7-1

Richard T. Schaefer

SOCIOLOGY:
A Brief Introduction
Seventh Edition

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 chapter
7
Deviance and Social Control
CHAPTER OUTLINE

•Social Control
•Deviance
•Crime
•Social Policy and Social Control: The Death
Penalty in the United States and Worldwide

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 7-3

A Look Ahead
█ When does conformity verge on deviance?
█ How does a society manage to control its
members and convince them to conform to
its rules and laws?
█ What are the consequences of deviance?

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 7-4

Social Control
█ Techniques and strategies are employed
for preventing deviant human behavior in
any society

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 7-5

Conformity and Obedience

█ Conformity: going along with peers who
have no special right to direct behavior
█ Obedience: compliance with higher

authorities in an hierarchical structure

█ Sanctions: Penalties and rewards for

conduct concerning a social norm

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 7-6

Informal and
Formal Social Control
█ Informal social control: used casually to
enforce norms
█ Formal social control: carried out by

authorized agents

Interplay between formal and informal social

control can be complicated, especially if
people are encourage to violate social norms

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 7-7

Law and Society

█ 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

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 7-8

Figure 7-1: The Status

of Medical Marijuana

Source: Developed by author based on data from L. Greenhouse 2005 and Marijuana Policy Project 2004, 2006.

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 7-9

What is 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

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 7-10

What is Deviance?
█ Deviance and Social Stigma
– 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
– In general, sociologists reject any emphasis
on the genetic roots of crime and deviance
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 7-11

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
• Conformist
• Innovator
• Ritualist
• Retreatist
• Rebel
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 7-12

Table 7-1: Modes of

Individual Adaptation

Source: Adapted from Merton 1968:194.

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 7-13

Interactionist Perspective
█ 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)

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 7-14

Interactionist Perspective
█ Routine Activities Theory
– 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

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 7-15

Interactionist Perspective
█ Social Constructionist Perspective
– Deviance is the product of the culture we
live in
– Focus on decision-making process that
creates the deviant identity

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 7-16

Conflict Theory
█ People with power protect their own
interests and define deviance to suit
their own needs
– Differential justice: differences in the way
social control is exercised over different
groups

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 7-17

Feminist Perspective
█ Society tends to treat women in
stereotypical fashion
█ Cultural views and attitudes toward
women influence how they are perceived
and labeled
– As women take more active and powerful
roles in the household and in business,
gender differences in deviance and crime
have narrowed
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 7-18

Table 7-2: Sociological

Perspectives on Deviance

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 7-19

Crime
█ Crime: violation of criminal law, for
which some governmental authority
applies formal penalties
█ Index crimes
– Murder – Burglary
– Rape – Theft
– Robbery – Motor vehicle theft
– Assault – Arson

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 7-20

Types of Crime
█ Laws divide crimes into categories:
– Severity of offense
– Age of offender
– Potential punishment
– Jurisdiction

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 7-21

Types of 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
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 7-22

Types of Crime
█ White Collar and Technology-Based
Crime
– White collar crime: illegal acts committed
in the course of business activities
– Computer crime: use of high technology to
carry out embezzlement or electronic fraud
– Corporate crime: any act by a corporation
that is punishable by the government

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 7-23

Types of Crime
█ Transnational crime
– Crime that occurs across multiple national
borders
– International crime spans the globe

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 7-24

Table 7-3: Types of

Transnational Crime

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

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 7-25

Understanding Crime Statistics

█ Reported crime is very high in
the U.S., so public regards crime as
major social problem
– Only track crimes that are reported to law
enforcement agencies
– Victimization surveys: surveys of ordinary
people, not police officers, to determine
whether they have been victims of crime

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 7-26

Understanding Crime Statistics

█ International Crime Rates
– 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

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 7-27

Figure 7-2:
Victimization Rates, 1973-2004

Source: Catalano 2005:1.

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 7-28

Table 7-4: National Crime Rates

and Percentage Change

Source: Department of Justice 2005:Table 1.

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 7-29

The Death Penalty in the

United States and Worldwide
█ The Issue
– Historically, execution has been significant
form of punishment for deviance from social
norms and criminal behavior
– Can the government prevent the execution
of innocent people?
– Is life in prison enough of a punishment for
truly heinous crimes

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 7-30

The Death Penalty in the

United States and Worldwide
█ The Setting
– Fewer than half of all nations allow the
death penalty
– Within the U.S., 38 states, the military, and
the federal government continue to
sentence convicted felons to death for
selected crimes

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 7-31

The Death Penalty in the

United States and Worldwide
█ Sociological Insights
– Traditionally focused on the death penalty’s
appropriateness as a form of punishment
and its value in deterring crime
– The conflict perspective emphasizes the
persistence of social inequality

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 7-32

The Death Penalty in the

United States and Worldwide
█ Policy Initiatives
– Most people, when confronted with a
horrendous crime, feel the death penalty
should be available
– In U.S., fairly rare that death penalty is
assessed
– International attention focuses on nations
where executions are relatively common,
such as China and Iran
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 7-33

Figure 7-3: Executions

by State since 1976

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, February 7, 2006.

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.