sociology assignment
The case study ofAnita Jacksonis based on true events. There are manysociological theoriesthat attempt to explain Anita’s choices. As you read her story, think about which theory best explains her situation: is there one theory that seems to work well,i.e.,
Each of the main theoretical perspectives as mentioned in the case file,focuses upon different aspects of the deviant and criminal behavior. Explain which of the theory(ies) explainsAnita’s criminal behavior.
Your written response should be no less than 250-350words.
SOCIOLOGY 100 Survey of General Sociology
ANITA JACKSON CASE STUDY
After reading the Case Study below, which theory of deviant behavior do you think best explain Anitas criminal behavior?
CASE STUDY: Anita Jackson is an unmarried, African-American female with two children living in the inner-city. At the time of this study, Anita was 21 years old and unemployed.
Although Anita didnt grow up in this exact neighborhood, hers was close-by and quite similar. She was raised by her mother who was both emotionally and physically abusive to Anita. Anita grew up thinking she would amount to nothing. So when Anita turned 16, she joined a gang, ran away from home, and got pregnant from one of the gang members, Joe. Joe taught Anita everything about being in a gangcarjacking, robbery, theft, smoking crystal methAnita learned all of this from experienced Joe. She and Joe had big dreams of buying a mansion with tons of wooded property. They discussed these big dreams on a daily basis. Anita believed it would happen. The gang, Anita thought, was the best thing that ever happened to her. Anita loved the gang partly because, growing up, she always felt different from others. She never had desires to join school clubs or community organizations because she felt those people were weird. Anita believed she had more in common with the gang members than with most of society. So she continued being a member and began to act like a real gang-bangershe even learned to use a gun.
Partly because Anita was unemployed, she started prostituting to get extra cash for drugs. (Anita kept telling Joe that she wanted a real job, but Joe often reminded her that she lacked any skills that would demand a decent income.) Every time that Anita went out to walk the streets she carried her gun. One night one of her Johns became violent, and Anita shot and wounded him. It was self-defense, she argued. But the cops didnt believe her. They arrested her for attempted murder, prostitution, and theft (she stole her Johns wallet after she shot him). Anita got charged for prostitution, and her John didnt get charged for soliciting a prostitute. It turns out that John was actually Charlie Sheen and the police let him go with no questions asked. Anitas gang, however, vows to get revenge on Charlie. Now Anita faces years in prison and no one to raise her children.
Anita said she just wants a better life for her kids; she thought this gang stuff seemed to be the answer.
Date Last Changed:
January 7, 2010
Contact Kathleen French SOCIOLOGY 100 Survey of General Sociology
Notes to Deviance and Crime
I. WHAT IS DEVIANCE?
A. Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates cultural or social norms
B. All societies have norms that govern acceptable
behavior and mechanisms of social control-systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and to discourage deviance.
C. Deviance is relative and it varies in its degree of
seriousness: some forms of deviant behavior are officially defined as a crime-a behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms,
and other sanctions.
II. FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE
A. Emile Durkheim regarded deviance as a natural and
inevitable part of all societies.
B. Deviance is universal because it serves three
important functions:
1. Deviance clarifies rules. So that when someone gets arrested, ideally it functions as a deterrent, in that it teaches others what NOT to do. Ideally this will reduce crime.
2. Deviance unites a group. We can talk to each other and all agree that certain criminal acts are wrong (ie, 9/11) and feel connected to other people.
3. Deviance promotes social change. We change laws based on criminal acts — ie, drug laws, 3 strikes your out laws, Meagan’s Law, stuff like that.
C. Functionalists acknowledge that deviance also may
be dysfunctional for society; if too many people violate the norms, everyday existence may become unpredictable, chaotic, and even violent.
D. According to strain theory, people feel strain when
they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals. Robert Merton identified ways in which people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them:
1. Conformity Example of Conformity: Somceone gets a college degree and gets a job — ie, they’ve conformed to what society expects. This person likely doesn’t break the law
2. Innovation Example of innovation: Someone wants a car stereo but can’t afford it, so they take it from someone’s car.
E. According to Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, for
deviance to occur people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures-circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.
F. Social Bond theory (also called Social Control theory) holds that the probability of
deviant behavior increases when a person’s ties to society are weakened or broken We are more committeed to social norms when we are part of larger groups, like church, school, the workplace, in part because people have expectations on us — we have people to answer to.
III. INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVES ON
DEVIANCE
A. Differential association theory states that individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity
So when someone goes to prison, they learn to be a better criminal because those are the people they are interracting with.
