Sociology - Ch 5: Crime / Deviance

The death penalty (page 176)

A violation of a norm that has been codified into law (page 172)

A collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that create and enforce laws (page 176)

The use of electronic media (web pages, social networking sites, e-mail, instant messengers, and cell phones) to tease, harass, threaten, or humiliate someone (page 169)

The tendency of individuals to age out of crime over the life course (page 174)

An approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes (page 174)

A behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction (page 154)

Process by which an individual self-identifies as deviant and initiates her own labeling process (page 166)

Edwin Sutherland’s hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers (page 160)

An approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them (page 176)

Among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity (page 165)

Individuals who accept society’s approved goals but not society’s approved means to achieve them (page 159)

Howard Becker’s idea that deviance is a consequence of external judgments, or labels, that modify the individual’s self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person (page 161)

According to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from “normal” society (page 165)

Presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong to (page 165)

Stealing minor items in small amounts, often again and again (page 174)

Actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic (page 176)

In labeling theory, the initial act or attitude that causes one to be labeled deviant (page 161)

Crimes that did not involve violence, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson (page 172)

Individuals who reject society’s approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometimes revolutionary) goals using new means (page 159)

An approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty (page 176)

Individuals who reject both society’s approved goals and the means by which to achieve them (page 159)

An approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal (page 176)

Individuals who have given up hope of achieving society’s approved goals but still operate according to society’s approved means (page 159)

Iin labeling theory, the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant (page 161)

An inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true (page 164)

The formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion (page 159)

Erving Goffman’s term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group’s identity and that may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction (page 164)

Robert Merton’s argument that in an unequal society the tension or strain between socially approved goals and an individual’s ability to achieve those goals through socially approved means will lead to deviance as individuals reject either the goals or the means or both (page 159)

redefining the stigma associated with a deviant label as a positive phenomenon (page 161)

An official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI’s official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies (page 172)

Crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery (page 172)

Crime crime committed by a high-status individual in the course of his occupation (page 172)

Norms are universal and always identified as deviant across cultures and times is NOT a topic examined by _______.

Imagine that a powerful and influential person decided to heavily tattoo her own face with symbols and images that told parts of her life story.

Would she be treated as a deviant? answer: Yes, it would be in the __________, although there are other cultures that would consider it normal or desirable.

What group of people within the hospital were able to tell that the pseudopatients in David Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane in Insane Places” were not actually mentally ill?

Which kinds of departures from the norm can have a stigmatizing effect on an individual’s identity?

Examine the graphic depiction above of Robert Merton’s typology of deviance. Why do you think that those who embrace both new means and new goals are depicted as being just barely connected to the other types that Merton described?

If an upper-middle-class white college student is sentenced to rehab for the same drug crime that a lower-class black man is sentenced to jail for committing, what might a conflict theorist conclude about deviance?

Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice after lying to the FBI during an investigation of her sale of ImClone Systems stock, whose value dramatically fell immediately after she sold it. Her conviction was unusual, as this sort of white-collar crime is much more likely to be dealt with in civil, rather than criminal, court. How does the tendency to deal with white-collar criminals in civil court bias our understanding of the demographics of crime?

The parents of a deviant child often want to find some way to excuse their offspring’s behavior, and it’s common to hear them say, “He just fell in with a bad crowd.” Which symbolic interactionist theory of deviance does this explanation most closely resemble?

According to the Uniform Crime Report, murder is most likely to be committed by:

Robert Merton once observed that the self-fulfilling prophecy is a peculiarly sociological concept. Why?

How does the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report measure crime?
Answer: Every crime reported by over ______ law enforcement agencies in the United States is tabulated.

In order for a behavior, trait, or belief to be considered ___________, it must depart from a norm and generate a negative reaction.

In the United States, what do legislatures, police, courts, and prisons make up?

What aspects of stigma are symbolic interactionists interested in?
Answer – how people manage their ________ identities on an everyday basis

What might make sociologists doubt that higher crime rates in urban areas, as reported by the Uniform Crime Report, actually reflect higher levels of criminal activity?

Individuals who conceive of deviance as a role, rather than as an isolated behavior, sometimes initiate the labeling process against themselves. What is this called?

