Module 2

Definitions: Anomie: arises when norms of society are unclear or are no longer applicable. Attachment: an element of bond. Sociological counterpart of the superego or conscience, a measure of the connectedness between individuals. Belief: a measure of the person’s support for the moral and beliefs of the community. Commitment: an element of bond, counterpart of the superego or conscience, ego or common sense. A measure of the stake a person has in the community. Conflict Theory: a theory propounded by Karl Marx that claims society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition for limited resources. Conformity: the extent that a society is stable, conform to cultural goals and institutionalized means, which is the most widely used and most common. Control Theory: the view that people refrain from deviant behavior because diverse factors control their impulses to break social norms. Differential Association: proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. Differential Opportunity: transmission of criminal culture occurs in organized slums which provide the structure of illegitimate opportunities for success. Drift Theory: aka Neutralization theory, studies the extent to which delinquents use a series of justifications to neutralize their deviant behavior. Feminist Theory: an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide, a study of gender, patriarchy and oppression of women. Functionalism: studied the way the mind functions to enable humans and other animals to adapt to their environment; belief in social, economic, and political equality for women. Innovation: is a mode of adaptation through the use of institutionally prescribed, but often effective means of attaining at least the simulacrum. Involvement: a measure of the time/energy a person is spending on activities that are helpful to the community. Labeling Theory: view of deviance according to which being labeled as a deviant leads a person to engage in deviant behavior, it explains why people’s behavior clashes with social norms. Language: symbolic system of communication. Mores: things you must or must not do. Rebellion: this a an adaptation that leads men outside the environing social structure to envisage and seek to bring into being a new, greatly modified social structure. Retreatism: reject societal goals and the legitimate means to achieve them, it involves the rejection of cultural goals. Ritualism: ritualistic type of adaptation can be easily identified. Cultural practices. The acceptance of cultural goals and institutional means. Social Constructionism Theory: examines development of jointly constructed understandings, one person’s understanding shapes another person’s understanding, shaped by experiences and interactions with other people. Social Reaction Theory: aka Labeling Theory, how the self-identity and behavior or individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them and associate with the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Social Structure: the organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions that together compose and order society. Strain Theory: theory states that social structures may pressure citizens to commit crimes. Strain may be structural, which refers to the processes at the societal level that filter down and affect how the individual perceives his or her needs. Structural Functionalism: is a sociological theory that attempts to explain why society functions the way it does by focusing on the relationships between the various social institutions that make up society, like government law education religion, etc. Structuralism: sought to identify the basic building blocks or structures of mental life through introspection and then to determine how these elements combine to form the whole experience. Social Construction of Reality: Micro-level: social interactions and performance Macro-level: institutions, culture Reasons Culture is significant: -humans need culture to survive -culture guides human behavior -culture gives meaning to life 1) Define and distinguish several major perspectives for studying deviant behavior. These include structural functionalism, strain theory, differential association, control theory, feminist theory, and social constructionism: Structural Functionalism: is a sociological theory that attempts to explain why society functions the way it does by focusing on the relationships between the various social institutions that make up society, like government law education religion, etc. Strain Theory: theory states that social structures may pressure citizens to commit crimes. Strain may be structural, which refers to the processes at the societal level that filter down and affect how the individual perceives his or her needs. Differential Association: proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. Control Theory: the view that people refrain from deviant behavior because diverse factors control their impulses to break social norms. Feminist Theory: an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide, a study of gender, patriarchy and oppression of women. Social Constructionism Theory: examines development of jointly constructed understandings, one person’s understanding shapes another person’s understanding, shaped by experiences and interactions with other people. 2) Explain how and why crime is a normal part of society and why it is functional for society: Crime is a normal aspect of society because it serves a social function, it supports and reassures the social norms of a society, by the fact that crime is considered going against the norm. It is functional because it defines what is considered normal and acceptable behavior. 3) Explain the strain toward anomie and deviant behavior when there is a lack of integration between cultural goals and institutional means using American society as an example. Strain toward anomie uses those with fewer resources as examples of those less able to achieve societally shared goals and may resort to deviant behaviors to achieve their desired goals. Anomie is the breakdown of the norms guiding behavior leads to social disorganization. 4) Define and distinguish between institutional goals and social norms as twin elements of social structure. An institutional goal is an established and enduring pattern of social relationships. The five traditional institutions are family, religion, politics, economics, and education, but some sociologists argue that other social institutions, such as science and technology, mass media, medicine, sport, and the military, also play important roles in modern society. Norms are socially defined rules of behavior. Norms serve as guidelines for our behavior and for our expectations of the behavior of others. 5) Describe several key propositions to their social learning theory of criminal behavior & the process of learning social behavior. People learn by observing others. Learning is an internal process that may or may not change behavior. People behave in certain ways to reach goals. Behavior is self-directed. Reinforcement and punishment have unpredictable and indirect effects on both behavior and learning. 6) Explain the principle of differential association as a matter of the excess of definitions favorable to the violation of law. Differential Association Theory is a criminology theory that looks at the acts of the criminal as learned behaviors; conformity of deviance is learned from those we spend the most time with. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others in a process of communication. A person becomes a criminal when there is an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity, and a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law. 7) Explain Hirschi’s control theory and the social bond. Hirschi places a lot of emphasis on the role that is played by the society in controlling criminal behavior. According to the theory society has a very important role to play in controlling crime and it is not possible for all the responsibility to be placed on the individuals committing the crime. Almost all delinquency is the result of a lack of monitoring by the authorities and the family of the delinquents. Relationships and commitments are given a very important role here in determining whether laws are broken by people. Social bond is a theory suggested that criminal activity is the product of a lack of meaningful connection with society. Basically, that people break the law because they have lost respect, appreciation or their sense of belonging toward society. 8) Explain best's constructionist theory of deviance and relate it to other theoretical perspectives of deviance. Social strain typology, developed by Robert K. Merton, is based upon two criteria: a person's motivations or adherence to cultural goals; a person's belief in how to attain her goals. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Structural functionalism argues that deviant behavior plays an active, constructive role in society by ultimately helping cohere different populations within a society. Conflict theory suggests that deviant behaviors result from social, political, or material inequalities in a social group. Labeling theory argues that people become deviant as a result of people forcing that identity upon them and then adopting the identity. 9) Explain feminist theory of deviance and why it is necessary Feminist theory, supports equality for women and men; abuses suffered by women are rooted in the patriarchal, capitalist system. It is necessary because it studies the necessity to view women as separate and equal. It determines a separation of spheres in socialization, criminal and cultural attitudes.