This assignment needs to be done TODAY by 5pm EST! Please and thanks!! Please read and understand The film is "The Orange Is The New Black" The goal of this assignment is to explain how specific socio
Korgen, Sociology in Action, 1e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 6: Identifying Deviant Behavior
Lecture Notes Learning Objectives:6-1: How do we define what is deviant?
6-2: What do sociological theories suggest about the causes of deviant behavior, including crime?
6-3: What are the social processes involved in creating social norms?
6-4: How does social location influence who and what is defined as deviant?
6-5: How do individuals manage deviant identities?
Defining deviance.
Conceptualization is how we define a concept so researchers can measure it.
Conceptualizing deviance can be a complex task because it involves behaviors, conditions, and beliefs.
Approaches to defining deviance.
The statistical approach.
The statistical approach treats anything as deviant that has a low probability of likelihood of occurring.
Social norms.
Social norms indicate what is and is not acceptable in a given culture.
Folkways are the rules that guide everyday behavior, and people do not typically respond strongly to their violation.
Mores are more serious rules and receive harsher responses for their violations.
The legalistic approach.
Using this approach, any violation of the law is considered deviant.
There is a difference between crimes, sin, and poor taste, with only acts of crime being considered deviant.
The normative approach.
This approach views a violation of norms—folkways, mores, or laws—as an act of deviance.
Sanctions.
Sanctions are punishments or penalties for breaking rules.
Sanctions can be informal (e.g., gossip) or formal (e.g., imprisonment) in nature.
Assumptions about social reality and perspectives on deviance.
What is considered “good” and “acceptable” is either subjective (relativist) or objective (absolutist) in nature.
Relativist perspective.
Using the relativist perspective, behaviors, conditions, and beliefs are deviant only to the extent that cultures view them as deviant.
“Deviance” is a result of social construction, not an inherent characteristic of an act.
Absolutist perspective.
The absolutist perspective states that some behaviors, conditions, and beliefs are inherently deviant.
According to this approach, it does not matter if a culture approves or disapproves of the behavior, condition, or belief.
Research approaches versus individual morality.
Most deviance scholars use a relativist approach when studying human behavior.
Researchers can disagree with the behaviors they study, but they shouldn’t let their views influence their research.
Conflict/Critical perspective.
The conflict perspective is a subtype of the relativist approach.
Deviance is socially constructed and those in power determine what is considered deviant.
The label of “deviance” can be used against those who are vulnerable in society.
“Nuts, Sluts, and Perverts” or “Deviant Heroes”?
The term “deviance” has been criticized in the past.
Alexander Liazos felt the term “deviance” was stigmatizing and wanted to use terms such as “victimization,” “persecution,” and “oppression.”
Liazos used the phrase “nuts, sluts, and perverts” to describe the groups that were of most interest to sociologists.
Sociologists argue that deviance is necessary for social change.
Understanding theories of deviance and crime.
Early perspectives in the sociology of deviance and crime.
Many early theories of crime and deviance focused on biological issues as the cause.
Durkheim’s work in the late 1800s transformed the study of deviance as he focused on variations of deviance rates across places, groups, and time periods.
Durkheim’s sociological theory of suicide.
Durkheim’s book, Suicide, focused on how the organization of societies influences suicide.
Some countries had consistently high rates, while others had low rates of suicide.
The ability of a society to regulate behavior and instill social solidarity influences deviance.
Anomie is a condition where a society’s norms fail to regulate behavior.
Suicide rates differ by age, sex, and race/ethnicity (Figure 6.1).
Durkheim and the normality of crime.
From a functionalist perspective, even crime and deviance make contributions to society.
Durkheim argued that a society without crime is impossible.
The purpose of punishment is to assert shared values, not reduce crime.
Kai Erikson’s work argued that punishment allows communities to come together to affirm moral boundaries.
Over time, some deviant behaviors can become normalized.
Merton’s anomie theory.
Merton conceptualized anomie as a condition where society overemphasizes success and underemphasizes the opportunities to achieve that success.
The “success at any cost” climate is a result of anomie in the United States.
Explaining deviance and crime today.
Control perspectives.
Control can be a property of places and individuals.
Social disorganization theories examine the features that cause some neighborhoods to have high crime rates while other neighborhoods have low crime rates.
A community’s ability to work together to achieve common goals is called collective efficacy.
Social bonds, which are connections to other people and society, act as a type of social control.
Social control refers to the enforcement of conformity through the threat or use of formal and informal sanctions.
Self-control theory focuses on various personal characteristics, such as impulsiveness and self-centeredness, and their influence on engaging in criminal and deviant behavior.
Motivation perspectives.
Theories under this perspective look at the forces that influence deviant behavior.
Learning theories argue that deviant and criminal behaviors are no different from other social behaviors.
Learning theories focus on the ways that rules of behavior are spread socially through interaction.
Strain theories, including general strain theory, emphasize the role that stressful experiences and conditions play in motivating deviant and criminal behavior.
General strain theory focuses on the failure to achieve positively valued goals, the removal of positively valued stimuli, and the presentation of negatively valued stimuli.
