SOC 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Erving Goffman, Social Constructionism, Racial Profiling

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1101
• Professor: William Flynn

Document Summary

Social norms: rules/expectations for behavior shared by group members/society: considered normal, durkheim law registers norms (deviance = illegal, varies with area and person, enforced informally/formally, consensus, main enforcing sanctions (verbal/nonverbal) Racial profiling: actions taken for supposed safety/security/public protection based on stereotypes rather than reasonable suspicion. Erving goffman: bodily stigma: centers on physical body, moral stigma: blemishes of individual/moral character (ex. Crime: law breaking deviance: criminal justice system, integrating function (durkhiem): reinforcing social solidarity in that crime draws law-abiding closer together, ecological theories: Cause of crime found in the way physical/social environment creates conditions for criminal/noncriminal behavior. Broken windows: (wilson, kelling) maintaining urban environments in good order stop deviance. Perception affects reality = neighborhood lacks social control serious crime: social strain theory: (merton) people/groups feel strain when there"s a difference between cultural goals and what they can achieve because they don"t have institutional means.