Deviance and Deviants E-Book

William E. Thompson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 769

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

This comprehensive and engaging textbook provides a fresh and sociologically-grounded examination of how deviance is constructed and defined and what it means to be classed a deviant.

• Covers an array of deviances, including sexual, physical, mental, and criminal, as well as deviances often overlooked in the literature, such as elite deviance, cyber-deviance, and deviant occupations
• Examines the popular notions and pseudoscientific explanations upon which the most pervasive myths surrounding deviance and deviants are founded
• Features an analytical through-line assessing the complex and multifaceted relationship between deviance and the media
• Enhanced with extensive pedagogical features, including a glossary of key terms, lists of specific learning outcomes in each chapter, and critical thinking questions designed to assess those outcomes
• Comprehensive instructor ancillaries include PowerPoint slides, a test bank for each chapter, instructor outlines, and sample activities and projects; a student study guide also is available

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Preface

About the Companion Website

1 Defining Social Deviance and Deviants

What is Deviance?

The Sociological Perspective

The Social Construction of Deviance

The Role of Media in Defining Deviance

Negative and positive results of deviance

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

2 Deviance and Social Identity

Becoming Deviant

Deviance as a Status

Deviance as a Role

Deviance, Deviants, and Stigma

Managing a Spoiled Identity

Deviance, Identity, and The Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

3 Popular Notions and Pseudoscientific Explanations for Deviance

Demonology: “The Devil Made Me Do It”

Morality, Immorality, and Deviance

Positivism, Pseudoscience, and the Medical Model of Deviance

Blame it on the Media

Fallacies of Popular Notions and Pseudoscientific Explanations

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

4 Sociological Explanations for Deviance

A Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

The Conflict Perspective and Deviant Behavior

Interactionist Theories and the Constructionist View of Deviance

A Feminist Perspective on Deviance

The Pervasive Influence of the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

5 Deviant Occupations

The Sociology of Work

Occupation as Master Status

Illegal Occupations

“Immoral” Occupations: Working in the Adult Entertainment Industry

Black‐Collar Occupations: Stigmatized Occupations and “Dirty” Work

Deviant Occupations and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

6 Sexual Deviance and Deviant Lifestyles

Sex, Gender, and Human Sexuality

Sexual Norms and Sexual Deviance

Adultery/Swinging/Mate Swapping/Co‐Marital Sex

Sexual Deviance and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

7 Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse

A Brief History of Alcohol in the United States

Alcohol Use among Social Groups in the United States

Becoming an Alcoholic

A Brief History of Drugs in the United States

Recreational Drug Use

Becoming an Addict

Drugs and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

8 Physical and Mental Deviance

Media and the “Ideal” Body

Abominations of the Body

Mental Disorders

Mental Disorders and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

9 Suicide and Self‐Harm

Defining Suicide

Durkheim’s Classic Study

Modern Theories of Suicide

Suicide in the United States

Physician‐Assisted Suicide

Suicide‐by‐Cop

Suicide Terrorism

Self‐Harm

Suicide and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

10 Beyond the Range of Tolerance

Body Modification and Mutilation

Edgework, Risk‐Taking Behavior, and Extreme Sports

Extreme Lifestyles

Extreme Deviance and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

11 Violence, Street Crime, and Delinquency

Measuring Crime in the United States

Violence

Property Crimes

Terrorism

Violence Against Women

Crime and the Media: The CSI Effect

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

12 Corporate Crime and Elite Deviance

White‐Collar Crime

Corporate Crime

Political Corruption

Police Misconduct

Elite Deviance and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

13 Cyberdeviance

Hacking and Online Piracy

Cyberwarfare

Cyberbullying

Cyberstalking

Cyberdeviance and the Media

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

14 Deviance, Deviants, and Social Control

Informal Social Control

Formal Social Control

Social Control and Stigma

Media and Public Opinion

Summary

Outcomes Assessment

Key Terms and Concepts

References

Cases cited

Glossary

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 01

Table 1.1 Perspectives on deviance.

