Module 2

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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are unclear or are no longer applicable.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.