These types of strains produce negative emotions, such as anger, that motivate a person to engage in corrective action.
Creating deviance.
Moral entrepreneurship.
Moral entrepreneurs are individuals and groups who want to change norms to align with their own views.
These individuals and groups often take part in social movements.
Rule creators and rule enforcers.
Rule creators want to transform private troubles into public issues through the creation of new norms.
Rule enforcers can be anyone who seeks to ensure new rules are not violated.
Creating public morality.
Generating awareness and moral conversion are needed to create public morality.
Danger messages, agreement by experts, and compelling data are needed to generate awareness.
Moral conversion.
There are three components to moral conversion:
Need media attention.
Endorsements are needed from respected public figures.
Coalitions need to be formed with powerful groups.
Moral panic.
A moral panic is an exaggerated, widespread fear regarding the collapse of public morality.
Folk devils are those individuals or groups who are blamed for the collapse.
The fear of folk devils is disproportional to the actual threat.
There are several key ingredients to a full-scale panic (Table 6.1): kernel of truth, media magnification, politico-moral entrepreneurs, professional interest groups, historical context of conflict, links to a “dangerous class,” and scapegoating for other public problems.
Contemporary folk devils.
Current folk devils have included crack addicts, undocumented immigrants, and obese individuals.
Medicalization of deviance.
The medicalization of deviance refers to behaviors, conditions, and beliefs no longer being considered a form of “badness” but instead a form of “madness.”
These problems are now seen as a sickness, which can be treated.
The number of behaviors believed to result from a sickness has grown over time, as evidenced by changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Labeling perspective.
This perspective is rooted in symbolic interactionism.
Labeling theory emphasizes the power of definitions.
The focus is on the reaction to a behavior that results in a label, not the behavior itself.
The Thomas theorem.
“If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
Tannenbaum refers to this as the “dramatization of evil.”
Primary and secondary deviance.
Primary deviance is rule-breaking that individuals engage in before any labels are used.
Secondary deviance refers to rule-breaking that is a result of a deviant label.
Official and informal labels and stigmas.
Official labels are applied by authorities, such as the police or schools.
Unofficial labels are applied by family members, neighbors, coworkers, and so forth.
Stigma is a mark of disgrace and interactions that communicate that a person is disgraced, dishonorable, or otherwise deviant.
Role engulfment occurs when the deviant role overtakes a person’s other social roles due to their “spoiled identity.”
A master status is the primary status assigned to a person by others.
Stigmas can create barriers to conventional life, such as finding a job.
Social position and labeling.
Social location is central to the labeling perspective.
Those with greater power are in a better position to resist deviant labels, even when their behavior is the same as others who receive the deviant labels.
Howard Becker’s typology of deviance (Table 6.2).
The “falsely accused” are individuals who receive deviant labels without having engaged in deviant behavior.
“Pure deviants” are those who engage in deviant behavior and receive labels consistent with that behavior.
“Secret deviants” are those individuals who engage in deviant behaviors but avoid being labeled.
“Conformists” are those who do not engage in deviant behavior and are not labeled as deviant.
Managing deviant identities.
Justifications are accounts of behavior that take responsibility for an act but deny any wrongfulness associated with the act.
Techniques of neutralization.
Sykes and Matza found that delinquents often felt guilty about their actions.
Delinquents used strategies, referred to as techniques of neutralization, to maintain a positive self-concept.
Denial of responsibility.
Offenders say they are not to blame for their behavior and place blame on other factors or circumstances.
Denial of injury.
Offenders say their actions caused no real harm or they did not intend to cause harm.
Denial of victim.
Offenders know their actions caused harm but say there’s no real victim.
The “victim” deserved what happened or the “victim” is unknown, abstract, or absent.
Condemning the condemners.
Offenders redirect attention from themselves to those judging the behavior.
Appeal to higher loyalties.
Offenders say the act was necessary to meet the moral obligations of a group.
Loyalty to a group is more important than following the law or other rules.
Stigma management.
Strategies can be used to reduce the stigma associated with a spoiled identity.
Visible stigmas are those that are apparent in face-to-face interactions, such as scars or physical disabilities.
Invisible stigmas are those that can be hidden, such as sexual orientation or mental illness.
Managing visible stigmas.
Compensatory strategies are used to offset the deviance or make others more comfortable with the stigma.
Acknowledgement is used when a person directly addresses their stigma.
Individuating information involves providing information about oneself to diminish any stereotypes associated with a status.
Increased positivity is a strategy stigmatized people can use to become more likeable and offset the impact of the stigma.
Managing invisible stigmas.
Passing is an attempt to present one’s self as a member of a nonstigmatized group.
Fabrication is a passing strategy that involves using a false identity.
Concealment is a passing strategy that involves keeping the stigmatized identity hidden from others.
Revealing is a technique that deliberately makes the stigma known to others.
Signalizing is a revealing strategy that uses subtle indications of one’s deviant status.
Normalizing is a revealing strategy that attempts to make the stigma seem normal to others.
Differentiating is a revealing strategy that challenges the perceptions others may have and rejects the stigmatizing label.
