Sociology Study Guide: Research Methods and Ethics, Slides of Sociology

Download Sociology Study Guide: Research Methods and Ethics and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity!

Deviance & Social Control

Ms. Kauser Malik

Lecturer (Psychology)

Sciences and Humanities

Learning Outcomes

Defining Conformity, Deviance, the need for Norms, Sanctions

Sociobiological, Psychological, and Sociological explanations of deviance

Different perspective related to deviance

1) Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

2) Functionalist Perspective

3) Conflict Perspective

Examples

• Wearing certain types of clothing to fit in with a group
• Changing your political beliefs to match those of your friends or family
• Going along with the crowd even if you don't agree with what they're doing.

The process whereby people change their beliefs, attitudes, actions, or perceptions to more

closely match those held by groups to which they belong or want to belong or by groups

whose approval they desire.

Conformity is the act of changing your behaviors in order to fit in or go along with the

people around you. No culture or society has complete behavioral conformity.

Deviance

Deviance involves the violation of group norms , which may or may not be formalized into law. It is a comprehensive concept that includes not only criminal behavior but also many actions that are not subject to prosecution.

Deviation from norms is not always negative. E.g., a member of an exclusive social club who speaks out against a traditional policy of not admitting women, Blacks, is deviating from the club’s norms. So is a police officer who blows the whistle on corruption or brutality within the department.

For sociologists, the term deviance does not mean perversion or depravity. In the US, alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, and the mentally ill would all be classified as deviants. Or a public official who takes a bribe has defied social norms, but so has the high school student who refuses to sit in an assigned seat or cuts class.

What is important about deviance?

Deviance is Universal

It exists in all societies.

Deviance is Variable

Any act or person may or may not be labeled deviant.

Deviance is Political

People with little power are at high risk of being labeled deviant.

Deviance is a means of Control

Dominant categories of people discredit others as a means to dominate them.

Also applies to norms of sexuality. Norms of sexual behavior vary so widely around the world that what is considered normal in one society may be considered deviant in another.

Applies to crime as well (the violation of rules that have been written into law). An act that is applauded by one group may be so despised by another group that it is punishable by death.

Time and space: Today’s deviance, declared Durkheim, can become tomorrow’s morality. What is thought to be deviant will vary from one time period to another. Some behaviors were once not seen as deviant but now are (for example, obesity) while other behaviors were once seen as deviant but now are not (for example, premarital sex). What is thought to be deviant will also vary geographically. Tattoos, vegan lifestyles, single parenthood, and even jogging were once considered deviant but are now widely accepted.

From a structural functionalist perspective , one of the positive contributions of deviance is that it fosters social change. For example, during the U.S. civil rights movement, Rosa Parks violated social norms when she refused to move to the “black section” of the bus.

How Norms Make Social Life Possible?

Norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable. There will be social chaos without norms.

Norms lay out the basic guidelines for how we should play our roles and interact with others.

In short, norms bring about social order, a group’s customary social arrangements. People’s lives are based on these arrangements, which is why deviance often is perceived as threatening. Deviance undermines predictability, the foundation of social life.

Émile Durkheim stressed that a society without deviance is impossible for at least two reasons:

First , the collective conscience is never strong enough to prevent all rule breaking. Even in a “society of saints,” such as a monastery, he said, rules will be broken and negative social reactions aroused.

Second , because deviance serves several important functions for society, any given society “invents” deviance by defining certain behaviors as deviant and the people who commit them as deviants. Because Durkheim thought deviance was inevitable for these reasons, he considered it a normal part of every healthy society.

Whether a behavior is considered deviant depends on the circumstances in which the behavior occurs and not on the behavior itself.

If an assailant, e.g., a young male, murders someone, he faces arrest, prosecution, and, in many states, possible execution.

Yet if a soldier kills someone in wartime, he may be considered a hero.

Killing occurs in either situation, but the context and reasons for the killing determine whether the killer is punished or given a medal.

Social control leading to Sanctions

Social sanctions encourage behaviors that are considered to be appropriate and deter behaviors that are not.

The means of enforcing rules are known as sanctions. A sanction is any reaction from others to the behavior of an individual or group. Sanctions can be positive as well as negative. Both types of sanctions play a role in social control. Sanctions are social and psychological penalties and sometimes rewards used to regulate the behaviors of a group or society.

Sociologists also classify sanctions as formal or informal; e.g., picking your nose in public or a smile or pat on the back. Informal sanctions emerge in face-to-face social interactions.

Formal sanctions, on the other hand, are ways to officially recognize and enforce norm violations. If a student violates her college’s code of conduct, for example, she might be expelled. Someone who commits a crime may be arrested or imprisoned. On the positive side, a soldier who saves a life may receive an official commendation.

Types of Sanctions

• Punishments for violating norms.
• An expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a fine or a prison sentence.
• In general, the more seriously the group takes a norm, the harsher the penalty for violating it.
• Most negative sanctions are informal. E.g.: getting arrested for shoplifting, being fired or getting an F in a course.

Negative Sanctions

• Positive sanctions are rewards given for conforming to norms.
• An expression of approval for following a norm, ranging from a smile or a good grade in a class to a material reward such as a prize.
• E.g., getting a raise, scoring an A in a course, promotion at work for working hard.

Positive Sanctions

Competing Explanations of Deviance: Sociobiology

Biosocial Explanations

• Sociobiologists explain deviance by looking for answers within individuals. They assume that genetic predispositions lead people to such behaviors as juvenile delinquency and crime (Lombroso 1911; Wilson and Herrnstein 1985; Barnes and Jacobs 2013).
• People with “squarish, muscular” bodies were more likely to commit street crime—acts such as mugging, rape, and burglary.
• These theories were abandoned as research did not support them.

Genetic Predisposition

• Inborn tendencies (for example, a tendency to commit deviant acts) street crime crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary

Sociological Explanations

• In contrast with both socio-biologists and psychologists, sociologists search for factors outside the individual. They look for social influences that “recruit” people to break norms or to account for why people commit crimes. For example, sociologists examine such external influences as socialization, membership in subcultures, and social class.
• 1. Deviance varies according to cultural norms. No thought or action is inherently deviant; it becomes deviant only in relation to particular norms. Because norms vary from place to place, deviance also varies. Prostitution, medical and recreational use of marijuana, driving at a particular speed, gambling, text messaging while driving.
• 1. People become deviant as others define them that way. Everyone violates cultural norms at one time or another.
• 1. How societies set norms and how they define rule breaking both involve social power. The law, declared Karl Marx, is the means by which powerful people protect their interests. Norms and how we apply them reflect social inequality.

To explain deviance, sociologists apply the three sociological

perspectives:

Symbolic Interactionism

Functionalism Conflict Theory