Chapter 7 Conformity Deviance and Crime Introduction US incarceration rate is the highest in the world State population of prisoners is in decline Prisons don t prepare prisoners for release almost 2 3 of all released prisoners are rearrested within Increase in incarceration has affected African American and Latino populations Imprisonment increases likelihood of long term unemployment three years Deviant someone who refuses to live by the rules that the majority of us follow violent criminals drug addicts down and outs who don t fit normal standards of acceptability A deviant is not so easy to define Norms Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it All human groups follow definite norms which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment Breaking the law is often normal behavior We are all rule breakers as well as conformists no one breaks all the rules or follows them all Those who deviant might be expelled from the group The Study of Deviant Behavior None of us are normal Any act can be seen as rational if we understand the reasons behind it Deviance is a matter of social power and in the influence of social class Social norms are influenced by individuals of power and class What is Deviance Deviance modes of action that do not confirm to the norms to values held by most members of a group or society What is regarded as deviant is as variable as the norms and values that distinguish different cultures and subcultures from one another Forms of behavior that are highly esteemed by one group are regarded negatively by others Hackers while some see it as a crime some see it a skill that has strict codes of conduct Bundy a person can seem entirely normal while secretly engaging in acts of extreme deviance Deviance can be applied to a groups cults Deviant subculture a subculture whose member hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority Defining Deviance The Sociological Debate Durkeim deviance is important in a well ordered society because by defining what s deviant we become aware of the standards we share as a society o Don t eliminate deviance but keep within acceptable limits Erikson Moynihan obliterating it o Agencies of control police and courts define their jobs as keeping deviance within bounds not o Societies need their quotas of deviance and function to keep them intact o Levels of deviance has increased so much that we have redefined deviance as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized and raising the normal level to include some measure of deviance Ex Deinstitutionalization in mental health professions Mentally ill patients were treated with tranquilizers and released o Normal level of acceptable crime has risen o Underreporting of crime is an example Norms and Sanctions We follow norms because of socialization Commit to norms because of interaction with people who conform through these interaction we learn self control The more interactions like this we have the less we deviate from norms Sanction a mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior o Function to promote conformity Positive reward Negative punishment Informal less organized and more spontaneous reactions to non conformity Formal applied by a specific group or agency to ensure that a particular set of norms are followed o Courts and prison main types Laws rules of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power o Sanctions used against people who break laws and don t conform o Only guide to society s norms because subcultures invent their own dos and don ts Crimes any actions that contravene the laws established by a political authority Although we may think of criminals as a distinct subsection of the population there are few people who have not broken the law in one way or another during their lives While laws are formulated by state authorities it is not unknown for those authorities to engage in criminal behavior in certain situations Even so called deviants follow some norms Theories of Deviance o Biological Perspective o Psychological Perspective o Sociological Perspective Functionalist Theories Interactionist Theories Conflict Theories Control Theories The Biological View of Deviance First attempts to explain crime were biological Lombroso 1870s Believed that criminal types could be identified by the shape of the skull Social learning influences the development of criminal behavior but most criminal were biologically defective Discredited Heredity and Criminal tendencies Impossible to detangle heredity and environment Correlation between Human physique and delinquency Mesomorphs muscular more likely to be delinquent than ectomorphs thin people or fleshy people endomorphs athleticism Muscular people may be drawn toward criminal activities because they offer more opportunities to display Research in New Zealand tried to link children s propensity to aggression with biological factors present at birth Only show that some individuals might be biologically more irritable and aggressive which could be reflected in crimes of physical assault No decisive evidence that personality traits are inherited The Psychological View of Deviance Associate criminality with particular types of personality o In a small portion of a society an amoral psychopathic personality develops Psychopaths individuals who lack the moral sense and concern for others held by most do sometimes commit violent crimes but psychopathic traits are not inevitably criminal Might engage in crime but also might seek challenges in socially respectable ways o Psychological theories of criminality can explain only some aspects of crime It is implausible that perpetrators share specific psychological characteristics Becoming involved in criminal group can influence outlooks rather than outlooks producing criminal behavior Biological and psychological explanations of crime can only account for why an individual violates the law but neither can explain differences in crime rates among groups Society and Crime Sociological Theories Any satisfactory account of crime must be sociological because crime depends on social institutions of a society Emphasizes the connections between conformity and deviance in different social contexts Behavior that conforms in one subculture may be regarded as deviant in
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