SOCIOLOGYCHAPTER 8: DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL

SECTION 1: DEVIANCE

WHAT IS DEVIANCE?Any behavior that violates significant social norms

THE NATURE OF DEVIANCE

• Norms are helpful in the smooth operation of a society and safety of its members.

• Occasional violations are unavoidable because there are so many norms.

• Deviant behavior may vary from society to society.• Example: Divorce is legal in the U.S., but divorce is ILLEGAL in the

Philippines.

• People may be labeled as “deviant” due to repetitive violations of social norms.

1. Must first be seen committing a deviant act.2. The person must be stigmatized (marked by social disgrace) by society.

PAIR PARTNER DISCUSSION

What might be some ways in which society may treat those marked by a stigma?

THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF DEVIANCE

1.Clarifying norms2.Unifying the whole group3.Diffusing tension4.Promoting social change5.Providing jobs

EXPLAINING DEVIANCE•Strain theory – believes deviance to be the natural outgrowth of the values, norms, and structure of society•Individuals may become anomie due to the strain of cognitive dissonance

Functionalist Perspective

•Believe that competition and social inequality leads to deviance•Struggle between the social classes

Conflict Perspective

•3 explanations of deviance: control theory, cultural transmission theory, and label theory•Control theory: deviance naturally happens•Cultural transmission theory: deviance is a learned behavior•Label theory: focuses on how persons become labeled as deviant

Interactionist Perspective

PAIR PARTNER ACTIVITY

Define and explain the following terms for Section 1 on the given index cards with your pair partner:

1. Deviance

2. Stigma

3. Criminologists

4. Strain theory

5. Anomie

6. Control theory

7. Cultural transmission theory

8. Differential association

9. Techniques of neutralization

10. Labeling theory

11. Primary deviance

12. Secondary deviance

13. Degradation ceremony

SECTION 2: THE AMERICAN CLASS SYSTEM

HOW WE DETERMINE SOCIAL CLASS – 3 METHODS

1.Reputational Method – community members are asked to rank other community members based on what they know of their characters and lifestyles

2.Subjective Method - persons are asked to determine their own social rank

3.Objective Method – Sociologists define social class by income, occupation, and level of education

Social classes in the United States

Upper Class – makes up 1% of population; high income from “old money,” investments, fame, executives

Upper Middle Class – high-income businesspeople and professionals

Lower Middle Class – white collar jobs

Working Class – lower income from jobs requiring manual labor

Working Poor – lowest paying jobs of temporary or seasonal work

Underclass – unemployment and poverty over several generations

SOCIAL MOBILITY

• Horizontal mobility – movement within a social class • Example: person moves from one type of job to another, but it has the same social

ranking (i.e. secretary at elementary school licensed practical nurse (LPN) at the hospital)

• Vertical mobility – movement between social classes• Example: person starts in one social class, but ends up in a higher or lower social

class (i.e. child movie star gets addicted to illegal drugs and becomes homeless OR elementary school teacher marries an oil tycoon)

• Intergenerational mobility – social status changes between generations of the same family• Example: Grandfather sharecropper; Father supervisor at a warehouse; You

principal of a high school

STRUCTURAL CAUSE OF MOBILITY

Illness/Addiction, Divorce, Widowhood, Retirement

Technology, Education, Merchandising Patterns

SECTION 3: POVERTY

WHAT DETERMINES THE POVERTY LEVEL

• Poverty: a standard of living that is below the minimum level considered adequate by society.

• Calculate the cost of providing an adequate diet, based on the U.S.D.A.’s minimum nutritional standards.

AMERICAN POVERTY

The factors that affect poverty in America:

1. Age – children have the highest percentage in poverty statistics

2. Gender – women are more likely to be poor than men

3. Race/Ethnicity – African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be poor than other racial group in the U.S.

POVERTY IN AN AMERICAN METROPOLITAN CITY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCy3mU-5Pd8