SA 150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Creative Accounting, Embezzlement, Racial Profiling

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 150
• Professor: Suzanna Crage

Document Summary

Deviance: straying from or different to what is considered usual or normal. It does not mean that the deviant the one engaging in deviance, is necessarily bad, criminal, perverted, sick or inferior in any way. Overt characteristics: actions or qualities taken as explicitly violating the cultural norm. Zoot suit clothing and hairstyle a fashion so different that it violated the cultural norm. Covert characteristics: the unstated qualities that might make a particular group a target for sanctions. Deviance, then, comes down to how we define the norm . It"s also about who defines the norm, the power of those who share the norm to define and treat others as inferior or dangerous. When we invoke the norm, we"re usually referring to what we defined as the dominant culture: three theories of deviance: strain theory, subcultural theory, and labelling theory (page 144)