1. What distinguishes the functionalist, labeling, conflict, feminist and control perspectives of deviance from the other theories and perspectives we have examined?
2. What is the image of social order, and the role of deviance, portrayed by functionalist theories.
3. What are the "functions of deviance? How can we identify dysfunctions?
4. What are Gabriel Tarde's three laws of imitation? How do they relate to learning theory?What are the core elements of Sutherland's differential association theory? What is the causal logic behind his analysis of the learning of deviant behavior? How do Walter Miller's focal concerns fit into the learning perspective?
5. What is Sykes and Matza's contribution to learning theory? What are the techniques of neutralization that they outline? how are they associated with the emergence of deviant behavior? What does Matza mean by the concept of "drift"?
6. How do Glaser's differential identification theory and Burgess and Akers' theory of differential reinforcement differ from differential association?
7. Based upon the insights and research associated with learning theory, what types of social policy are appropriate for controlling deviant behavior?
8. What are the theoretical and philosophical roots of the Societal Reaction perspective? What are the central concepts of Labeling Theory?
9. What are the important factors which structure who and what becomes defined as deviant? What is meant by deviance being a social label? Distinguish primary and secondary deviance. Why is secondary deviance so important in this perspective?
10. How are the concepts of status, master status, and career used in labeling theory? What are the relationships and distinctions between self-concept and public labels? At which level does secondary deviance seem to have the most significance?
11. What does the information presented in the text and class suggest about the impact of deviant labels on life chances, probabilities of future deviance and self-concept?
12. What is the societal reaction perspective's critique of official statistics? Focus on the situational dynamics (stigma, visibility, demeanor, etc.) as well as the organizational characteristics which are relevant for an understanding of the social production of these records.
13. What is the relationship between labeling theory and ethnomethodology? What is the focus of ethnomethodological research? How is deviance constructed ?
14. Other important ideas and concepts to understand: Cooley's Looking-glass Self, Goffman's Stigma, virtual and actual social identity, discreditable and discredited identity, the own and the wise, moral career.
15. How does Goffman depict the effect of stigma on social interaction? Relate his work to Scott's on the Blind. What are some of the consequences of what Goffman calls the "corporate life" of the stigmatized. What are the varieties of paths moral careers may take, and how do they impact the stigmatized individual and her interaction with others?
16. Still more important ideas and concepts to define and apply: indexicality, reflexivity, retrospective interpretation/justification, documentary interpretation, typification, reasonable account, for-all-practical-purposes, suspension of judgment about objective reality, and Sacks' laws of consistency and economy.
17. What are the basic critiques of the societal reaction perspective? See Goode's, "On Behalf of Labeling Theory". Ideas to focus on: subjectivity vs. objectivity, relativism, empathy and taking sides, the problem of power: individual and structural, the difference between deviance and rule breaking, the difference between sharing, knowing, and caring about the majority's definitions and taking the potential consequences into account, and finally the distinctions and problems in viewing something as potentially deviant and someone as a potential deviant.
18. What does Lemert have to say about paranoia (class discussion)? Why does he dispute the psychiatric notion that the paranoid person symbolically organizes a pseudocommunity whose function he perceives is focused on him (the paranoid)? How does this presentation relate to an understanding of secondary deviance?
19. What are the implications of Rosenhan's study for an understanding of mental disorder from the societal reaction perspective? How do the "laws of consistency and economy", as well as the concepts of indexicality, reflexivity and retrospective interpretation; as developed within the ethnomethodological perspective apply to this study?
20. In Sudnow's study, what is a normal crime? How do public defenders make decisions about the type of defense a particular client requires. What is the significance of the relationship between the public defender and the district attorney in the legal processing of clients.
17. What distinguishes the functionalist, labeling, conflict, feminist and control perspectives of deviance from the other theories and perspectives we have examined?
18. What is the functionalist approach to understanding society and social order? What is a positive function of a social institution or behavioral pattern? What is the difference between a manifest and a latent function? What is a dysfunction?
22. How did Merton apply the concept of anomie to modern American society? What is his anomie (or strain) theory of deviance. Be familiar with his typology of adaptations to the goals and means structure of society. How do you control deviance based on this theory?
