According to functionalists, deviance actually promotes a feeling of solidarity in a group.

Sociological explanation of deviance:

• The nature of deviance is not only in the personality of the deviant person, not is it inherently in the deviant act itself, but instead it is a significant part and product of the social structure

• Behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms

4 identifying characteristics of deviance:

• Deviance emerges in a social context, not just the behavior of individuals; sociologists see deviance in terms of group processes and judgements
• Not all behaviors are judged similarly by all groups; what is deviant to one group may be normative to another
• Established rules and norms are socially created, not just morally decided or individually imposed
• Deviance lies not just in behavior itself but in the social responses of groups to behavior by others
  

• Behavior that breaks laws or official rules
• EX: crime
  

• Behavior that violates customary norms
  

• Recognizes that deviance is not just in the breaking of norms or rules but it includes how people react to those behaviors

How do social groups create deviance?

• By making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders

• Argued that societies actually need deviance to know what presumably normal behavior is
• Considered deviance "functional" for society
• *Deviance produces social solidarity. Instead of breaking society up, deviance produces a pulling together, or social solidarity
  

Social movements ( influence deviance?)

• Network of groups that organize to support or resist changes in society
• Success of movements come from the mobilization of constituencies able to articulate to the public
  

Medicalization of deviance

• Attributes deviant behavior to a "sick" state of mind, where the solution is to "cure" the deviant through therapy or other psychological treatment

Sociologists criticism of medicalization of deviance:

• Ignoring the effects of social structures on the development of deviant behavior
• Is not a pathological state but an an adaptation to the social structure in which people live

• Must consider factors such as family background, social class, racial inequality, and the social structure of gender relations in society produce deviance

(Theoretical perspective that interprets all parts of society, even those that may seem dysfunctional)

• Deviance creates social cohesion
• Deviance results from structural strains in society
• Deviance occurs when people's attachment to social bonds is diminished
  

Emile Durkheim: Study of Suicide

• Central concern is how society maintains its coherence (social order)
• First to argue that the causes of suicide were to be found in social factors, not individual personalities
• Argued that suicide rates are affected by the different social contexts in which they emerge
  

• Condition that exists when social regulations in a society break down: The controlling influences of society are no longer effective, and people exist in a state of relative normlessness
• Anomie refers not to an individual's state of mind, but instead to social conditions
  

• Occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone
• EX: teenage suicide- feelings of depression and hopelessness
  

• Occurs when there is excessive regulation of individuals by social forces
• EX: someone who commits suicide for the sake of religious or political causes
• Arises when individuals are excessively dominated by the expectations of their social group
• People who commit altruistic suicide subordinate themselves to collective expectations, even when death is the result
  

• Occurs when people feel totally detached from society
• Elderly lose many of their functional ties to society (highest rate of suicide)

• Suicide is a social, not just an individual phenomenon

Egoistic suicide characteristics (Rampage shootings)

• All 4 had been socially isolated, even from once close friends
• Each had frequently delivered verbally disjointed and aggressive outbursts in the classroom, thus displaying troubled social interactions
• Each had previously vaguely hinted that they wanted to be famous for a single act of some sort
• Finally, each act of each of the 4 individuals took place in the social context of a culture that decidedly encourages gun ownership
  

Robert Merton: Structural Strain Theory

• Traces the origins of deviance to the tensions caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available to achieve those goals
• Societies are characterized by both cultural and social structure can actually compel the individual into deviant behavior
• Structural strain produces deviance (lower class individuals)
• Explains the high correlation that exists between unemployment and crime
  

• Likely to occur when the goals are accepted and the means for attaining the goals are made available to the individual by the social structure

If conformity does not occur:

• Then cultural-structural strain exists, and at least one of four possible forms of deviance is likely to result: innovative deviance, ritualistic deviance, retreatism deviance, or rebellion

• Becomes likely when neither the goals nor the means are available
• EX: Severe alcoholic or the homeless person
  

