Exam 2 Study Guide CCJ4938 Constructing Deviance Moral Entrepreneurs Individuals who make deviance by drawing on the power and resources of organizations institutions agencies symbols ideas communication and audiences o People who define morals o Aware of the laws and make society aware Moral Panic Media sensationalism of individual events Aspects of Deviance Making o Arise when a threat to society is depicted promoting terror and dread with its powerfully persuasive focus on fold devils viewed as threatening to society deviant o Some type of social strain identified by a social group o Ex Child molestation in daycare centers o claims makers or issue entrepreneurs articulate the scope and specific danger of the problem identifying social conditions that members of a group perceived to be offensive and undesirable o Rule Creator People who make the rules about what is deviant Ex Public figures who use their influence politicians teachers parents CEOs o Rule Enforcer People who apply those rules to a specific group of people Ex Police Judge RA Parents Lawyer o Moral Conversion Society comes to view that behavior of the rule creator deviant as well their views Ex Smoking used to be accepted but now viewed as deviant Rule creators must bring about a moral conversion convincing others of o Moral Crusade Once moral entrepreneurs have brought about awareness to the issue they must find a way to present it to the public Just Say NO Anti drugs Don t be a fool stay in school Prevent drop outs Friends don t let friends drive drunk MADD Vote or Die On MTV tried to get teens to vote Only you can prevent wildfires Smokey the Bear The Social Construction of Drug Scares Article Anti Opium Den Ordinance Seven Ingredients of a Drug Scare o 1 A Kernel of Truth o Americas first real drug law that originated in San Francisco in 1875 o Opiates had long been widely and legally available without a prescription o Neither opiate use or addiction was really the issue o Campaign focused almost exclusively on what was called the Mongolian vice of opium smoking by Chinese immigrants in dens o When the railroad was completed and the gold dried up a depression set in and in the tight labor market the Chinese immigrants were the target o the white Workingman s Party fomented racial hatred of the low wage coolies with whom they now had to compete for work o Law against opium smoking was enacted to harass and control Chinese workers In all societies advanced or simple people have used some type of drugs o 2 Media Magnification Once a drug is identified as problematic media uses its influence to magnify and bring more awareness to the situation o 3 Politico Moral Entrepreneurs In order for drug scares to become social issues there has to be political awareness for the problem to develop legislation Ex Political elites have power and influence Organizations that do research and give legitimacy to creating this o 4 Professional Interest Groups drug scare o 5 Historical Context of Conflict Economic political cultural class and racial various types of conflict provide the background explanation that moral entrepreneurs can use in making claims that something is harmful to society o 6 Linking a Form of drug use to a dangerous Class Certain target populations are viewed as a dangerous class creates legitimacy to creating laws o 7 Scapegoating a Drug for a Wide Array of Public Problems Some politicians will blame political problems on the use of drugs try to link drug use problems to social problems Ex people not doing well in school Social Construction of Crack Use during the 1980s o When this scare was launched crack was unknown outside of a few neighborhoods in a handful of cities o One politicians and the media linked crack new form of freebase cocaine sold in units on ghetto street corners to inner city minority poor a new drug scare was underway o The solution became more prison cells o Politicians used tough on drugs platforms and passed more repressive laws o Result is that now the US has more people in prison than any industrialized nation in the world Why is American culture more vulnerable to drug scares o 1 Claims about the evils of drug scares are especially viable in American culture in part because they provide a welcome vocabulary of attribution Armed with DRUGS as a generic scapegoat citizens gain the cognitive satisfaction of having a folk devil on which to blame a range of bizarre behaviors or other conditions they find troubling but difficult to explain o 2 Claims about the evils of drugs provide an especially serviceable vocabulary of attribution in the US in part because our society developed from a temperance culture In a culture in which self control is inordinately important drug induced altered states on consciousness are especially likely to be experiences as loss of control and this to be inordinately feared Gender Race and Urban Policing Purpose of Study o To see the way groups of people are treated differently by agents of social control across three demographic variables race sex age o Compares youth involved in serious delinquency to those who were not Demographics of Sample o 75 African American youths living in St Louis Missouri 35 young women and 40 young men o Range in age from 12 19 o At risk youths in poor urban neighborhoods Recruitment Strategies used by the researchers o Youths recruited with the cooperation of several organizations working with at risk and delinquent youth including local community agency and 2 alternative high schools o Counselor at each school identified youths for study participation when they were known to reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods Serious Delinquency o Stealing more than 50 o Stealing a vehicle o Attacking someone w intent to seriously hurt them o Committing a robbery o Selling crack marijuana or other drugs Minor Delinquency o Skipping classes o Being loud or rowdy in public o Stealing 5 or less o Lying about their age to get into some place o Lying about their age to buy something o Running away Findings o Young men and the police The disproportionate recipients of aggressive policing tactics such as stops and searches searches were described as physically intrusive Harassment was intrusive and antagonistic in nature officers used antagonistic language derogatory remarks and racial epithets Young black men were burdened by a presumption of guilt that served as justification for aggressive police behavior Faced more severe violence at the hands
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