All Flashcards

Last problem was flashcards-test-rando (HELP)

---

General.

+ Put these authors (Hobbes, Aristotle, Durkheim, Freud, Lombroso, Merton, Katz, Anderson) in approximate chronological order

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

Hobbes(1588–1679)

Lombroso(1835–1909)

Durkheim(1858-1917)
Freud(1856-1939)

Merton 1910-2003

Katz (living)
Anderson (living)

+ Define altruism

Altruism is a general term for behavior that benefits others but not the actor herself. The definition is usually taken a step further to require behavior that comes at a cost to oneself. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness. It is distinguished from duty and loyalty and reciprocity.

+ What is the **id**?

In Freud's tripartite model of the self the three components are the id, the superego, and the ego. The id represents the unorganized part of the psyche in which are found the basic drives of the human animal (pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding). This seat of the "instincts" is unconscious — we are affected by it but not aware of it explicitly.

+ What is the **superego**?

In Freud's tripartite model of the self the three components are the id, the superego, and the ego. The superego represents the organized part of the psyche in which is found the perfectionistic control that opposes the id. The super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. In the context of this course, it represents the internalization of social controls.

+ How does Hobbes get from 'humans are more or less equal' to 'without government it's a war of all against all'?

Since humans are more or less equal is size and smarts, they don't tend to have natural hierarchies and so anyone of them is apt to attempt to take from any other at any time. Just when you think you are settled with something, someone will try to take it away.

+ What is an atavism?

An atavism is a trait from the evolutionary past that reappears in an organism. In early biological theories (e.g., Lombroso in late 19th century) of deviance it refers to "animal-like" traits (e.g., violence, greed, lack of cultivation) that civilized humans are thought to have lost but that show up in the "criminals among us." It's a logic that lets us think of humans as constantly evolving toward a better moral state but still having an explanation for why crime persists.

+ Give an example of relativism over time.  Across cultures.

Many possible answers.

+ What does the 'differential' in differential association refer to?

Differential association theory says that whom you associate with affects your values and behavior. If you more exposed to anti-social definitions, attitudes, and logics, then you will tend toward being delinquent. "Association" refers to social interaction — hanging out, interacting. The differential refers to the comparison between the fraction of your social world that orients you toward "the good" and the fraction that orients you toward "the bad."

---

Deviance, Conflict and Rebellion.

+ What idea adds does Agnew introduce to revise strain theory?

Previous versions of strain theory emphasized the blocking of legitimate means of obtaining socially sanctioned desires or pleasures. The revised strain theory adds to this the idea that sometimes legitimate means for avoiding pain may be blocked. A student may ditch school, for example, because she has no way of getting out of a bad classroom situation.

+ What are the three stages of badass-dom?

Being tough, alien, mean

+ Why is 'Righteous Slaughter' chapter in this section of the course?

A certain amount of interpersonal violence can only be explained by sudden situational snapping in which a person encounters a situation that is so thoroughly humiliating that they either act out or become symbolically annihilated. These can be seen almost as examples of "crime as social control."

---

Social Control and Amplification.

+ What is SECONDARY DEVIANCE?

solution

+ What do we mean by 'labels are sticky'?

The idea that once you are labeled, it is hard to get rid of that label. This tends to be for the worse not for the best. You are always an "ex-con" or "that person who was once charged with X." (AM)

---

Functions of Deviance.

+ Name and describe four ways deviance can be good for a group (Coser)

1. Deviance opposed and group benefits:
   • It can unite a community (a common enemy or scapegoat leads community to unite to fight against it)
   • By rejecting the deviant behavior a community re-emphasizes what is considered "right" and "NORMAL" behavior (punishing a kid who steals in school: a teacher uses that kid as a example to the other kids of what not to do).
2. Deviance accepted and group benefits
   • Tolerance and care for deviant can lead to group solidarity
3. Deviance can give a community or group members chance to examine own behavior and to re-affirm common values keep them in place)
4. Deviance can be a warning signal (canary in a coal mine)
5. Deviance can be a way to let off steam (Mardi Gras, for example)
6. Deviance can be a way that groups test new ways of doing things — innovation.

Contributions from AM

+ Describe three ways how combating deviance could be bad for a group

1. becomes too rigid, fails to adapt to change
2. too many resources dedicated to control
3. too much internal nastiness undermines groups solidarity

+ What did Kingsley Davis's article suggest was functional for middle class American society?

1. Prostitution

+ Coser makes much of Dentler and Erikson writing of deviance being functional in groups.  What were their examples?

1. Military units and Quakers

+ Distinguish LATENT from MANIFEST functions (Merton)

1. A manifest function is the intended and obvious consequence of an action, behavior, practice or institution for the social system. The manifest function of college is training and credentials.
2. A latent function is an unintended and perhaps unrecognized consequence that benefits the social system. A latent function of college might be creating social circles not based on family of origin and sorting people into marriage classes based on career and social class.

