked to

14) Discuss how racial and ethnic hostility motivates hate crimes. 15) Identify and define three major types of crime. 16) Discuss limitations of official crime statistics. 17) Provide criminal. a profile of the street

18) Discuss reasons why the U.S. crime rate is unusually high in comparison with that of other postindustrial societies. 19) Identify and discuss the major components of the U.S. criminal justice system. 20) Name four justifications that have been advanced for punishment and how adequately each is being carried out by the contemporary U.S. criminal justice system.

9) Summarize Edwin Sutherlands differential association theory. 10) Describe Hirschis four types of social control. 11) Examine the social-conflict interpretation of deviance and criminality. 12) Define white-collar crime, corporate crime, and organized crime.

Essay Topics 1) Sociologists stress that the definition of what is deviant varies from time to time and from place to place. Some people feel that our society is moving toward regarding cigarette smoking as deviant. Do you agree? If so, how is this being accomplished? 2) Clarify your understanding of

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Durkheims four functions of deviance by considering how rock-n-roll in the 1950s and marijuana smoking today provide each of the functions. 3) Use Mertons strain theory to interpret the popularity of methamphetamines. 4) What social policies would be likely to be recommended by a sociologist who favored Mertons strain theory in order to reduce property crime by the poor? 5) Labeling theorists commonly regard people such as the mentally ill, the physically handicapped, or the severely obese as deviant; however, many students resist such an interpretation. Why? Take a position yourself and defend it. 6) Most of us have been labeled at least mildly deviant at some time in our lives. Recount your own experiences with deviant labeling, making reference to relevant terms such as primary and secondary deviance, stigma, and retrospective labeling. 7) From the standpoint of a deviant individual, is the medicalization of deviance likely to be seen as an entirely positive development or are there also some negative aspects of this shift in interpretative content? 8) What are the primary reasons the U.S. crime rate is very high in global context? What steps would you recommend to try to reduce this rate? 9) Which of the four justifications for punishment do you find most appropriate? Which would you reject? Why? 10) Americans have historically been more willing to accept biological and psychological explanations of criminality than sociological ones. Why do you think this has been the case?

Using the ASA Journal Teaching Sociology in Your Classroom Any discussion of deviance and/or deviant behavior involves the concept of sanctions in general, and punishment in particular. Joseph W. Rogers has provided an interesting strategy for teaching the concept of punishment (An Introductory Procedure for Teaching the Concept of Punishment, Teaching Sociology, 20, October 1992: 135142). Rogerss approach consists of three key areas: 1) a framework for understanding the functions of punishment; 2) a delineation of ideal criteria for the application of punishment; and 3) a description of compliance, identification, and internalization as processes that influence conformity. In his article, Rogers takes the reader through each of these areas, step-by-step, laying out a very interesting procedure that you may be able to utilize in your classroom during your discussions of deviance and deviant behavior.

Supplemental Lecture Material An Epidemic of Cheating? Several recent studies suggest that academic dishonesty may be on the upswing. In 1987, a national survey conducted by UCLAs Graduate School of Education found that 18 percent of a sample of college sophomores admitted to having cheated on their exams, and that 29 percent said they had copied someone elses homework, 36 percent had done both. More recently, Rutgers anthropology professor Michael Moffatt distributed questionnaires to 232 students and found that 33 percent had cheated on a fairly regular basis and an additional 45 percent admitted to having done so less frequently. Economics majors and members of fraternities or sororities were found to be especially prone to academic dishonesty. Popular methods included copying from

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another students test paper, studying with the help of old exams, using cheat sheets, plagiarizing term papers, and even stealing tests in advance. Widely publicized scandals at several military academies reinforce the suspicion that cheating is rampant on some campuses. Ironically, the Internet hasn't just made research easier, but also cheating, as the availability of student papers either for sale or even free has exploded. When Anthony Krier, a reference librarian at Franklin Pierce College searched the Net in January 1997, he found about 50 sites that offered term papers. Just six months later, he was able to find about twice as many online. Though Krier intended the list for professors worried about plagiarism among their students, he also received requests for the list from students apparently looking for more sites to find papers. Not that buying papers is a new notion. Traditional term paper mills or the legendary dorm stash have existed for a long time. What is new, though, "is the number of places where papers are available, the ease with which they can be obtained, and the often brazen ways that do-it-yourself Internet sites now flaunt the ability to cheat and plagiarize electronically." Some sites add disclaimers, but others openly invite students to use their material to cheat. Students reasons for cheating vary, from the time-honored preference for partying over studying to more recent pressures to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment. The fact that academic dishonesty seems to be especially common in large classes and at larger schools suggests that the impersonality of the multiversity may also be a contributing factor. For this reason, Moffatt suggests that smaller classes and more teacher-student contact, along with more frequent revision of tests and less reliance on multiple choice questions, may be effective ways of reducing the prevalence of cheating. Even when it comes to those infamous

term papers, Bruce Leland, an English professor at Western Illinois University, doesn't think it is necessarily all doom and gloom. He maintains that the sites simply present a challenge to professors. He says ". . . teachers who tailored assignments to work done in class, monitored the students' progress from outline to completion, rather than just seeing a finished work and were alert to papers that were radical departures from a student's past work were unlikely to be fooled."