We respond not only to the objective features of a situation, but also to its meaning. Once meaning has been assigned to our behavior, the consequences of that behavior are determined by the meaning.

As women have gained greater power in the labor market, female arrest rates have increased.

Nowhere to Grow by Les Whitbeck and Dan Hoyt explored the lives of homeless and runaway teens in the Midwest. The authors found that “associating with deviant peers” had a dramatic effect on a wide range of deviant behaviors, including increasing “the likelihood of serious substance abuse almost 32 times.” What theory of deviance considers the way that such interpersonal relationships help to predict deviant behavior?

In “The Saints and the Roughnecks,” William Chambliss followed two groups of high school students. The Saints were boys from middle-class homes, while the Roughnecks were from lower-class households. What would you expect Chambliss to have found?

Some light-skinned African Americans dealt with stigma by passing as white. But many African Americans couldn’t pass, and others refused to do so; consequently when they attempted to deal with stigma, they were much more likely to do so via in-group orientation. Which of the following actions would be an example of in-group orientation?

What group of people within the hospital were able to tell that the pseudopatients in David Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane in Insane Places” were not actually mentally ill?

When a politician is caught cheating on his spouse, there are usually serious consequences, and sometimes the politician is forced to resign from his office when his constituents loudly express their unhappiness with such behavior. According to Emile Durkheim, what function does this reaction serve?

If you decided that you could never get into a good school and so could never get a good job, you might decide to sell crack cocaine instead as a way to make a living. According to Robert Merton, what sort of deviant would you be?

In order for a behavior, trait, or belief to be considered deviant, it must depart from a norm and generate a ________.

Karl believes that our criminal law excuses big corporations for polluting the planet, manufacturing unsafe products, and manipulating prices. At the same time, he sees homeless people imprisoned for stealing food. Karl has taken a ____________ perspective to explain the working of society.

Although gays and lesbians in the United States have always been stigmatized, there are several different ways in which individuals have chosen to manage that stigma. When gay-rights activists chant the slogan, “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” what strategy are they using?

When a parent argues that her child has simply fallen in with a bad crowd, what theory of deviance is she expressing?

Why was imprisonment such a rare type of punishment before the nineteenth century? Earlier societies did not have _______ to operate prisons.

What aspects of ________ are symbolic interactionists interested in? Answer: how people manage their stigmatized identities on an everyday basis

In colonial America, a pickpocket might have had a hand cut off as punishment. Why was this particular method of punishment chosen?

In Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, Karen McCarthy Brown studied practitioners of the Vodou religion living in the United States. However, she went far beyond the usual role of scientific observer and became a member of the religious group that she was studying. She also gave her key informant, Mama Lola, veto power over certain elements of her work. Why would this be helpful?

What can you conclude from looking at Figure 6.2, showing crime rates in the United States from 1986 to 2005?

David Rosenhan argues that misdiagnosis is particularly a problem for psychologists, as a diagnosis of a mental illness is as influential on the patient as it is on her relatives and friends. It should not surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts as a(n):

They want the thrill of getting away with breaking the rules.

Dan Savage, a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist, has repeatedly expressed his frustration with gay men who describe themselves in personal ads as “straight-acting, straight-appearing.” He believes that these men need to be open about who they are, rather than attempting to manage their stigmatized identity by:

In the United States today, many people are bothered by “double dipping,” or dipping food that you have already bitten into a sauce that others are using. Recently Mythbusters examined double dipping and found that the risk of sharing germs is negligible. Is double dipping still deviant?

Traditionally most of the sociological literature on deviance focuses on:

According to the structural strain theory of deviance as articulated by Robert Merton, what is one of the principal reasons that people turn to deviant behavior in the United States?

What helps explain why Jack Katz thought his book, Seductions of Crime, explained deviance in a new way?

“The Saints and the Roughnecks” by William Chambliss followed two groups of boys over the course of several years. Both groups did many deviant things. The Saints, eight young men from “white upper-middle-class families” potentially presented the greater danger to their community by driving drunk and vandalizing stop signs. However it was the Roughnecks, six “lower-class white boys” who were “constantly in trouble with the police.” Very different backgrounds and very similar actions produced very different expectations. Those expectations, or prophecies, had real consequences. All but one of the Saints went on to college and then to professional positions. Only two of the Roughnecks went on to college, both on athletic scholarships, while several of the rest adopted deviant lifestyles and careers, also known as:

What is NOT a justification for punishment in the United States today?

copy machine to make personal copies, and makes long-distance phone calls on the store’s line. However, he would never consider stealing money from the cash register, even if he knew that he could get away with it. What is this attitude called?

