Sociology Chapter 6 – Deviance and Crime – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Unlock answers
question
gang
answer
according to sociologist and criminologist: an ongoing group of people often young, who band together for purposes generally considered to be deviant or criminal by the larger society
question
deviance
answer
* any behavior, belief, condition that violates social norms in the society or group in which it occurs EX: drinking too much, robbing a bank, laughing at a funeral * Modes of action that do no conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society. What is regarded as deviant is as variable as the norms and values that distinguish different cultures and subcultures from one another. Forms of behavior that are highly esteemed by one group are regarded negatively by others * varies in degree of seriousness
question
Deviance in Society
answer
* can vary from culture to culture * can vary from time to time within the same culture * through social change, what was once deviant can become the "norm"
question
behavioral deviance
answer
based on a person's intentional or inadvertent actions * most familiar
question
belief system
answer
the basis for a set of beliefs * many people may be regarded as a deviant if they express a radical or unusual belief system (not just regarded as a type of behavior)
question
Stigma
answer
Refers to any physical or social attribute or sign that so devalues a person's social identity that it disqualifies the person from full social acceptance.
question
Deviant is Relative
answer
Refers to an act becomes deviant when it is socially defined as such.
question
Crime
answer
Refers to a behavior that violates criminal law and is punishable with fine, jail terms, and/or other negative sanctions. * A violation of a norm that has been entered into the law and is backed by the power and authority of the state * Any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority. Although we may think of criminals as a distinct subsection of the population, there are few people who have not broken the law in one way or another during their lives. While laws are formulated by state authorities, it is not unknown for those authorities to engage in criminal behavior in certain situaitons
question
Juvenile Delinquency
answer
Refers to a violation of law or the commission of a status offense by young people.
question
Social Control
answer
Refers to the systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance. * Society's effort to regulate itself; those mechanisms by which social norms are upheld and by which their actual or potential violation is restrained
question
internal social control
answer
Type of social control mechanism that takes place through socialization process where societal norms and values that prescribe how people should behave and then follow those norms and values in their everyday lives.
question
External Social Control
answer
Type of social control mechanism that involves the use of negative sanctions that proscribe certain behaviors and set forth the punishments for rule breakers and nonconformists; like the criminal justice system, which includes the police, the courts, and the prisons.
question
Criminology
answer
Refers to the systematic study of crime and the criminal justice systme, including the police, courts, and prisons.
question
Deviance (the cause according to Emile Durkheim)
answer
Durkheim believed that deviance is rooted in societal factors such as rapid social change and lack of social integration among people
question
Anomie
answer
Refers to a social condition in which people experience a sense of futility because social norms are weak, absent, or conflicting. * A concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Durkheim, referring to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior
question
social integration
answer
bonding and community involvement * Durkheim believed that as social integration decreased, deviance and crime increased
question
contemporary functionalist theorist
answer
suggest that deviance is universal because it serves three important functions: 1. deviance clarifies rules 2. deviance unites a group 3. deviance promotes social change
question
Functionalist Perspective on deviance
answer
clarifies rules, unites a group, and promotes social change
question
Strain Theory
answer
According to this theory, people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving goals. * Robert Merton modified Durkheim's concept of anomie and developed the strain theory
question
Merton's Strain Theory of Deviance (mode of adaptation)
answer
Merton identified five ways in which people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them: Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion
question
Conformity
answer
It occurs when people accept culturally approved goals and pursue them through culturally approved means. (Merton)
question
Innovation
answer
It happens when people accept culturally approved goals; adopts disapproved means of achieving them. (Merton)
question
Ritualism
answer
It occurs when people abandon/give up on societal goals but still adhere to the socially approved means of achieving them. (Merton)
question
Retreatism
answer
It occurs when people abandon both approved goals and the approved means of achieving them. (Merton)
question
Rebellion
answer
It occurs when people challenge both the approved goals and the approved means for achieving them and advocate an alternative set of goals or means. (Merton)
question
Opportunity Theory
answer
Expanding on Merton's strain theory, sociologist Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin suggested that for deviance to occur, people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures.
question
Illegitimate Opportunity Structures
answer
Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.
question
Criminal Gang
answer
They are devoted to theft, extortion, and other illegal means of securing an income.
