Deviance Chapter 7

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DevianceChapter 7

• By
• Dr. John Brenner

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China

• This chapter focuses on the changing definition
  of deviance
• Keep in mind that almost any type of behavior can
  be called deviant
• Definitions of deviance change across time and
  place

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China

• Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976
• During this period people were punished for
  having positions of authority, leaning towards
  foreigners, academic interests and working to
  earn a profit
• Suspected people were scientists, teachers,
  athletes, performers, artists, writers and
  private business people

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China

• During the Cultural Revolution profit was
  condemned now it is acceptable
• 220,000 foreign-investment enterprises in
  Chinaonly 70,000 in 1993
• Beijing has luxury hotels and China is seen as
  the potential for the worlds largest market
• People are jumping into the sea (being
  capitalistic)

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China

• China will be the site of the 2008 Summer
  Olympics
• Since 1976 about 700,000 students from China have
  studied in foreign universities
• Chinese factories provide about half of the
  worlds DVD players, 1/3 of the personal
  computers and 25 of cell phones, televisions and
  car stereos

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Deviance

• Any behavior or physical appearance that is
  socially challenged or condemned
• Conformity--behavior and appearances that follow
  and maintain standards of the group
• Social control--methods used to teach, persuade,
  or force members to comply

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Deviance

• Almost any behavior or appearance can qualify as
  deviant under the right circumstances
• Wearing makeup is no longer deviant in China
• Cocaine was once legal in the US
• Consider who makes something deviant, some
  behaviors are deviant depending on personal
  characteristics

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Chinese History and Context

• 1949--Mao Zedong declares the Peoples Republic of
  China
• 1959-Great Leap Forward
• Attempt to catch up with the world
• Overworked the peasants and was a failure in
  making more steel for Chinabuilding dams
• Some Communist Party leaders were displeased with
  himfailed30-50 million die

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Chinese History and Context

• Cultural Revolution
• Maos attempt to reassert his power in China
• He wanted everyone to be equal and he condemned
  many simple acts
• Unleashed the youth through the Red Guards who
  terrorized people
• This caused a 10 year lag in Chinese development

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Chinese History and Context

• Mao wanted to get rid of the four oldsideas,
  culture, customs and habits
• Red Guards degraded teachers and caused physical
  abuse to people
• The Cultural Revolution reduced people in China
  to not even dare to think in case their thoughts
  came out involuntarily

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Chinese History and Context

• The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 after Maos
  death
• The Ten Lost Years effected the entire society
  of China
• To make up for the 10 lost years China sent
  students abroad and created Special Economic
  Zones which were capitalistic
• Deng Xiaoping was the leader after Mao who sought
  to modernize China

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Role of Context in Deviance

• During Cultural Revolution the society was out of
  control
• A state of panic existed among the people that
  they were afraid to even think
• Chinese people were humiliated because of being
  humiliated in front of others
• Now over 700,000 Chinese are international
  students
• China has a trade surplus with U.S. (162 billion
  in 2004

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Terms

• Folkways--customary ways of doing things
• Mores--norms that define what is right or
  wrong--harder to break
• US--individual property, personal freedom, and
  privacy
• China--conformity, collectivism, and obedience to
  authority (need to have approval to get married,
  have a baby, or get housing from the Communist
  Party)

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Preschoolers

• Note the Chinese bathroom scene for children
• Chinese children are disciplined before they
  misbehave American afterwards
• They are highly structured and socially
  minded--must suppress individual feelings
• We seem too carefree they seem too structured
• Americans are disturbed by the bathroom scene and
  Chinese do not understand our system
• Ideally conformity should be voluntary

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Mechanisms of Social Control

• Sanctions--reactions of approval or disapproval
• Positive sanction--approval or reward
• Negative sanction--disapproval
• Informal sanction--spontaneous or unofficial
• Formal sanctions--rules, policies or laws with
  punishments

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Functionalist Perspective

• Durkheim stated that deviance is normal
• Even in a society of saints there will be
  deviance
• Crime is normal as long it is not excessive
• Deviance is functional
• 1. ritual of defining and punishing someone binds
  the group
• 2. it makes people ready for change and the future

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Labeling Theory

• Becker states that rules are socially constructed
  and they are not enforced consistently
• People must decide what is deviant
• Some people escape detection and some are treated
  as deviants when they are not
• An act is deviant whether it is noticed by people

