...Outline and asses the functionalist explanations of crime and deviance. Functionalist ignore deviance; they look at society as a whole and ignore individualism. Functionalism is a structuralist approach (also known as a consensus theory) they believe that individuals are shaped by society and social facts. A limitation of functionalist is that they ignore certain groups within society, such as women and people with disabilities. They also ignore factors such as ‘race’ and social class. They believe that society will maintain stability if the institutions still exists and the factors that may cause conflict – are ignored. I will assessing the functionalist contribution to explanations of crime, to how useful it is and if those explanations have been applied within modern day society. Also how useful the explanations are at reducing crime. Deviance is a normative approach, it is associated with behaviour that differs from the set norms and values set out by society. Deviance is linked to informal social control through sanctions (not by laws or government policy). In a Post Modern society – this definition of deviance would be problematic because it refers to societal norms (which would have disappeared; due to individualism making it hard to follow set norms and values). Deviance could collapse in a post-modern society. Durkheim (1895) is a positivist who proposed the concept of anomie; as an explanation as to why certain people commit crime. He believes that if individuals feel...
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...1. Define and describe the group. When I was in High School I had joined H.O.O.C. club which stood for Helpers Of Our Community. This was a community service club that met every Mondays and Wednesdays after school. They helped families who couldn’t afford to celebrate the holidays, we fundraised, fed the homeless. 2. Define what is normal behavior for the group. Usually everyone was suppose to show up to every meeting if you joined the club. You would participate and do your hours on helping fundraise during carwashes or little fair booths at the school. On Christmas people were suppose to get volunteers to buy children presents. Then everyone had to come after school to wrap those presents. For the kids that still didn’t have a presents we would go shopping with the money that we raised. Everyone had to wear their club shirts and show up to every event....
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...Chapter Seven: Deviance Deviance is recognized as the violation of cultural norms. Norms help guide us thought life activity. Crime is an act of violation of society formally enacted criminal law. Criminal deviance is divided into a wide range of offenses, from minor traffic violation to sexual assault to murder. In general that we would normally view nonconformity as breaking the rules, or regulation, like driving while under the influence of alcohol, stealing which is viewed as someone is negative or an bad person. On the other side we view someone that is good as a nerd that doesn’t do anything but think about computer software and programs, and someone that does a lot of volunteer work. Deviance doesn’t have to involve our actions or even choose. Some deviances action can be detached on how we all think about others and if we don’t like a certain people because of the person’s disability race, and other difference. This means that racial hate groups are performing a deviance act against other unlike racial groups. Social control is subjected to everyone in a society. Social control is an attempt to control people’s thoughts and behavior to standards of the society. Unfortunately social control has been able to control all of those murders and other people that constantly break the rules and regulation. In cases of serious deviance, however may bring action by the criminal justice system, which is a formal response by police, courts, and prison official to alleged...
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...Labeling theory is one of the most important approaches to understanding deviant and criminal behavior. It stems from the work of W.I. Thomas who, in 1928, wrote, "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." Labeling theory begins with the assumption that no act is intrinsically criminal. Definitions of criminality are established by those in power through the formulation of laws and the interpretation of those laws by police, courts, and correctional institutions. Deviance is therefore not a set of characteristics of individuals or groups, but rather it is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants and the context in which criminality is being interpreted. In order to understand the nature of deviance itself, we must first understand why some people are tagged with a deviant label and others are not. Those who represent forces of law and order and those who enforce the boundaries of proper behavior, such as the police, court officials, experts, and school authorities, provide the main source of labeling. By applying labels to people, and in the process creating categories of deviance, these people are reinforcing the power structure of society. Many of the rules that define deviance and the contexts in which deviant behavior is labeled as deviant are framed by the wealthy for the poor, by men for women, by older people for younger people, and by ethnic minorities for minority groups. In other words, the more powerful and dominant...