• Illustrated in the case of some eating disorders among college women, such as bulimia

• Form of dviance is likely to occur when new goals are substituted for more traditional ones, and also new means are undertaken to replace older ones, as by force or armed combat
• EX: KKK, skinheads
  

• A type of functionalist theory, suggests that deviance occurs when a person's attachment to social bond is weakened
• Assumes that there is a common value system within society and breaking allegiance to that value system is the source of social deviance

• Emphasis on social structure, not individual action
• Highly sociological
• What appears to be deviant, may actually serve various purposes for society

Functionalism: Weaknesses

• It does not explain how norms of deviance are first established
• Little explanation as to why some behaviors are defined as normative and others as illegitimate
• Overlook the injustices that labeling someone deviant can produce
• Too easily assumes that deviance has a positive role in society
  

(Emphasizes the unequal distribution of power and resources in society)

• Dominant classes control the definition of and sanctions attached to deviance
• Deviance results from social inequality in society
• Elite deviance and corporate deviance go largely unrecognized and unpunished
• Sees crime in terms of power relationships and economic inequality
  

• Functionalist and conflict theory
• Both look at the structure of society as a whole in developing explanations of deviant behavior
  

• Crime committed within the legitimate context of doing business

• Refers to the wrongdoing of wealthy and powerful individuals and organizations
• Include tax evasion; illegal campaign contributions; corporate scandals such as fraudulent accounting practices that endanger or deceive the pubic but profit the corporation or individual within; and even gov't actions that abuse public trust
  

• Process by which groups and individuals within those groups are brought into conformity with dominant social expectations

• Those who regulate and administer the response to deviance, such as the police and mental health workers
  

Conflict Theory: Strengths

• Insight into the significance of power relationships in the definition, identification, and handling of deviance
• Offers a powerful analysis of how the injustices of society produce crime and result in different systems of justice for disadvantaged and privileged groups
  

Conflict Theory: Weaknesses

• Laws protect most people, not just the affluent
• Less effective in explaining other forms of deviance
  

Symbolic Interaction Theory

Holds that people behave as they do because of the meanings people attribute to situations. Emphasizes the meanings surrounding deviance as well as how people respond to those meanings

• Deviance is a learned behavior, reinforced through group membership
• Deviance results from the process of social labeling, regardless of the actual commission of deviance
• Those with the power to assign deviant labels themselves produce deviance
  

W.I. Thomas and the Chicago School

• First to develop a sociological perspective on social deviance
• Explained deviance as a normal response to the social conditions in which people find themselves
• Saw deviance as a problem of social conditions, not individual character or individual personality
  

Differential Association Theory

• Interpret deviance, including criminal behavior, as behavior one learns through interaction with others
  

Differential Association Theory: Critics

• Tends to blame deviance on the values of particular groups

• Interprets the response of others as the most significant factor in understanding how deviant behavior is both created and sustained
• 
  

• Is the assignment or attachment of a deviant identity to a person by others, including agents of social institution
• Once a label is applied, it is difficult for the deviant to shed the label
  

• Definition a person has of himself or herself as a deviant
• Emerge overtime
• Involves a process of social transformation in which a new self-image and new public definition of a person emerges
  

• A direct outgrowth of the labeling process- is the sequence of movements people make through a particular subculture of deviance
• Are socialized into new "occupational" roles and encouraged, both materially and psychologically to engage in deviant behavior
• May be rites of passages that brings increased social status among peers
  

• Groups organized around particular forms of social deviance
• Maintain their own values, norms, and rewards
• Joining a deviant community closes one off from conventional society and solidifies deviant careers
• Disapproval from the out-group may only enhance one's status within the group

Labeling Theory: Strengths

• Recognition that the judgements people make about presumably deviant behavior have powerful social effects

Labeling Theory: Weaknesses

• Doesn't explain why deviance occurs in the first place

Mental Illness: Functionalist theory

Suggests that by recognizing mental illness, society also upholds normative values about more conforming behavior

