deviance and crime. deviance is any action, condition, belief, characteristic that violates social...
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Deviance and Crime
Deviance is any action, condition, belief, characteristic that violates social norms.
Deviance is a result of violating norms while crime is a result of violating laws.
Laws = formal protections for norms we find most desirable -- attempts to encourage conformity and prohibit
deviance and varies in intensity
Some silly Arkansas Laws
Can’t walk your pet cow down main street after 1PM on sundays
No flirting on the streets of Little Rock It’s illegal to yell at your kids at a drive-in restaurant Can’t beat your wife more then once a month
It’s illegal for Arkansas river to rise above the main street bridge
What can be deviant?A radical belief system can cause you
to be seen as deviantA condition can render you deviantA behavior can render you deviant
Stigma may result -- “spoiled identity”
Why do we have deviance?
Durkheim
“Deviance is universal and necessary.”
Enhances conformity and clarifies rules, norms, expectations i.e., creates moral
boundaries
Strengthens solidarity among those who do conform
Brings needed change
Provides jobs for those in the deviance “industry”
e.g., counselors, police officers, lawyers, priests, prostitutes, pimps, dealers, etc....
Provides a safety valve for discontented people
Types of Deviance and CrimeDiversions, e.g., nose rings
Deviations, e.g., subject to sanction
intoxication, cursing in public, heckling a speaker
Conflict crimes, e.g., laws against but not strong consensus -- medical
marijuana, right to protest, legal drinking age
Consensus crimes, e.g., strong consensus
incest, rape, murder
But deviance is relative. Why?
1 Varies from place to place2 Varies over time3 Varies by intensity4 Depends upon public consensus5 Depends upon rule creators and
rule enforcers6. Moral Entrepreneurs
From place to place “A Sudanese woman, believed to be
about 20, has been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery” June 2012
Would this happen here? The lifetime rate of infidelity for men over 60
increased to 28 percent in 2006, up from 20 percent in 1991. For women over 60, the increase is more striking: to 15 percent, up from 5 percent in 1991.
In relatively new marriages. About 20 percent of men and 15 percent of women under 35 say they have ever been unfaithful, up from about 15 and 12 percent respectively.
Even higher rates among military couples……
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/health/28well.html?_r=0
Theories of Deviance:
Symbolic Interaction: Differential association (Sutherland)
Control Theory (Hirschi)
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION:
Criminal behavior is learned in social interaction with others.
The learning includes techniques and
rationalizations.
Takes place in primary groups - learn motives reasons for conforming to or breaking rules, and what is permissible.
If situation is favorable, more factors at work than
opposed - crime is likely.
Interactions are frequent, long lasting, intense, and occur early in life usually.
There's no pattern unique to criminals as opposed to non-criminals.
CONTROL THEORY (social bond theory)
Attached - primary group interaction with affection. Kid feels a sense of obligation or responsibility to parents to do well.
Commitment - having a "stake" in society. We believe we have something to lose if we screw up - invest time and energy into conventional things - job, graduating, buying a home etc..
Involvement - idle hands are the "devil's work." -- if we stay busy enough with legitimate action then we won't have time to deviate.
Belief - a sense of allegiance, not just obligation, to values and a moral code. This should probably be the most important. We see the rules, laws, and norms as morally valid.
= Internal constraints….
Functionalist Perspective: Strain Theory (Merton) response types Illegitimate Opportunity Theory
STRUCTURAL STRAIN THEORY:
DEVIANCE IS A RESULT OF ADAPTATIONS TO THE MIXED MESSAGES SOCIETY SENDS.
INNOVATION RITUALISM
RETREATISM, REBELLION
ARE DEVIANT ADAPTIVE RESPONSES
Merton’s Strain Theory
Relationship between cultural goals and legitimate, institutional means to achieve goals:
Goals Means Conformist + + Innovator + - Ritualist - + Retreatist - - Rebel +/- +/-
ILLEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY
THEORY:DEVIANT SUBCULTURES DEVELOP
WHEN LEGITIMATE OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES ARE
SYSTEMATICALLY BLOCKED. (e.g., drug running occurs in illegitimate
structures)
Previous gangs interracial conflict
Today’s gangs – more likely to sell and use drugs, carry lethal weapons, more likely to engage in intraracial conflicts –
“Black on Black” “Chicano on Chicano” “White on white” 54 percent of property crimes are committed by those
between 15 – 24 yrs of age.
Status Frustration -- role strains lead to frustration. Can’t
get respect in mainstream culture so turn to delinquent subculture for status.
Relies upon cultural capital because cultural attributes are devalued (e.g., lower class youth) so replaces “success” with “status” “respect” “dignity” in spite of…..
Labeling Theory (Becker)
Reactions to Deviants
The punishment is the labelPrimary -- fleeting actsbehavior that violates a social norm but
that does not affect
one’s sense of self
Secondary – through labels, self-labeling and self-concept develops
norm violation that is a response to the problems caused by the societal reaction to
primary deviance
Tertiary – deviance is normalized or relabeled non-deviant
Institutional Punishments to accompany labels
Becker – deviance as a “master status”
Braithwaite – “reintegrative shaming” = moral disapproval followed by efforts to bring offender back tothe community
(Consistent with Restorative Justice)
“disintegrative shaming” = both the offense and offender are labeled deviant
Sykes & Matza’s Neutralization Theory
The line between conformity and deviance is not always clear.
