deviance

crime

the violation of rules written into law

stigma

something that discredits a person's claim

to a normal identity such as birthmarks,

disabilties, or associations with deviant people

social order

a group's usual and customary social

arrangements, on which its members

depend and on which they base their lives

social control

a group's formal and informal means

of enforcing its norms

negative sanction

an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as

a frown to a formal reaction such as a prison sentence

or an execution

positive sanction

a reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a prize

degradation ceremony

a term coined by Harold Garfinkel to

describe rituals designed to remake the self

by stripping away an individual's particular

social identity and stamping a new one

in its place

genetic predisposition

inborn tendencies; in this context,

to commit deviant acts

street crime

crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary

personality disorders

the view that a personality disturbance

of some sort causes an idividual to violate

social norms

differential association

Edwin Sutherland's term to indicate that

associating with some group's results in learning

 an "excess of definitions" of deviance, and, by

extension, iin agreater likelihood that one

will become deviant

control theory

the idea that two control systems--inner

control and outer controls--work agaainst

our tendencies to deviate

labeling theory

the view that the labels people are given

affect their own and others' perceptions of them,

thus channeling their behavior either into

deviance or into conformity

techniques of neutralization

ways of thinking or rationalizing

that help people deflect (or neutralize)

society's norms

cultural goals

the legitimate objectives held out to

the mebers of a society

institutionalized means

approved ways of reaching cultural goals

strain theory

Robert Merton's term for the strain

engendered when a society socializes

large numbers of people to desire a cultural goals

(such as success), but withholds from many the

approved means of reaching that goal;

one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice

of an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal

illegitimate opportunity structure

opportunities for crimes that are woven

into the texture of life

white-collar crime

Edwin Sutherland's term for crimes committed

by people of respectable and high social status

in the course of their occupations; for example,

bribery of public officials, securities violations,

ebezzlement, false advertising, and price fixing

corporate crime

crimes committed by executives in order

to benefit their corporation

criminal justice system

the system of police, courts,

and prisons set up to deal

with people who are accused

of having committed a crime

capitalist class

the wealthy who own the means of production

and buy the labor of the working class

working class

those people who sell their labor

to the capitalist class

marginal working class

the most desperate members

of the working class, who have

few skills, little job security,

and are often unemployed

recidivism rate

the proportion of released convicts

who are rearrested

capital punishment

the death penalty

serial murders

the killing of several victims

in three or more seperate events

hate crime

crimes to which more severe penalties are

attached because they are motivated by

hatred (dislike, animosity) of someone's

race-ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,

diability, or natural origin

police discretion

the practice of the police, in the normal

course of their duties, to either arrest

or ticket someone for an offense or to

overlook the matter

medicalization of deviance

to make deviance a medical

matter, a symptom of some

underlying illness that needs

to be treated by physicians

social stratification

the division of large numbers of people

into layers according to their relative power,

property, and prestige; applies to both nations

and to people within a nation, society, or

other group

slavery

a form of social stratification in which

some people own other people

bonded labor

or

indentured service

a contractual system in which someone

sells his or her body (services) for a specified

period or time in an arrangement very close

to slavery, except that it coluntarily entered into

ideology

beliefs about the way things

ought to be that justify social

arrangements

caste system

a form of social stratification in

which one's status is determined

by birth and is lifelong

endogamy

the practice of marrying within

one's own group

class system

a form of social stratification based

primarily on the possession of money

or material possessions

social mobility

movement up or down

the social class ladder

colonialism

the process by which one nation

takes over another nation, usually

for the purpose of exploiting its labor

and natural resources

world system theory

the idea that the world's nations

became stratified based on their

relationship to industrialization

globalization of capitalism

capitalism (investing to make profits

within a rational system) becoming

the globe's dominant economic system

culture of poverty

the assumption that the values and

behaviors of the poor are different from

other people, that these factors are largely

responsible for their poverty, and that

parents perpetuate poverty across generations

by passing these characteristics to their children

meritocracy

a form of social stratification

in which all positions are

awarded on the basis of merit

means of production

the tools, factories, land,

an investment capital used

to produce wealth

bourgeoisie

Marx's term for capitalists,

those who own the means of

production

proletariat

Marx's term for the exploited class,

the mass of workers who do not own

the means of production

class consciousness

Marx's term for awareness of a

common identity based on one's

position in the means of production

false class consciousness

Marx's term to refer to workers

identifying with the interests

of capitalists

social class

according to Marx, one of two groups:

