SOCI 3290 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Control, Social Reality, Subjectivism
26 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Context plays a key role in determining deviance and/or crime; what is defined as deviant varies by time and location. It is not always clear cut. (example: in 1965 homosexuals, communists, atheists, and people with mental illnesses were deemed highly deviant while today"s society has become more accepting. An act can be deviant without being criminal (such as telling a lie) or criminal without being deviant (in certain countries homosexual marriage is illegal, but is not necessarily deviant). An offended or negative response (often in a controlling manor) labels something as deviant/abnormal. Crime: an act which actually goes against legal rules and regulations; is punishable by law. Merton: a sociologist who defined deviance as anything that significantly differs from societal norms. Objectivism: norms and laws are precisely defined and individuals play no role in determining them. People of power are in charge of applying the rules. Subjectivism: deviance is determined by societal norms and individual situations.
