Quoted Passages & Some Lecture Material

Below are the passages I quoted in class yesterday:

First from Howard Becker, author of The Outsiders, regarding the essence of labeling theory:
"One of the most crucial steps in the process of building a stable pattern of deviant behavior is likely to be the experience of being caught and publicly labeled as a deviant. Whether a person takes this step or not depends not so much on what he does as on what other people do...being caught and branded as a deviant has important consequences for one's futher social participation and self-image."

Then, from Prof. Akers, I quoted his main criticism of labeling theory:
"People are labelled as delinquent, homosexual, mentally ill, drug addicts, child molesters, and so on largely on the basis of overt acts they have committed or are believed to have committed. Therefore, the deviant behavior itself is prior to and forms the basis for the stigmatizing label. THE BEHAVIOR CREATES THE LABEL MORE THAN THE LABEL CREATES THE BEHAVIOR; AND SUBSEQUENT DEVIANT BEHAVIOR CONTINUES THE LABEL MORE THAN THE LABEL CONTINUES THE BEHAVIOR."

Finally, Akers concluding summary statement:
"The principal strength of labeling theory is that it calls attention to the unintended consequences of social control. Its principal weakness is that it essentially ignores primary deviance and seriously underestimates the influence that other variables have on behavior in the first place and continue to have on its future occurrence."


LECTURE MATERIAL: in an effort to get closer to wrapping up my coverage of the theories of criminal and deviant behavior, I am going to post the rest of my notes on SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION theory and introduce ANOMIE.

B. The social disorganization theorists contended that rapid industrialization and urbanization (as in Chicago) caused this social disorganization which, in turn, undermined "social control exercised through traditional social order and values."

(In some ways, I see these theorists as the 1920s & 30s version of the so-called "moral majority" of the 1980s, a religious-political group which stressed the breakdown of traditional morality, decline of the family, secularization of society, even urbanization, etc. as giving rise to higher rates of criminal and deviant behavior in contemporary American society.)

C. Certainly, things have changed in our cities and inner cities since the 1920s. If anything, conditions have deteriorated even further in our inner cities especially and crime rates are higher (even if they have declined somewhat in recent years), as brought out in books such as William Julius Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged. Yet, there is some basis to question this theory. As Prof. Akers observes --

"To what degree the relationship between inner-city residence and crime is the result of social disorganization remains uncertain...."

"Often the research does not carefully measure social disorganization...."

"The very fact that crime and deviance are high within an area is itself sometimes used tautologically, as an empirical indicator that the area is socially disorganized..."

1. Furthermore, even in those areas characterized as the most disorganizaed, only a minority of youths and even smaller minority of adults are involved in crime (not to mention potential racial or class bias in police practices).

2. Another problem with social disorganization theory, raised many years ago by a prominent American sociologist, C. Wright Mills, was the problem of bias. In an essay entitled, "The Ideology of Social Pathologists" (late 30s), he suggested that these social disorganization theorists had a strong anti-urban bias because of their small-town, religious upbringing which they assumed to be the basis of social order.

D. Despite its apparent bias, among other problems, I believe it makes some sense and it suggests the need to address poor social conditions in order to address the crime problem.


ANOMIE THEORY

A. Like social disorganization theory, this is basically a structural or macro theory which provides an explanation for the concentration of crime in lower class urban areas and among lower class minorities, as well as the overall high crime rate in America.

B. Although the concept of "anomie" derives from the work of Emile Durkehim, Robert Merton gave it a different twist. He defined it as follows:
"Anomie is the form that societal malintegration takes when there is a dissociation (or disjunction) between valued cultural ends and legitimate societal means to these ends."

C. This condition of anomie (or means-ends disjunction), Merton argued, was endemic to American society. (Indeed, one could argue today that the gap is as wide as it has ever between the so-called "haves and have nots.")

1. We have a strong emphasis on success in a monetary or material sense, but not an equally strong emphasis on socially approved means -- that is, getting ahead at any cost is a preoccupation. And the disjunction between means and ends is perpetuated by continuing economic and social inequality.
(ThIS is where that handout from The Cheating Culture comes in, which represents a very good statment of Merton's theory.)

2. So, those groups which are blocked from legitimate means to material success feel the pressure or strain more than others and are more likely to resort to illegitimate means.

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That's all for now. On Monday, look for a description of the family exercise which will involve making up questions for the midterm exam. AND DO NOT FORGET THAT YOUR FIRST ESSAY IS DUE NEXT TUESDAY.