question
Conflict Gang
answer
They emerge in communities that do not provide either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities.
question
Retreatist Gang
answer
They are unable to gain success through legitimate means and are unwilling to do so through illegal ones.
question
Conflict Perspective on deviance
answer
Power is central, marxist/critical theory, feminist perspectives and the confluence of race, class and gender
question
Deviance and Power Relations
answer
According to this approach, norms and laws are established for the benefit of those in power and do not reflect any absolute standard of right and wrong.
question
Deviance and Capitalism
answer
It is based on the assumption that the laws and the criminal justice system protect the power and the privilege of the capitalist class.
question
Emancipation Feminist Approaches
answer
Freda Adler and Rita James Simon's declared in two books that women's crime rates were going to increase significantly as a result of the women's liberation movement.
question
Liberal Feminist Approach
answer
According to this approach, women's deviance and crime are a rational response to the gender descrimination that women experience in families and the workplace.
question
Radical Feminist Approach
answer
This approach views the cause of women's crime as originating in patriarchy. It focuses on social forces that shape women's lives and experience and shows how exploitation may trigger deviant behavior and criminal activities.
question
Marxist (socialist) Feminist Approach
answer
This approach is based on the assumption that women are exploited by both capitalism and patriarchy because most females have relatively low-wage jobs and few economic resources.
question
Differential Association Theory
answer
States that people have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when frequently associate with individuals who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity.
question
Diferential Reinforcement Theory
answer
States that both deviant behavior and conventional behavior are learned through the same social process.
question
Control Theory
answer
A theory that views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and controls that deter it. Control theorists hold that criminals are rational beings who will act to maximize their own reward unless they are rendered unable to do so through either social or physical controls * According to the sociologist Walter Reckless, society produces pushes and pulls that move people towards criminal behavior.
question
Inner Containments
answer
(Control Theory) Refers to self control, sense of responsibilities, and resistance to diversion.
question
Outer Containments
answer
(Control Theory) Refers to supportive family and friends, reasonable social expectations, and supervision by others.
question
Social Bond Theory
answer
Holds that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person's ties to society are weakened or broken.
question
Social Bond (according to Hirschi)
answer
consist of: 1) attachment to other people, 2) commitment to conformity, 3) involvement in conventional activities, and 4) belief in the legitimacy of conventional values and norms.
question
Labeling Theory
answer
States that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviants, and they, in turn, come to accept the label placed upon them and begin to act accordingly. * The theory that people come to acquire a deviant social identity and pursue a deviant lifestyle because others have labeled them deviant and cut them off from the social mainstream
question
moral entrepeneurs
answer
(according to Howard Becker) often the ones who create the rules about what constitutes deviant or conventional behavior
question
Primary Deviance
answer
Stage in labeling theory which refers to initial act of breaking the rules.
question
Secondary Deviance
answer
Stage in labeling theory which occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts that the new identity and continues the deviant behavior.
question
Tertiary Deviance
answer
Stage in labeling theory which occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.
question
post modern perspective on deviance
answer
(knowledge is power) powerful exert control over the powerless by taking away free will to think and act, as they might choose
question
Panoptican
answer
A structure that gives prison officials the possibility of complete observation of criminals at all times.
question
Felony
answer
Refers to a serious crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment typically ranges from more than a year's imprisonment to death.
question
Misdemeanor
answer
Refers to minor crime that is typically punished by less than one year in jail.
question
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
answer
Major source of information on crimes reported in the United States. * Documents that contain official data on crime that is reported to law enforcement agencies who then provide the data to the FBI
question
Violent Crime
answer
Crimes that consists of actions like murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault involving force or the threat of force against others.
question
Property Crime
answer
Crimes that includes burglary (breaking into private property to commit a serious crime), motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft (theft of property worth $50 or more, and arson.
question
Public Order Crime
answer
Crimes that involves an illegal action voluntarily engaged in by the participants, such as prostitution, illegal gambling, the private use of illegal crimes, and illegal pornography.
question
Victimless Crimes
answer
Crimes that involve a willing exchange of illegal goods or service among adults.
question
Occupational Crime
answer
Crime that comprises illegal activities commited by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.
