Deviant Behavior and Social Control

1
Chapter 7

• Deviant Behavior and Social Control

2
Chapter Outline

• Defining Normal and Deviant Behavior
• Mechanisms of Social Control
• Theories of Crime and Deviance
• The Importance of Law
• Crime in the United States
• Kinds of Crime in the United States
• Criminal Justice in the United States

3
Normal and Deviant Behavior

• Norms and values make up the moral code of a
  culture.
• The moral code of a culture - The symbolic system
  in terms of which behavior takes on the quality
  of being good or bad, right or wrong.
• Deviant behavior is behavior that fails to
  conform to the rules or norms of the group in
  question.

4
Question

• Did you ever use marijuana during your senior
  year in high school?
• Yes
• No

5
Functions of Deviance

• Causes the groups members to close ranks.
• Prompts the group to organize in order to limit
  future deviant acts.
• Helps clarify for the group what it really does
  believe in.

6
The Functions of Deviance

• Teaches normal behavior by providing examples of
  rule violation.
• Tolerance of deviant behavior prevents more
  serious instances of nonconformity.

7
Dysfunctions of Deviance

• It is a threat to the social order because it
  makes social life unpredictable.
• It causes confusion about the norms and values of
  that society.

8
Dysfunctions of Deviance

• Deviance undermines trust.
• When peoples actions become unpredictable, the
  social order is thrown into disarray.
• Deviance diverts valuable resources.
• To control widespread deviance, resources must be
  shifted from other social needs.

9
Social Control

• Mechanisms of social controlA way of directing
  or influencing members behavior to conform to
  the groups values and norms.
• Internal means of controlOperates on the
  individual even in the absence of reactions by
  others.

10
Question

• I believe that underage drinking is an important
  social problem in our society.
• Strongly agree
• Agree somewhat
• Unsure
• Disagree somewhat
• Strongly disagree

11
Sanctions

• Rewards and penalties used by a groups members
  to regulate an individuals behavior.
• Positive sanctions - Actions that encourage the
  individual to continue acting in a certain way.
• Negative sanctions - Actions that discourage the
  repetition or continuation of the behavior.

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Formal and Informal Sanctions

• Formal sanctions are applied in a public ritual.
• Example Awarding a prize or announcing an
  expulsion.
• Many social responses to a persons behavior
  involve informal sanctions, or actions by group
  members that arise spontaneously with little or
  no formal direction.

13
Sanctions
14
Sanctions
15
Types of Social Sanctions
16
Question

• Gossip about a neighbor's affair with his
  secretary would be an example of a(n)
• informal positive sanction.
• formal positive sanction.
• informal negative sanction.
• formal negative sanction.

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Answer C

• Gossip about a neighbor's affair with his
  secretary would be an example of an informal
  negative sanction.

18
Sheldons Body Type Theory

• Researched whether personality traits are
  associated with body types.
• Classified human shapes into three types
• Endomorphic - round and soft
• Ectomorphic - thin and linear
• Mesomorphic - ruggedly muscular

19
Sheldons Body Type Theory

• Claimed psychological orientations are associated
  with body types
• Endomorphs - relaxed creatures of comfort
• Ectomorphs - inhibited, secretive, and restrained
• Mesomorphs - assertive, action oriented, and
  uncaring of others feelings.

20
Question

• Which of the following body types was identified
  as being most prone to criminal behavior?
• endomorphic
• ectomorphic
• mesomorphic
• pseudomorphic

21
Answer C

• The mesomorphic body types was identified as
  being most prone to criminal behavior.

22
Mertons Strain Theory

• Individuals who occupy favorable positions in the
  class structure have legitimate ways to achieve
  success.
• Those who occupy unfavorable positions lack such
  means.
• The goal of financial success combined with the
  unequal access to resources creates deviance.

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Mertons Typology of Individual Modes of
Adaptation
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Mertons 4 Types of Deviance

• Innovators
• Accept the culturally validated goal of success
  but find deviant ways of going about reaching it.
• Con artists, embezzlers, bank robbers, fraudulent
  advertisers, drug dealers, corporate criminals,
  crooked politicians

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Mertons 4 Types of Deviance

• Ritualists
• Reject the importance of success once they
  realize they will never achieve it.
• Remain within the labor force but refuse to take
  risks that jeopardize their job security.
• Ritualists are often in large institutions such
  as governmental bureaucracies.

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Mertons 4 Types of Deviance

• Retreatists
• Pull back from society.
• Drug and alcohol addicts who can no longer
  function, street people
• Rebels
• Reject the goals of what to them is an unfair
  social order and the means of achieving them.

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Control Theory

• People are free to violate norms if they lack
  intimate attachments.
• Without attachments, people can violate norms
  without fear of social disapproval.
• This theory assumes the disapproval of others
  plays a major role in preventing deviance.

28
Hirschis Control Theory Four Ways Individuals
Bond to Society

• Attachment to others.
• Commitment to conformity.
• Involvement in conventional activities.
• A belief in the moral validity of social rules.

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Neutralization How to Justify Deviant Behavior

• Denial of responsibility.
• Denying the injury.
• Denial of the victim.
• Condemnation of the authorities.
• Appealing to higher principles or authorities.

30
Athletes Accused of Sexual Assault
31
Theory of Differential Association

• Based on the idea that criminal behavior is
  learned in the context of intimate groups.
• When criminal behavior is learned, it includes
  two components
• Criminal techniques how to break into houses
• Criminal attitudes justifications for criminal
  behavior

32
Sutherlands Principles of Differential
Association

• Deviant behavior is learned.
• Deviant behavior is learned in interaction with
  other people in a process of communication.
• The principal part of the learning of criminal
  behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.