B. Labeling theory states that deviants are those people who have been successfully labeled as such by others.
1. Primary deviance is the initial act of rule
breaking.
2. Secondary deviance occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts that new identity and continues the deviant behavior
Ex cons have often been labeled as such, and may have a hard time finding employment, getting housing, stuff like that, even though they are no longer breaking the law. So maybe they go back to a life of crime because they end up believing in the label, like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This connects with Conflict theory, in that it’s the people in power who create laws and have the opportunity to label certain things as more deviant than others (ie, selling drugs is often seen as more deviant that big corporations manufacturing unsafe goods — even though more people die annually from corporate offenses than all types of street crimes combinened.
IV. CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE
A. According to conflict theorists, people in positions of power maintain their advantage by using the law to protect their own interests.
B. According to the critical approach, the way laws are made and enforced benefits the capitalist class by ensuring that individuals at the bottom of the social class structure do not infringe on the property or threaten the safety of those at the top. Here, crime is an expression of the individual’s struggle against the unjust social conditions and inequality produced by capitalism.
C. While there is no single feminist perspective on deviance and crime, three schools of thought have emerged:
1. Liberal feminism explains women’s deviance
and crime as a rational response to gender discrimination experienced in work, marriage, and interpersonal relationships.
2. Radical feminism suggests that women’s deviance and crime is related to patriarchy (male domination over females) that keeps women more tied to family, sexuality, and home, even if women also have fulltime paid employment.
3. Socialist feminism asserts that women’s deviance and crime is the result of women’s exploitation by capitalism and patriarchy (e.g., their overrepresentation in relatively low wage jobs and their lack of economic resources).
4. Feminist scholars of color have pointed out that these schools of feminist thought do not include race and ethnicity in their analyses. As a result, some recent studies have focused on simultaneous effects of race, class, and gender on the deviant behavior by some women of color.
V. CRIME CLASSIFICATIONS AND STATISTICS
A. Crimes are divided into felonies and misdemeanors
based on the seriousness of the crime.
B. Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offenses.
1. Conventional or street crime is all violent
crime, certain property crimes, and certain morals crimes. Morals crimes are sometimes called victimless crimes (ex, gambling, prostitution, seeling drugs. Here, the idea is that there are willing adults engaged in the behavior).
2. Occupational or white-collar crime is illegal
activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.
3. Corporate crime is an illegal act committed by
corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.
4. Organized crime is a business operation that
supplies illegal goods and services for profit.
5. Political crime refers to illegal or unethical acts
involving the usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it.
C. Official crime statistics, such as those found in the
Uniform Crime Report, provide important information on crime; however, the data reflect only those crimes that have been reported to the police.
1. The National Crime Victimization Survey has
made researchers aware that the incidence of some crimes, such as theft, is substantially higher than reported in the UCR.
2. Crime statistics do not reflect many crimes
committed by persons of upper socioeconomic status in the course of business because they are handled by administrative or quasijudicial bodies.
D. Street Crimes and Criminals
1. Gender and Crime
a. The three most common arrest categories
for both men and women are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI), larceny, and minor or criminal mischief types of offenses.
b. Liquor law violations (such as underage
drinking), simple assault, and disorderly conduct are middle range offenses for both men and women, and the rate of arrests for murder, arson, and embezzlement are relatively low for both men and women.
c. There is a proportionately greater
involvement of men in major property crimes and violent crime.
2. Age and Crime
a. Arrest rates for index crimes are highest
for people between the ages of 13 and 25, with the peak being between ages 16 and 17.
b. Rates of arrest remain higher for males
than females at every age and for nearly all offenses.
3. Social Class and Crime
a. Individuals from all social classes commit
crimes; they simply commit different kinds of crime.
b. Persons from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds are more likely to be arrested for violent and property crimes; only a very small proportion of individuals who commit whitecollar or elite crimes will ever be arrested or convicted.
4. Race and Crime
a. In 1994, whites (including Latinos/as)
accounted for about 61 percent of all arrests for index crimes; arrest rates for whites were higher in nonviolent property crimes such as fraud and larcenytheft, but were lower than the rates for African Americans in violent crimes such as robbery and murder.
b. In 1994, whites constituted about 64
percent of all arrests for property crimes and more than 53 percent of arrests for violent crimes; African Americans accounted for over 44 percent of arrests for violent crimes and 33 percent of arrests for property crimes.
c. Arrest records tend to produce over
generalizations about who commits crime because arrest statistics are not an accurate reflection of the crimes actually committed in our society.