Chapter 04

Table 4.1 Merton’s Typology of Modes of Adaptive Behavior. (Merton, 1938:676)

Chapter 07

Table 7.1 Examples of celebrity deaths caused by drugs.

Chapter 08

Table 8.1 Some types of amputations.

Chapter 09

Table 9.1 Durkheim’s typology of suicide.

Table 9.2 Comparing suicide‐by‐cop incidents in movies to reality.

Chapter 11

Table 11.1 Applying rape myths to other crimes.

Chapter 12

Table 12.1 Most and least corrupt nations.

Chapter 14

Table 14.1 Comparing Informal and Formal Social Control.

List of Illustrations

Chapter 01

Figure 1.1 Four major types of norms.

Chapter 02

Figure 2.1 Status set. What are the statuses in your status set? Which are ascribed? Which are achieved?

Chapter 03

Figure 3.1 Illustration by Marilyn Thompson of Sheldon’s Somatotypes.

Chapter 06

Figure 6.1 Timeline of same‐sex marriage bans and legalizations by effective date of laws.

Figure 6.2 World map of slavery.

Chapter 07

Figure 7.1 Map of dry counties in the United States.

Figure 7.2 Percentage of people who reported drinking in their lifetime, the past year, and the past month, by gender.

Figure 7.3 Percentage of people who reported drinking in their lifetime, the past year, and the past month, by race/ethnicity.

Figure 7.4 Percentage of people who reported binge drinking in the past month, by age.

Figure 7.5 Percentage of people who reported binge drinking in the past month, by race/ethnicity.

Figure 7.6 Percentage of people age 12 and older who reported using illicit drugs, by race/ethnicity.

Figure 7.7 Types of legal and illegal drugs.

Figure 7.8 Stages of drug addiction.

Chapter 08

Figure 8.1 Cases of blindness in the US by age, gender and race/ethnicity, 2010.

Chapter 09

Figure 9.1 Trends in US unemployment rate and US suicide rate by race and gender. Do you notice suicide increasing during harsh economic times – in line with Durkheim’s theory? Does anomic suicide seem applicable to some social groups more than others? Why might this be so?

Figure 9.2 Percentage of 2010 US suicides by sex. Why might men commit suicide more than women?

Figure 9.3 Percentage of 2010 US suicides by race. Using the actual number of suicides tells us one story. How might the racial breakdown of suicide differ when we look at the rate of suicide for each group?

Figure 9.4 2010 US suicide rate by race and gender. Note: “Am Indian/AK Native” refers to American Indians and Alaskan Natives. “Asian/Pac Islander” refers to Asians and Pacific Islanders. In parentheses below each racial group is the male‐to‐female ratio. Notice the similarities and differences between this graph and the graphs in Figures 9.2 and 9.3. When we take into account the number of people in each group, both Black men and Black women commit suicide the least compared with their counterparts in other racial groups. Which set of statistics do you think should be used when discussing suicide trends – raw numbers or information that includes the number of people in each population?

Figure 9.5 2010 US suicide rate by age. Notice the trends in this graph. Why might suicide rates dip after middle age, but rise again during age 70 and beyond?

Chapter 11

Figure 11.1 Age of those arrested for all crimes by gender, 2013.

Figure 11.2 Proportion of violent crimes in the United States, 2013.

Figure 11.3 Trend in murder rate in the United States, 1960–2013.

Figure 11.4 Homicide offenders and victims by race, 2013.

Figure 11.5 Percent of homicides of youth ages 5–18 occurring in school, 1992–2010. Of all homicides of youth ages 5–18, less than two percent have happened at school over the past two decades (Robers

et al

., 2013). What might be driving fear of school shootings in America?

Figure 11.6 Percent of crime in the United States, 2013.

Figure 11.7 Comparison of the 2011 rate of female and male victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 people.

Chapter 12

Figure 12.1 Crimes reported to the police, 2012.

Figure 12.2 Number of white collar crime victimizations unreported and reported to authorities, 2010.

