Conflict Approaches to Deviance and Crime - Deviance in Society - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology

Download Conflict Approaches to Deviance and Crime - Deviance in Society - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Conflict Approaches to Deviance/Crime -Theoretical roots traced to Marx -Relativistic stance on crime (few acts are inherently wrong) -Crime is a product of social forces (rather than individual or biological) -Society is characterized by diverse groups with often conflicting interests (Pluralism) -The law tends to operate to maintain the powerful (either directly or indirectly) -Society can be broken into the “Have’s” & the “Have not’s” Docsity.com Conflict Approaches to Deviance/Crime Marx on “Social Power” –Humans enter into social contracts independent of their will (contra Durkheim) –Economic infrastructure is at the base of all social relations –Economy consists of forces (means) & relations of production –Relations of production determine class position •Owners (bourgeoisie) •Workers (proletariat) –Base of society (economy) determines the nature of the superstructure (other institutions) –How does Crime/Deviance factor in? –How do different types of crimes threaten the capitalist economic system? Property Crime? Violent Crime? Drugs? Docsity.com Evidence for Quinney’s Social Reality of Crime • In 1973, the US imprisoned 350,000 people nationwide. • By 2000, the prison population exceeded two million (roughly 687 people per 100,000; 6,926 per 100,000 for African-American men). • Europe-wide, the imprisonment rate is 60 to 100 per 100,000 • Homicide Rate: USA-8 per 100,000 Japan-1.7 UK-1.2 Docsity.com Evidence for Quinney’s Social Reality of Crime • On a typical day, one of every three African-American men ages 20 to 29 is either in prison, in jail or on probation/parole (up from one in four a decade ago). • 76% of African-American 18 year-olds living in urban areas can now anticipate being arrested and jailed before age 36, ensuring that each will acquire a criminal record. • Nationwide, 1.4 million black males – 13 percent – can no longer vote due to felony convictions. • In 1865, African-Americans owned 0.5 percent of the nation's net worth. By 1990, their net worth totaled one percent. Docsity.com Evidence for Quinney’s Ideology of Crime: Trends in Crime Data SOCI 288 Fall 2002 Over the past decade the trend in crime is ... N=52 DECLININGSTAYED ABOUT SAMERISING 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 27 42 31 Docsity.com Dimensions of Power Messerchmidt (1986, 1993) – Crime is an expression of power – Social power distributes legal and criminal opportunities (Cloward & Ohlin “differential opportunity” structure) – Street Crime versus Suite Crime – Class & Gender & Race status cast a different light on the political nature (the meaning) of crime • Crime as Domination & Control (crimes of the powerful) • Crime as Accommodation & Resistance (crimes of the powerless) • Most crime is intra-group in terms of victim/offender Docsity.com Dimensions of Social Power • Chambliss: Saints and Roughnecks – Describe these 2 youth goups in terms of their social location in the community – Interpretation by agents of control of similar behaviors • Did the 2 gangs differ in terms of the seriousness of delinquency? • Other factors that led to differential treatment by Agents of Social Control? • Self-fulfilling prophecy? • Anderson: Police and the Black Male – Connection between racial cues and assumptions about criminality – Distinctions made among Black Males • How do young Black men demonstrate they are not worthy of suspicion? – Distinctions made among different kinds of police • Downtown vs. Local police – Racial Profiling? • Lots of evidence from different sources • Cycle of proof for the basis of criminal suspicion (criminal records) Docsity.com • Blinde and Taub: Homophobia & Women’s Sport – Distinction between sex, gender and sexuality • Sex – a biological reality (DNA, genitalia) • Sex Category – Male/Female • Gender – a cultural construct (Masculinity and Femininity) • Sexuality – debate about origin • Heterogender – a new idea that acknowledges how important sexuality is to the ways that gender is constructed – “Doing Gender” concept (West & Zimmerman 1987) • Gender accomplished in interaction with others • “Accomplished” by providing cues that are consistent with normative expectations for masculinity and femininity • Gender culturally understood as an “oppositional dichotomy” • Hierarchy of types of gender identities: Hegemonic Masculinity orders all other gender identities (Connell 1987) Dimensions of Social Power Docsity.com