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Labeling Theory

• Four categories of people
• Conformists--people who do not break the rules
• Most people in a society
• Pure deviants--broken the rules and are labeled
  (assume a master status--identified as a deviant)
• Which cars to stop by police/ teenagers?
• Secret deviants--people who have broken the rules
  but are unnoticed
• Of the 28.2 million crimes in 200162.4 of the
  victims did not report the crime

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Falsely Accused

• Falsely accused-not broken the rules but are
  treated as if they are (Kai Eriksons study)
• When the well being of the country or group is
  threatened
• The need to blame someone for the problem
• Witch-hunt--looking for the cause of a problem
• Cultural Revolutioncapitalists/makeup/eye
  glasses
• WWII-Japanese Americans were internment
• Muslims in U.S. after 9/11/01

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White Collar Crime

• Crimes committed by persons of respectability and
  high social status
• Corporate Crime--committed by a corporation as it
  competes with other companies for a share of the
  market
• Offenders are a part of the system
• USX steel company discharged waste illegally and
  has to pay for the clean up
• Crimes are carried out by everyone in the
  corporation

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Obedience to Authority

• Stanley Milgrams study of how people in
  authority get people to do things
• Volunteers participated while one person was a
  confederate (worked with the researcher)
• The learner was the confederate who was strapped
  to a chair
• The teacher was told to shock the learner for
  incorrect answers

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Obedience to Authority

• The learner who was shocked pleaded for mercy but
  the teacher would continue to shock them if the
  authority figure told them to do it
• Obedience was simply followed because of a firm
  command of a person of status

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Constructionist Approach

• Focuses on the process in which certain groups,
  activities, conditions, or artifacts are defined
  as problems
• It is done by claims makers
• Soldiers at Tiananmen Square were not allowed to
  watch TV or read newspapers about the students
• AIDS seen as a moral problem keeps people from
  assisting themsexually promiscuous people
• AIDS seen as innocent victims like hemophiliacs

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Constructionist Approach

• Claims Makers
• In China at Tiananmen Squaregovernment
  controlled information the troops received and
  replacement soldiers could not speak dialect of
  students
• This theory focuses on who makes the claims,
  whose claims are heard and how audiences respond

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Structural Strain Theory

• Mertons theory that valued goods have unclear
  limits, people are unsure about getting them and
  legitimate opportunities remain closed to some
  people
• It exists in the US because too few legitimate
  opportunities are available to achieve the
  desired goal

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Structural Strain Theory

• People can respond to strain by
• Conformity--accept goals and means
• Innovation--accept goals but reject the
  legitimate means to attain it--criminal
• Ritualism--reject goal but accept
  means--bureaucrat Dont aim high and you wont
  be disappointed
• Retreatism--reject goals and means--hobos

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Structural Strain Theory

• In China each couple can have only one child but
  there is a cultural preference for boys who will
  care for the parents when old
• Obtain permission to have a baby, accept the sex
  of it, report the birth and practice birth
  control
• Major source of strain is the limited
  opportunities to have children

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Differential Association

• Sutherland and Cressey--deviance and deviant
  behavior is learned
• Deviant subcultures--learn the deviance
  techniques here--bad education and associations
  make a criminal association
• Chinese use reeducation and labor for the
  deviant as a formal sanction

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Differential Association

• Williams says that in New York City some youth
  are recruited as drug suppliers
• Little chance of getting high paying jobs
• Perceive drug dealing as a way to make money
• Chinese government needs students prepared for
  the global environment
• Associate with people and ideas that may
  challenge Communism
• Respond by making them study Marx and keeping
  tight campus security

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Systems of Social Control

• Chinese rigid system of social control is due to
  the size of the population of the country (1.27
  Billion people)
• Chinas habitable land is about half of that of
  the United States
• Chinese must make work for all the people
• United Statesa nation of immigrants, abundant
  resources, people can live where they want and
  can manage their own lives

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Systems of Social Control

• China has the longest continuing civilization
  with 3,700 years of history
• A Confucian system of ethics with respect for
  tradition and order
• System of family responsibility
• An imperial tradition with rulers having supreme
  authority over the people

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Systems of Social Control

• China has experience war and revolution in the
  20th century
• The U.S. has not a civil for 150 years
• Chinese have a political philosophy of Communism
  and the U.S. has capitalism
• These make for many differences in each society

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