Post on 21-Feb-2015
Deviance, Social Control and Crime
Intro to SociologySteve Zavestoski
University of San FranciscoFall 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
“The criminal commits the crime, society creates the criminal.”
“...crime is normal because a society exempt from it is utterly impossible.”
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Concepts to cover...
relativity of deviance
normative behavior
Emile Durkheim,
collective conscience, structural strain
anomie and egoism
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Robert Merton and anomie
responses to anomie (conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion)
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
differential opportunities to deviate
Howard Becker
deviance as learned behavior Tuesday, October 18, 2011
societal reaction/labeling theory
primary and secondary deviance
Erving Goffman, stigma
discreditable vs discredited identity
functions of deviance
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Relativity of Deviance
If deviance is the violation of norms;
If norms change over time and from one culture to another;
Then what is considered deviant also changes over time and across cultures
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Normative Behavior and Deviance
Any behavior that adheres to a society’s implicit or explicit expectations for behavior
Deviance is typically understood as behavior that “deviates” from normative behavior
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Medicalization of Deviance
Early, less complex societies sanctioned deviance using repression
physical force to control behavior
imprisonment, death, etc.
More complex societies engage in restitutive sanctioning (i.e., treatment and rehabilitation)
Paralleling the transition is a transition in conceptions of deviance from sin, to moral weakness, to crime, to illness
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Why medicalization of deviance?
Because “medicine (has become) the central restitutive agent in our society.” Why/How?
Freudian thoughtparens patriae–state’s right to help those unable to help themselvesSocial institutions responsible for social control failing; medicine fills need
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Dominant Perceptions of IllnessBiomedical Model
mind-body dualism–understand and treat body in isolation from other aspects of the person inhabiting it
physical reductionism–disease is localized in the body; excludes social, psychological, and behavioral dimensions of illness
doctrine of specific etiology–disease is caused by a specific, identifiable agent
machine metaphor–body is seen as biomechanical machine, disease is malfunction of mechanism
body as object of regimen and control–individual is responsible for exercising control to maintain or restore health
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Biomedical model and deviance
Locates source of deviance within the individual
requires “treatment” of illness by medical professional
objective, scientific view of illness means deviance is not morally judged but seen as rational, scientifically verifiable conditions
Medical designations are social judgments, and the adoption of a medical model of behavior, a political decision
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Who gets to decide how deviance is responded to?
The struggle for definition is a political struggle (i.e., a struggle of power)
Claims-makers with vested interests engage in the struggle
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
On Being Sane in Unsane Places*
Part one of Rosenhan's study:
healthy associates or "pseudopatients" simulated auditory hallucinations to get admitted to psychiatric hospitals. All were admitted and diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.
After admission, the pseudopatients acted normally and told staff that they felt fine. Hospital staff failed to detect a single pseudopatient and reported that the pseudopatients exhibited symptoms of ongoing mental illness.
All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs as a condition of their release.Their stays ranged from 7 to 52 days, and the average was 19 days. All were discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia "in remission"
*Rosenhan DL (January 1973). "On being sane in insane places". Science 179 (4070): 250–8Tuesday, October 18, 2011
On Being Sane in Unsane Places*
Part two of Rosenhan's study:
a well-known research and teaching hospital, whose staff had heard of the results of the initial study, challenged Rosenhahn that its expderts could correctly identify pseudopatients
Rosenhan arranged with them that during a three month period, one or more pseudopatients would attempt to gain admission and the staff would rate every incoming patient as to the likelihood they were an impostor.
Out of 193 patients, 41 were considered to be impostors and a further 42 were considered suspect. In reality, Rosenhan had sent no pseudopatients and all patients suspected as impostors by the hospital staff were ordinary patients.
*Rosenhan DL (January 1973). "On being sane in insane places". Science 179 (4070): 250–8Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Social Institutions and Social Control
Psychiatry as a profession has to validate itself, so insists on forms of mental illness being empirical, observable
Bias towards false positives: Sane people misdiagnosed because psychiatrists become invested in the label once applied
Social institutions, in order to retain their legitimacy, must
ensure that its solutions to societal needs are “working,” and
protect vested interests by controlling those who deviate from the institution’s norms
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Consequences of medicalization
when deviance is seen as “badness,” individuals are responsible for their deviant behavior
when deviance is seen as “illness,” individuals are less responsible for their deviant behavior
But the biomedical model says that individuals are responsible for control over their own bodies?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Durkheim and Deviance
Collective conscience and structural strain
Too little integration leads to egoism
Too much integration leads to altruism
Too little regulation leads to anomie
Too much regulation leads to fatalism
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Merton and Anomie
Anomie results when society does not provide legitimate means for achieving its goals;Individuals respond in one of four ways:
accept the goals and the means (conformity)accept the goals and reject the means (innovation)reject the goals and accept the means (ritualism)reject the goals and reject the means (retreatism)reject both goals and means and advocate for new ones (rebellion)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Cloward and Ohlin: Differential Opportunities
Merton’s Theory makes sense, except that the opportunities to deviate (e.g., innovate), vary depending on one’s statuses and roles
Access to desirable resources variesAccess to tools for acquiring resources variesPrison socializes criminals (e.g., gives them new tools for committing crimes)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Becker: Deviance as Learned Behavior
Deviance as socialization into an alternative set of norms
first one must learn the deviant behavior (technique)second one learns to perceive the effects (for Becker, the “high”)third one learns to enjoy the effects
Parents are concerned about their children’s peer groups because that is where kids learn to be deviant.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Learning to Strip
Which theory of deviance discussed so far best explains the choice of women to work in strip clubs as described in “Learning to Strip?”
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Labeling Theory“deviance” is in the response of the audience
Once labeled deviant (primary deviance)...
a person may act in, or be perceived to be acting in, other deviant ways in an attempt to shed the deviant label (secondary deviance)
Rosenhahn’s pseudopatients
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Goffman and StigmaA deviant label is a stigma
Stigmas create discredited identities; so
people try to hide their stigmas, when possible, in order to keep their discreditable identity from becoming discredited
How do the white-collar criminals in “Denying the Guilty Mind” evidence this behavior?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Techniques of NeutralizationDenial of responsibility–“It wasn’t my fault”Denial of injury–“No harm, no foul.”Denial of the victim–”He had it coming”Condemnation of the condemners–Who are you to criticize me?”
those who condemn an offense are doing so out of spite, or are shifting the blame off of themselve.
Appeal to higher loyalties–“I was trying to achieve a greater good” (e.g., protecting a friend”
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Functions of Deviance
Deviance reminds people of society’s norms
Deviance is how social change happens (e.g., women refusing to accept gender norms)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
“The criminal commits the crime, society creates the
criminal.”Deviance is not a property inherent in certain forms of behavior; it is a property conferred upon these forms by the audiences which directly or indirectly witness them. The critical variable in the study of deviance, then, is the social audience rather than the individual actor, since it is the audience which eventually determines whether or not any episode or behavior or class of episodes is labeled deviant. (Kai T. Erikson, “Notes on the Sociology of Deviance,” in H. Becker (ed.), The Other Side: Perspectives on Deviance, 1964).
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Cultural Capital and Deviance
If cultural capital is the “forms of knowledge, skills, education, and advantages that a person has, which give them a higher status in society;”
What is the relationship between cultural capital and deviance?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011