Class Review: SOC3640 - Deviance and Social Control at Curry College

Welcome to our comprehensive class review of SOC3640 - Deviance and Social Control offered at Curry College. In this in-depth analysis, we will provide an overview of the course, its structure, requirements, and key topics covered. Whether you're a student considering enrolling in this course or simply interested in gaining insights into the study of deviant behaviors through sociological and criminological lenses, this review aims to give you valuable information and a glimpse into the course's offerings.

Throughout this review, we will cover the course's general impression, grading system, basic requirements, difficulty level, topics covered, study guide, and more. Our aim is to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of SOC3640 and help you make an informed decision about your academic journey.

Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of deviance and social control, examining its impact on society, exploring theoretical frameworks, and understanding the complexities surrounding deviant behaviors. Let's begin our exploration of SOC3640 at Curry College.

Table of contents

• Class Overview
• General Impression
• Grading System
• Basic Requirements
• Difficulty Level
• Topics Covered
• Class Study Guide

Class Overview

General Impression

The course was easy enough that the student only needs to have a basic understanding of sociological/psychological concepts to pass the course. The course focuses on the topic of understanding deviant behaviors through the lens of sociological and criminological theories. The whole course is research intensive, and would require the student to read supplemental materials (videos, readings, podcasts, etc.). Quizzes are unique in this course: it is in the short-answer format, but what makes it unique is that it can only be answered if you engaged the relevant supplemental materials. The professor is looking for the exact answers provided within these materials. There are two major assignments in this course which are research and writing intensive: Observing Deviance paper (3-5 pages) and Deviant Behavior Research Paper (6-8 pages). The first writing assignment is a short paper (3-5 pages), but requires APA citation of a minimum of 3 academic sources. The research paper is longer but subdivided into 4 parts: topic proposal (week 2), annotated bibliography (week 4), rough draft (week 6), and final paper (week 8). It also requires a minimum of 7 academic sources.

Grading System

Late work policy: No late work is accepted for missed and unexcused quizzes or exams. Late assignments are accepted up until 3 days after the due date.

Basic Requirements

Textbook: John Humphrey and Frank Schmalleger. (2021). Deviant Behavior. Sage Publications (1st edition)
Availability: Chegg
Additional Materials: A lot of weekly supplemental materials are provided through the course site.
Weekly workload:
- Discussions: 1 initial post due Fridays, and a minimum of 1 peer response due Sundays. No word count required. Textbook or external research is encouraged, but not required.
- Quizzes: Quizzes are taken specifically from the supplemental links provided by the instructor. Time limit is 320 minutes.
- Writing Assignments and Projects: Observing Deviance Paper and the Research Paper (divided into 4 assignments).
-- Observing Deviance Paper (3-5 pages):
--- Topic: You should select a deviant behavior that you witnessed in the past year (you may describe your own behavior or that of someone else). Follow the specified format to write the paper (document provided by instructor).
--- The paper is worth 100 pts. total and is due Week #6.
-- Research Paper - Deviant Behavior (6-8 pages):
--- Divided into 4 parts: topic proposal (due week 2), annotated bibliography (due week 4), rough draft (due week 6), and final paper (due week 8).
--- Deviance can be described as a violation of norms, or guidelines of expected behavior. It can also refer to an appearance or behavior; it can be both legal and illegal. Reactions to deviance can be informal (family/peer/community social pressure) or formal (Criminal Justice system). Choose a category of deviance (behavior or appearance) to research.
--- The final paper is worth a total of 150 pts. and each part has its own separate due dates.

Difficulty Level: 4 out of 5

This course is easy topic-wise, but is research and writing intensive. The writing assignment only requires a deviant behavior that the student has observed in the past year, but otherwise free to choose whichever deviant behavior that is, Likewise, the student is free to choose the deviant behavior they want to discuss for the research paper, provided there is enough academic resources to support the research. Quizzes are short-answer type. Answers can be found on the specific reading/listening material provided by the professor for that week. Each week there are multiple supplemental sources (8-15 different materials/links).

