© 2007 Alan S. Berger 1

Deviance

Crime, Deviance And

Social Control

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 2

What Do we want to Know

• How is deviance defined and who defines it– Is it the person or the action?

• How is deviance distributed in society and how do we know

• What causes deviance• How is deviance controlled

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Social Control

• Social control: techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society

• Sanctions: penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

• Society partly defined by people’s willingness to accept shared beliefs and practices– Society can limit individual freedom and advance

interests of some at expense of others

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Conformity and Obedience

• Conformity: the act of going along with peers—individuals of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior

• Obedience: compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure

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Informal and Formal Social Control

• Informal social control: used casually to enforce norms

• Formal social control: carried out by authorized agents

• Interplay between formal and informal social control can be complicated because we have to balance one source of control against another

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Law and Society• Some norms are so important to a society that they

are formalized into laws• Law: governmental social control

• Control theory: our connection to other members of society leads us to systematically conform to society’s norms

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 7

Defining Deviance

• Deviance is the violation of Norms, especially widely held norms

• Crime is an action declared illegal by some government or agency

– Usually, by a legislative body

– Sometimes by administrative actions

• Is all deviance criminal ?

– Pushing children into fashion shows, sports ?

– Subcultures and deviance

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 8

Defining Deviance• Not all crimes are deviant

– PETA– Bullying– Speeding– Gambling– White Collar crime

• Non Criminal Deviance– Music preferences– Body piercing– Marrying someone

• Your parents disapprove of• Your parents want you to

– Being a Geek or a Nerd• Where do “rolling Stops” and other trivial driving violations

go?

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 9

Distribution of Deviance

• Crime Rates vs Crime Statistics– Variance in Reporting Issues

• To Police• To FBI

– By Type of Crime• By nature of offender and victim• Blaming the Victim• Location

• Organized Crime• White Collar Crime• Non Criminal Deviance… What do we Know

– Not much

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 10

Explanations of Deviance

• Historical non Social-scientific explanations– Patterns of Bumps on head

– The Devil made me do it

– Mental issues

– Bad Seed

• Sociological Explanations– Functionalist:

• Deviance provides an example of what must be avoided because it is wrong

• Some deviance can lead to positive social change

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 11

Controlling Deviance

• Is all deviance controlled?– What choices does society have in controlling deviance?

• Internal

• External

• Who controls Deviance

– Under what circumstances some forms of deviance not controlled

– What is required to control deviant behavior?

• How about deviant thoughts?

– Presidential Candidate who admitted “Lusting in his thoughts”

• How does the nature of society impact the nature, extent and control of deviance?

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 12

Explanations of Deviance

• Anomie The norms are weak or are in conflict. This is the basis for Strain theory– Social structure limits the abilities of certain groups to satisfy culturally

dictated goals and aspirations and means to achieve them.

• Cultural goals which are acceptable in our society

– Wealth

– Power

– Status – Material Goods

• Acceptable means to achieve them

– Education

– Jobs

– Some talents

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 13

Explanations of Deviance• Conflict or Strain between goals and means produce "anomie”

and possibly a high level of maladaptive behavior due to cultural imbalance between goals and means.

• Social structure explains differences in upper and lower class crime rates. – Distribution of legitimate opportunities to achieve wealth

through legitimate means. • Since goals are not always achieved, means become valuable in

themselves. – Often times, means are placed under severe stress. – Little reward in means alone.

• Strain falls on a wide variety of people: – mostly concentrated in lower-classes. – because of differential emphasis placed on ability to attain goals. – Goals "open to all."

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 14

• Anomie created by disjunction of goals and means causes great discomfort. To overcome sense of anomie, different modes of adaptation are used:

Source http://www.indiana.edu/~theory/Kip/Strain.htm#Strain

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 15

Symbolic Interactionist Theories

• Social control or Social Bonding– Doesn’t ask why people are deviant, but why they aren’t.

• http:\\faculty.ccc.edu\aberger\It's Not A Crime If I Can't be Caught .pdf

– Strong Interpersonal ties often lead to strong commitment to the norms

• Cultural Transmission, Differential association and subcultures– Who you associate with

– Learned behaviors

– Interaction with other groups with other norms

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White-Collar Crime

• White-collar crime: illegal acts committed in the course of business activities, often by affluent, “respectable” people

– Corporate crime: any act by a corporation that is punishable by the government

– Computer crime: use of high technology to carry out embezzlement or electronic fraud

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Victimless Crimes

• Victimless crime: willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services– Supporters of decriminalization are

troubled by attempts to legislate moral code for adults

– Critics object to notion that these crimes are “victimless”

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Social Order, Deviance,and Crime

• Durkheim’s Theory of Deviance– Nothing inherently deviant or criminal in any act– Society identifies criminals for the sake of social

order– When societies experience anomie, social

integration is weak and people are free to pursue deviant paths

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Social Order, Deviance,and Crime

• Merton’s Theory of Deviance– Anomie theory of deviance: five basic forms of

adaptation to cultural expectations• Conformist• Innovator• Ritualist• Retreatist• Rebel

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Interpersonal Interactionand Local Context

• Cultural transmission: individuals learn criminal behavior by interacting with others

• Differential association: process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules

© 2009 The McGraw Hill Companies

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Interpersonal Interactionand Local Context

• Social disorganization theory: attributes increases in crime and deviance to the absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions

• Labeling theory: attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants while others engaged in the same behavior are not– Also known as the societal-reaction approach

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Power and Inequality• Criminal justice system serves the interests

of the powerful; protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their own needs

• Race and Class– Suspects are treated differently based on their

race, ethnicity, and social class– Differential justice: differences in the way

social control is exercised over different groups

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Power and Inequality• Gender

– Existing approaches to deviance developed with only men in mind

– Society tends to treat women in stereotypical fashion

– Cultural views and attitudes toward women influence how they are perceived and labeled

– As women take on more active and powerful roles both in the household and in business, gender differences in deviance and crime have narrowed

© 2007 Alan S. Berger 24

The Criminal Justice System

• Based on Adversarial system, Conflict

• Only available for crimes, not for non criminal deviance– Religious laws deal with some of the non criminal deviance

• Made up of– Courts

– Police

– Corrections

• How else is deviance sanctioned?– Hiring practices

– Public Opinion

– ?