5. Crime Victims
a. Men are more likely to victimized by
crime although women tend to be more fearful of crime, particularly those directed toward them, such as forcible rape.
b. The elderly also tend to be more fearful of
crime, but are the least likely to be victimized. Young men of color between the ages of 12 and 24 have the highest criminal victimization rates.
c. The burden of robbery victimization falls
more heavily on males than females, African Americans more than whites, and young people more than middleaged and older persons.
VI. THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
A. The criminal justice system includes the police, the
courts, and prisons. This system is a collection of bureaucracies that possesses considerable discretion-the use of personal judgment regarding whether to take action on a situation and, if so, what kind of action to take.
B. The police are responsible for crime control and
maintenance of order.
C. The courts determine the guilt or innocence of
those accused of committing a crime.
D. Punishment is any action designed to deprive a
person of things of value (including liberty) because of something the person is thought to have done. Ideally, punishment also functions to reabilitate people, make them functionaing members of society.
1. Disparate treatment of the poor, people of
color, and women is evident in the prison system.
2. The medicalization of deviance is the
transformation of deviance into a medical problem that requires treatment by a physician.
E. For many years, capital punishment, or the death
penalty, has been used in the United States; about 4,000 executions have occurred in the U.S. since 1930, and scholars have documented race and class biases in the imposition of the death penalty in this country.
VII. DEVIANCE AND CRIME IN THE TWENTYFIRST CENTURY
A. Although many people in the United States agree
that crime is one of the most important problems facing this country, they are divided over what to do about it.
B. The best approach for reducing delinquency and
crime ultimately is prevention: to work with young people before they become juvenile offenders so as to help them establish family relationships, build self-esteem, choose a career, and get an education which will help them pursue that career.
This is related to Social Control/Social Bond theory.
C. As long as racism, sexism, classism, and ageism
exist in our society, people will see deviant and criminal behavior through a selective lens.
RESOURCES
Websites:
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
Date Last Changed:
December 15, 2019
Contact Kathleen French SOCIOLOGY 100 Survey of General Sociology
Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance
THEORY
KEY ELEMENTS
Functionalist Perspectives
Robert Merton
Cloward and Ohlin
Strain theory
Opportunity theory
Deviance occurs when access to the approved means of reaching culturally approved goals is blocked. Innovation may result, where the individual accepts culturally approved goals and adopts disapproved means of achieving them
Crime is a reflection of our opportunity structure
Conflict
Perspectives
Karl Marx
Kathleen Daly
Meda Chesney-Lind
Critical approach
Feminist approach
The powerful use law and the criminal justice system to protect their own class interests.
Deviance is an expression of inequality
Liberal feminism views womens deviance as arising from gender discrimination; radical feminism focuses on patriarchy; and socialist feminism emphasizes the effects of capitalism and patriarchy on womens deviance.
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives
Edwin Sutherland
Travis Hirschi
Howard Becker
Edwin Lemert
Differential Association theory
Social control/social bonding
Labeling theory
Primary and Secondary deviance
Deviant behavior is learned in interaction with others. A person becomes delinquent when exposure to law-breaking attitudes is more extensive than exposure to law-abiding attitudes.
Social bonds keep people from becoming criminals. When ties to family, friends, and others become weak, an individual is most likely to engage in criminal behavior.
Acts are deviant or criminal because they have been labeled as such. Powerful groups often label less-powerful individuals.
Primary deviance is the initial act. Secondary deviance occurs when a person accepts the label of deviant and continues to engage in the behavior that initially produced the label.
Date Last Changed:
October 23, 2019
Contact Kathleen French Chapter 6:
Deviance
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 1
Sociologists are interested in numerous questions pertaining to deviance. Match the following questions with the theoretical framework that would best explore it.
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a. How do certain acts come to be defined as deviant? aa. structural functionalism
b. Why are punishments distributed unequally? bb. symbolic interactionism
c. How does deviance clarify norms and expectations? cc. conflict theory
Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answers: a/bb, b/cc, c/aa
Feedback: This chapter focuses on deviance. A researcher can use a variety of social lenses to study deviance depending on the layer or angle that is to be researched.
Learning objective: To assess understanding of key theories prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Theories of Deviance
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 2
Select ALL of the following that are acts of deviance:
driving faster than the posted speed limit
yelling at your spouse in a movie theater
grocery shopping in bare feet
texting friends during class
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Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answer: a, b, c, d
Feedback: All of the above are deviant acts. Each is a behavior that departs from a norm or expectation and generates a negative reaction. It is safe to say that everyone has been deviant as some point in life.