Techniques of neutralization:
1. denial of responsibility2. denial of injury3. denial of victim4. condemnation5. appeal to higher loyalties
UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS (UCR)
THE CRIME INDEX INCLUDES 7 OFFENSES:1. HOMICIDE – THE KILLING OF ONE PERSON BY ANOTHER.2. FORCIBLE RAPE – ANY SEXUAL PENETRATION DIRECTED AGAINST ANOTHER PERSON AGAINST THAT PERSON’S WILL.3. ROBBERY – THE TAKING OR ATTEMPTING TO TAKE ANYTHING OF VALUE UNDER CONFRONTATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES FROM THE CONTROL, CUSTODY, OR CARE OF ANOTHER PERSON BY FORCE, OR THREAT OF FORCE, OR VIOLENCE.4. AGGRAVATED ASSAULT – A RECKLESS ATTACK WITH INTENT TO SERIOUSLY INJURE ANOTHER (WITH A WEAPON).5. BURGLARY – THE UNLAWFUL ENTRY INTO A BUILDING OR OTHER STRUCTURE WITH THE INTENT TO COMMIT A FELONY OR A THEFT.6. LARCENY-THEFT – THE UNLAWFUL TAKING OF PROPERTY FROM THE POSSESSION OF ANOTHER.7. MOTOR VECHICLE THEFT – THE THEFT OR ATTEMPTED THEFT OF A MOTOR VEHICLE.
THE UCR HOME PAGE IS FOUND AT: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
Street Crime Offenders (general or typical profile)…
Minority males with limited economic opportunityLiving in povertyHaving fragmented links to institutions
of informal social control (e.g., family, church, community)Socialized into criminal activities
Street Crime Victims – those who fit the profile of the offender are also those who are the most likely to experience victimization (poor, unemployed, minority, male, young)
Conflict/Critical Theory of Deviance:
See crime by the poor as an adaptation to life without resources. But argue that the criminal justice system does not operate impartially because most prisoners are from marginal minority working class families (often unskilled and unemployed). These people are more likely to commit street crimes which upset the social order and therefore are more severely punished than their white-collar criminal counter-parts that cost taxpayers much more. (e.g., social dynamite, social junk)
b. The criminal justice system does not focus on the capitalist class and the harm it does to the masses (e.g., white collar). The laws reflect those in power. Bankruptcy laws, estate taxes, white collar sentencing
Since 1930 billions have been invested in a street crime database (UCR) but no funded established database for corporate crimes
Crime in the United States There are roughly 2.3 million people in state and
federal prisons and local jails. This number is increasing by 50,000 to 80,000 per
year. Males – Minorities - “explosion” and compare rates to population
The U.S. has more people behind bars than any other country on Earth. Over 12% more people are behind bars in the U.S.
than in China and India combined. 1 in 106 white males 1 in 36 Hispanic males 1 in 15 African American males
Drugs
Inmates sentenced for drug offenses comprised 48 percent (94,600 inmates) of the sentenced federal prison population in 2011, while 7.6 percent of federal prisoners were held for violent offenses. An estimated 11 percent (22,100 inmates) were serving time in federal prison for immigration offenses.
Source: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4559
Who is most likely to be arrested…….
Disproportionate Rates for Men of Color
While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned. The prison population grew by 700 percent from 1970 to 2005, a rate that is outpacing crime and population rates.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.
Source: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/
Women of ColorAfrican American women are three
times more likely than white women to be incarcerated, while Hispanic women are 69 percent more likely than white women to be incarcerated.
In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days.
Source: PBS.org
Why the explosion in prison populations?
Examples of Racial ProfilingMuslims
Black Males
Latinos
Definitions of Dangerous Consumption As with all sorts of deviance, definitions of what is
deviant consumer behavior are sometimes in dispute.
Napster users did not consider the downloading of music from the Internet to be illegal or deviant.
Those who consume the “wrong” drugs (e.g., marijuana) are more likely to be seen as deviant than those who consume the “right” drugs (e.g., alcohol).
Copyright 2012, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dangerous ConsumersBefore the recession of 2008, those who
did not consume enough were considered deviant.
Consumerism was considered to be patriotic.
Those who consume illegal goods are considered to be dangerous.
See http://sundayposts.blogspot.com/2010/03/mall-girls.html for a short clip of
“Mall Girls” – the documentary
Copyright 2012, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Why don’t corporations go to jail???
Corporation as Psychopath
Is Corporate Deviance Widespread? Or a few bad apples?
J.P. Morgan Chase engaged in risky trades (derivatives) that grew from
$2 billion to about $7 billion. Traders in the London division attempted to hide the losses. CEO Jamie Dimon personally claimed full responsibility. Investigation into the trading loss is ongoing by several federal agencies. J.P. Morgan Chase lost an estimated $7 billion
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/high-profile-financial-scandals-months/story?id=17023140#1
Rigging of interest rates Libor interest rates are the standard used to
determine interbank lending. Barclays, a London-based bank, was discovered to have manipulated those rates to profit on select trades. Several U.S. municipalities have sued Barclays as libor rates also have an effect on bond rates. Those municipalities believe that they were cheated out of millions. The world trades an estimated $315 trillion worth of derivatives using libor, according to the New York Times.
Capital OneCapital One told some of its customers
that they could receive credit monitoring services for free when in fact they were being charged for the service, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Abbott LaboratoriesRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina
will reap almost $16 million from a national Medicaid fraud settlement involving Abbott Laboratories
Corporations don’t go to jail….. They pay a fine….
Abbott pled guilty on May 7, 2012 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia pursuant to a criminal action filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Abbott agreed to pay $1.5 billion to resolve its civil and criminal liability related to government health programs that were allegedly defrauded when the company received reimbursements for Depakote after engaging in illegal marketing practices.
AllBusiness.com "For every company convicted of
health care fraud, there are numerous others who get away with ripping off Medicare and Medicaid, or face only mild slap-on-the-wrist fines and civil penalties when caught,"