---

Moral Crusades, Claimsmaking, and Moral Panics

+ Distinguish moral crusader from moral entrepreneur

H Becker describes moral crusaders, rule creators, and moral entrepreneurs in the book Outsiders. The moral crusader is a self-righteous and fervent, certain of what is right and focused on what Weber would call the "ethic of ultimate ends." The rule creator sees herself as holy, as doing the right thing, and is only interested in seeing that people do what is right and that what is right it will be good for them. The crusader is out of a job if she is successful and so may turn into an entrepreneur who is more focused on the on-going task of rule enforcement. The crusader lives FOR the rule, the entrepreneur lives OFF the rule. (DR & AM)

+ Name and define the three main components of a argument (according to Toulmin)

1. Grounds are the facts or data upon which the argument is based
2. Conclusion is what you want the audience to come to believe or take as true
3. Warrants are the logic that connects grounds to conclusions.

+ What is 'claimsmaking' and how is it relevant to this course?

1. Claimsmaking is a term used by J. Best (in an article on the social construction of the missing children problem) and borrowed from the study of rhetoric. It refers to the use of language to make claims about something being a problem, about the need for a law or social control response to something. In sociology it means the ways that language is used to influence the collective understanding of what is deviance and what is not, what is a social problem and what is not. We study claimsmaking by looking at the arguments used by moral crusaders and analyzing them using tools borrowed from the study of rhetoric.

+ What event in American history was J Gusfield's 'Symbolic Crusade' about?

1. The temperance movement — from mid 19th to early 20th century.

+ Distinguish Katz from Willis: both urban ethnographers of youth, but...

1. Willis, in Learning to Labour focused on the "lads" and their position in the social structure.
2. Katz, in "Ways of the Badass" was interested in the inner experience of trying to act "bad"

+ Eli Anderson described two ideal types of inner-city family values.  Name and describe.

1. TBA

+ What is 'rhetoric'?

rhetoric.
"Rhetoric," as used in this course, is (1) the act of using language persuasively; (2) the persuasive use of language. These are the main senses outlined in the OED, which also records "ironical or jocular" uses from the late 16th century to the mid-19th century (such as this from 1742: "The rhetoric of John the hostler, with a new straw hat, and a pint of wine, made a second conquest over her"). Another contemporary use, related to but distinct from the first sense, is "the bombastic or disingenuous use of language to manipulate people." (AM)

+ Name/explain the several different types of warrants.

1. Generalization: What is true of a well choosen sample holds for a larger group
2. Analogy: Since A is like B, some aspects of A has analog to B
3. Sign/Clue: one thing is evidence of another. "Where there is smoke there is a fire"
4. Cause: A thing is a result of something else
5. Authority: X is a expert so what X says is so."right"
6. Principle: A widely accepted principle applies.

(AM)

+ Five components of a moral panic

1. rapidly spreading concern
2. growing hostility towards the group or practice
3. broad and unquestioned acceptance of the threat
4. disproportionality of response
5. volatility whereby the issue can disappear as quickly as it surfaced.

+ Identify five major drug scares, approximate time, and the demonized groups

Opium	late 1800s, early 1900s	Chinese, African American males	Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914
Marijuana	1930s	African Americans and Mexican Americans	Federal law 1937
LSD	1960s	Middle class youth rejecting mainstream values	Comprehensive Drug Abuse Control Act of 1970
Crack	1980s/1990s	Inner-city African Americans	New mandatory sentencing laws
MDMA, etc.	1990s/2000s	Slacker youth, ravers, etc.

+ According to Reinarman, 7 components of drug scare

1. A Kernel of Truth
2. Media Magnification
3. Politico-Moral Entrepreneurs
4. Professional Interest Groups
5. Historical Context of Conflict Linking a Form of Drug Use to a "Dangerous Class"
6. Scapegoating a Drug for a Wide Array of Public Problems

---

Social Control as Deviance Amplification.

               

+ Define the halo effect and explain its significance in this course

The halo effect refers to the idea that a certain trait about a individual influences how others judge other traits about that person. We might, for example, see a tall person, and assume that she is a leader or out spoken. One connection with this course is that labels have a halo effect. In fact, it is quite common for a deviant label to have a totalizing effect, completely washing over and redefining other character traits. (AM)

+ Becker's definition of deviance

"The product of a transaction that takes place between some social group and one who is viewed by the group as a rule-breaker."pp.10

+ What is an 'outsider'?

A political label given to people who deviate from the rules of a social group (?)

+ What does 'sub rosa' mean?