23. What were the critiques and modifications made on Merton's theory by Cloward and Ohlin? (What are "opportunity structures?") By Albert Cohen? What does Cohen mean with the notion of a "middle class measuring rod?" What does recent research indicate about the concept of the "double failure" and drug addiction? Based on the insights of "anomie theory" and its subsequent modifications, what type of social policy aimed at reducing the incidence of deviance seem appropriate?
24. What is social disorganization? How is it related to deviance? Where did this concept originate and why? How does social disorganization relate to social ecology? How does all of this relate to concentric zones? How do they relate to understanding deviance? How do you control deviance if this approach is accurate?
25. What was Sellin's critique of the work of the Chicago School's concept of social disorganization? How did Walter Miller apply this idea to the study of lower class social behavior? (central concepts: conduct norms, culture conflict, and focal concerns)
26. What is the link between the concept of social disorganization and control theory? What is the basic assumption of control theory concerning deviant behavior? What aspect of social life does Hirschi focus on in his control theory? What are the core elements of Hirschi's control theory? Be able to apply these concepts to analyze specific situations in which deviant behavior may emerge.
27. What is the basic theoretical perspective of Marx on understanding social relations and the structures of modern society? What modifications did Dahrendorf make? What is the primary focus of all conflict approaches when addressing the issue of deviance?
28. Distinguish between cultural/pluralistic conflict and radical conflict approaches to deviance. Distinguish between instrumental and structural (critical) Marxist criminology. What are the central concerns and propositions of these perspectives on deviance? (Turk's six propositions, Quinney's formulations, and Spitzer's contributions) Under what circumstances are problematic populations formed? How are they constituted? What factors are important in developing and assessing social control activity? What does it mean to say that capitalist society is criminogenic? What critiques can be directed at these perspectives?29. What is significant about the "Carrier Case" in England in 1473 and the emergence and evolution of vagrancy laws from a conflict perspective? Why is corporate and governmental crime such a major focus within the conflict perspective? How does Becker's analysis of the emergence and development of the Federal Narcotics Bureau relate to a conflict analysis of deviance?
29. What does current research from the conflict perspective indicate about the differential and discriminatory practices of social control agents (arrests, prosecutions, and sentencing)?
30. What are the distinctions and specifics of social policy implications from the conflict perspective? Distinguish between liberal reform and radical change.
31. How does Sellin's work contribute to a conflict analysis (culture conflict and conduct norms)? What is Mills' critique of the social disorganization perspective and those who professed this ideology? What is Liazos' critique of the traditional sociologies of deviance?32. What are the general concerns addressed by feminism. What are the problems of traditional sociologies of deviance from the feminist perspective? What are the failings of contemporary theories, including Marxist/critical theories? What are the three main points Goode presents concerning the depiction of women in writings on deviance. What do these issues suggest about the status of women in society?
33. What does a restudy of traditional theories of deviance imply about women and deviant behavior? What is Leonard's critique of these implications? What is the major difference between women and other minorities in terms of their participation in deviance? How has the women's rights movement and the associated changes in the status of women in our society affected the gender gap in criminal behavior?
35. What are the three areas of concern related to the question of social control of female deviance relative to that of men? What has been the impact of feminist research on these issues for the sociology of deviance, social policy and the operation of the criminal justice system?
36. Compare and contrast Marxist feminist and radical feminist perspectives on women's deviance. How does Hagan's power-control theory attempt to explain gender differences in criminal behavior? What is Chesny-Lind's Critique?
37. What is Contrology? What is its central concern in addressing the issue of deviance in society. Who is Michel Foucault? What has been his contribution to the new sociology of social control? What are the main points of his work, Discipline and Punish? What criticism has been directed at Foucault's work?
38. What are the four central ideas that the new theorists of social control focus on in their work? How does the work of the Marxist sociologist, Steven Spitzer, relate to the work of contrologists? What is a troublesome population?
39. What are the elements and types of social control that need to be addressed by the new sociology of social control? What are the theoretical and substantive issues that contrologists need to take into consideration as this perspective evolves? What does research on the effectiveness, punitiveness and changing nature of the criminal justice system suggest about contrologists dominant concerns?
40. What are the problems of bureaucratic organizations as social control organizations in modern society? Compare and contrast the perspectives of sociologists, contrologists and the populations being served. What does the example of "The Case of the Wild Man of 96th Street" indicate about society's control net?
41. What the heck is meant by the idea that deviance is a social construction, anyway?