Time: 2-3 hours per day

Proctored exams: None

Topics Covered

• W1:
  • Syllabus
  • Definition of Deviance
• W2:
  • Deviance and Criminal Behavior
  • Theories of deviance and social control
• W3:
  • Moral Panic
  • Crime and Stigma
  • Different types of Social Control
  • Reintegrative and Disintegrative Shaming
• W4:
  • Youth Subcultures
  • Guns and Homicides
• W5:
  • School Shootings
  • Public Mass shootings
• W6:
  • Mental Illness
  • Stigma and Historical treatment of people with mental illness
• W7:
  • Sexual Orientation/Identity
  • Doing Gender
  • Conception of Deviance
• W8:
  • Hate Crimes, Domestic Terror, and Extremism
  • Bias and Prejudice

Class Study Guide: SOC3640 - Deviance and Social Control

Week 1
Quiz Questions:

1. Social change is complicated and difficult, From the video "How Does Social Change Happen", what are 2 reasons people may resist social change?
2. What does it mean to say that deviance is socially constructed?
3. Please explain the difference between informal and formal social controls/sanctions. Give an example of each one.
4. What is deviance, as discussed in the class lecture?
5. What are 3 functions of deviance for society?

Discussion Question: What behavior that is currently labeled as deviant do you think is undergoing a social change where it is either acceptable and not labeled deviant, or will continue to be labeled as deviant?

Module Readings:

• Syllabus
• CH 1 of textbook
• Durkheim, (in Heiner, R.: 2008), “The Normal and the Pathological”, pp. 3-7.
• Erikson, (in Heiner, R.: 2008), “On the Sociology of Deviance”, p. 7-14.
• Becker (in Clarke, 2008)- “Moral Entrepreneurs: The Creation and Enforcement of Deviant Categories” (pp.43-52).

Week 2
Quiz Questions:

1. How do control theories differ from other sociological/criminological theories?
2. What is the cause of deviance, according to Durkheim? [think of his study of suicide]
3. Briefly explain the difference between primary and secondary deviance, according to the Labeling theory. What is the key factor in whether secondary deviance occurs?
4. What are the 4 things necessary for punishment to be effective?
5. Which is most effective for controlling conformity--informal or formal controls?

Discussion Question: Tannenbaum's "Dramatization of Evil" states that in response to a juvenile's delinquent or deviant behavior, "The attitude of the community hardens definitely into a demand for suppression. There is a gradual shift from the definition of the specific acts as evil to the definition of the individual as evil so that all of his acts become looked upon with suspicion....From the community's point of view, the individual who used to do bad and mischievous things has now become a bad and unredeemable human being....The young delinquent becomes bad because he is viewed as bad and not believed if he is good...Reputation is this sort of public definition. Once it is established, then unconsciously all agencies combine to maintain this definition even when they apparently and consciously attempt to deny their own implicit judgment... The first dramatization of the 'evil' which separates the child out of his group for specialized treatment plays a greater role in making the criminal than perhaps any other experience. The process of making the criminal, therefore, is the process of tagging, defining, identifying, segregating, describing, emphasizing, ....evoking the very traits that are complained of" (Tannenbaum in Clarke, pp. 202-203) [Italics added for emphasis, not in the original work].
Please indicate if you agree or disagree with his approach to juvenile delinquency and deviance, and why (use course materials to support your response). Then, respond to either A or B below:
a) if you agree, speculate on what this might look like as policy in the CJ system;
b) if you disagree, what do you believe is the most effective policy for controlling juvenile delinquency or deviance?

Module Readings:

• CH 2 and 3 of Textbook
• Spencer, Part I-“Theories of Deviance”, pp. 19-29
• Durkheim, “Suicide” (in Spencer, 2015), pp.30-39
• Lemert (in Spencer, 2015) pp. 85-88.
• Hirschi (in Spencer)-“A Control Theory of Delinquency” pp.172-180
• Tannenbaum (in Clarke 2008), “Definition and Dramatization of Evil”, pp. 201-
• Merton (in Heiner, 2008), “Social Structure and Anomie”, pp.15-23

Week 3
Quiz Question:

1. At what age are humans the most aggressive?
2. According to the Goffman reading, what is a description of the idealized person in our society, the perspective that is viewed as the default in American society?
3. What does Heitzig suggest is responsible for the type of social control that is exerted in a particular situation?
4. What social institution plays a key role in shaping stigmas in society?
5. Please briefly describe the difference between reintegrative and disintegrative shaming. Which one do we use in the American criminal justice system?
6. What is a crime myth? What is the danger of spreading this myth?

