Module 2 Study Guide

Module 2 Study Guide

1. Theories of Deviance

   • Structural Perspective
     • Durkheim
       • Morals that individuals are taught constrain their behavior
   • Cultural Perspective
     • Deviance as a collective act, driven and carried out by groups of people
   • Interactionist Perspective
     • Looks at every day life behavior

2. Chapter 6 - Functionalism: The Normal and the Pathological

   • There is no society that is not confronted with the problem of criminality
     • Normal = the existence of criminality, provided it doesn't exceed a certain level
     • Just because criminality is a normal part of society, doesn't mean it shouldn't be contained and dissuaded

3. Chapter 7 - Social Structure and Anomie

   • Discover how comw social structure exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconforming rather than conforming conduct
   • Patterns of Cultural Goals and Institutional Norms
     • Culturally defined goals, purposes and interests
       • Things worth striving for
     • Element of the cultural structure that defines, regulates and controls the acceptable modes of reaching out for these goals
   • Types of Individual Adaptation
     • Conformity
       • Conformity to both cultural goals and institutionalized means
     • Innovation
       • Success - Goal / Wealth & Power
     • Ritualism
       • Abandoning or scaling down of lofty cultural goals where one's aspirations can be satisfied
     • Retreatism
       • The rejection of cultural goals and institutional means (Least common)
     • Rebellion
       • Leads mean outside the environing social structure to a greatly modified social structure

4. Chapter 8 - Differential Association

   • Criminal behavior is learned
   • Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication
   • The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups
   • When criminal behavior is learned , the learned includes: techniques the specific direction of motive, drives, rationalizations and attitiudes
   • The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definition of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable
   • A person becomes delinquent because of 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.
   • The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning
   • While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values

5. Chapter 9 - Control Theory

   • Elements of the Bond
     • Attachment
       • Sensitivity
     • Commitment
       • Reputation
     • Involvement
       • Busy with conventional activities
     • Belief
       • Value system

6. Chapter 10 - Feminist Theory

   • A feminist approach to delinquency means construction of explanations of female behavior that are sensitive to it's patriarchal context
   • Criminalizing Girls Survival
     • Girls are more likely to be referred to court by "sources other than law enforcement" - such as parents
     • Girls are more likely to be victims of abuse
   • Female Delinquency, Patriarchal Authority and Family Courts
     • Throughout most of the courts history, virtually all female delinquency has been placed within the larger context of girls sexual behavior.
     • Research in both the dynamics of girls delinquency and official reactions to that behavior is essential to the development of theories of delinquency that are sensitive to it's patriarchal as well as class and racial context

7. Chapter 11 - The Constructionist Stance

   • The Emergence of Constructionism
     • Berge and Luckmann's: The Social Construction of Reality
     • Labeling Theory
       • Conflict theorists argued it ignored how elites shaped definitions of deviance
   • The Constructionist Response
     • The sociology of social problems
     • Flexible
   • The Return to Deviance
     • Continuation of earlier research on the labeling process
   • Constructionism's Domain
     • How forms of deviance emerge and evolve
     • Deviance, like all reality, is constantly being constructed