1assumes that the definition of deviance is constructed based on interactions with those in society
Relativist conception
2assumes that there is a general set of norms of behavior, conduct, and conditions on which all individuals can agree
Normative Conception
3rules of behavior that guide people's actions
norms
4everyday norms that don't generate much uproar if they are violated (ex: picking your nose)
folkways
5"moral" norms that may generate more outrage if broken (ex: drinking too much)
mores
6the strongest norm because it is backed by official sanctions; deviance becomes a violation of a rule understood by the majority of the group
law
7assumes that the definition of deviance is constructed based on the interactions of those in society
social constructionist conception
8according to this conception, behaviors or conditions are not inherently deviant; they become so when the definition of deviance is applied to them
social constructionist conception
9what do social constructionists believe?
that our understanding of the world is in constant negotiation between actors
10how do social groups create deviance?
by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders
11argues that the normative understanding of deviance is established by those in power to maintain and enhance their power
critical conception
12conception that suggests that explorations of deviance have focused on a white, male, middle to upper class understanding of society that implies that people of color, women, and the working poor are by definition deviant
critical conception
13conception that critiques the social system that exists and creates such norms in the first place
critical
14the ability to see the link between or personal lives and experiences and our social world
sociological imagination
15what does c wright mills argue
the only way to truly understand the experiences of the individual is to first understand the societal institutional and historical conditions that individual is living under
16example of sociological imagination
a salad is only as good as the salad bar it’s created from; the individual choice is constrained by the larger social forces of delivery schedules, food inventory, etc.
17helps us understand the impact of social forces on both engaging in and reacting to deviance
sociological imagination
18reminds us that individuals exist in a larger social system, and they impact that larger social system just as it impacts them
sociological imagination
19turns anecdotes about human behavior into a systematic understanding of societal behavior
theory
20a systematic procedure that helps safeguard against researcher bias and the power of anecdotes by following simple steps
scientific method
21what would happen if we didn’t have theory and the scientific method?
our understanding of deviance would be based on wild observations and anecdotes which may be significantly misleading and unrepresentative of the social reality
22what do theories offer?
solutions to the problems we study
23why are theoretical solutions to the issue of deviance especially important?
bc many of our current responses to deviant behavior are erroneously based on individualistic notion of human nature that does not take into account humans as social beings or the importance of social structure, social institutions, power, and broad societal changes for deviance and deviants
24global perspectives on deviance
1. no greater example of the relativist nature of deviance than examining the laws of a country or region (countries have different norms/laws)
2. the responses to these forms of deviant are also relative
25Arguments between public policies and private programs created to address deviance, crime, and public well-being
1. a movement of public well-being out of the public realm (the government) to a private and more likely profit-motivated industry (private programs) —> neoliberalism
2. public programs may more likely focus on suppression (the social control of deviance) whereas private programs may more likely focus in rehab and prevention
26focus on the punishment and social control of behavior deemed deviant
suppression policies
27focus on groups or individuals who are deemed likely deviant and involve attempts to change this assumed deviant behavior
rehab programs
28focused on groups or individuals who are assumed to be more at risk for deviant behavior or they may be focused on decreasing the likelihood of deviance in all groups equally
prevention programs
29what have reactions to deviance focused on?
stigmatization and criminalization of a variety of behavuors and in many instances on the harsh punishment of those behaviors
30what theories have been along longer
positivist theories have been along longer than social constructionist theories
in positivist theories anomie has been around longer than social disorganization
31what’s the most visible form of deviance and what can it evoke
physical deviance; stereotypes, stigma, discrimination
32what are the 2 types of physical deviance
1. violations of asthetic norms (what people should look like: height, weight)
2. physical incapacity, includes those with a physical disability
33our ideas of what is acceptable or desirable in terms of physical appearance _____, depending on the context
vary widely; some people believe tattoos and piercings are deviant, other's don't
34why is setting a truly unattainable standard a concern to sociologists?
