crim 104

• Merton's Modes of Adaptation:

  1. Conformity: accept goals and means, value playing by the rules but still want to succeed, no crime

  2. Ritualism: reject society's goals but accept the means, accept being a "failure", no crime

  3. Innovation: accept goals but reject legitimate means, engage in crime

  4. Retreatism: reject both society's goals and means, create new goals (e.g., drug use)

  5. Rebellion: work to change both goals and means
• Albert Cohen's Delinquent Boys:

  • Combined Merton's theory and Sutherland's ideas
  • Introduced the concept of delinquent subcultures where lower-class boys face status frustration when measured against middle-class standards
• Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory:

  • Crime results from negative affective states caused by various factors like failure to achieve goals or loss of positive things
  • Negative relations lead to anger and frustration, resulting in deviant behavior
  • Explains the peaking of crime in adolescence and different coping strategies
• Messner and Rosenfeld's Crime and the American Dream – Institutional Anomie Theory:

  • The American Dream's emphasis on success and materialism leads to crime and deviant behavior
  • Economic norms overpower other societal institutions, contributing to crime
• Application of Anomie and Strain Theory:

  • Anomie and the Abuse at Abu Ghraib: torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners due to disorganization within social structures
  • The American Dream and Incarcerated Young Men: decline of jobs and low wages contribute to criminal behavior
  • Institutional Anomie Theory and Student Cheating: exaggerated emphasis on monetary success leads to crime and deviance
• Critiques of Anomie and Strain Theories:

  • Macro-level of General Strain Theory is difficult to test and assumes universal goals
  • Theories are class-biased and struggle to account for privileged classes
  • General Strain Theory suggests equal opportunity as a solution to crime
• Global Perspectives on Anomie/Strain Theory:

  • Rapid sociopolitical change increases anomie during democratic transition
  • Social support theory reduces conditions conducive to anomie
  • Relative strain is a valid predictor of deviant behavior
• Deviance and Disparity: The Occupy Wall Street Movement:

  • Focuses on inequality and the failure of the American Dream
  • Demonstrates disappointment with macro-level expectations and power differences
• Social Disorganization Theory:

  • Originated in Chicago at the turn of the century, focusing on factors like poverty, population turnover, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity
  • Shaw and McKay's study highlighted the non-random distribution of delinquency across Chicago neighborhoods
• Methamphetamine was positively related to low socioeconomic status and population instability
• Racial/ethnic heterogeneity was negatively related to methamphetamine use, suggesting it is more common among whites
• Methamphetamine use may be higher in suburban and rural areas
• Neighborhood characteristics in urban counties in Texas include 3 types of sexually oriented businesses: adult sexuality boutiques, adult entertainment clubs, and adult bookstores
• Adult sexuality boutiques are more likely run by women and found in socially organized and cohesive neighborhoods
• Adult entertainment clubs cater to men and are more likely to be in socially disorganized neighborhoods with more white men
• Adult bookstores specialize in the sale or rental of pornographic videos and magazines, cater to men, and are more likely to be in socially disorganized neighborhoods with more white men
• Businesses in disorganized neighborhoods are more likely to be in lower-income neighborhoods with higher rates of minority residents
• Collective efficacy in social disorganization theory refers to neighborhoods or groups where there is trust, cohesion, and a willingness to act for the common good
• Collective efficacy is an important mediating effect between structural factors and deviant behaviors
• Structural variables related to social disorganization theory include concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and lack of residential stability
• Parental efficacy, related to collective efficacy, leads to greater control over children's behavior and lower levels of deviant peer association and delinquency involvement
• Structural factors negatively affect residents' ability to regulate behavior, keep out drug market activity, and control serious crimes
• Structural equation modeling allows researchers to find effects of structural characteristics, informal social control, and drug market activity on rates of robbery
• The Chicago Area Project and other social programs are examples of initiatives stemming from social disorganization and broken windows perspectives
• Differential Association Theory by Edwin Sutherland focuses on criminal behavior being learned through interactions with others and within intimate personal groups
• Akers's Social Learning Theory reformulates differential association theory, emphasizing reinforcement, differential reinforcement, and imitation
• Techniques of Neutralization include denial of responsibility, injury, victim, condemnation of condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties
• Social Structure and Social Learning theory incorporates social variables at macro and micro levels to explain deviant behaviors
• Empirical tests of Akers' Social Structure Social Learning Theory have been conducted, including studies on alcohol and marijuana use, deviant behaviors, and pornography
• “Objectively given,” Normative, or Positivist conception

  • Norms - rules of behavior that guide people’s actions. 
  • Folkways - everyday norms that do not generate much uproar if they are violated. 
  • Mores - “moral” norms that may generate more outrage if broken.
  • Law - strongest norm because it is backed by official sanctions (or a formal response). 
• “Subjectively problematic,” Reactionist or Relativist, Social constructionist conception

  • Definition of deviance is constructed based on the interactions of those in society
  • Behavior is not inherently deviant
  • Construction of norms
• Normative or positivist

  • There is a general set of norms of behavior, conduct, and conditions on which we can agree.
  • Deviance is a violation of a rule understood by the majority of the group.
• Relativist or social constructionist

  • Nothing is inherently deviant; our understanding of the world is in constant negotiation between actors.
  • Deviance is any behavior that elicits a definition or label of deviance.
• Third conception - Critical

  • The normative understanding of deviance is established by those in power to maintain and enhance their power.
  • Instead of focusing on individual types of deviance, this conception critiques the social system that exists and creates such norms in the first place.
• The Sociological Imagination

  • To understand the societal, institutional, and historical conditions
  • Pathologizing of individuals
• The Importance of Theory and Its Relationship to Research

  • Theory: helps to think about deviance
  • The scientific method: safeguards against researcher bias
  • Deductive research
  • Start with a theory that guides every step of the research
  • Inductive research
  • Start with a broad theoretical perspective and a research question
• Physical Deviance and Appearance

  • Physical deviance evoke stereotypes, stigma, and discrimination
  • Violations of aesthetic norms
  • Physical incapacitiy 
  • Physical deviance as a marker
  • Snapchat dysmorphia - alter their physical appearance so they look like their own filtered and altered selfies
  • Self-injury - another form of physical deviance
  • Study of non-suicidal women
  • Body modification
• Relationships and Deviance

  • Sexually unconventional behaviour
  • Disagreement about sexual activities
  • Rules by subcultures
  • Example: the Ashley Madison Agency (life is short have an affair)
  • Polygamy: a discredited form of relationship
  • Example: the Yearning for Zion Ranch
• Deviance in Cyberspace: Making up the Norms as we go

  • Cyberdeviance: a relatively new phenomenon
  • Example: the Incel Rebellion
  • Incel culture - Elliot Rodger killed six people as retribution for the women who rejected him
  • Examples of cyber deviance
  • Subculture of “johns”
  • Male heterosexual clients of sex workers
  • Approach to self-injury
• Elite Deviance, Corporate Deviance, and Workplace Misconduct

  • Elite deviance - Criminal and deviant acts by large corporations
  • Types of harm in elite deviance
  • Physical harms
  • death/ physical injury
  • Financial harms
  • Robbery, fraud, and various scams
  • Moral harms
  • Encourage distrust and alienation among members of the lower and middle class