CRIM 1650 Lecture 9: Chapter 1 Deviance and Social Control

• School: York University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 1650
• Professor: James Kilgor

Document Summary

Self protection and sophistication: being knowledgeable about cult recruiters, drug pushers etc can make us feel safer and wiser, equally value though is the a(cid:271)ilit(cid:455) to re(cid:272)og(cid:374)ize that so(cid:373)e de(cid:448)ia(cid:374)ts are(cid:374)"t as har(cid:373)ful as their demonized reputations imply. Important reason for studying deviance is curiosity: those who study deviance often pressured to share common value judgements about it, and provide solutions for stopping it, deviants often develop camouflages to avoid detection. Objective characteristics: deviance carries a negative moral evaluation as an intrinsic part of its popular meaning, do(cid:374)"t assu(cid:373)e (cid:449)hat (cid:455)ou (cid:449)a(cid:374)t to i(cid:374)(cid:448)estigate. A basic definition: find something that is distinctive about deviance to define it and eliminates unnessacary assumptions. Statistical rarity: deviance is often equated atypically or deviation from a common centre, heavy drinkers, people with below average intelligence and fast drivers are likely to be more deviant, not always the case. In many cases the greatest harm of deviance lies in its suppression.