Constructing Deviance

Constructing Deviance

1. Moral Enterprise

   • Moral Entrepreneurs- people (rule creators) that make deviance
   • Moral Panic-created by rule creators; threat of society promotes terror. Goal to achieve dominance of moral perceptions/values.
   • Moral Conversion- rule creators convince others of their views

2. Social Power through Labeling- certain groups with high social power define deviance apply labels to others.

   • Money through politics/social class and laws through race/ethnicity/gender/age subordination
   • Privileged groups fight labels to maintain positive image

3. Drug Scares & Drug Laws

   • 1) Temperance Movement against alcohol (late 1800s). Ended with prohibition laws of 1919. Made alcohol scapegoat for deviance.
   • 3) Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914: 6 year nationwide scare against opiates/cocaine because of addict pop. shifting to white middle class to working class/African Americans.
   • 2) Antiopium den ordinance of 1875. First real drug law. Campaign targeted eliminating the mass of Chinese immigrants in tight job market.
   • 4) Illegalization of Weed in 1937: used racial fears, class conflict, & manipulated press, nicknaming it "killer weed" used solely for pleasure
   • Contain 7 Ingredients: (1 Kernel of Truth (2 Media Magnification (3 Politico-Moral Entrepreneurs (4 Professional Interest Groups (5 Historical Context of Conflict (6 Linking a Form of Drug Use to a "Dangerous Class" (7 Scapegoating a Drug for a Wide Array of Public Problems
   • Used to advance capitalism to build a post modern, mass consumption culture

4. Status Politics create successful moral crusades from privileged class. Moral entreprenuer mobilize power through threat & public awareness, create solution & overcome resistence.

   • ex: Anti-smoking campaign; successfully associated deviance w/lower classes

5. Reputations

   • Claimsmakers seek concern about social problems w/press, public, policymakers
   • Good or bad, they construct social problems
   • Blowback- unanticipated negative consequence of social action.
   • Claimsmaking Rhetoric via Disney
     • Christian Right- attacked Disney as a front for counter-cultural values via affiliates such as MIramax
     • Progressives- argue Disney teaches kids to learn capitalism, sexism, etc.
     • Social Scientists- megaconglomerate puts profit-making above all other goals

6. Legitimated Suppression of Minority Communties

   • Police gang units target Mexican people hidden via code words. Aggressive differential policing created divide w/barrio & police
   • Created "ecological contamination:" gangs are contagious in poor communities. Supports "minority group threat" theory- rise of ppl of color generates moral panic.
   • Police legitimatized social control of poor/minority communities to include perceived crime.

7. Homophobia & Women's Sport

   • Research concluded athletes have internalized social stereotypes- women athletes are lesbians & negativism toward lesbiansim.
   • Women athletes accepted stereotype and exhibit homophobia themselves
   • Created disempowerment for women athetes, reducing their potential. Actual lesbian athletes deny their status, making lesbian athlete invisible.

8. Mark of a Criminal Record

   • Having a criminal record leads to consequences of employment.
   • Race effects employment opportunities. Combined w/criminal record employment is near impossible
   • "Crime control" policies exacerbate the conditions that cause initial crime

9. Saints & Roughnecks

   • Roughneck youth was labeled deviant bc of poor class, though they were less deviant. Youths accepted label and most grew up to be deviants.
   • Saints, though more deviant than Roughnecks, were privileged class. Labeled as "good" and all but 1 grew up to be successful.
   • ex: Community reinforcement of class & deviance

10. Medical Crime & Deviance

    • Health care fraud $42 to $80 billion annually
    • Doctors use their altruistic image, social status, & self-regulation to create white collar deviance
    • Types
      • Billing Schemes- over, duplicate billing, or billing when no service provided
      • Prescription Violations- misprescribing/ overprescribing drugs
      • Unnecessary Treatments/Tests/Surgery
      • Medical Kickbacks- self-referrals, fee splitting
      • Medcaid Fraud
    • Effects: HMO's created to deter deviance. Corporatization altered view of doctors from altruistic to CEOs.