Figure 12.3 Continuum of political corruption.

Chapter 13

Figure 13.1 Wall’s typology. What other types of cyberdeviance can you think of? Do any fall within these categories?

Chapter 14

Figure 14.1 Number of state and federal prison admissions by type of admission, 1978–2012. Reflecting on Chapter 11 and what you now know about street crime and delinquency, what do you think accounts for this trend in prison admissions?

Figure 14.2 Correctional supervision in the United States, 2012. Notice that the majority of those supervised by correctional agencies are on probation and parole instead of confined to jails and prisons. Why might this be so?

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Deviance & Deviants

A Sociological Approach

William E. Thompson and Jennifer C. Gibbs

This edition first published 2017© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Thompson, William E. (William Edwin), 1950– author. | Gibbs, Jennifer C., 1978– author.Title: Deviance & deviants : a sociological approach / William E. Thompson, Jennifer C. Gibbs.Description: Hoboken : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016007515 (print) | LCCN 2016013846 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118604595 (paperback) | ISBN 9781118604694 (pdf) | ISBN 9781118604656 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Deviant behavior. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology.Classification: LCC HM811 .T468 2016 (print) | LCC HM811 (ebook) | DDC 302.5/42–dc23LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007515

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Matt Gone, also known as “The Checkered Man”. Photo © Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters

Preface

Too often, people are led to believe that society’s norms are clearly defined, rigidly enforced, and arbitrarily followed or broken. Mass media and social media often reinforce these ideas and portray those who are labeled as deviant as being individuals who are somehow inherently different from the rest of us – social misfits, perhaps mentally, or at least morally, impaired. Indeed, some people are comforted by the notion that the world is dichotomous and can be neatly divided into good and bad, right and wrong, conformity and deviance. Because many people are curious as to what makes deviants “tick,” there is a tendency for definitions of deviance and deviants to take an individualistic and pathological approach emphasizing the uniqueness of those who violate society’s folkways, mores, and laws. The first wisdom of sociology, however, and the guiding principle for this book is: things are not what they seem (Berger, 1963). While acknowledging the uniqueness of individuals, Deviance & Deviants: A Sociological Approach insists that the study of deviance is not, as has been suggested, merely the study of “nuts, sluts, and preverts” (sic) (Liazos, 1972). Instead, this book places norm violation in a much broader sociological context and explores how both deviance (norm violating behaviors) and deviants (those believed to have committed those behaviors) are socially constructed and socially defined.

Some of the special features of this book include:

Taking both a macro‐level and micro‐level approach to norm violating behavior, looking at how norms are socially constructed, socially defined, and socially sanctioned.

Exploring how deviance becomes part of a person’s social and personal identity.

Looking at some of the popular notions and pseudoscientific explanations for deviance and debunking many of the myths that surround deviance and deviants.

Providing sociological explanations for deviance based on solid social scientific research.

Exploring areas of deviance sometimes overlooked by other books on the subject, such as deviant occupations, sexual deviance, extreme deviance, elite deviance, and cyberdeviance.

Beginning each chapter with specific learning outcomes and ending with critical thinking questions designed to assess those outcomes.

A subheading in each chapter that focuses on the media and how they help construct, define, and redefine that particular topic related to deviance.

In each chapter, a box entitled “In Their Own Words” in which people who have been labeled as deviant provide their viewpoint on the particular subject of that chapter.

Key terms and concepts appear in boldface type followed by italicized definitions. These key terms are listed in alphabetical order at the end of each chapter and again in a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book.

We invite you to open your minds as you open your books and explore the fascinating world of social deviance and social deviants. Apply your critical thinking skills as you read, asking questions and questioning answers.

About the Companion Website

This book is accompanied by a companion website:

www.wiley.com/go/thompson

The Deviance & Deviants: A Sociological Approach companion website features resources created by Christopher Michael Haraszkiewicz to help you use this book in university courses, whether you’re an instructor or a student.

