Vocabulary | meaning |
Anomie | Durkheim’s term for the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. |
. Anomie theory of deviance | Robert Merton’s theory that explains deviance as an adaptation either of socially prescribed goals or of the means governing their attainment, or both. |
Conformity | Going along with peers’ individuals of our own status, who have no special right to direct our behavior. |
Control theory | A view of conformity and deviance that suggests that our connection to members of society leads us to systematically conform to society’s norms |
Crime | A violation of criminal law for which some governmental authority applies formal penalties. |
Cultural transmission | A school of criminology that argues that criminal behavior is learned through social interactions. |
Deviance | Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. |
Differential association | A theory of deviance proposed by Edwin Sutherland that holds that violation rules results from exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts |
Formal social control | Social control carried out by authorized agents, such as police officers, judges, school administration, and employers. |
Informal social control | Social control carried out casually by ordinary people through such means as laughter, smiles, and ridicule |
. Labeling theory | An approach to deviance that attempts to explain why certain people are viewed, as deviants while other engaging in the same behavior are not. |
Law | Governmental social control |
Obedience | Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure |
Organized crime | The work of a group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises, including the smuggling and sale of drugs, prostitution, and gambling. |
Professional criminal | A person who pursues crime as a day-to-day occupation, developing skilled techniques and enjoying a certain degree of status among other criminals. |
Routine activities theory | The notion that criminal victimization increases when there is a convergence of motivated offenders and vulnerable targets. |
Sanctions | Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm. |
Social constructionist perspective | An approach to deviance that emphasizes the role of culture in the creation of the deviant identity. |
. Social control | The techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society. |
Societal reaction approach | Another name for labeling theory. |
. Stigma | A label used to devalue members of deviant social group |
Victimization surveys | questionnaires or interviews give to a sample of the population to determine whether people have been victims of crime. |
Victimless crime | A term used by sociologists to describe the willing exchange among adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and services. |
White Collar crime | Crimes committed by affluent individuals or corporations in the course of their daily business activities. |