Midterm 2

• What is deviance?

  A behaviour that strays from what is "normal", it does not mean bad or inferior, it signifies a difference from the norm, it changes with time, place and culture, reflects power
• Deviance is a violation of norms that society agrees upon
• There are 2 types of deviance such as: overt characteristics and covert characteristics
• Overt characteristics - actions or qualities taken as explicit violating the cultural norm
• Covert characteristics - the unstated qualities that might make a group a target for sanctions; eg; age, ethnic background, race, gender
• Deviance is contested across cultures eg; tattooing was once a respectable practise
• Deviance is contested within cultures, is it a social/cultural construct
• Conflict deviance is a disagreement among groups over whether or not something is deviant; eg, legalization of marijuana
• Objective deviance - trait that is inherently unacceptable, something viewed as negative by most people in society, causes harm
• Subjective deviance - process of social construct, influenced heavily by who is in power, deviant if important people say it is
• Consensus crime -acts deemed very harmful and wrong and have the harshest criminal sanctions, eg, homicide, theft, sexual assault, etc
• Conflict crime - when members of the community disagree over whether behaviours are harmful, wrong or deserving of criminal sanctions, eg, gambling, sex work, drug use
• Social deviation - norm-violating behaviour that is not illegal but may be subject to social stigma through condemnation, ostracization, eg, mentally ill people, obese, addicts
• Social diversion - minority heterosexual and same-sex activities forms of symbolic expressive deviance involving adolescents, eg, phone sex, clothes they wear, music they listen to, hairstyles
• Consensus crime (murder) -> conflict crime (marijuana) -> social deviation (mental illness) -> social diversion (purple hair)
• The other - an image constructed by the dominant culture to characterize subcultures, can be mysterious or mildly dangerous
• Racializing deviance - linking particular ethnic groups - especially visible minorities, eg, Muslims wearing a niqab are seen as deviant
• Racial profiling - deviance is also radicalized through racial profiling
• Class and deviance - to be poor is to be deviant: poverty can be considered a covert characteristic of deviance, eg, drug or alcohol use is considered deviant in poor people
• Moral panic - is a campaign designed to arouse concern over an issue or group, eg, class-based deviance and drug use
• Moral Entrepreneur - a person who tries to convince others of the need to take action around a social problem that they have defined, eg, Jason Kenney "Canada's Most Wanted" list
• Theories of criminal deviance - strain theory, subcultural theory, labelling theory, social control theory
• Strain theory - the disconnect between culturally defined goals and uneven distribution of means to achieve those goals
• Strain theory - means (work or job) -> goals (income or wealth)
• Subcultural theory - individuals from lower class backgrounds experience status frustration, can be socialized into an oppositional subculture (gangs)
• Social control theory - social bonds between individual and society prevent some individuals from violating social norms
• Social inequality is the long-term existence of significant differences in access to goods and services among social groups
• Multi-faceted - social inequality is a function of many factors, including ethnicity, race, class and stratification
• Karl Marx is the founder of conflict theory, conflict between those who own mean of production (capitalists) and those who own their labour (workers)
• Class is a group of people who play different roles in the productive system (bourgeoisie & proletariat), it is relational
• Vertical mosaic - not all groups enjoy the same level of power and status, British ancestry is most privileged, indigenous background most disadvantaged
• Weber's 4 classes - large capitalists (own large business), small capitalists (small business owners), specialists (doctors, lawyers), working class (manual labours)
• Wealth - includes factories, other property used to make money, eg, Super Bowl quarterbacks luxury
• Status - groups have a style of life that are based on social honour and prestige, eg, doctor (formal), elders (informal)
• Parties - organizations that attempt to influence social action and focus on achieving some goal in the sphere of power
• Sociologists use socio-economic status (SES) to study income inequality in Canada
• SES is a measure of an individual's or family's social and economic position relative to others, includes measures of incomes, education and both social class and status
• SES is divided into 3 categories; low, middle, high
• Working poor - working but insufficient income to cover necessities, Working homeless - working but income can't cover permanent shelter, Underclass - persistent poverty, limited opportunities (work, school)
• Poverty - a state in which resources are lacking; absolute poverty: life threatening deprivation of the individual, relative poverty: deprivation of one individual compared to another