question
Corporate Crime
answer
Illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.
question
Organized Crime
answer
Business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.
question
Political Crime
answer
Refers to the illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials, or illegal/unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it
question
Terrorism
answer
Refers to the calculated, unlawful use of physical force or threats of violence against persons or property in order to intimidate or coerce a government, organization, or individual for the purpose of gaining some political, religious, economic, or social objective.
question
Criminal Justice System
answer
the local, state, and federal agencies that enforce laws, adjudicate crimes, and treat and rehabilitate criminals * is made up of many bureaucracies that have considered discretion in how decisions are made.
question
Descretion
answer
refers to the use of personal judgment by police officers, prosecutors, judges, and other criminal justice system officials regarding whether and how to proceed in a given situation
question
racial profiling
answer
the use of ethnic or racial background as a means of identifying criminal suspects
question
sworn officers
answer
those who have taken an oath and been given the powers to make arrests and use necessary force in accordance with their duties
question
community-oriented policing
answer
an approach to law enforcement in which officers maintain a presence in the community, walking up and down the streets or riding bicycles, getting to know people, and holding public service meetings at schools, churches and other neighborhood settings. * often limited by budget constraints and the lack of available personnel to conduct this type of "hands on" community involvement.
question
structured sentencing (aka determinate or mandatory sentencing)
answer
sets the term of imprisonment at a fixed period of time for specific offense * are established by law and require that a person convicted of a specific offense or series of offenses be given a penalty within a field range
question
parens patriae (state as parent)
answer
doctrine where official purpose of juvenile courts has been to care for, rather than punish youthful offenders. * in theory, less weight is given to offenses and more weight to the youths physical, mental, or social conditions
question
punishment
answer
any action designed to deprive a person of things of value (including liberty) because of some offense the person is thought to have committed
question
punishment (four major goals)
answer
retribution, general deterrence, incapacitation & rehabilitation
question
retribution
answer
(one of four major goals of punishment) is punishment that a person receives for infringing on the rights of others * imposes a penalty on the offender and is based on the premise that the punishment should fit the crime
question
general deterrence
answer
(one of four major goals of punishment) seeks to reduce criminal activity by instilling a fear of punishment in the general public
question
specific deterrence
answer
inflicts punishment on specific criminals to discourage them from committing future crimes
question
recidivists
answer
previous offenders who commit new crimes
question
incapacitation
answer
(one of four major goals of punishment) based on the assumption that offenders who are detained in prison or are executed will be unable to commit additional crimes * this approach often expressed as "lock'em up and throw away the key"
question
selective incapacitation
answer
which means that offenders who repeat certain kinds of crimes are sentenced to long prison terms
question
rehabilitation
answer
(one of four major goals of punishment) seeks to return offenders to the community as law-abiding citizens by providing therapy or vocational or educational training. * offenders are treated not punished, so that they will not continue their criminal activity
question
restoration
answer
designed to repair the damage done to the victim and the community by a offenders criminal act
question
restorative justice perspective
answer
which states that the criminal justice system should promote a peaceful and just society; therefore, the system should focus on peacemaking rather than on punishing offenders
question
corrections
answer
instead up the term punishment, this term is often used and refers not only to prisons and jails but also to a number of programs and organizations that manage individuals who have been either accused or convicted of crimes
question
Innovation
answer
Occurs when people accept society's goals but adopt disapproved means for achieving them.
