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SOCIOLOGYRichard T. Schaefer

Deviance and Social Control

8

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8. Deviance and Social Control

• Social Control• Deviance • Crime• Social Policy and Social Control

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– Conformity: going along with peers who have no special right to direct behavior

– Obedience: compliance with higher authorities in an hierarchical structure

Social Control

• Techniques and strategies are employed for preventing deviant human behavior in any society

Sanctions: Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

• Conformity and Obedience

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Social Control

• Research demonstrates that people may conform to attitudes and behavior of peers even when it means expressing intolerance towards others

• Milgram pointed out that in the modern industrial world, we are accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority figures, whose status is indicated by a title or uniform

• Conformity and Obedience– Conformity to Prejudice

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Social Control

– Informal Social Control: used casually to enforce norms

– Formal Social Control: carried out by authorized agents

• Informal and Formal Social Control

Under conducive circumstances, otherwise normal people can and often do treat one another inhumanely

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Social Control

– Some norms are so important to a society that they are formalized into laws•Law: governmental social control•Control Theory: our connection to

members of society leads us to systematically conform to society’s norms

• Law and Society

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Deviance

– Deviance: behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society• Involves violation of group norms, which

may or may not be formalized into law• Subject to social definition within a

particular society and at a particular time

• What is Deviance?

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Deviance

Figure 8-1. The Status of Medical Marijuana

Source: Developed by author based on data from Marijuana Policy Project 2004, 2005

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Deviance

•Stigma: labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups

– Deviance and Technology• Technological innovations can redefine

social interactions and standards of behavior related to them

• What is Deviance?– Deviance and Social Stigma

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Deviance

• Deviance common part of human existence, with positive as well as negative consequences for social stability.

• Durkheim Legacy– Anomie: loss of direction felt in society when

social control of individual behavior becomes ineffective

• Explaining Deviance– Functionalist Perspective

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Deviance

• Explaining Deviance– Functionalist Perspective

• Merton’s Theory of Deviance

Anomie Theory of Deviance: how people adapt in certain ways by conforming to or by deviating from cultural expectations, including conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion

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Deviance

Table 8-1. Modes of Individual Adaptation

Source: Adapted from Merton 1968:194

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Deviance

• Cultural Transmission Theory– Cultural Transmission: humans learn how

to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly

– Differential Association: the process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to the violation of rules (Sutherland)

• Explaining Deviance– Interactionist Perspective

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– Criminal victimization increases when motivated offenders and suitable targets converge

• Labeling Theory/Societal-Reaction Approach

– Some individuals or groups have the power to define and apply labels

Deviance

• Explaining Deviance– Interactionist Perspective

• Routine Activities Theory

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• Agents of social control and other powerful groups can impose their own self-serving definitions of deviance on the general public

– Feminist Perspective• Society tends to treat women in

stereotypical fashion• Emphasizes deviance, including crime,

tends to flow from economic relationships

Deviance

• Explaining Deviance– Conflict Theory

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Deviance

Table 8-2. Approaches to Deviance

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Crime

– Laws divide crimes into categories based on:• Severity of offense• Age of offender• Potential punishment• Jurisdiction

• Types of Crime

Crime: violation of criminal law, for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties

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Crime

– Victimless Crimes: willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services

– Professional Crime•Professional criminal: person who

pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation– Organized Crime: group that

regulates relations between various criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities

• Types of Crime

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Computer Crime: use of high technology to carry out illegal activityComputer Crime: use of high technology to carry out illegal activity

Corporate Crime: any act by a corporation that is punishable by the government

Crime

• Types of Crime– White Collar and Technology-Based

Crime

– Transnational Crime• Crime that occurs across multiple national

borders

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Crime

– Not as accurate as social scientists would like

– Understanding Crime Statistics• Reported crime is very high in the U.S.• Public regards crime as major social

problem

• Crime Statistics

Victimization Surveys: surveys of ordinary people, not police officers, to determine whether they have been victims of crime

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Crime

• Violent crimes much more common in U.S. than Western Europe in 1980s and 1990s

• Disturbing increases in violent crime are evident in other Western societies

• Crime Statistics– International Crime Rates

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Crime

Table 8-3. Types ofTransnational Crime

Source: Compiled by author based on Mueller 2001 and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2005

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Crime

Figure 8-2. Victimization Rates, 1973—2003

Source: Catalano 2004:1

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Social Policy and Social Control

• Over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all murders committed with firearms

• 1994 Brady Act mandates firearms dealers run criminal history background checks on people who wish to purchase handguns

– About two percent of all purchases denied

• Gun Control– The Issue

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Social Policy and Social Control

• The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the “right of the people to keep and bear arms”

• 30 to 35 million people in the United States own handguns

• About 45 percent of U.S. households have some type of firearm on the premises.

• Gun Control– The Setting

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Social Policy and Social Control

• Since Brady Act, support for stricter measures declined

• Conflict theorists contend that groups like National Rifle Association (NRA) dominate the legislative process because they can mobilize resources

• Gun Control– Sociological Insights

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Social Policy and Social Control

• Advocates for stricter gun control want:– Total ban on assault weapons– Tight restrictions on permits to carry

concealed weapons– Increased penalties for leaving firearms where

they are easily accessible

• Gun Control– Policy Implications

Unlawful use of guns is a global issue