SOC 101 Monday March 29 Lecture Outline PART ONE Chapter 7 Deviance and Crime continued Sections 7 2a to 7 4 III The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Deviance and Social Control For the symbolic interactionist approach on deviance the focus is on memberships in groups and how groups affect behaviors A Differential Association Theory claims that people learn to either deviate from or conform to society s norms through the different groups with whom they associate what we learn influences us toward or away from deviance families friends neighborhoods and subcultures with which people associate teach us attitudes that in turn translate into conforming or deviating behaviors research indicates that delinquents are more likely to come from families who get into trouble with the law research demonstrates that delinquency tends to be clustered in certain neighborhoods with children from these neighborhoods more likely to become delinquent than children from other neighborhoods Although groups influence behavior symbolic interactionists also stress that they do not determine behavior People are not destined to think and act as their groups dictate According to control theory people generally avoid deviance because of an effective system of inner and outer controls two control systems work against people s inclinations to deviate B Control Theory People s inner controls People s outer controls 1 The stronger an individual s bonds are with social structures such as the family or school the more effective their inner controls are These bonds are based on attachments feeling affection and respect for people who conform to the dominant norms of society commitments having a stake in society that you don t want to risk such as family employment and reputation involvements investing time and energy into legitimate activities and beliefs believing deviant behaviors are morally wrong These components summarize one s level of self control with deviant behavior reflecting a lack of self control Self control is a product of socialization with parents being primarily responsible for the socialization of self control into their children 2
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