Wednesday, February 17, 1999
Announcements:

• Exam is on Monday, February 22 on Chapters 1-5 in the text plus the lecture notes. Students must bring in a blue book on FRIDAY, before the exam. The professor asks that students come 10 minutes early to the exam.
• The exam will consist of two parts. The first part will be 20 multiple choice questions and the second part will be 10 identification/definition questions. Correct answers to these questions will be further explained at the review session on Friday.
• THON participants must bring in written documentation by Friday in order to take the make-up exam which will be given on Tuesday, February 23, at 7:30pm in the HUB.

1. Deviance (continued)

1. Theories on Deviance (continued)

1. Labeling Theory – from the symbolic interactionist perspective – Links deviance to responses and reactions of others; people define and label people as deviants because they apply their own standards and morals. Example: Heterosexuals label Homosexuals as deviants. People are divided into 2 groups: The labelers (the dominant class, people in power who apply their own standards to people) and the labeled (people who get labeled, homosexuals for instance).

1. Primary Deviance – the first time someone does something wrong and is caught. Example: The police catch you smoking a joint for the first time – they label you as a deviant.
2. Secondary Deviance – committed in response to primary deviance. Once you are labeled a deviant, you no longer care about keeping up with a certain standard.
3. Stigma, Deviant Career – A person is likely to keep living a deviant life because of the stigma that is attached to him from the negative outcomes of his previous offences. One deviant act leads to another and then another and soon the whole social identity of the person has changed. They are labeled a deviant by society and cannot find work or respect so they continue their deviant behavior.

1. The Conflict Perspective of Deviance and Crime (2 main ideas)

1. Marxist view – capitalism creates inequality. People commit crimes because they are oppressed by the capitalist system. They need to be deviant to SURVIVE. They do not have the same access to societal privileges as others.
2. Quinney’s Theory of Class, State, and Crime

1. In the US, the legal system reflects the ideologies and interests of the ruling capitalist class
2. Law is the tool of the ruling class. People make laws to protect their own interests. The legal system perpetuates the interests of the ruling class.
3. Capitalists commit crimes of domination – price-fixing, dumping hazardous materials, unsafe working conditions – they make the rules and break the rules. Crime is endemic to capitalism.

1. Types of Crimes

1. Violent Crimes – manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, robbery. Demographic characteristics:

1. Age – the 15-24 year old cohort commits 42% of crimes in the US
2. Gender – Males commit 74% of property crime and 87% of violent crime.
3. Race – Murder is intra-racial (committed within racial groups). African-Americans make up 13% of the population but are unproportionally arrested more than Whites because:

1. Institutional Racism – police departments – Example: a West African street vendor was pumped with 41 bullets because the police falsely thought he was a serial killer.
2. African-Americans are poor and have low social standing.
3. Official Crime Index – it is suggested that Whites would exceed African-Americans if all crime (such as embezzlement, tax fraud) were included.

1. Property Crime (Auto-theft, Larceny, pickpockets)
2. Occupational Crime – "White Collar Crime" – people abuse their respectability and high status in society. Example: Embezzlement, tax fraud, physician claims. White-collar crimes cost the US $250 billion while street crime costs $15 billion.
3. Organizational Crime – Corporation Crime – price-fixing, unsafe working conditions, false advertising. Example: Beechnut sold juice that was mainly sugar water under the label of "100% juice" and had to pay $2 million. Example: Defective breast implants were sold to women. Example: Government crimes like Watergate and Iran-Contra. Example: War Crimes like the My Lai massacre.
4. Organized Crime – Loan sharks, drug dealing, gambling
5. Crime has dropped in the US because:

1. Aging of the 15-24 year old cohort.
2. Improved police tactics and many more police thanks to Clinton.
3. New laws like "3 strikes, you’re out" in California
4. Switch from heroin to crack