crime deviance

Chapter 7

Conformity, Deviance and Crime

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Lecture Outline

The study of deviant behavior

Biological and psychological theories of crime and deviance

Society and crime: sociological theories

Gender, race, class and crime

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Study of Deviant Behavior

Deviance - nonconformity to a given set of norms that are accepted by a significant number of people in a community or society.

Most people deviate or conform depending on the situation.

Deviance can occur in the behavior of groups as well as individuals.

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Study of Deviant Behavior

Laws are norms that are defined by governments, and sanctions are used to enforce these laws.

Crime - any behavior that breaks a law.

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Norms and Sanctions

• Sanction- formal/informal, positive or

negative, seeks to control behavior

• Shaming- maintain community ties of

offender (historic way of controlling

behavior)

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Biological Theories of Crime & Deviance

Biology

1. Skull type, body shape etc. are indicators of deviance.

2. However, biology has been unable to clearly demonstrate that heredity outweighs environment in its influence.

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Biological & Psychological Theories of Crime &

Deviance

Psychology

Personality leads to crime, such as a psychopath, who is withdrawn, emotionless & delights in violence.

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Society & Crime: Sociological Theories

Differential association theory (Sutherland, 1949)

Criminal activities are learned via association

with others. (not media)

Learn lawbreaking attitude

Anomie - the lack of norms or clear standards of

behavior

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Labeling theory - Howard S. Becker

Once a person is labeled a criminal after a primary

deviation, he or she will accept the label, which will

result in a secondary deviation.

Interactionist theories - focus on deviance as a socially

constructed phenomenon.

New criminology theory - analysis of crime and

deviance that is framed in terms of structure of society

and the preservation of power among the ruling class.

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The theory of “broken windows” argues that any small

sign of social disorder will encourage more serious

crime.

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New Left realism argues that criminology needed to engage more with the actual issues of crime control and social policy, rather than to debate them abstractly. The theory also maintains that crime is a serious problem, particularly in impoverished inner cities.

Control theory posits that crime occurs as a result of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and the social or physical controls that deter it.

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William Chambliss’s (1973)

"The Saints" and "The Roughnecks" study shows the

importance of linking the macro and micro factors

together.

The Saints were from upper-middle-class families,

whereas the Roughnecks were from a lower

socioeconomic background. Chambliss found that

neither group was more delinquent than the other. But

the Roughnecks always had problems with the police.

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Crime & Crime Statistics

1. Many crimes are never reported to the police.

2. Some criminologists think that about ½ of all serious crimes, such as robbery with violence, are not reported.

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Crime & Crime Statistics: Crime Against Women

43% of sexual assaults are committed by relatives, friends, former partners, or recent acquaintances.

Q: Why are women unwilling to report rape?

A: The process of medical examination, police interrogation, and long courtroom cross-examination may make women feel they are the ones on trial, particularly if their own sexual histories are examined publicly.

Susan Brownmiller argues that rape is part of a system of male intimidation that keeps all women in fear.

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Crime & Crime Statistics: Crime Against

Homosexuals

Because homosexuals remain stigmatized and marginalized in many societies, they tend to be treated as deserving of crime, rather than as innocent victims.

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Crime & Crime Statistics: Crime & Youth

1. Official statistics reveal high rates of offence among young people.

2. “War on drugs” policy tends to criminalize large segments of the law-abiding youth population.

3. Youth criminality often associates with activities that may not be crimes. (Skateboarding)

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The victimless crime? White collar crime

1. White-collar crimes are often carried out by the

affluent. E.g., tax fraud, embezzlement, and illegal

sales practices

2. White-collar crimes that are often under- or

unpunished.

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“White Collar Crime”

Those who are disadvantaged by other types of socioeconomic inequalities tend to suffer disproportionately from corporate crime.

The consequences of corporate crime can be more serious than those of violent crimes. For example, deaths from hazards at work far outnumber murders.

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Organized Crime- “the mob”

Organized crime - forms of activity that have some of the characteristics of orthodox business but that are illegal.

