A Sociological and Psychological Assessment of Crime and...

A Sociological and Psychological Assessment of Crime and Deviance The sociology of deviance is the sociological study of deviant behavior, or the recognized violation of cultural norms. Cultural Norms are societys propensity towards certain ideals; their aversion from others; and their standard, ritualistic practices. Essentially the norm is a summation of typical activities and beliefs of group of people. There are various Sociological deviance theories, including Structuralist: why do some people break the rules? , Marxists: who makes the rules, and who benefits from their enforcement?, and Interactionist: How did this person become processed (labeled) as a deviant? Sociology asserts that deviance is problematic,†¦show more content†¦They are intrinsically social because they involve judgment. Decisions are made as to what constitutes deviance and what behaviors are to be considered illegal. The labeling of certain acts as deviant calls our attention to the fact that it is the reaction to the act that places it in the category ‘deviant’ not the act itself. Being able to separate biological and environmental factors is nearly impossible since they impact on each other from the day we are born. Isolating one variable and finding an association with criminality is a correlation but this should not be confused with a ‘cause’. There is a danger of reducing complex processes to simple one-cause explanations. There are some very dubious ethical implications from this area of research. The logical conclusions are to alter peoples biology by pre or post natal interference. It is also quite obvious that there are types of behaviors that will be damaging to any society and need to be controlled. Some of these behaviors seem to have a biological or psychological origin, rather than an environmental cause. The most obvious of the biological/psychological distinctions is that of the different levels/types of deviant involvement engaged in as a consequence of sex. Males seem to be far more predisposed to act in ways that all societies want to reduce because of their social harm. Some of the earlier biological theories are clearly flawed and have been used to demonstrat e the weakness of suchShow MoreRelatedCrime and Deviance3081 Words   |  13 PagesCrime and Deviance from a Sociological and Psychological assessment: The sociology of deviance is the sociological study of deviant behavior, or the recognized violation of cultural norms. Cultural Norms are societys propensity towards certain ideals; their aversion from others; and their standard, ritualistic practices. Essentially the norm is a summation of typical activities and beliefs of group of people. There are various Sociological deviance theories, including Structuralist: whyRead MoreThe Sociological Perspective On Medical Conditions1687 Words   |  7 Pagesbody and pathogens to explain poor health. On a different note, the sociological perspective takes on a different approach to explain medical conditions. The sociological perspective focuses on the external influences, rather than then internal influences, such as the social environment, institutions, and relationships to assess and explain illness. The sociological perspective contains the following theories to support its assessment of illness and they are: stigma, labeling theory, and medicalizationRead MoreInfluential and Sociological Aspects of Gangs: What Makes Individuals Want to Join Gangs?3113 Words   |  13 PagesInfluential and Sociological Aspects of Gangs: What Makes Individuals Want to Join Gangs? Magdaline Mouratides Sociology 100 Instructor Francisco Limá ½ ¹n November 29, 2011 Abstract The purpose of this research is to identify the sociological aspects and means in which individuals may use in order to affiliate themselves within a gang and their practices. The following research uses statistics and information given by police departments and the Department of Justice. I have searched for reasoningRead MoreCRJ 110 Final Exam3676 Words   |  15 Pagespolitical, sociological, and psychological. 2. What is the definition of crime that the authors of your textbook have chosen to use? A) Crime is human conduct in violation of the criminal laws of a state, the federal government, or a local jurisdiction that has the power to make such laws. 3. What is the difference between crime and deviance? A) Crime violates a law and deviance violates social norms. 4. What is the legalistic approach to the study of crime? A) The legalistic approach to crime yieldsRead MoreLabeling Theory3304 Words   |  14 PagesLABELING THEORY Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2008 Labeling theory arose from the study of deviance in the late 1950s and early 1960s and was a rejection of consensus theory or structural functionalism. Tannenbaum was among the early labeling theorists. His main concept was the dramatization of evil. He argued that the process of tagging, defining, identifying, segregating, describing, and emphasizing any individual out for special treatment becomes a way of stimulating, suggesting, andRead MoreCriminal Justice System And The Law System1421 Words   |  6 Pagesand Y. J. Huo over tested minorities, because they recognized that the justice system possesses less legality in communities of color. Tyler and Huo were therefore reasonably interested in learning whether race applies an independent effect on assessments of genuine encounters with justice officials. Their evaluation suggests that such an impartial effect does not exist; the critical issue remains evaluations of justice and honesty. The agreed findings, the authors declare, is cause forRead MoreExplain Juvenile Delinquency in Terms of Hirschi†S Social Bonding Theory, with Special Reference to the Case Study6009 Words   |  25 Pagespeople to commit crime, they ask why most people not commit crime.   Control theorists generally argue that there is no problem explaining why people commit crime since all human beings suffer from innate human weaknesses which make them unable to resist temptation.   They focus on restraining or controlling factors that are broken or missing inside the personalities of criminals.   If these restraining factors are thought to involve society in some way, as with the sociological notion that normsRead MoreControl Theory15246 Words   |  61 Pagespopular. His frameworks are bold—critics would say pretentious (Geis, 2000)—because they claim to be â€Å"general theories† that explain crime across types of crime and types of people. Hirschi also has shown little interest in race,class,and gender inequalities that others—especially those from more critical perspectives—see as fundamental to any explanation of crime (see, e.g., Miller Burack, 1993). Regardless of their merits, these critiques have done little to dim Hirschi’s influence; if anythingRead MoreTracing Theoretical Approaches to Crime and Social Control: from Functionalism to Postmodernism16559 Words   |  67 PagesNeo-Marxist Critical theory: The Frankfurt School.................................................. 34 Structural Marxism ..................................................................................................... 35 Post-Modern Views on Crime in Neo-Marxist Criminology ..................................... 40 CHAPTER 4 ..................................................................................................................... 42 FOUCAULTS SYSTEM OF POWER AND DISCIPLINE .....Read MoreBULLYING AS DEVIANT BEHAVIOR Essay2162 Words   |  9 Pagesï » ¿BULLYING AS DEVIANT BEHAVIOR Deviance acts as a violation of social norms characterized as any thought, feeling or action that members of a social group judge to be a violation of their values or rules.1 Social norms are viewed as the actions or behaviors and cues within a society or group. This sociological term has been defined as the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.†2 It indicates the established and approved ways of doing