_______developed structural strain theory to explain why deviance happens. What sort of strain does the theory’s name refer to? Answer – the strain between socially approved goals and the means that an individual has for realizing them

What can you conclude from looking at the data showing crime rates in the United States from 1986 to 2005?

As Eliza Doolittle says in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.” Which theory of deviance also refers to this dynamic?

What is NOT a justification for punishment in the United States today?

“The Saints and the Roughnecks” by William Chambliss describes two groups of boys in a small town. Both groups of boys engaged in a considerable amount of deviance, but it was the Roughnecks, even though their deviance was less dangerous to the community, who were constantly in trouble with the police. As a result, all but one of the Saints went on to college and to professional careers while only two of the Roughnecks went on to college. Given this information, which of the following statements is true?

In colonial America, a pickpocket might have had a hand cut off as punishment. Why was this particular method of punishment chosen? It was considered _________ to remove the part of the body most directly connected with the crime.

What does Howard Becker call individuals who specifically choose to embrace a deviant identity?

According to the structural strain theory of deviance as articulated by ___________, what is one of the principal reasons that people turn to deviant behavior in the United States? The goal of success is shared by a majority of people, but not everyone has equal means to achieve that goal.

In his book Streetwise, Elijah Anderson argues that young __________ men are more likely to be arrested because both police and community members perceive them as more criminal than others.

For alcoholics, ______________ may be a very useful step because the first step to recovery from alcoholism is admitting that you have a problem.

In the 1960s Timothy Leary famously advised everyone to “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” and, although he insisted that it meant more, most people assumed he was telling them to “get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.” How would Robert Merton’s structural strain theory classify someone who took this advice?

David Rosenhan argues that misdiagnosis is particularly a problem for psychologists, as a diagnosis of a mental illness is as influential on the patient as it is on her relatives and friends. It should not surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts as a(n):

What theory argues that punishments for rule violators are unequally distributed, with those near the top of society subject to more lenient rules and sanctions than those at the bottom?

As Eliza Doolittle says in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.” Which theory of deviance also refers to this dynamic?

Many Americans are outraged by the number of illegal immigrants who enter the country every year, despite the fact that some studies show that such immigrants are, on the whole, economically beneficial. What function would this anger serve in our society?

What happened to the pseudopatients in David Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane in Insane Places”?
Answer – They were all finally released, but the diagnoses were that their “illnesses” were “________.”

Sociologists who study deviance tend to focus only on the most extreme and obvious forms of deviance. What is this approach sometimes called?

What do we call norm violations that are codified into law?

According to Robert Merton’s structural strain theory, which of the following individuals would be ———?
Answer – a white college student from a middle-class family who’s experimenting with drugs while in college and is interested in sports

Although branding is no longer used as a form of punishment in the United States, some subcultures have adopted it as a form of _________. This demonstrates that: what is considered deviant changes over time.

In the early 1950s, many Americans became interested in riding motorcycles as a hobby. At the same time, “bikers” were beginning to develop their modern reputation as antisocial thugs, criminals, and outlaws. One official of a national motorcycle organization argued that a few bad apples shouldn’t be allowed to ruin all motorcyclists’ reputations, and that it was only 1 percent of motorcyclists who were really bad. After this interview was published, some bikers started wearing a “one percenter” patch on their leather jackets, a gesture that Erving Goffman would call:

What evidence shows that the number of women who commit crimes is related to social structure? As women have gained greater power in the labor market, female arrest rates have ___________

Which of the following would sociologists consider the best definition of deviance?

What is the justification for harsh sentencing guidelines, like California’s “three strikes” law?

Gang mambers have many valuable skills that are lost to the U.S. economy when they are deported. But this is __________ a reason why it is particularly problematic that the United States deports gang members who immigrated here as children.

According to the ____________, why were none of the pseudopatients in David Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane in Insane Places” discovered? – Once a person has been labeled “mentally ill,” it is very hard for anyone to see past the label.