Sources Applebome, Peter. "On Internet Sites, Term Paper Files Become Hot Items." The New York Times, August 8, 1997, pp. 1 and 30. Gordon, Larry. Survey By a Rutgers Professor Shows Widespread Student Cheating, Philadelphia Inquirer (November 25, 1991). Discussion Questions 1) Ask students how widespread they believe cheating to be on their campus. Do they think that this is becoming an increasingly serious problem? What steps might help to alleviate it? 2) Given the sociological definition of deviance, if well over half of the students at a college admit to academic dishonesty, can this practice still be regarded as fully deviant?

Supplemental Lecture Material Women in Prison Historically, sociologists have devoted very little attention to female criminal behavior, primarily because women have been, and

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continue to be, far less prone than men to commit crimes. However, there is evidence of a sharp upturn in female criminality in recent years. This trend has been reflected in all segments of the criminal justice system, including the prisons. Whereas for decades women had constituted a steady 4 to 6 percent of all prisoners, by 1989 they made up 8.7 percent of new admissions to correctional institutions. Many of the problems that women experience in prison are a direct result of their smaller numbers. Most states have provided only one womens prison, which has meant that hardened criminals were likely to be mixed in with lesser offenders and that the variety of educational, rehabilitative and vocational programs available to female inmates have generally been greatly inferior to those provided in mens prisons. But the most serious problem for imprisoned women usually concerns their children. About 70 percent of female prisoners are mothers. When fathers are locked away, their children are usually looked after by their mothers, but when mothers are imprisoned, their children normally live with their grandparents or are placed in foster care. Separation from their children is usually intensely painful for these women; one, living apart from her 17year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, said I miss them to death. [Separation] was the worst of all my experiences in jail. Being locked up wasnt so bad. [Separation] almost destroyed me. My son is my heart. Because, as previously noted, most states have only one prison for women, mothers are frequently confined hundreds of miles away from their children, making visiting difficult and expensive. Only one U.S. prison Bedford Hills in New York provides an onsite nursery. Under these circumstances, many mothers worry about being able to establish and maintain adequate bonds with their children. Proposals to help these women center

around the expansion of alternative sentencing. If female offenders could serve their sentences in the community, families would not be broken up and more advantage could be taken of rehabilitative services located outside prison walls. Source Fessler, Susan Raikovitz. Behind Bars: Womens Needs Are Unmet. Albany Times Union (August 4, 1991). Discussion Questions 1) Should serious female offenders be allowed to maintain regular contact with their children, or should separation be considered part of their punishment? 2) Co-correctional institutions have been widely proposed as a partial solution to the special problems which women face in the penal system. Do you support such institutions, or should prisoners continue to be generally segregated by gender?

Supplemental Lecture Material Youth Gangs on the Rise Imagine two scenarios: 1. You live in an apartment in a big city. You look out the window one afternoon and see a group of teenage African-American boys hanging out at the corner. What is your first thought? 2. You're driving through a small Texas town and pull in to the local fast-food restaurant, passing a group of teenage white boys hanging out by a car. What is your first thought? If the first scenario instantly made you think of a gang, think again. These days, rural areas and small towns are just about as likely to be the site of gang activity,

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according to the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey conducted by the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC). The NYGC contacted over 4,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the country and found that there were more than 660,000 youth gang members and more than 23,000 gangs active in those jurisdictions. Here are some of the survey's findings:

the negative results of labeling these young people as deviant? 2) What might explain the increase of gang problems in smaller or rural communities? 3) Why might gang members be more prone to commit crimes? What might be done to avert more young people joining gangs? Supplemental Lecture Material Gun Control and Crime Control: The Same Issue? Gun control easily ranks as one of the most persistent and divisive issues for Americans over the past few decades, particularly in regard to handguns and "assault" weapons. Both proponents and opponents of gun control look to rising crime rates for support for their positions. America certainly seems to have a problem with using guns, especially handguns. Gun murders in the U.S. are far more common than they were 30 years ago, and more common than they are in any other Western industrial section. And the number of people killed in America with handguns appears to be increasing. Why do so many in the United States die from shootings? What role does our relative lack of gun control play in the high death rate? Why are we different from other Western industrialized countries? Cultural reasons appear to play an important role. In the United States, the fear of crime often leads to the possession of weapons even when the fear of crime is not well founded. A 1998 Gallup poll found that 40 percent of Americans had a gun in their household, which is linked to Gallup's finding that some 90 percent of the respondents believed that the amount of crime in the United States has risen over the previous twelve months in spite of FBI

