SOC 2070 Chapter 2: Chapter 2 Summary
29 Jan 2012
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2: many different theories re used in the sociology of deviance, corresponding to the various ways one can look at deviance. Durkheim directed his attention to anomie as the root cause of deviance, merton suggested a strain between institutionalized goals and legitimate means as the cause, cloward and. A number have also been criticized for treating deviance as a lower-class phenomenon and ignoring gender and race. Empirical and theoretical research has responded to these criticisms, exploring non-criminal forms of deviance across classes and analyzing gender and race in a variety of situations: learning theories explain deviance as a result of individual learning processes. Differential association theory suggests that we learn techniques and motives within intimate groups that lead us either into deviance or into conformity. According to neutralization theory, the key process is the learning of rationalizations that enable people to think that what they are doing is not really wrong.