Learning objective: To assess knowledge of key terms prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Defining Deviance
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 3
There are times when deviance is considered positive.
true
false
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Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answer: a
Feedback: Certain acts can be a principled act that generates a positive rather than negative
reaction. This often happens in hindsight, once people have had a chance to consider the good that has come from the act.
Learning objective: To assess knowledge of key terms prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Positive Deviance?
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 4
_____ is/are the violation of a norm that has been codified into law.
stigma
crime
folkways
mores
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Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answer: b
Feedback: Crime is a type of deviance. Violating a norm that has been codified into law has serious consequences including arrest and imprisonment.
Learning objective: To assess knowledge of key terms prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Crime and Punishment
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 5
Match the type of stigma (according to Erving Goffman) with the appropriate explanation:
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Moral aa. external deformations or mental impairment
b. Physical bb. membership in a discredited or oppressed group
c. Tribal cc. signs of a flawed character
Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answer: a/cc, b/aa, c/bb
Feedback: Stigma is a central concept in the sociology of deviance. Erving Goffman published a book by the same name in 1962. It is still considered relevant and important today. To learn more about the types of stigma mentioned above, read Stigma and Deviant Identity in the text.
Learning objective: To assess knowledge of key terms prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Stigma and Deviant Identity
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Getting Warmed Up!
Lecture Launcher Questions 6
When a sociologist refers to an act as deviant, she or he is making a _____ judgment, not a _____ judgment.
moral; social
personal; social
social; personal
social; moral
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Instructors: Use these questions at the beginning of class to gauge prior student knowledge and comprehension, to elicit discussion, or to emphasize important parts of the upcoming lecture and class session!
Answer: d
Feedback: A deviant behavior is one that violates the norms of a particular group. The very same behavior may not be considered deviant among other groups or during a different time period. Defining an act as deviant does not mean that the act is inherently wrong.
Learning objective: To assess knowledge of key terms prior to reading Chapter 6.
Section: Deviance across Cultures
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Defining Deviance
Deviance is a behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group.
Defining something as deviant requires us to examine the group norms and how the group reacts to the behavior.
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Deviance isnt necessarily bad, its just different from what the group considers to be normal. For instance, a woman having a size 13 shoe isnt bad, but its definitely different, so it may elicit a reaction from the group that makes up the majority (those with average shoe sizes). When sociologists use the term deviant, they are making a social judgment, not a moral one.
Whether or not something is considered deviance is somewhat contingent on the time period. For example, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both farmed cannabis during a time in which doing so was not deviant.
Every state had made the use of marijuana illegal by 1937 and marijuana was associated with criminals around the same time.
Farming of hemp and the increasing legality of recreational use of marijuana shows that its deviance is changing once again.
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Deviance Across Cultures
What is deviant in one culture may not be deviant in another culture!
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For discussion, ask your class to discuss whether these images represent examples of norms or deviance in the United States. You can also mention C. Wright Mills to remind students of how norms change over time. Was tattooing a norm in the 1900s? The 1950s? The 2000s? What social factors might influence changing norms?
[Gavriel Jecan/Corbis; Remi Benali/Corbis; Donna McWilliam/AP Photo; Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images]
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Theories of Deviance: Functionalism
Functionalism
Deviance serves a function in our society.
According to mile Durkheim, deviance serves a positive social function by clarifying moral boundaries and promoting social cohesion.
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Without seeing deviant behavior, we would have a hard time classifying what is normal. It isnt until our group norms are challenged that we come together as a group to defend these norms. For example, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, challenged a norm that many people in the United States took for granted: safety. When the norm was challenged by the terrorist attacks, new policies and procedures were put into place (for instance, airport security) to preserve it.
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Functionalism: Social Control Theory
Social Control Theory
Theory developed by Travis Hirschi explaining crime
Strong social bonds increase conformity
Strong social bonds decrease deviance
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Social bonds include family, religious, and civic ties among others.
Suggested internal and external forces influence behavior.
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Functionalism: Structural Strain Theory
Structural strain theory
Developed by Robert Merton
states that there are goals in our society that people want to achieve, but they cannot always reach these goals. This creates stress (or strain).
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Structural strain theory, sometimes just called strain theory, acknowledges that there are certain goals that society deems acceptable. Ask your students if they can think of what these goals might be. Common responses include: a nice car, a big house, a family, a good job, lots of money, and so on. You may be able to discuss the American Dream and the idea that there is a common theme about what Americans should achieve to be called successful. Strain theory then discusses the difficulties that many people have in trying to achieve these goals. The frustration that occurs between knowing what the goals are and not being able to achieve them is the basis of Mertons strain theory typologies.
