SYG 2000: Lecture 18. Chapter 6: Reactions to Deviance

I.  Street Crime/Prisons:

  A. U.S has more prisoners than other nation, but larger percent in prison

  B. growth in prison pop 1970-2000: 605%, compared to 38% growth in U.S. population

  C. blacks: make up 12.2 % U.S. pop, are @ ˝  prison pop; 1/8 black males age 20-34 in prison

  D. How likely for college grads to go prison/jail?: 2.7% prison pop grads, yet 25.6% U.S. pop

  E. 3 strikes out: if 3rd felony (inc nonviol), mandatory sentences up to life; unintended results

    1. in Los Angeles a man was sentenced to 25 years for stealing a pizza.

II. Decline in Crime: precipitous at time of harsh sentences; cause or due to >employ/<drug use?

  A. For past 15 years: U.S. has followed a “get tough” policy.

III recidivism rate: the % of former prisoners who are rearrested; 3/4 prisoners been there before

  A. for violent crime: when released, in just three years, half are back in prison

IV. death penalty bias: where murder commit affect death penalty/52% on death row not hi grad

  A. women: commit 10.3 % murders, make up only 1.5% death row inmantes

  B. for rape/attempt rape in VA 1908-1963: all 54 executed black/56% of 2798 convicted white

    1. because bias: Supreme Court temp stop 1972: start w/ new laws 1977: now 64% white, 36 b

V. Legal Change: deviance is relative, varies from 1 society/group/period to another

  A. crime: for women in Iran to wear makeup!; sell meat/alcohol before noon on Sundays in IL

  B. New crimes emerge: because crime consists of whatever authorities decide assign that label

    1. eg: juvenile delinq sep crime 1899/auto theft/hate crime 1980s—motivated by race bias etc

       a. Hate crimes: motivate matters: race-eth/relig/sex orient/disabil, carry >severe sentences

VII. Trouble w/ official stats: caution needed in interpret/don’t have objective, indep existence

  A. created with social/political context: for specific purpose: change context, statistics change

  B. police: more suspect measures mental criminal profile, more likely to be arrested

    1. police discretion: decision to arrest/ignore is routine part police work

    2. symbolic interactionists: stereotypes affect how authorities deal w/ groups eg Saints/Rough

    3. conflict theorists: criminal justice system exists to serve the ruling elite

VIII. Medicalization of Deviance: to classify as formdeviance that formally belong to physician

  A. growing tendency: in past 100 yrs since Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) founded psychoanalysis

  B. internal disorders: seen as cause of  rape, murder, stealing, cheating, etc.

  C. Thomas Szasz:argue mental illnesses are neither mental nor illnesses!/are problem behaviors

    1. coping devices: perhaps inappropriate, but nonetheless;

    2. mental illness: myth foisted on public by med profession using pseudoscientific jargon

         a. to expand area control/force nonconforming people to accept society’s def of “normal”

    3. where to look for explanation: experiences in life, not illnesses

         a. just being in streets: could cause inappropriate behavior of street person labeled as ill

 

 

 

 

 

 

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