SOC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Broken Windows Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, Labeling Theory
Document Summary
Chapter 6: social control and deviance (last section on exam 1) A norm is a shared expectation that people use to identify what is acceptable and unacceptable in a social world. Formal norms are o cial expectations that take the form of written rules or laws. Informal norms are customs or unwritten, shared understandings of how a person is expected to think, appear, and act in a social world. Social deviance is any transgression of socially established norms. Minor transgressions of these norms can be described as informal deviance. Formal deviance or crime involves the violation of laws. Deviance isn"t necessarily bad, its just di erent from what the group considers to be normal. Absolutist approach assumes that social norms are based on essential principles that constitute an unchanging foundation for identifying good and evil and distinguishing right from wrong. Not useful for sociology, other than to explain general responses.