Module Readings:

• After you view the documentary about Brian Deneke, please post two responses to the question below.
  As you saw in the video, Brian, and many others like him, were considered deviant by mainstream society in Amarillo, Texas in 1997. Please respond to the Week #3 Discussion Board. Make sure to include course content in your responses, and include each number below:
  1) What do you believe to be the reason for many in Amarillo, Texas to view Brian Deneke (and his friends) as deviant- appearance, behavior, something else? Please include what it was about his appearance, behavior, or something else, that caused others to view him as deviant.
  2) Do you believe Brian's status as deviant played a role in the sentence that his killer received?
  3) Would Brian have received the same punishment, if the roles had been reversed (and he killed Dustin)?
  4) Do you believe the trial and sentence would have been the same, if the case had been brought in a different geographic location like LA, NYC, or Chicago? Was it the small town, the geographic location of being in the South, etc?

Module Readings:

• Burns and Crawford “School Shootings, the Media and Public Fear: Ingredients for a Moral Panic” (pp147-168)
• Victor, (in Heiner 2008) “The Search for Scapegoat Deviants”, pp.45-49.
• Braithwaite,” Reintegrative Shaming
• Heitzeg, “ ‘Whiteness’, criminality, and the double standards of deviance/social control”
• Goffman, excerpts from Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, CH 4-"The Self and Its Other: pp. 126-139
• Ch 5-"Deviations and Deviance", pp. 140-147

Week 4
Quiz Question:

1. List and briefly describe 5 characteristics of subcultures from your readings:
2. Name and briefly describe the two types of families studied by Anderson.
3. According to Anderson, what is at the heart of the Code of the Streets?
4. From the National Gang Center, what are the 5 domains and one risk factors associated with each domain, that may put youth at risk for joining a youth street gang?
5. From the symbolic interactionist perspective, state the cause of homicides and assaults, and the two similar situational dynamics that occur in each (from narrated lecture).

Module Readings:

• CH4 of the Textbook “Homicide”
• Blackman (2014) “Subculture Theory: An Historical and Contemporary Assessment of the Concept for Understanding Deviance” pp. 496-512.
• Williams (2007) "Youth Subculture Studies: Sociological Traditions and Core Concepts
• Glass (2012) “Doing Scene: Identity, Space, and the Interactional Accomplishment of Youth”
• "What is a subculture?"
• Anderson, in The Atlantic - “Code of the Streets”
• OJJDP- “Characteristics and Trends of Youth Victims of Homicide and Suicide 2020”

Week 5
Quiz Question:

1. What does the FBI 2021 Crime Data say about the change in number of murders in America from 2020-2021 (please provide the number and percentage--increase or decrease?)
2. According to the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment 2016-2020, what were the findings of the behavioral threat assessment they conducted, with respect to policy implications for public safety resources? Please answer the questions below:
   a. What behaviors require public safety resources?
   b. Where do community resources need to be directed to decrease or prevent mass shootings in the US?
3. Briefly explain the difference between culture and attitudes about guns in the Switzerland and the United States.
4. The perception of the general public is that America has the highest homicide rate in the world, Why is that, and what are the facts?
5. Katherine Schweit said that what percentage of gun deaths are suicides? Which group has the largest suicide rate?

Discussion Question:
As you learned in your week 5 course materials, America has a lower homicide rate than the rest of the world but does have the highest rate of homicides by firearms.
While this is clearly a complicated issue, after reading the articles and viewing/listening to the posted materials, what do you think is the cause of the high rates of gun violence in the United States? AND, what do you believe can be done to lower and prevent the number of American deaths by firearm?

