A.

B.

Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs. i) Behavioral deviance is based on a persons intentional or inadvertent actions. ii) Belief deviance occurs when people hold unconventional beliefs. iii) Characteristic, or conditional deviance occurs when the characteristics people possess are viewed as deviant or stigmatizing. Who defines deviance? i) Deviance depends on the social situation. ii) Deviance is relative; acts are deviant when they are defined as such. iii) Deviance varies in seriousness, ranging from mild violations of folkways, to more serious violations of mores, to quite serious violations of the law.

QUESTIONS & ISSUES: When is deviance considered a crime? iv) Crimes are behaviors that violate criminal law and are punishable with fines, jail terms, and/or other sanctions. v) Juvenile delinquency refers to a violation of law or the commission of a status offense by a minor. What is social control? i) Social control refers to the systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws, and to discourage deviance. ii) Social control mechanisms may be internal or external. a) Internal social controls are based on socialization. b) External social controls involve the use of negative sanctions. iii) Criminology refers to the systematic study of crime and the criminal justice system, including the police, courts, and prisons.

C.

QUESTIONS & ISSUES: What are the major theoretical perspectives on deviance? 2. FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE ASA Objective 6 A. What causes deviance and why is it functional? i) Emile Durkheim regarded deviance as a natural and inevitable part of all societies. ii) Social change contributes to anomie; anomie leads to reduced social integration and more deviance. B. Deviance is universal because it serves three important functions: i) Deviance clarifies rules. ii) Deviance unites a group. iii) Deviance promotes social change. C. Functionalists acknowledge that deviance also may be dysfunctional for society; if too many people violate the norms, everyday existence may become unpredictable, chaotic, and even violent. D. Strain theory i) According to strain theory, people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals. ii) Robert Merton identified five ways in which people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them: a) Conformity (accepts both means and goals) b) Innovation (accepts goals but not means) c) Ritualism (accepts means but not goals) d) Retreatism (does not accept either means or goals) e) Rebellion (wants to replace both existing means and goals) E. Opportunity theory: access to illegitimate opportunities i) According to Cloward and Ohlin, for deviance to occur, people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structurescircumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels. a) Cloward and Ohlin identified three basic gang types: criminal, conflict, and retreatist. b) Yablonskys update of Cloward and Ohlins findings shows that there is more intraracial conflict than before, and more gangs are willing to use and sell drugs. F. Labeling theory i) Labeling theory states that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviant, and they in turn accept the label and begin to act accordingly. ii) The process of labeling is directly related to the power and status of the person labeling and the person being labeled. iii) Becker claims that moral entrepreneurs often decide what is right and wrong, and impose their views on others. iv) Primary deviance is the initial act of rule breaking.

v)

G.

H.

I.

J.

K.

Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts that new identity and continues the deviant behavior. vi) Tertiary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant. vii) Other data show that the individuals most likely to be apprehended, labeled as delinquent, and prosecuted are: a) People of color who are young, male, unemployed, and undereducated b) People who live in high-crime urban areas. How the law classifies crimes i) Crimes are divided into felonies and misdemeanors based on the seriousness of the crime. ii) Criminal law in the Philippines define the kinds of crimes Conventional Crime i) Conventional (street) crime is all violent crime, certain property crimes, and certain morals crimes. a) Violent crime consists of actions involving force or the threat of force against others, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. b) Violent crimes produce the most anxiety and receive the most attention from the public, law enforcement agencies, and the media. c) Most murder victims are killed by someone they know. d) Nationwide, there is growing concern over juvenile violence. e) Property crimes include robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson; robbery is both a violent crime and a property crime. f) Morals crimes involve an illegal action voluntarily engaged in by the participants; these are sometimes referred to as victimless crimes. Occupational and corporate crime i) Occupational (white-collar) crime is illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs. a) Pilfering b) Embezzlement c) Bribes and kickbacks ii) Corporate crime is an illegal act committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support. a) Antitrust violations b) Tax evasion c) Misrepresentation in advertising d) Patent, copyright, and trademark infringements e) Price fixing and fraud Organized crime i) Organized crime is a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit. ii) This type of crime includes drug trafficking, prostitution, loan sharking, money laundering, and large-scale theft such as truck hijackings. iii) No single organization controls all organized crime. iv) Organized crime groups have infiltrated the world of legitimate business. Political crime refers to illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials. i) Includes illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it. Crime victims i) Men are more likely to be victimized by crime although women tend to be more fearful of crime, particularly those directed toward them, such as forcible rape. ii) iii) The elderly also tend to be more fearful of crime, but are the least likely to be victimized. Young men of color between the ages of 12 and 24 have the highest criminal victimization rates.

L.

QUESTIONS & ISSUES: How does the criminal justice system deal with crime? A. The criminal justice system includes the police, the courts, and prisons. i) This system is a collection of bureaucracies that possesses considerable discretion: a) The use of personal judgment regarding whether to take action on a situation b) What kind of action to take The Police

B.

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D.

i) Police are responsible for crime control and maintenance of order. ii) Police officers are employed by over 25,000 governmental agencies, ranging from local jurisdictions to federal levels. The courts i) Criminal courts determine the guilt or innocence of those accused of committing a crime. ii) Judges wield a great deal of discretion; along with prosecutors: a) They decide whom to release and whom to hold for further hearings. b) They decide what sentences to impose on those persons who are convicted. iii) Prosecuting attorneys also have considerable leeway in deciding which cases to prosecute and when to negotiate a plea bargain with a defense attorney. Punishment i) Punishment is any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of something the person is thought to have done. ii) Four functions of punishment include: retribution, social protection, rehabilitation, and deterrence. iii) Disparate treatment of the poor, people of color, and women is evident in the prison system.