All states have gangs, with not surprisingly the most gangs in the states with the highest populations. Therefore, the more than 58 percent of gang members can be found in California, Illinois, and Texas. Few large cities were gang-free. Of the agencies that replied to the survey, 90 percent felt the problem would either stay the same or get worse. Over half (59 percent) of those law enforcement agencies that reported gang activity had specially allocated personnel in response. Youth gangs are appearing in new places, particularly smaller and rural communities. "Ninety-four percent of police departments and 93 percent of sheriff's departments serving fewer than 10,000 persons reported that had '1-9 gangs. (p. 14) In fact, "half the respondents reporting youth gang problems in 1995 serve populations under 25,000." (p. 20)

Source Bilchik, Shay (admin.), 1995 National Youth Gang Survey (August 1997). Discussion Questions 1) Without considering whether they have committed crimes or not, in your opinion, should gang members be considered deviant? If so, use the structural-functional, and symbolic-interaction approaches to explain why young men in particular might be drawn to gangs. What might be some of

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figures that show that the amount of crime has actually been decreasing in recent years. And while juvenile crime as a whole is down even more dramatically than adult crime, the number of youths murdered by firearms went up 153 percent from 1988 to 1995. Like the citizens of a number of other countries, many Americans react to the level of shootings by demanding more gun control; some 70 percent of Americans favored stricter gun control in a 1993 Time poll. But Americans also seem to have little faith in gun control as an ultimate solution for reducing the number of shootings, especially when compared to the perception of crime. This attitude is perhaps best characterized by the National Rifle Association (NRA) slogan that "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." Other countries appear to have more faith in police protection, the restriction of firearm sales, and the process of certifying and registering legal handgun users than Americans. More to the point, voters in these countries seem more prepared to connect the spread of firearms and the increase in the number of deaths from those firearms, whereas Americans do not see a contradiction between owning a weapon and being more likely to suffer from its use. How will this attitude change? There is no clear direction from legislation. Some weak federal gun control laws have been passed, such as the so-called Brady Bill of 1993 that imposed a five-day waiting period and a limited background check. Later, a Clinton-backed law banned the manufacture and importation of assault weapons. These relatively mild laws faced stiff opposition, particularly from the NRA. (The NRAs hard line stances, however, have contributed to a 20 percent drop in membership from 3.5 million in 1995 to 2.8 million in 1998.) Interestingly, gun sales reached record levels just before the passage of the bill, perhaps reflecting a perception that the Brady Bill would be more restrictive

than it actually is. What may be even more telling is that the number of states allowing their citizens to readily obtain concealed handgun permits has taken a sharp upsurge, beginning a new stage in our experimental, contradictory, and dangerous relationship with handguns. Sources Herbert, Bob. Deadly Data on Handguns. New York Times (March 2, 1994): E6. Hornblower, Margot. Have Gun, Will Travel. Time (July 6, 1998): 44-46. Lacayo, Richard. Still Under the Gun. Time (July 6, 1998). Placayo, Richard, Beyond the Brady Bill. Time (December 20, 1993): 28-31. Van Biema, David. "License to Conceal." Time (March 27, 1995): 26-29. Discussion Questions 1) Recent data from Florida suggest that a rapid increase in the number of concealed handgun permits may not substantially increase the number of handgun deaths. Does this support the traditional position of the NRA or the views of gun-control proponents? Why or why not? What might explain the lack of change? 2) Do you or anyone in your household own a gun? For what purpose? If not, would you purchase one for your home if your safety felt threatened in your neighborhood? Why or why not? ___________________________________ Supplemental Lecture Material Copycat Crime Copycat crimes are certainly not a new phenomena. Tylenol bottles laced with poison on supermarket shelves (1982), syringes planted in Pepsi cans (1993), and

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letters purposely containing deadly anthrax (2001) all occurred in years when a wave of similar crimes suddenly began appearing across the country. Ever since the Columbine High School killings, the copycat syndrome has been working overtime, says Adam Cohen (Time, May 31, 1999). Within weeks of those shootings, hundreds of schools were hit with Columbine-style, and 20 percent said their schools had been evacuated because of a bomb threat. Harvard psychologist William Pollack believes that the epidemic of imitation starts with kids who are already close to the edge. Copycats model themselves on crimes (both real and fictional) that get a lot of attention. Sometimes copycats are just looking for pointers on how to commit a crime effectively (mode copying). But copycat criminals are often motivated more by the sheer thrill of making headlines. It becomes a power trip for the powerless, those who feel they have nothing to lose says Cohen. While some say less attention should be given to notorious crimes when they happen, others argue that whats needed is not less coverage but more information about how these cases turn out. Thats part

of the story few copycats have in mind while daydreaming about their moment in the sun. Source Cohen, Adam. Criminals as Copycats. Time (May 31, 1999): 38.

Discussion Questions 1) Whats your feeling about keeping events like the Columbine shootings off the front page (as the Chicago Sun-Times did after the tragic shootings) or national television coverage? 2) What are some of the factors that create a sense of powerlessness among Americans today (thus making them more vulnerable to seeking a sense of power through copycat crime)? 3) What role does the Internet play in contributing to copycat crimes?