Module Readings:

• Pew Research Center-"What the Data Says About Gun Deaths in the U.S."
• BJS- Criminal Victimization- 2021
• FBI-NIBRS-2021
• Pew Research Center (2022) “What the data say about gun violence in the U.S”
• K12 Academics, “History of School Shootings in the USA”
• Hammack-Behind the Tower “A Brief History of Mass Shootings”
• USA Today, “Protocols to stop mass school shootings are spreading. Are students’ rights being violated?”
• Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center- "Mass attacks in public spaces"
• Gun Violence Archive

Week 6
Quiz Question:

1. What does Warner suggest may be responsible for the difference in schizophrenia (re: diagnosed cases and "recovery") between Western cultures and those in "third-World" countries?
2. What does Frances say is the reason that Italy is much more successful than the United States with treating the mental illness?
3. Briefly describe how the Labeling theory can explain mental illness.
4. Briefly describe Deinstitutionalization in America-what caused it? when did it occur? what were the intentions of deinstitutionalization? what were the consequences?
5. List the 6 Social & Economic inequities that drive disparities in physical and mental health?

Discussion Question:
Following a period of social unrest and change in the 1960s and early 1970's, soon after, we began the process of Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. America is [one of] the richest Western, industrialized country in the world, but we have a very poor track record of caring for those suffering from a mental illness. Please respond to the following:
• What was the philosophy behind deinstitutionalization and why was it not successful in America?
• What are the consequences of deinstitutionalization--for the individual and American social institutions?
• Do you believe the Trieste model (France's reading) could work in America?

Module Readings:

• CH7 of Textbook “Mental Illness”
• Warner (in Heiner)-“Schizophrenia in the Third World” pp. 243-251
• Goffman (in Clarke) “The Moral Career of the Mental Patient” pp.487-504.
• Scull “Community Care: A historical perspective on deinstitutionalization”
• Frances, “World’s best and worst places to be mentally ill”
• Psychology Today "Crazy Like Us: Do cultures now go mad in the same way?"
• NYT, “Hospitalizing the Homeless,”
• Lotus Campaign, “The Challenge: The facts about homelessness”
• Making Mental Health Count (MMHC)/ Organisation for Econonic Cooperation and Developement (OECD), "The Netherland's has an innovative mental health system, but high bed numbers remain a concern"

Week 7
Quiz Question:

1. What does it mean to "Do gender"?
2. What is a gender panic? Please provide an example.
3. From Westbrook & Schilt, please list the two views for determining gender identity, and with which social space each identity corresponds (when determining access to said space).
4. List the three social domains where individuals who don't conform to the heteronormative power structure, may face harsh consequences?
5. If laws can't change hearts and minds, what is the purpose of making laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or sexual identity?

Module Readings:

• Sociology Research- “Doing Gender”
• Indian Country News, “8 Things you should know about two-spirit people”
• Westbrook & Schilt, “Doing Gender, Determining Gender: Transgender people, gender panics, and the Maintenance of Sex/Gender/Sexuality System” pp.32-57
• Bjork-James, “ Christian Nationalism and LGBTQ Structural Violence in the United States” pp. 278-302
• Intersex Society of North America-“What’s the history behind the intersex rights movement?”
• “Who was David Reimer?”
• Sumerau, “A Tale of Three Spectrums: Deviating From Normative Treatments of Sex and Gender” pp.893-904
• Reeves, "Sexual Identity as a Fundamental Human Right"

Week 8
Quiz Question:

1. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, what is the biggest threat of terrorism in the United States?
2. From the RAND report on violent extremism, what were the most effective interventions discusses?
3. From Shanmugasundaram and Lieberman (2021), what is a hate crime?
4. Reproduce Levin and McDevitt's hate crime typology (include name, percentage, and what they are for each one).
5. From the "Exiting Extremism" video, respond to the following:
   a. What 3 risk factors were common to those exhibited extremist behavior?
   b. What 3 factors were found to contribute to an individual's radicalization

Module Readings:

• CH 16 of Textbook “Terrorism”
• Center for Strategic and International Studies,” The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States
• Shanmugasundaram and Lieberman (2021) “Hate Crimes Explained”
• Blazak, “Revisiting the White Boys From Portland to Ukraine: Anomie and Right-Wing Extremism” pp 1-25
• Gerstenfeld “Anti-Semitism in the United States today” pp. 152-155
• Fedor, “Stereotypes and prejudice in the perception of the ‘Other’” pp 1-6
• RAND report-“Extremism in America” (2021)
• Center for Strategic and International Studies, Penn (2016) “Views From Around the Globe: Countering Violent Extremism” pp 1-48