question
Corporate Crimes
answer
Illegal activity committed on behalf of a formal organization
question
Differential Association
answer
The process by which individuals are socialized into the patterns of behavior that prevail in a particular group w/ which they associate the most
question
Formal Sanctions
answer
Official pressure to conform to social norms and values specifically enforced by organizations such as police departments, courts, and prisons
question
Informal Sanctions
answer
Unofficial pressures to conform including disapproval, ridicule, and the threat of ostracism
question
Innovation
answer
Pursuing culturally approved goals by deviant means (Merton)
question
Organized Crime
answer
A continuing conspiracy operating for profit and power and seeking immunity from the law through fear or corruption; specializes in providing illegal good/services
question
Plea Bargaining
answer
The process in which a district attorney offers to reduce charges if a suspect will plead guilty and relinquish the right to a trial
question
Primary Deviance
answer
The initial violation of a social norm, about which no inferences are made regarding the motives or the character of the person who committed the act
question
Sanctions
answer
Rewards for conforming to a social norm or penalties for violating it
question
Secondary Deviance
answer
A pattern by which people come to define themselves as deviants and undertake life patterns as a reaction to their being labeled deviants by others
question
Victimless Crimes
answer
Crimes that lack victims, except perhaps the people who commit them
question
Violent Crimes
answer
Crimes such as murder, assult, and rape that involve an act of physical violence against the victim
question
White-Collar Crime
answer
Crime committed by high-status individuals in the course of their occupations
question
Norms
answer
Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a give range of social situations. A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it. All human groups follow definite norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another-varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment
question
Deviant Subculture
answer
A subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority
question
Sanction
answer
A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior
question
Law
answer
A rule of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power
question
Psychopath
answer
A specific personality type, such individuals lack the moral sense and concern for others held by most normal people
question
Differential Association
answer
An interpretation of the development of criminal behavior proposed by Edwin H. Sutherland, according to whom criminal behavior is learned through association with others who regularly engage in crime
question
New Criminology
answer
A branch of criminological thought, prominent in Great Britain in the 1970s, that regarded deviance as deliberately chosen and often political in nature. The new criminologists argued that crime and deviance could be understood only in the context of power and inequality within society
question
Primary Deviance
answer
According to Edwin Lemert, the actions that cause others to label one as deviant
question
Secondary Deviance
answer
According to Edwin Lemert, following the act of primary deviance ______ occurs when an individual accepts the label of deviant and acts accordingly
question
White-Collar Crime
answer
Criminal activities carried out by those in white-collar, or professional, jobs
question
Corporate Crime
answer
Offenses committed b large corporations in society. Examples include pollution, false advertising, and violations of health and safety regulations
question
Organized Crime
answer
Criminal activities carried out by organizations established as businesses
question
Community Policing
answer
A renewed emphasis on crime prevention rather than law enforcement to reintegrate policing within the community
question
Target Hardening
answer
Practical measures used to limit a criminal's ability to commit crime, such as community policing and use of house alarms
question
Shaming
answer
A way of punishing criminal and deviant behavior based on rituals of public disapproval rather than incarceration. The goal of _____ is to maintain the ties of the offender to the community
question
Crimes committed by a person in top positions in business have a _______ economic cost, especially for tax payers, than street crime. (greater, lower)
answer
greater
question
Gangs are frequently thought of as a ________ problem because gangs organized around drug dealing have become prominent (urban/ rural)
answer
urban
question
Relativity of Deviance
answer
an act becomes deviant when it is socially defined as such by a place, time, personal consequence
question
Positivists view on deviance
answer
real, observable object and determined behavior
question
constructionists view on deviance
answer
a label, defined as such at a given time and place, subjective experience, and voluntary act
question
marxist/ critical conflict theory
answer
emphasizes relationship between deviance and capitalism
question
symbolic interactionist perspective on deviance
answer
differential association theory, burgess and akers, rational choice theory, hirschos social control theory, labeling theory,
question
SI differential association theory
answer
deviance is learned through face to face interaction
question
SI burgess and akers
answer
differential re-enforcement and includes operant conditioning
question
SI rational choice theory
answer
when a person weighs the cost and benefits of nonconventional behavior
question
Hurschi's sociol contron/ bonding theory
answer
four bonds of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief an individual my have to society
question
felonies
answer
a year or longer punishment
question
primary deviance
answer
initial rule breaking
question
secondary deviance
answer
new identity accepted, deviance continues
question
tertiary deviance
answer
individual relabels behavior as nondeviant
question
misdemeanor
answer
less than a year of punishment
question
conventional (street) crime
answer
violent crime, property crime, public order crime
question
violent crime
answer
murder, rape, robe eery and aggravated assault
question
property crime
answer
burgulary, motor vehicle theft, larceny theft and arson
question
occupational (white-collar) crime
answer
illegal activities committed in the course of a persons employment or financial affairs
question
organized crime
answer
business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit
Get an explanation on any task
Get unstuck with the help of our AI assistant in seconds
New