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...Deviance is Socially Defined Social deviance is a term that refers to forms of behavior and qualities of persons that others in society devalue and discredit. So what exactly is deviance? In this essay the focus is how deviance is socially defined, not physiological deviations from the expected norm. Deviance is defined as, "The recognized violation of cultural norms." Deviance is an act of rebellion against set of rules, and expected behavior established by a certain society (Macionis, 2008). Deviance however is defined in many different ways. It is depended on the norms of the society, and region. Individuals become deviant when people label their actions as deviance. It depends on how that society defines deviance on individuals. The institution of rules and breaking rules in society is determined by strong social powers. Such stigma leads to social inequality in our society. Sociologists Theories Sociologists however defines deviance as behavior that violates an essential social norm. Deviants are people who go beyond the limits of socially acceptable behavior. Although the definition of deviance is simple, deviant acts in real life are hard to turn down. No single act, not even taking another person's life is forbidden at all times in any human society. Deviance is relative. What is deviant behavior in one place may be acceptable in another place. Different cultures have different levels of social order and control, therefore making what can be seen as...
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...Sociology Theory There are many theories people create and analyze on how we as a society would become obsolete. If we lived in a perfect world, there would probably be one solution or sociological theory that could solve all our problems. With all of the sociological theories created over centuries, I believe that the three main theories, structural functionalism, the conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism, are all important attributes to what make us successful as individuals and society, play an important part in what makes us fail and all consist in the United States today. The structural functionalism approach is a framework for all parts of society to work and function together. This theory points to social structure, which gives our lives shape in families, workplace, classroom, community, etc., and is the pattern of our social behavior. As one pioneer of this approach, Herbert Spencer, began to explain in more detail how social structure works was by using an example of the human body. He argued his point by stating muscles, bones, and organs in our body work interdependently to help the entire body to survive. He compared this to social structure by exclaiming that just like the functions of our organs, bones and muscles help the body to survive, social structures work together to preserve society. How one can say how this theory is beneficial today is by the way we control our actions with our decision making. If we do work together as a whole in governmental...
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...W.I. Thomas who, in 1928, wrote, "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." In the 1950’s and 1960’s, labeling theory or social reaction theory came to be out of a rejection of consensus theory or structural functionalism. Sociologists were beginning to study the aspects of different kinds of behavior. Labeling theory was just a theory until 1966 when Thomas J Scheff published his book called, Being Mentally Ill. His book stated that there are certain behaviors and actions that society views as deviant and those who engage in these types of behaviors are considered mentally ill or having a mental illness. Another labeling theorist was Frank Tannenbaum. His theory was of labeling was socially stigmatizing and that suggesting, tagging, defining, identifying, segregating, describing, and emphasizing any individual out for special treatment becomes a way of stimulating, and evoking the very traits that are complained of. A person becomes the thing they are described as being. This theory implies that no act is intrinsically criminal, rather, criminality is established through the formation of laws, and the interpretation of those laws by the courts police and correctional institutions. Deviance is therefore not a set of characteristics of individuals or groups, but rather it is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants and the context in which criminality is being interpreted. Labeling theory or social reaction theory is concerned...
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...What Is Deviance? The word deviance connotes odd or unacceptable behavior, but in the sociological sense of the word, deviance is simply any violation of society’s norms. Deviance can range from something minor, such as a traffic violation, to something major, such as murder. Each society defines what is deviant and what is not, and definitions of deviance differ widely between societies. For example, some societies have much more stringent rules regarding gender roles than we have in the United States, and still other societies’ rules governing gender roles are less stringent than ours. Gender and Deviance In the United States, women who cry in public in response to emotional situations are not generally considered deviant—even women who cry frequently and easily. This view of women has remained relatively constant. Over the past fifty years, however, society’s perception of men who cry has changed. A man who cried publicly in the 1950s would have been considered deviant. Today, men who cry in response to extreme emotional situations are acting within society’s norms. Male politicians cry when announcing defeat, male athletes cry after winning a championship, and male actors cry after winning an award. By today’s standards, none of these men is committing a deviant act. Relativism and Deviance Deviance is a relative issue, and standards for deviance change based on a number of factors, including the following: * Location: A person speaking loudly during a church service...
