Sociology 100 Midterm 2 - CH 10 Crime & Deviance

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High- consensus deviance

Behaviours or characteristics that are widely accepted as being deviant and in need of social control.


Low- consensus deviance

Behaviours and characteristics about which there is considerable disagreement over whether they are deviant or not.


Social control

Actions that are intended to punish, “ fix,” or prevent deviant behaviour.

    • Formal – Institutionalized authorities

    • Informal – Get a tattoo here or there

    • Retroactive - Rehabilitation

    • Preventative – Education


Criminologists

Researchers who specialize in the study of crime, which is a specific form of deviant behaviour.

Criminology

The academic discipline that focuses on the study of crime and those labelled as criminals, and is considered to be either a subdiscipline within sociology or a discipline related to sociology.


Crime

A specific form of deviance that involves the violation of criminal law.

Crime Control Through Punishment

  • Punishment as ...

    • Retribution

    • Deterrence

      • People are rational decision makers and act to avoid punishment

      • Punishment must be prompt, severe, & certain

  • Punishment to...

    • Protect society

    • Rehabilitate

Summary conviction offences

Less serious criminal offences that are punishable by a maximum of two years in prison and/ or a $ 2,000 fine.

Indictable conviction offences

More serious criminal offences punishable by more than two years in prison.

Violent crimes

Criminal offences that involve physical harm to another person.


Property crimes

Criminal offences that are directed at someone’s property, rather than at someone’s physical person.


Victimless crimes

Criminal offences that involve consensual relations in the exchange of illegal goods or services.


White- collar crime

Criminal offences involving the misappropriation of financial resources.


Corporate crime

Criminal offences carried out by organizations or by knowledgeable employees in the course of their employment.


Organized crime

Two or more persons consorting together on a continual basis to participate in illegal activities, either directly or indirectly, for gain.

Internet crime

Criminal offences that take place online.


Criminal justice system

The social institution responsible for the apprehension, prosecution, and punishment of criminal offenders.

Retribution

A morally justified consequence.

Abolitionism

A movement calling for the dismantling of the criminal justice system.

  • Many criminologists advocate for restorative justice

    • Repair harm and rebuild relationships


Restorative justice

An approach to justice emphasizing healing and reparation of harm.


Institutionalized goals

The goals that we are supposed to aspire to in contemporary society.

Legitimate means

The socially accepted ways of attaining wealth, power, and prestige.

Techniques

The skills needed to engage in either deviant or conforming behaviour.

Motives

The reasons for engaging in either deviant or conforming behaviour.


Techniques of neutralization

Rationalizations that allow us to justify our behaviour to others and to ourselves.

Primary deviance

The little acts of deviance that many of us engage in occasionally.

Secondary deviance

Chronic deviance as a lifestyle.


Stigmatization

The process by which individuals are excluded because of particular behaviours/ characteristics.


Self- surveillance

Monitoring our own behaviours in order to prevent being considered deviant.

Deviance
  • Deviance is socially constructed

    • an act becomes deviant when it is defined as such, and relative to societies norms / interests of power

NO BEHAVIOUR IS INHERENTLY WRONG. IT CAN'T BE UNLESS SOCIETY DEEMS IT SO.

  • Something is deviant “... if enough important people say so...”

  • High consensus deviance vs. Low consensus deviance

Functionalist beliefs of cause and solutions to deviance
  • Many criminologists advocate for restorative justice

    • Repair harm and rebuild relationships


  • Innovation – accepts goals, pursues illegitimate means

  • Retreatism – rejects both, withdraws

  • Rebellion – rejects both, seeks alternative lifestyles


Structural solutions to Crime
  • Affordable housing strategies

  • Initiatives ending homelessness

  • Anti-discrimination policies


Conflict theories views about Deviance
  • The powerful in society are able to define their own behaviours as normal, therefore defining others as deviant.

    • Example: By enacting laws that protect the interests if the affluent & powerful

Feminist theory views about Deviance
  • Standards for deviance are gendered. Women = drugs & Men = Jail

  • Experiences if social control are gendered

  • Single parent family

    • Primarily single moms that are poor.

      • Some women turn to theft of fraud in order to provide for their children and are charged as criminals

      • Feminist criminologists argue this is a gendered issue and is a consequence of gendered norms


The Post Modernist Theory views about deviance

The disciplinary society

Panopticon – Metaphor to how society controls us. Observe them and create the conditions that they can be observe, monitor and surveilled. Convincing people that it is the right way to behave in society. Policing society this way. (Facebook, cameras in London)

  • Foucault...

  • Metaphor for understanding how society socializes / coerces people

  • Reveals how power operates in society