Manuel Castells (1998) argues that the international narcotics trade, weapons trafficking, sale of nuclear material, and money laundering have all become linked across borders and crime groups.

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Crime as Structured ActionMesserschmidt

Men commit or “dominate” crime

Little research on how gender impacts crime

“To understand crime, we must comprehend how gender, race and class relations are a part of all social existence- rather than viewing each relation as extrinsic to the others” (3)

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Crime as Structured ActionMesserschmidt

Race, class and gender are structured action

What people do under specific social structural

constraints

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Power

“Power is not absolute and, at times, may actually shift in relation to different axes of power and powerlessness. That is, in one situation a man may exercise power (i.e., as a patriarchal husband) whereas in another he may experience powerlessness (i.e., as a factory worker). Accordingly, masculinity and femininity can be understood only as a fluid, relational, and situational constructs.” (9)

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Hegemonic masculinity

Western Industrialized societies

Race (specifically whiteness)

Work in the paid labor market (gendered division

of labor)

Subordination of girls and women (gender

relations of power)

Professional-managerial (class)

Heterosexism (sexuality)

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Emphasized Femininity

Race

Class

Sexual orientation

Sociability (not technical)

Fragility

Compliance with men‟s desire

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Heteronormativity

Heterosexuality becomes a

fundamental indication of

“maleness” and “femaleness”

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Hegemony

"It can be argued that Gramsci's theory suggests that subordinated groups accept the ideas, values and leadership of the dominant group not because they are physically or mentally induced to do so, nor because they are ideologically indoctrinated, but because they have reason of their own." (Strinati, 1995: 166)

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Hegemony Gramsci used the term hegemony to denote the

predominance of one social class over others.

This represents not only political and economic

control, but also the ability of the dominant class

to project its own way of seeing the world so that

those who are subordinated by it accept it as

'common sense' and 'natural'

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Case Study Lynching during the

Reconstruction period

Lynching

Unlawful assault, killing or both of an accused

person by mob action)

Systematic event from 1865-1900

Response to perceived erosion of white

male supremacy

Lynching enforced white supremacy and

gendered hierarchies

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Legacy of Slavery

“Slavery bound all blacks to the patriarchal

„white father‟

Slaves had no legal rights or recognition

“White master” as the representative of

hegemonic masculinity

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Hierarchy

“Savage races” had not evolved the proper

gender differentiation

Slaves as “genderless” (women participate

in hard/heavy labor, men help with house

and children)

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Slavery and Gender roles

Black men less than men and black

females less than females

woman=housewife

Man=provider

Slaves were not allowed to perform these

functions could not conform to hegemonic

gender identities

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Hierarchy

“The Master”

Highest level of manhood “most manly creature ever evolved” Firm of character

Self control

Head of household

Protects his women and children from the outside world

Political power

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Hierarchy

“The Mistress”

Highest level of womanhood

Delicate

Spiritual

Exempt from heavy labor

Place is in the home

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Upholding gender roles

“Slavery heightened planter insistence on protecting white women and their family line, from the specter of interracial union”

Regulate women‟s sexuality

Men “allowed” to have relations with slaves and poor women”

Sexual outlet

Means of maintaining racial domination

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Sexuality

White men=access to black and poor

women

White woman=Pure/chaste

African-American Men= sexual predator

African-American Women= sexually

available

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Sexuality

Preservation of white masculine

supremacy was refigured as protection of

white females for white males (34)

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“Rape”

Can “only” rape a white woman of good

character

Few lynching were based on “rape”

Control women‟s sexuality

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lynching

As a punishment from deviating from

subordinate masculinity

African-American men‟s sexuality as a

threat to white women

Maintain the hierarchy

Doing difference

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lynching

Physical enactment of white masculine

hegemony

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The Farm Life Inside Angola Prison

Impact of Class, Race and Gender on

Crime and criminality

Racial and gender hierarchies

Incidents of hegemonic masculinity

How and in what ways is this film related

to the material on Crime and Deviance

crime deviance

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