For Instructors

Activity and project ideas

Chapter outlines

PowerPoint slides

Test bank

For Students

Study guide

1Defining Social Deviance and Deviants

Student Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter students will be able to:

Define deviance from an absolutist position, from the statistical anomaly view, and from the sociological approach which focuses on the normative relativist perspective and the social construction of deviance.

Explain how deviance is socially constructed around a range of tolerance that is relative to culture, time, place, and situation in regard to acts, actors, and a social audience.

Identify the role of media in defining deviance.

Distinguish between crime and deviance.

Distinguish between diversity and deviance.

Identify some of the negative consequences and positive aspects of deviance.

One of the first videos depicted live kittens being placed in sealed clear plastic bags and filmed while suffocating. Another depicted a live kitten being fed to a python. Animal rights activists demanded that the videos be removed from the internet and that the alleged creator and poster of those videos, Canadian Eric Clinton Newman, aka Luka Rocco Magnotta, be arrested and brought to justice for animal cruelty. Police investigations indicated that Newman legally changed his name in 2006 to Magnotta and had begun a fledgling acting career in both straight and gay pornographic movies. He also was allegedly linked to some white supremacist groups, and had three convictions for consumer fraud related to a stolen credit card on his record. No doubt, Luka Magnotta would be defined as a “deviant” by most people’s standards. Those early revelations represented only the tip of the iceberg, however, as more information surfaced about the 29‐year‐old Canadian. His final post was an 11‐minute video of him brutally slaying and dismembering a 33‐year‐old male Chinese student attending Concordia University. The video also included scenes depicting cannibalism and necrophilia. Magnotta then allegedly mailed several severed body parts to members of various branches of the Canadian government, prompting police to launch a worldwide manhunt for one of the most deviant individuals in modern history (Magnay, 2012).

What is Deviance?

Animal cruelty, pornography, fraud, murder, mutilation, necrophilia – not much mystery in how and why Luka Rocco Magnotta became defined as a deviant. Most deviance, however, is much less sensational and far less clear‐cut. Even some of the aforementioned acts must be socially scrutinized before being defined as deviant. Take animal cruelty for example. What Magnotta did to the kittens almost certainly qualifies as animal cruelty. But other cases are not as clear‐cut. For example, several years ago England outlawed the cropping of dogs’ tails and ears because it was considered to be cruel and inhumane treatment. Yet despite protests from PETA and other animal rights advocates, both procedures are still routinely performed on certain breeds in the United States by licensed veterinarians who are paid to do so by loving pet owners. Pornography has always been difficult to define, prompting the US Supreme Court to refuse to set any uniform standards deferring to “local community standards” (378 U.S. 184, 84 S.Ct. 1676). Thus, while some librarians may feel compelled to black out certain parts of the anatomy from photographs in , other libraries may subscribe to far more sexually explicit magazines, and a triple XXX video store might do business only a few blocks away. Fraud is a crime in most societies, but false and misleading advertising has become widely accepted as the norm, and at least one presidential candidate declared that the United States’ Social Security system is nothing more than “an elaborate Ponzi scheme.” Although murder, mutilation, and necrophilia are almost universally condemned, even those acts must be socially defined. Soldiers who kill the enemy during combat are not only not viewed as being non‐deviant, they might receive a medal and be hailed as heroes for doing so. Mutilating dead bodies is a ghastly act, but almost anybody who has witnessed a routine autopsy could argue that the medical procedure, while perfectly legal and sometimes required, is somewhat gruesome. No known society has promoted necrophilia, but a bill was introduced in Egypt to make it legal for a husband to have sex with his wife up to six hours after her death (Paperluss, 2012). The bill was not acted upon by the Egyptian Parliament, and some even reported that it was a hoax. Nevertheless, the point is that despite the unquestioned deviance of the heinous acts performed by Magnotta, and are part and parcel of the society in which they occur. Defining deviance requires people to make – judgments about what is good or bad, right or wrong, legal or illegal. These judgments are made within personal, social, cultural, and political contexts. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that deviant behavior is defined and at the social processes involved in determining if something or someone is deviant.