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Sutherlands Principles of Differential
Association

• When deviant behavior is learned, the learning
  includes (a) techniques of committing the act and
  (b) the specific direction of motives, drives,
  rationalizations, and attitudes.
• A person learns reasons for both obeying and
  violating rules.
• A person becomes deviant because of an excess of
  definitions favorable to violating the law over
  definitions unfavorable to violating the law.

34
Sutherlands Principles of Differential
Association

• Differential associations vary in frequency,
  duration, priority, and intensity.
• The process of learning criminal behavior by
  association with criminal and anticriminal
  patterns involves the mechanisms used in any
  other learning situation.
• Criminal behavior is an expression of needs and
  values, but is not explained by general needs and
  values. Noncriminal behavior is also expression
  of needs and values.

35
Labeling Theory

• Factors that determine whether a person will be
  labeled deviant
• Importance of the norms that are violated.
• Social identity of the individual who violates
  them.
• Social context of the behavior in question.

36
Question

• Which sociological theory of deviance suggests
  that the likelihood of deviance can be decreased
  by increasing the social bond between the
  individual and society?
• control theory
• labeling theory
• cultural transmission theory
• techniques of neutralization

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Answer A

• Control theory suggests that the likelihood of
  deviance can be decreased by increasing the
  social bond between the individual and society.

38
The Emergence of Laws

• The consensus approach assumes laws are a formal
  version of peoples norms and values.
• Example People generally agree that stealing is
  wrong. Laws emerge that provide penalties for
  those caught violating the law.
• The conflict approach assumes that the elite use
  their power to enact laws that support their
  economic interests and go against the interests
  of the lower class.

39
Crime

• Crime is behavior that violates a societys legal
  code.
• A violent crime is an unlawful event, such as
  homicide, rape, and assault, that may result in
  injury to a person.
• A property crime is an unlawful act that is
  committed with the intent of gaining property but
  that does not involve the use or threat of force
  against an individual.

40
Property Crime

• 75 of all crime in the United States is a
  property crime.
• In 2000
• 3,444,000 households reported a burglary.
• 937,000 reported an auto theft.
• 19,297,000 reported a property crime.
• Only 32.6 of all household thefts are reported.

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Percentage of Selected Crimes Reported to the
Police
42
Likelihood That Someone Will Be Arrested for a
Known Crime
43
Likelihood That Someone Will Be Sent to Prison
for a Known Crime
44
Juvenile Crime

• The breaking of criminal laws by individuals
  under the age of 18.

45
Age Distribution of Arrests, 2000
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Age Distribution of Arrests, 2000
47
White-Collar Crime

• Crimes committed in the course of ones job for
  the purpose of personal or organizational gain.
• Examples embezzlement, bribery, fraud, theft of
  services and kickback schemes.
• In 2000, federal prosecutors charged 8,766
  defendants with white-collar crimes.

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U.S. Homicide Solution Rates
49
Victimless Crimes

• Acts that violate those laws meant to enforce the
  moral code.
• Usually they involve the use of narcotics,
  illegal gambling, public drunkenness, the sale of
  sexual services, or status offenses by minors.

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Criminal Justice in the United States

• Every society that has established a legal code
  has also set up a criminal justice
  systempersonnel and procedures for arrest,
  trial, and punishmentto deal with violations of
  the law.
• The three main categories of our criminal
  justice system are the police, the courts, and
  the prisons.

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Who Decides?
52
Who Decides?
53
Goals of Imprisonment

• Prisons exist to accomplish at least four goals
• separate criminals from society
• punish criminal behavior
• deter criminal behavior
• rehabilitate criminals

54
Question

• From the following list, what do you feel should
  be the most important function of prison?
• Punish people for crimes they committed.
• Rehabilitate criminals.
• Protect society by locking away criminals.
• Warn to would-be lawbreakers.
• Make people pay back society for crimes they
  committed.
• Don't know

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Likelihood of Prisoners BeingArrested Three
Years of Release
56
Women Prisoners in State and Federal
Institutions, 19252004
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Average Time Served for Various Types of Crime
58
Quick Quiz
59

• 1. Deviant behavior is behavior which is
• illegal.
• immoral.
• violates the norms of society in which it occurs.
• unsocialized.

60
Answer C

• Deviant behavior is behavior which violates the
  norms of society in which it occurs.

61

• 2. Which of the following is not a dysfunction of
  deviant behavior?
• It makes social life unpredictable.
• It creates opportunities for cooperation.
• It results in confusion about the norms of the
  society.
• It undermines trust.

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Answer B

• The following is not a dysfunction of deviant
  behavior
• It creates opportunities for cooperation.

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• 3. According to Merton's theory, a student who
  passes a course by cheating on every test is
  a(n)
• innovator.
• ritualist.
• retreatist.
• rebel.

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Answer A

• According to Merton's theory the student who
  passes a course by cheating on every test is an
  innovator.

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• 4. The differential association theory of deviant
  behavior is based on the idea that
• deviant behavior is a result of being told one is
  deviant.
• deviant behavior is learned in the context of
  intimate groups.
• the values and norms of the society determine
  deviant behavior.
• deviant behavior is the result of the rewards and
  punishments.

66
Answer B

• The differential association theory of deviant
  behavior is based on the idea that deviant
  behavior is learned in the context of intimate
  groups.

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• 5. Which of the following is not a goal of the
  prison system?
• elimination of all criminals
• separation of criminals
• rehabilitation of criminals
• deterrence of criminal behaviors

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Answer A

• Elimination of all criminals is not a goal of the
  prison system.