Mental Illness: Symbolic Interaction Theory

• That mentally ill people are not necessarily "sick" but rather are the victims of societal reactions to their behavior

Mental Illness: Labeling Theory and Conflict Theory

• Suggests that those people with the fewest resources are most likely to be labeled mentally ill
  

Explanation for the correlation between mental illness and social status

• Stresses of being in a low-income group, being a racial minority, or being a woman in a sexist society all contribute to higher rates of mental illness; the harsher social environment is a threat to mental health
• The same behavior that is labeled mentally ill for some groups may be tolerated and not labeled in others
  

• Attribute that is socially devalued and discredited
• Some result in people being labeled deviant

• A characteristic of a person that overrides all other features of the person's identity
  

• One form of deviance, specifically behavior that violates particular criminal laws

• Study of crime from a scientific perspective

Functionalist Theory: Crime and Criminal Justice

• Societies require a certain level of crime in order to clarify norms
• Crime results from social structural strains (such as class inequality) within society
• Crime may be functional to society thus difficult to eradicate
  

Symbolic Interaction Theory: Crime and Criminal Justice

• Crime is behavior that is learned through social interaction
• Labeling criminals tends to reinforce rather than deter crime
• Institutions with the power to label, such as prisons, actually produce rather than lessen crime
  

Conflict Theory: Crime and Criminal Justice

• The lower the social class, the more the individual is forced into criminality
• Inequalities in society by race, class, gender, and other forces tend to produce criminal activity
• Reducing social inequality in society is liekly to reduce crime
  

• Include the violent crimes of murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, plus property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft

• Violent or nonviolent crimes directed against people
• EX: murder, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery
  

• Refer to assaults and other malicious acts motivated by various forms of social bias, including that based on religion, sexual orientation, ethnic/national origin, or disability
  

• Involve theft or property without threat of bodily harm
• EX: burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson
  

• Violate laws but are not listed in the FBI's serious crime index
• EX: illicit activities such as gambling, illegal drug use, and prostitution in which there is no complaint
  

• Refers to criminal activities by people of high social status who commit their rimes in the context of their occupation

• A con game whereby a central person (Mr. Madoff) collects money from a large number of people, including friends and relatives, and then promises to invest their dollars with a high rate of interest for them
• Using cash from newer investors to pay off older ones
  

• Large numbers of recent investors at the bottom of the pyramid and smaller numbers of the older investors at the top
• EX: Ponzi scheme
  

• Crime committed by structured groups typically involving the provision of illegal goods and services to others
• EX: drug trade, illegal gambling, prostitution, weapons smuggling, or money laundering
  

Corporate crime and deviance

• Wrongdoing that  occurs within the context of a formal organization or bureaucracy and is actually sanctioned by the norms and operating principles of bureaucracy
  

Race, class, gender, and crime

• Certain groups are more likely to commit crime than others because crime is distinctively linked to patterns of inequality in society
  

• Strong correlation between social class and crime, the poor being more likely than others to be arrested for crimes
• Those who are economically deprived often see no alternative to crime, as Merton's structural strain theory would predict
  

• Rape committed by an acquaintance or someone the victim has just met
• Sociologists have argued that the causes of rape lie in women's status in society- that women are treated as sexual objects for men's pleasure
  

• Is the use of race alone as the criterion for deciding whether to stop and detain someone on suspicion of his having committed a crime

• Most cases involve minority citizens, and there is usually no penalty for the officers involved

• Reflects the racial and class stratification and biases in society
• Disproportionately propels Blacks and Hispanics into prison at a greater rate than same-aged Whites who have the same criminal record
  

• The form of terrorism involving the dispersion of chemical or biological substances intended to cause widespread disease and death

• The use of the computer to commit one or more terrorist acts
• EX: data destroying computer viruses may be implanted electronically in an enemy's computer
  

How does deviance contribute to group solidarity quizlet?

Which is true of deviance according to the structural functionalist perspective?

How is deviance functional for society?

How does deviance unify a group?