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...Assess functionalist theories of crime and deviance. Functionalism is a social structural and social control theory. It believes that it is society that causes the individual to commit crime. Social control theory looks at why people do not commit crime as it says that people are controlled by the primary and secondary agents of social control, such as the family or religion, and so should not commit crime. Functionalism is also a Right Wing theory, which believes that agents of social control like the police are fair and just; law reflects the collective conscience; people are biologically selfish and official statistics are valid. Functionalists included in this essay are Durkheim and Merton with evaluation from functionalist subcultural theorists, Cloward and Ohlin, and Marxism. Durkheim said that crime is inevitable: this is because people are not equally committed to the law due to individual differences and each society has its own definitions of what is deviant and so even a ‘society of saints’ will have deviance. He also said that crime is functional for society when there is the ‘right’ amount. The collective conscience needs to be at a moderate energy so that there is not too much or too little crime. When there is the right amount, society can progress as the criminal may be ‘the origin of the genius’ as they challenge societies current values. Durkheim also made the concept of anomie. At times of rapid change, society can enter a state of normlessness, as there are...
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...CHAPTER 7 DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL Deviance 171 Social Policy and Social Control: Illicit Drug Use in Canada and Worldwide 193 What Is Deviance? 171 Explaining Deviance 175 Social Control 182 Conformity and Obedience 182 Informal and Formal Social Control Law and Society 186 Crime 185 187 Types of Crime 188 Crime Statistics 190 The Issue 193 The Setting 193 Sociological Insights 193 Policy Initiatives 193 Boxes RESEARCH IN ACTION: Street Kids 183 sOCIOLOGY IN THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY: Singapore: A Nation of Campaigns 186 TAKING SOCIOLOGY TO WORK: Holly Johnson, Chief of Research, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada 192 Cigarette smoking has become stigmatized in Canada. This newspaper advertisement, sponsored by Health Canada, reverses the typical advertising strategy of equating smoking with sexiness. 169 H eidi Fleiss was in her late twenties when she was arrested for operating a call girl service. At the time, her pediatrician father had reacted flippantly, “I guess I didn’t do such a good job on Heidi after all.” Later, he would be convicted of conspiring to hide profits from his daughter’s call girl ring. Fleiss had dropped out of school when she was sixteen and established a liaison with a playboyfinancier who gave her a Rolls-Royce for her twenty-first birthday. In her early twenties, Fleiss interned in the world of prostitution by working for Madame Alex (Elizabeth Adams)...
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...CARAGA STATE UNIVERSITY AMPAYON BUTUAN CITY MAIN CAMPUS SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE TITLE: TEENAGE PREGNANCY SUBMITTED BY: BAJAO, ANNE GUILIPA LADIELOVE NAQUILA, MARITA SUBMITTED TO: MS. MAGLENTE, ORDEM MARCH 2015 Introduction Teenage pregnancy is widespread in the Philippines, especially amongst the poor. It is a story that may not be too pleasant, but one that is repeated all too often. Teen pregnancy is an obvious rising issue in our society. Teenage pregnancy is seen as the result of early sexual activeness. Teenage pregnancy is defined as a teenage girl, usually within the ages of 13-19, becoming pregnant. It is one of the most difficult issues that teenagers, their family and communities face today. Teenage pregnancy is widespread in the Philippines, especially among the poor. The Philippines is experiencing a crisis of overpopulation which have consequences on the quality of life of the Filipino people. Here in the Philippines, we believe in the saying of our national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal that “Youth is the hope of our Mother land”. In their hand lies the future generation to follow. But as we see from the situation nowadays, what we’re expecting from the youth is the contrary of the saying. Teenagers are prone to pregnancy. Almost every year there is a rapid increase on the number of pregnant youths. One of the major causes of this problem is that most of the youths nowadays grew up in broken...