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Mertons Typology of Deviance
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This table shows the possible combinations of goal and mean acceptance. In the following slides, well expand on the previous definition talk about examples of each of these. Remember, goals are not individual or personal goals, like saving enough money to buy a new mp3 player. They are socially acceptable goals, like The American Dreamhaving a good job, a nice home, a car, money, and so on. Means are ways of making that happen; for instance, means may refer to socially acceptable routes to achieving the aforementioned goals, like going to college, working hard, starting at the bottom of the company ladder but working your way to the top, and so on.
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Theories of Deviance: Conflict Theory
Conflict Theory
Deviance is a result of social conflict.
In order for the powerful to maintain their power, they marginalize and criminalize the people who threaten their power. Inequality is reproduced in the way deviance is defined.
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Vagrancy laws are in place because the people in power (representatives of dominant culture) have deemed vagrancy to be deviant. Sociologist William Chambliss looked at how the vagrancy laws have been applied differently over the years to homeless, unemployed, racial minorities, or whoever seemed most threatening at the time. He determined that vagrancy laws actually reproduce inequality in our society.
Richard Quinney blames capitalism and the inevitable exploitation for creating a situation in which deviant and criminal behavior are inescapable for the working class.
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Theories of Deviance: Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic Interactionism
Interpersonal relationships and everyday interactions influence meanings and understandings of deviance.
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Symbolic Interactionism: Differential Association
Differential association:
A symbolic interactionist perspective developed by Edwin Sutherland
States that we learn deviance from interacting with deviant peers
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Edwin Sutherland suggested that the main reason that people become deviant is that they are learning to be that way from the people they associate with. This theory of deviance may remind you of social learning theory, which says that we tend to mimic significant role models in our life.
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Symbolic Interactionism: Labeling Theory
Labeling theory:
A symbolic interactionist perspective developed by Howard Becker
States that deviance is caused by external judgments (labels) that change a persons self-concept and the way others respond to him or her
Becker suggests that labeling can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecya prediction that causes itself to come true.
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Howard Becker asserted that when people are labeled, that label becomes part of their self-image. So if someone tells you that you are smart, you might start perceiving yourself as smart. Likewise, if someone tells you that you are bad and dont behave well, that might become part of your image and you might begin to act out as a result of that label.
Labeling a person can lead to that person acting out their label. This is especially true if that label is anchored, or confirmed among many agents of socialization. (So if a child is labeled as bad by a parent, and then by the school, and at afterschool care, and by friends, the label is increasingly likely to become part of that individuals self-perception.)
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Symbolic Interactionism: Stereotype Threat and Stereotype Promise
Stereotype Threat: self-fulfilling prophecy in which the fear of performing poorly, and thereby confirming stereotypes about ones social group, causes students to perform poorly.
Stereotype Promise: self-fulfilling prophecy in which positive stereotypes lead to positive performance outcomes.
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Stereotype threat and stereotype promise capture how particular labels positive and negative can impact our behavior.
Notably, such stereotypes are highly racialized in the U.S.
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The Stigma of Deviance
Stigma:
Term coined by Ervin Goffman
Describes any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or groups identity, and which may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction
Passing:
Stigmatized individuals may try to pass as if they are part of the mainstream.
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Stigma can be physical, moral, or tribal. For instance, a physical impairment might stigmatize or devalue a potential employee at a workplace. A moral stigma could include character flawsfor instance, talking too muchwhich could devalue a persons input in a group setting. A tribal stigma could be based on membership to a discredited group, which could be a group that a person chooses to belong to, like a club or an organization, or a group that a person is born into, like a race or socioeconomic status. Just like deviance, stigma will depend on the culture and context.
Passing is certainly easier for some individuals than others. For example, morally stigmatized individuals may be able to conceal their beliefs, whereas a physically stigmatized individual may have a more difficult time trying to conceal the impairment that causes the stigmatization. This may also be the case with criminals who commit crimes but then go to work and live their lives as noncriminals.
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The Study of Crime
Deviance:
If a behavior is considered deviant, it means that it violates the values and norms of a group, not that it is inherently wrong.
However, research on deviance also includes crime.
Crime is the violation of a norm that has been codified into law.
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Again, deviance is referring to an act or behavior that is simply different from what the majority group typically does, and thus, generally rec