A Latin phrase often used in English and meaning "In secret or confidentially" — literally "under the rose." In organizational discourse it tends to mean "off the record." A related concept is the Chatham House Rule, a protocol that allows people to speak freely at meetings because of a collective agreement not to quote and attribute outside the meeting. (VB & DR)

+ Distinguish rule breaking behavior vs. deviance

Rule breaking behavior only becomes deviance when people react to it and label it as such. Howard Becker made a distinction between behavior that breaks rules or doesn't and behavior to which people react or not to yield a 2x2 table that included, famously, a cell for "secret deviance" — behavior that breaks the rules but no one knows about. (VB & DR)

---

Conventional Theories of Deviance.

+ Differential Association

Differential association is a theory associated with criminologist Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950) says criminal behavior (and the values and attitudes that go with it) is learned like other behaviors. It predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding. Sutherland also known for introducing the idea of "white collar crime" in the late 1930s.

+ What is the 'differential' and what is the 'association' in differential association?

In the term "differential association," the association refers to the fact that behavior is learned in interaction with others. The differential part refers to the idea that it's the difference between the pro-social messages you get and the anti-social messages you get that determines which direction you go.

+ Albert K. Cohen

Albert K. Cohen (1950s) is associated with "subculture theory." It said a subculture (norms, values, customs) develops in "slum areas" that encourages/supports criminal behavior. The underlying causes are strain — youth are taught to strive for success but most fail (or see their elders fail) which yields "status frustration" and an inclination to strike back at "the system" by turning one's backs on its values. Theory shows Cohen was student of Sutherland and Merton.

+ Five characteristics of Cohen's Gang/Criminal Subculture

Albert Cohen described five typical traits of the gang subculture:

1. anti-utilitarian — activity not always oriented toward material reward.
2. inversion of "mainstream" values, "mirror image of the American Dream"
3. malice: vandalism and property damage often motivated by contempt with intent to injure.
4. "short-termism" — living for the moment, no investment for long term
5. group loyalty as dominant value

+ What two social processes does Durkheim use to categorize suicide?

Social integration — how connected people are to one another or to their groups or how connected groups are.
Social regulation — how much control individuals feel from the collective.

+ Name four types of suicide and what excess or deficit each represents

altruistic — excess integration (all social, no individual)
fatalistic — excess regulation (no individual agency)
anomic — deficit regulation (nothing but individual agency)
egoistic — deficit integration (all individual, no social)

+ What two dimensions does Merton's anomie or strain theory use?

Accepting or rejecting social goals and values
Accepting or rejecting (or having access to) legitimate institutional means of achieving goals

+ What four 'types' emerge from Merton's typology of strain?

Note that a fifth is often added — replacement of both societal goals and legitimate means.

Adaptation	Cultural Goals	Institutionalized Means	Examples
Conformity	accept	accept
Innovation	accept	reject	Robber barons, "smarts," wheeling/dealing, tolerance for rogues, much white collar crime, organized crime.  Expect among lower class?
Ritualism	reject	accept	Is it deviant?  Giving up.  "I'm not sticking my head out?"  "Don't aim high and you won't be disappointed."  Expect among lower middle class?
Retreatism	reject	reject	Probably least common.  Psychotics, autists, pariahs, outcasts, vagrants, tramps, drug addicts.  Failure leads to giving up on the goals as well as the means.  Dropping out.
Rebellion	replace	replace	Reject status quo and actively attempt to set up alternative goals and means.

 

+ Explain the four/five 'types' emerge from Merton's typology of strain?

The following from James D. Orcutt's Deviance and Social Control course website

These "adaptations" describe social roles people adopt in response to cultural and structural pressures. Conformity, for instance, is a nondeviant adaptation where people engage in legitimate roles despite pressures toward deviant behavior. The conformist accepts and strives for the cultural goal of material success (+) by following institutionalized means (+). Innovation, on the other hand, involves acceptance of the cultural goal (+) but rejection of legitimate, institutionalized means (-). Instead, the innovator employs illegitimate means to obtain economic success. Merton proposes that innovation is particularly characteristic of the lower class—the location in the class structure where access to legitimate means is limited and the “strain toward anomie” is most severe. Driven by the dominant cultural emphasis on material goals, lower-class persons use illegitimate but expedient means to overcome structural blockages. Thus, Merton’s analysis of innovation, like Durkheim’s analysis of anomic suicide, arrives at an environmental/structural explanation of a set of social facts; i.e., high rates of lower-class crime and delinquency found in official records.