Imagine that a powerful and influential person decided to heavily tattoo her own face with symbols and images that told parts of her life story. Would she be treated as a ________? Yes, it would be in the United States, although there are other cultures that would consider it normal or desirable.

This is NOT one of the reasons why it is particularly problematic that the United States deports gang members who immigrated here as children.

Which of the following is a strategy to negotiate everyday interactions with a stigmatized identity?

When a politician is caught cheating on his spouse, there are usually serious consequences, and sometimes the politician is forced to resign from his office when his constituents loudly express their unhappiness with such behavior. According to Emile Durkheim, what function does this reaction serve?

Individuals who conceive of deviance as a role, rather than as an isolated behavior, sometimes initiate the labeling process against themselves. What is this called?

Robert Merton once observed that the self-fulfilling prophecy is a peculiarly sociological concept. Why?

When studying deviance, sociologists often focus on the most obvious and extreme forms of deviant behavior. What are the consequences of this approach?

When David Rosenhan designed the experiment that he described in “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” he gave very specific instructions to his research assistants to be honest and truthful about everything except to claim they were hearing voices and to give a fake name. Why was it important that they not use their real identity?

The poet Lucy Grealy had a series of operations as a child that eventually resulted in the removal of one-third of her jaw. As a result she experienced:

According to Robert Merton’s structural strain theory, which of the following individuals would be LEAST likely to be a deviant?

The purpose of the ___________ was to make comparisons in crime rates between years and geographic regions

Tuy Sobil was a member of the Crips in Long Beach, California, before he was deported to Cambodia. What did he do once he arrived?

Dan Savage, a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist, has repeatedly expressed his frustration with gay men who describe themselves in personal ads as “straight-acting, straight-appearing.” He believes that these men need to be open about who they are, rather than attempting to manage their stigmatized identity by:

The vast majority of crimes come to the attention of the police in response to citizen complaints. If citizens don’t think a crime is serious enough or feel that nothing can be done, they don’t usually bother to inform the authorities. This means that there might be serious bias in the:

The vast majority of crimes come to the attention of the police in response to citizen complaints. If citizens don’t think a crime is serious enough or feel that nothing can be done, they don’t usually bother to inform the authorities. This means that there might be serious bias in the:

If an upper-middle-class white college student is sentenced to rehab for the same drug crime that a lower-class black man is sentenced to jail for committing, what might a conflict theorist conclude about deviance?

In the early 1950s, many Americans became interested in riding motorcycles as a hobby. At the same time, “bikers” were beginning to develop their modern reputation as antisocial thugs, criminals, and outlaws. One official of a national motorcycle organization argued that a few bad apples shouldn’t be allowed to ruin all motorcyclists’ reputations, and that it was only 1 percent of motorcyclists who were really bad. After this interview was published, some bikers started wearing a “one percenter” patch on their leather jackets, a gesture that Erving Goffman would call:

______________’s structural strain theory sees deviance as the result of a person’s position in a social structure. What do you think that Jack Katz, author of Seductions of Crime, would say about structural strain theory?
Answer – A focus on social position misses the emotional appeal that a deviant act has for an individual.

What evidence shows that the number of women who commit crimes is related to social structure?
Answer – As women have gained greater power in the labor market, ___________ rates have increased.

Your professor is almost certainly an honest, upstanding employee who would never steal from her employer. Or would she? While it seems very unlikely that she would steal money from the school, it seems more likely that she might use the photocopy machine to make personal copies, a practice that could be described as:

Stealing avocados, or almost any other agricultural product, is a felony in California if the product is worth more than $100. Supporters of the law believe that it is the only way to protect farmers from vagrants and transients who can ruin the viability of small farms. However if you believe that such laws also target homeless people who are simply trying to eat, and that they are punished because they have almost no power within society, then you are probably a:

Which of the following is a strategy to negotiate everyday interactions with a stigmatized identity?

Today using the wrong fork to eat a salad at a dinner party would not usually qualify as deviance. Why not?

When a parent argues that her child has simply fallen in with a bad crowd, what theory of deviance is she expressing?

According to Jack Katz in Seductions of Crime, why might teenagers shoplift?

The idea that individuals learn to be deviant by interacting with others who are already deviant is called: