Sociology of Deviance

Catalog description

Three lecture. Deviance in the United States emphasizing the study of deviance through topics and perspectives including social control, traditional and social constructionist studies, deviant careers, and career deviance. Additionally, the course will examine the crime and deviance by evaluating social norms, conformity, anomie, alienation, culture, and social constructionism. This examination will focus on the relationship between social constructions of deviance and crime while investigating various institutions and crime. Students will be able to: define the social construction of deviance and its relation to the perceptions and attitudes on criminalizing citizens in the U.S.; examine the social ecology of crime and victim characteristics including gender, race, age, social class; identify how crime and deviance are viewed from the three major sociological perspectives (functional, conflict, and symbolic interactionism); identify how anomie/strain theory, social disorganization theory, differential association, social learning theory, and social control of deviance construct, reinforce, and deconstruct crime and deviance in the U.S.; identify social norms, culture, conformity, stereotypes and how society reinforces these paradigms; contrast biological determinism with present day sociological explanations of crime and deviance; differentiate some of the major crime topologies such as property, white-collar, organized, and public order crimes; discuss the limitations and gaps within the criminal justice system in the U.S. as it relates to the application of justice; and discuss the social construction, institutional processes, and various gaps for victims and victim services.