There's A Lot You Can Do With A Degree in Sociology  

Chapter 6

Deviance and Social Control

Study Objectives:

For this chapter, students learn the definition of deviance, especially the sociological view on deviance and crime. Students are expected to recognize the differences in explaining deviance between the individual perspectives and the sociological perspective and learn the sociological approaches to explain deviance. Students should also become familiar with different types of social control on deviance and crime and be able to evaluate each.   

Leading questions for class discussion:  

1.  What is deviance and What is deviant? 

2. The relativity of deviance. 

3. Explanations for deviance:

    the individual approaches: biological explanation

                                            psychological explanation

    the social approach: sociological

         The functionalist perspective

                          Durkheim; functions of deviance and crime

                          Merton and anomie theory

                          The opportunity theory 

  The conflict perspective:

                      culture and class conflict

  The Interactionist perspective:

                       Sutherland: Differential Association

                                      Subculture

                                    The control theory

                                    The labeling theory

 4. Types of social control used to enforce prevailing norms  in society

5. Critical thinking: which type of social control is most effective?

6. Problems in the criminal justice system

 7. The medical model of deviance:

 8. terms need to be remembered:

   conformity,       deviance           anomie

   innovation         retreatism,       ritualism

   rebellion         recidivism rate,   differential association

   subculture        medicalization of deviance  

Power Point presentation of major points for chapter content.