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...Assess functionalist theories of crime and deviance. Functionalism is a social structural and social control theory. It believes that it is society that causes the individual to commit crime. Social control theory looks at why people do not commit crime as it says that people are controlled by the primary and secondary agents of social control, such as the family or religion, and so should not commit crime. Functionalism is also a Right Wing theory, which believes that agents of social control like the police are fair and just; law reflects the collective conscience; people are biologically selfish and official statistics are valid. Functionalists included in this essay are Durkheim and Merton with evaluation from functionalist subcultural theorists, Cloward and Ohlin, and Marxism. Durkheim said that crime is inevitable: this is because people are not equally committed to the law due to individual differences and each society has its own definitions of what is deviant and so even a ‘society of saints’ will have deviance. He also said that crime is functional for society when there is the ‘right’ amount. The collective conscience needs to be at a moderate energy so that there is not too much or too little crime. When there is the right amount, society can progress as the criminal may be ‘the origin of the genius’ as they challenge societies current values. Durkheim also made the concept of anomie. At times of rapid change, society can enter a state of normlessness, as there...
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...Marxist explanations of crime and deviance, like their work on other areas like the family and education, rest on an economic and structural analysis of society that sees a class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This struggle comprises the attempts by the proletariat to free themselves from the domination of the bourgeoisie as they seek to take over the means of production. David Gordon argues that crime is an inevitable product of capitalism and the inequality that it generates. He argues that inequalities in wealth and income create poverty and homelessness for the working class and crime is a rational response to these problems. This idea is supported by research which shows property crime rising during recession. Gordon suggests capitalism encourages values such as greed and materialism which are conducive to all classes committing crime. Such values promote non-economic crimes such as violence, rape, child abuse, vandalism and hooliganism because inequalities in wealth and power lead to frustration, hostility, envy and alienation for some members of the working class who may commit crime in an attempt to retrieve power and status. This theory argues that it is surprising that there is not more working class crime. The idea explained is one of continual conflict and of crime being a continuation or extension of the class battle. However, critics point out that such a view is a bit sweeping, and that the whole of the working class isn’t in revolt...
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...Why is the American Crime Rate So High? When compared with other Western-industrialized nations, the United States has the highest crime rate. It is a daunting question as to why, especially in the age we live in now. One might just boil it down to being a consequence of an ongoing population boom, the idea being that when there are more people, there is going to be more criminal activity. While this is obviously true, it is not even coming close to touching on the big picture. There are many societal factors that can influence a person to commit crime, from the hardened street thug to the typical law-abiding citizen. As for what they are doing differently in other western industrialized nations that is resulting in less crime than the United States, it is very hard to come up with a concrete idea as to why. Regardless of the country, the recession (which may be an indicator of criminal behavior) is being felt globally. The mistrust and harsh feelings toward police is just as strong, if not stronger, in other western industrialized nations. The make-up of towns and cities are pretty similar. There are ghettos in every country. There are violent street gangs in every country. Rioting against authority is far more prevalent in other countries, namely England, and they have been known to get quite hostile and violent at times, with deaths occurring in extreme cases. Laws may vary, but the main ideas remain the same in other western industrialized nations. In fact, certain...
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...to distinguish the reasons why this occurred initially in children. Some Sociologists and Psychologists believe that this was due to biological factors, while other Sociologists and Psychologists believed that Sociology factors were the main influences that brought about the changes. Though the general belief in how and why this occurs is different, the great majority of Sociologists and Psychologists all believe that they are not born with the preconceived notion that they are homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual themselves; their sexual identity evolves slowly, over a period of time. In the earlier decades, the main concern about the biological basis of sexual orientation was initially brought up when British sexual liberators named Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter argued that laws against same-sex sexual activities should be dropped because people engaging in such activities were biologically different from those with opposite-sex partners: they called such people “inverts”. The use of the word “homosexual” as a noun designates a certain kind of person-rather that an adjective referring to specific activities- dates from that period. However, the creation of this new, presumably biological, typology did nothing to reduce prejudice and bigotry (Milt. F., 2013). Human behaviors like sexual orientation are experienced in complex and various ways. Both are agreeably influenced by biological and social factors. Through trying to define the basis...
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