WGU C273 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY OBJECTIVE

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 - gang

* 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 - deviance

* 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" - Deviance in Society

based on a person's intentional or inadvertent actions
* most familiar - behavioral deviance

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) - belief system

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. - Stigma

Refers to an act becomes deviant when it is socially defined as such. - Deviant is Relative

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 - Crime

Refers to a violation of law or the commission of a status offense by young people. - Juvenile Delinquency

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 - Social Control

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. - internal social control

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. - External Social Control

Refers to the systematic study of crime and the criminal justice systme, including the police, courts, and prisons. - Criminology

Durkheim believed that deviance is rooted in societal factors such as rapid social change and lack of social integration among people - Deviance (the cause according to Emile Durkheim)

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 - Anomie

bonding and community involvement
* Durkheim believed that as social integration decreased, deviance and crime increased - social integration

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 - contemporary functionalist theorist

clarifies rules, unites a group, and promotes social change - Functionalist Perspective on deviance

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 - Strain Theory

Merton identified five ways in which people adapt to cultural goals and approved ways of achieving them:
Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion - Merton's Strain Theory of Deviance (mode of adaptation)

It occurs when people accept culturally approved goals and pursue them through culturally approved means. (Merton) - Conformity

It happens when people accept culturally approved goals; adopts disapproved means of achieving them. (Merton) - Innovation

It occurs when people abandon/give up on societal goals but still adhere to the socially approved means of achieving them. (Merton) - Ritualism

It occurs when people abandon both approved goals and the approved means of achieving them. (Merton) - Retreatism

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) - Rebellion

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. - Opportunity Theory

Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels. - Illegitimate Opportunity Structures

They are devoted to theft, extortion, and other illegal means of securing an income. - Criminal Gang

They emerge in communities that do not provide either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities. - Conflict Gang

They are unable to gain success through legitimate means and are unwilling to do so through illegal ones. - Retreatist Gang

Power is central, marxist/critical theory, feminist perspectives and the confluence of race, class and gender - Conflict Perspective on deviance