capitalists who own the means of production

or workers who sell their labor according to Weber,

a large group of people who rank close to one

another in wealth, power, and prestige

wealth

the total value of everything someone

owns, minus the debts

income

money received, usually from

a job, business, or assets

power

the ability to carry out your will,

even over the resistance of others

power elite

C. Wright Mills' term for the top

people in U.S. corporation, military,

and politics who make the nation's

major decisions

prestige

respect or regard

status inconsistency

ranking high on some dimensions

of social class and low on others,

also called status discrepancy

status

the position that someone occupies

in society or a social group

underclass

a group of people for whom

poverty persists year after

year and across generations

intergenerational mobility

the change that family members

make in social class from one

generation to the next

upward social mobility

movement up the social

class ladder

downward social mobility

movement down the

social class ladder

structural mobility

movement up or down the social

class ladder because of changes

in the structure of society, not to

individual efforts

exchange mobility

about the same numbers of people

moving up and down the social class

ladder, such that, on balance, the social

class system shows little change

poverty line

the official measure of poverty: calculated

to include icomes that are less than three

times a low-cost food budget

Horatio Alger myth

the belief that due to limitless

possibilities anyone can get ahead if

he or she tries hard enough

gender stratification

males' and females' unequal

access to power, prestige,

and property on the basis of

their sex

sex

biological characteristics that distinguish

females and males, consisting of primary

and secondary sex characterisitcs

gender

the behaviors and attitudes that

a society considers proper for its

males and females; masculinity

or femininity

patriarchy

a society in which men as a

group dominate women as a

as a group; authority is vested

in males

matriarchy

a society in which women as a

group dominate men as a group;

authority is vested in females

feminism

the philosophy that men and women

should be politically, economically, and

socially equal; organized activities on

behalf of this principle

glass ceiling

the mostly invisible barrier that

keeps women from advancing to

the top levels at work

glass escalator

the mostly invisible accelators

that push men into higher-level

positions, more desirable work

assignments, and higher salaries

sexual harassment

the abuse of one's position of

authority to force unwanted

sexual demands on someone

race

physical characterisitcs that

distinguish one group from another

genocide

the systematic annihilation or

attempted annihilation of a

people because of their presumed

race or ethnic group

ethnicity (and ethnic)

having distinctive cultural characteristics

minority group

people who are singled out for

unequal treatment and who regard

themselves as objects of collective

discrimination

dominant group

the group with most power,

greatest privileges, and

highest social status

ethnic work

activities designed to discover,

enhance, or maintain ethnic and

racial identification

melting pot

the view that Americans of various

backgrounds would blend into a

sort of ethnic stew

discrimination

an act of unfair treatment directed

against an individual or a group

racism

prejudice and discrimination

on the basis of race

prejudice

an attitude or prejudging,

usually in a negative way

individual discrimination

the negative treatment of one

person by another on the basis

of that person's perceived

characteristics

institutional discrimination

the negative treatment of a

minority group that is built

into a society's institutions; also

called systematic discrimination

scapegoat

an individual or group unfairly

blamed for someone else's troubles

authoritarian personality

Theodor Adorno's term for people who are

prejudiced and rank high on scales of

conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect

for authority, and submissiveness to superiors

reserve labor force

the unemployed; unemployed workers are thought

of as being "in reserve" ---capitalists take them "out of

reserve" (put them back to work) during times of high production and then lay them off (put them back in reserve) when they are no longer needed

split labor market

workers split along racial, ethnic, gender,

age, or any other lines; this split is exploited

by owners to weaken the bargaining powers of workers

selective perception

seeing certain features of an object

or situation, but remaining blind to others

compartmentalize

to separate acts from feelings or attitudes

population transfer

forcing a minority group to move

ethnic cleansing

a policy of population elimination,

including forcible expulsion and genocide

internal colonialism

the policy of economically

exploiting minority groups

segregation

the policy of keeping racial-ethnic

groups apart

assimilation

the process of being absorbed

intot he mainstream culture

multiculturalism

(aka pluralism)

a philosophy or political

policy that permits or encourages

ethnic difference

WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant;

narrowly, an American

rising expectations

the sense that better conditions are soon

to follow, which, if unfulfilled, increase frustration

pan-Indianism

a movement that focuses on common elements

in the cultures of Native Americans in order to develop

a cross-tribal self-identity and to work toward the welfare of all Native Americans