Crime and Deviance
Rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations.
What are norms?
This theory argues that minor acts of deviance lead to a spiral of crime and social decay.
What is broken windows theory?
The social honor or prestige a particular group is accorded by other members of a society
What is status?
Members of this social class typically make more than $200,000 annually and have inherited their wealth, own businesses, or hold a large number of stocks (shares)
What is the upper class?
The result of any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority
What is crime?
Modes of action that do not conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society.
What is deviance?
A theory developed by Edwin H. Sutherland that argues that criminal behavior is learned through association with others who regularly engage in crime.
What is differential association theory?
Positions in the class structure that share characteristics with he class positions both above and below them
What are contradictory class locations?
This social class is composed broadly of those working in white-collar and lower managerial occupations
What is the middle class?
A term popularized by Charles Murray to describe individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labor market
What is dependency culture?
A subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority.
What is a deviant subculture?
A theoretical approach that suggests that people become deviant because political authorities and others perceive their behavior as deviant.
What is labeling theory?
A system of social hierarchy that allows individuals to move among classes.
What are class systems?
This social class is broadly composed of people working in blue-collar, or manual, occupations
What is the working class?
Poverty defined according to the living standards of the majority in any given society
What is relative poverty?
Rules of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power.
What are laws?
This theory argues that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature.
What is conflict theory?
Social inequalities that result from patterns in the social structure
What are structured inequalities?
This social class consists of people who typically earn between $40,000 and $100,000 annually. Many members of this social class are highly paid persons with high school diplomas and college-educated persons who are paid modestly.
What is the lower middle class?
Sociological theory that views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and factors that deter it.
What is control theory?
A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior.
What is a sanction?
According to Edwin Lemert, the actions that cause others to label one as a deviant.
What is primary deviation?
People who own companies, land, or stocks (shares) and use these to generate economic returns
Who are the bourgeoisie?
This social class is comprised of those who work part-time or not all all and whose household income is typically lower than $20,000 a year
What is the lower class?
A concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Durkheim to refer to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.
What is anomie?