However, Merton goes on to explain a much broader range of deviant phenomena than just lower-class crime and delinquency. His third adaptation, ritualism, represents a different departure from cultural standards. The ritualist is an overconformist. The pursuit of the dominant cultural goal of economic success is rejected or abandoned (-) and compulsive conformity to institutional norms (+) becomes an end in itself. Merton argues that this adaptation is most likely to occur within the lower middle class where socialization emphasize strict discipline and rigid conformity to rules. It is exemplified by the behavior of the bureaucratic clerk who, denying any aspirations for advancement, becomes preoccupied with the ritual of doing it “by the book.” Since the ritualist outwardly conforms to norms, we might question, as does Merton, “whether this (adaptation) represents genuinely deviant behavior” (1957: 150).

Merton has no doubts about the deviant nature of his fourth adaptation, retreatism, the rejection of both cultural goals (-) and institutionalized means (-). Therefore, retreatism involves complete escape from the pressures and demands of organized society. Merton applies this adaptation to the deviant role “activities of psychotics, autists, pariahs, outcasts, vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, chronic drunkards, and drug addicts” (1957: 153). Merton provides few clues as to where in the class structure this adaptation is most likely. Retreatism is presented as an escape mechanism whereby the individual resolves internal conflict between moral constraints against the use of illegitimate means and repeated failure to attain success through legitimate means.

The final adaptation in Merton’s typology is rebellion. The rebel not only rejects the goals and means of the established society but actively attempts to substitute new goals and means in their place. This adaptation refers, then, to the role behavior of political deviants, who attempt to modify greatly the existing structure of society. The nonconforming rebel is not secretive as are aberrant deviants and is not merely engaging in behavior that violates the norms of society. The rebel acknowledges her intention to change norms and the social structure that they support to build a better society. Merton implies that rebellion is most characteristic of “members of a rising class” (1957: 157) inspired by ideologies that “locate the source of large-scale frustrations in the social structure and portray an alternative structure which would not, presumably, give rise to frustration of the deserving” (1957: 156).

The appeal of Merton’s theory and a major reason for its far-reaching impact upon the field of deviance lies in his ability to derive explanations of a diverse assortment of deviant phenomena from a relatively simple analytical framework (1957: 161—194; 1959; 1964; 1966; 1976).

Adapted from pp. 68-75 of James D. Orcutt, Analyzing Deviance, Dorsey Press, 1983.

+ What variation does Agnew's revised strain theory add to Merton's model?

Merton's model focuses on goal attainment (we might think of this as "pleasure" seeking) and seems to assume that deviance is always a matter of being diverted from a legitimate goal. Agnew suggests that another "normal" social behavior is pain-avoidance and that some social locations might provide no legitimate means to avoid pain and so a "deviant" path is chosen instead. Examples might be ditching school when it is intolerably boring, running away from a miserable home, or striking back at an abuser.

+ Explain and provide example for appeal to higher loyalties as a technique of neutralization. 

conflict of loyalties solved at the expense of victim or loyalty to law and society in favor of smaller group to which purpetrator owes some kind of allegiance. Psychologically we sometimes see people trying to take credit for their being faithful to the smaller group.

 

+ Explain and provide example for denial of responsibility as a technique of neutralization. 

unintentional
due to causes beyond one's control
allows one to deviate without making a frontal assault on norms

+ Explain and provide example for condemning condemners as a technique of neutralization. 

see condemners as hypocrites, etc.

+ Explain and provide example for denial of injury as a technique of neutralization. 

mala per se vs. mala prohibita
no one is hurt by action or victim can well afford it

+ Explain and provide example for denial of victim as a technique of neutralization. 

victim transformed into wrongdoer, into deserving it, etc.
perpetrator thinks of self as avenger
Robin Hood syndrome

+ Differential Association

Associated with Sutherland. The differential part refers to comparing relative influence of pro-delinquency interactions, definitions, others, etc. to those influences more in the direction of conformity.

---

Crime is Normal.

Plato's Charioteer Metaphor This is a model of human nature that shows up in lots of culture's mythologies. It says that humans have two sides, good and bad, that are always in tension and that the charioteer — the self — is responsible for controlling the balance.

+ Give examples of Collins' conservative, liberal, radical theories Conservative Liberal Radical See "Normalcy of Crime" by Randall Collins

+ Erikson definition

solution

+ Crime is normal v. pathological

solution

+ Shape of crime rates since 1960

solution

+ Emic/etic

An emic description of behavior or belief is one that is meaningful to the actor. An etic description is one that is meaningful to the observer.

+ Relativism

solution

+ Evidence for CIN

solution

+ Donut

See Lecture Slides

+ SC “selects” one behavior and converts to identity

solution

+ “It is not crime…”

solution

+ Centripetal v. centrifugal social forces

Centripetal forces in a society pull towards conformity. Centrifugal forces push towards diversity.

+ Deviance creates fellow feeling

Recognizing and reacting to deviation as a collective porvides an opportunity for separate individuals to merge their their personal sentiments and experience group solidarity.

+ Society of angels with examples

solution

---