Exam 8: Deviance and Social Control

What are the most common characteristics shared by the American prison population?

What are the three classifications of workers based on the conflict perspective?

The theory of differential association suggests that people who associate with certain groups receive an "excess of definitions" about either deviance or conformity.

What is the purpose of a degradation ceremony?

All of the following acts qualify as a white collar crime EXCEPT for which one?

Discuss the three theories used to explain deviance most aligned with biological explanations?

Sociologists who view law as an instrument of oppression used to control workers are aligned most with which sociological perspective?

By employing techniques of neutralization, even the most dedicated deviants can view themselves as conformists.

What is the major difference between psychological and sociological theories in explaining deviance?

Ritualistic procedures intended to humiliate norm violators and mark them as being moral outcasts of the group to which they once belonged are called ________.

Match the term with the definition. 1) deviance 2) social order 3) social control 4) negative sanction 5) positive sanction 6) genetic predisposition 7) personality disorder 8) degradation ceremony 9) techniques of neutralization 10) strain theory 11) white collar crime 12) recidivism rate 13) capital punishment 14) serial murder 15) medicalization of deviance -A) an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction to a formal one B) Robert Merton's theory based on cultural goals and the institutionalized means to achieve them C) a term to describe an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual's self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place D) inborn tendencies to commit deviant acts E) the percentage of released convicts who are rearrested F) the killing of several victims in three or more separate events G) ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect society's rules H) the violation of rules or norms I) a group's usual and customary social arrangements on which its members depend and which they base their lives J) to make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians K) crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations L) another term for the death penalty M) a group's formal and informal means of enforcing norms N) reward or positive reaction for following norms ranging from a smile to a prize O) the view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms

Briefly explain the focus of differential association, control, and labeling theories in the explanation of deviance.

Why did the "XYY" chromosome theory fall out of favor as an explanation for criminal behavior?

Stripping an individual of his or her identity as a group member is an example of using a degradation ceremony to brand someone as an outsider.

Of the following, the crime with the highest recidivism rate within three years of release from prison is ________.

How has criminal behavior among women changed in recent years, based on statistics from 1992 and 2008?

Given Durkheim's theory that deviance is inevitable, why is there a need for a more humane approach to dealing with deviance in the United States?

How did psychiatrist Thomas Szasz describe mental illness?

How does Chambliss's (1973) study of the Saints and the Roughnecks illustrate the power of labels in everyday life?

What is the relationship between norms and social order?