bc it can lead to deviant behavior such as eating disorders or unnecessary plastic surgeries
35another form of physical deviance:
self-infury: cutting, burning, scratching, hair pulling, bone breaking etc. --> the majority of these injuries remain hidden within society
36what does body modification include
extreme tattooing, peircings, sacrification, reconstructive and cosmetic surgery
37what is sexual deviance determined by? and what are some examples
community, culture, and context
examples: same-sex marriage, prostitution, polygamy
38a distinct group within the larger culture that has its own subset of norms, values, behaviors, or characteristics
subcultures
39while societal norms shape our conceptions of appropriate sexual behavior, those boundaries are regularly tested by _____________________
new fads and businesses, and by many different subcultures making up their own rules as they go along
40what are deviant acts regarding cyberspace
phishing scams and hackers, cyberterrorism, online pedophile subculture, cyberbullying, online misbehavior of college students, sexting, illegal movie/music downloading
41examples of subcultural deviance
terrorist subcultures (the way music, literature, symbolism, and style are used to construct terrorism)
Amish subculture
42criminal and deviant acts committed by large corporations, powerful political organizations and individuals with prestige and influence may result in physical, financial, or moral harm
elite deviance
43what are the 3 types of harm? --> elite deviance
- physical (death or physical injury)
- financial (robbery, fraud, scams)
- moral (encourage distrust and alienation among members of the lower and middle classes
44what are the 3 types of acts? --> elite deviance
economic domination, governement and government control, and denial of basic human rights
45workplace deviance
employee misconduct undoubtedly leads to business failures and higher consumer costs
- being late to work
- calling in sick when you're not
- took things from employer
46intentional behaviors that significantly depart from the norms of a referent group in honorable ways
positive deviance
47example of positive deviance
Merck decided to manufacture and distribute the drug for free to the developing world, costing the company millions of dollars but helped eradicate river blindness at its own expense
48sometimes the line between positive deviance is crime is ____
extrmely hard to define
49examples of social control of girls and women
sex trafficking, forced prostitution, gender-based violence (rape, killings)
- some girls living in restrictive and punitive cultures take great risks to fight for better lives
50examples of social control of homosexuality
homosexuality is illegal in most african countries, homosexual acts are punishable by life in prison, people who test positive for HIV may be executed, homosexuals who have sex with a minor or engage in homosexual sex more than once may also receive the death penalty
51drug use and addiction
-celebrities who voluntarily choose impatient treatment are often applauded for attempting to take control of their lives and work through their particular issues
- poor and working class addicts are sent to rehabs through force rather than choice (if the clients don't follow the treatment program, their lack of cooperation can lead to criminal sanctions
- much drug policy in the US has racist origins (research: Tiger found that doctors and lawyers favored monitoring and coerced treatment for their white working-class and poor patients dealing with opiate addiction
52prostitution as deviance
prostitution is legal in some states, but is generally a criminal act that draws both workers and clients from across the entire spectrum of social classes and cultures
- college women looking for sugar daddies and using these websites generally resist the label and don't consider themselves prostitutes --> they keep their identities as sugar babies for fear of being labled and stigmatized
53Formal definition of Bundy
constitution, courts, regulation, public use (empowered fed. government and state police)
54informal definition of Bundy
constitution, divinity (god told me to do this), freedom/individualism (govt. was taking their rights), family (it's been in the family)
55Anti-vax collective consciousness argument; anti-max parallels
- individualist parenting: parents know their kid best and they know better than the doctors
- distrust in government
- definition of motherhood (to take care of)
- parallels of anti-mask: rooted in politics
56Amish separate and tell argument
-Amish have the theological imperative to be separate
- You have to tell people the truth (there's a haven and hell, and you're gonna have to make a choice, or bad things will happen to you)
- Amish emphasize the separate and downplay the tell
57Kathleen's social disorder reason argument about the white movement
because of the 60s and 70s (hippies)
Vietnam War (the government let us down, government can't be trusted, group together)
everything was falling apart
ppl claimed they signed up for the war and that they were used as bait
58what toold does a researcher need?
- good understanding of research methods
- good understanding of a theory
59a set of assumptions and propositions used for explanation, prediction, and understanding… a set of assumptions that gives shape to data… a lens….enforces systematic thought and reduces unintentional bias
theory
60social theory and research methods are
intersubjective and reflexive (there's no way you can just observe someone bc there's also social theory in the way)
61what ethical issues need to be considered in relation to human subjects research?
-unintended consequences
-revealing information
- own personal biases influence on subpopulations
-complicated and emotionally disturbing situtaions
62types of method approaches to the study of deviance
- experimental research
- field experience *
- participant observation research
- content analysis
- secondary data sources *
63what is field research?
- takes place in the natural setting, outside the lab
- pure observer to full participant observation
- field work is a generic term for all work that takes place within the field
- can be face to face interviews, surveys, sitting and watching
64researcher is fully engaged in the acts along with the deviant group (subjects don't know they're being sutdied
covert observation
65researcher is not participating in the acts or events of the group being studeid (subjects know that they're being studied)
overt observation
66Researchers must be aware of ethical issues...
-Researchers must be aware that their influence on individuals through an experiment can have purely unintended consequences
- simply studying the attitutdes and beliefs of people can be problematic bc holding deviant attitudes and beliefs can be costly to individuals even if they never act on them
67in a true experimental design...
subjects are randomly assigned to one of two or more conditions that are thought to affect some outcome, usually a behavior
68to what extent can the results be applied to other contexts, particularly the real world
external validity
69no other factor beside the planned and controlled conditions, should explain the outcome of the experimental condition
internal validity
70design that relaxes random assignment to a treatment or control condition
quasi-experimental designs
71what designs are fairly rare compared to research designs for sociological studies of deviance
quasi and experimental
72what do most research techniques use to understand deviant behavior?
survey bc they help understand how deviance is distributed across individual, social, and environmental conditions
73a subsest of the target population
sample
74downfalls of using surveys when dealing with people
- difficult
- time-consuming
- expensive
75what happens if the response rate is low?
the sample may still reflect the population, but this is a highly unlikely and would occur only if the various demographic groups were equally likely to respond and those whor responded vs. those who did not respond were similar in all respects related to the study
76generally involves getting out into the environment and studying human behavior as it exists in the real world
field research
77theoretically entails observing people not only with them not knowing the resercher is observing them not observing the researcher whatsoever
pure observations --> fieldwork
78active participation is the only way to truly understand the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of deviant actors and the factors that shape and affect deviance
participant observation --> fieldwork
79the study and recording of human society and subcultures
ethnography
80involves reviewing records of communication and systematically searching, recording, and analyzing themes in trends in those records
content analysis
81keys to a successful content analysis
1. a solid research question
2. a reasonably good understranding of the population of the materials or sources of interest
3. a strategy for sampling records of communication
4. a systematic approach to extracting and coding themes of looking for trends
82what is the only proven way to assess the effectivenes of programs and polices to address deviance
solid research invoking the tools
83what kind of research was gang member for a day
overt: researcher didn't engage in acts, ps knew they were being studied
84Findings from military reading
deviance decreases, increase in binge-drinking and drug use but usually these individuals already had these issues