Showing papers in "Social Problems in 1972"

The Poverty of the Sociology of Deviance: Nuts, Sluts, and Preverts

Abstract: There are three theoretical and ideological biases in the field of the sociology of deviance. (1) Despite the attempt to show that the “deviant” is not different from the rest of us, the very emphasis on his identity and subculture may defeat that aim. (2) Certain forms of “deviance,” especially by the economic and political elite, are neglected. (3) The substantive analyses of sociologists of deviance contain no exploration of the role of power in the designation of “deviance,” despite their many statements to the contrary.

From Delinquent Behavior to Official Delinquency

Abstract: A conceptual distinction is drawn between delinquent behavior and official delinquency (apprehended and recorded delinquent behavior). Data from a national sample of 13- to 16-year old boys and girls are examined for empirical evidence of this conceptual distinction. The frequency and seriousness of self-reported delinquent behavior are analyzed for sex, age, race, and socioeconomic status differences. These data are then compared with data on self-reported police contacts and with data found in police and court records. Our findings demonstrate that the distinction between delinquent behavior and official delinquency is indeed useful and necessary: the distribution of official delinquency among categories of sex, age, race, and socioeconomic status does not parallel the distribution of delinquent behavior. The data also help to identify the points at which various discrepancies develop in the process of turning delinquent behavior into official delinquency.

Perceived Penal Sanction and Self-Reported Criminality: A Neglected Approach to Deterrence Research.

Abstract: With few exceptions, empirical tests of deterrence theory have limited themselves to a consideration of crimes that are mala in se , such as homicide or the seven “Crime Index” offenses; and they have been based upon analyses of aggregate data that are available from official sources, such as Uniform Crime Reports and National Prisoner Statistics. Inconsistency of findings, limitations of available data, and questions necessarily left unanswered by these approaches to deterrence research provide a rationale for alternative approaches that are based upon unofficial data collected at the individual level, and involving crimes that are mala prohibita , as well as mala in se . Interviews with 321 university students were used to determine relationships between admitted marijuana use ( mala prohibita ) and theft ( mala in se ) and perceptions of the severity and certainty of punishment. The data suggest that: (1) perceptions of severe punishment are largely unrelated to admitted theft or marijuana use, (2) “general” deterrence appears not to be working for either offense—that is, punishment of “other” when perceived by “ego” appears unrelated to “ego's” admitted criminality, (3) the expectation that arrest or maximum penalties upon conviction would be likely (certain) for oneself appears somewhat related to lower levels of marijuana use and larceny. However, these latter relationships are stronger for marijuana use—which is mala prohibita —than they are for theft—which is mala in se . Such a discrepancy offers support for theoretical positions taken by Morris (1951), Andenaes (1966), and Zimring (1971).

Delinquency and Adolescent Self-Conceptions: A Study of the Personal Relevance of Infraction

Abstract: This study deals with the “personal relevance of infraction” in variable sociocultural contexts by examining the association between delinquency and adolescent self-conceptions among junior and senior high school students differentiated on the basis of race and status. Using questionnaire data and official police records, official delinquent evaluations and personal delinquent evaluations were found to be positively related. However, the strength of the relationship was found to vary between blacks and whites, by status among whites, and by attachment to the law among both blacks and whites. Moreover, while delinquents tend to be lower in self-esteem than non-delinquents, this relationship was found to vary as well. Delinquents and non-delinquents differ most among middle-to-upper status blacks and least among low status blacks. Finally, attachment to parents conditioned the relationship at each status level.

Prisonization in the Inmate Contraculture

Abstract: This study, based on data obtained from a sample of 276 adult male felons confined in a maximum-security penitentiary, provides a test of the implications of a theoretical model that links levels of prisonization to the expected consequences of that process that appear to inhibit the attainment of any prosocial changes in the world-views of the inmates. In addition, the study provides a partial test of what have become defined as the importation and deprivation models of prisonization. The findings suggest that prisonization in the context of this maximum security institution does have negative consequences for both the prison organization and the long-term life chances of the inmates. Further, and of equal theoretical importance, the data show that the closed-system paradigm characteristic of the deprivation model is inadequate for explanations of either prisonization or the consequence of that process.

The Politics of Analyzing Social Problems

Abstract: Issues which become public are selected from among the social problems which parts of the population may perceive. Groups differ in their definitions of social problems in accordance with their self-interests and their ideology. For a social problem to become a public issue, a complex political process develops around the activities of major institutional actors: the media, officialdom, and private interest groups. Yet conflicts arise not only over what is to be a public issue, but also over how the problem is to be diagnosed and responded to. A somewhat different set of institutional and social actors are more intimately involved in the conflict between competing diagnoses of publicly recognized social problems. That is, official authorities, underdog partisans, privileged partisans, policy advisors and planners, and ideologues, all tend toward their own distinct set of attributions. The parties may handle the conflict by confronting each other, directly or indirectly. Alternatively, or in addition, they may attempt tacit bargaining over tangible matters such as economic resources and power, and reality negotiation over the symbolic matter of different problem definitions or diagnoses. Legislation provides a third way of handling the conflict. Whatever the strategies used, the conflict generates significant political outcomes for the policy process and the various parties concerned.

Inequality in the Imposition of a Criminal Label

Abstract: Florida law allows a judge the option of withholding adjudication of guilt from defendants who are being placed on probation. For persons accused of a felony, this step affords an opportunity to avoid the stigma associated with the status of “convicted felon.” Social and legal characteristics of 2,419 consecutive felony probation cases are examined to determine what kinds of persons are more likely to receive the privileged disposition of “adjudication withheld.” Inconsistencies in the imposition of the “convict” label were found, suggesting that defendants who are older, black, poorly educated, have a prior record, and are defended by a court-appointed attorney, are among the most likely to be so labelled. Lemert has argued that inconsistent application of penalties or stigma increases the likelihood of commitment to a deviant identity or career on the part of the accused. While these data cannot confirm Lemert's hypothesis, they do suggest that criminal labels are dispensed in such a manner that persons who are expected to be the most criminal (i.e., poorly educated, indigents, blacks) are given the greatest opportunity to develop a criminal identity or career.

Deviance, Charisma, and Rule-Defined Behavior

Abstract: Problems in present perspectives on deviance are discussed, a remedy is offered, and some of its implications are elaborated. The major problem is the failure to distinguish between action and state of being, between recognition of rule-breaking act, and imputation of deviant ontological status. A complementary distinction, between extraordinarily superior performance in terms of rule-standards and charismatic ontological status, is required for the sociology of charisma. Action oriented to behavior as defined by rules is distinguished from action oriented to deviant and charismatic ontological statuses: the meaning of negative and positive essence is elaborated, and negative and positive sanctioning of behavior is separated from the structural placements of the deviant in isolation and the charismatic individual in transcendent position. These analytic distinctions separate different kinds of experience: being deviant and being charismatic are identities distinguished from role-identities; and the tensions unique to those seen as ontologically deviant and charismatic are described.

Perceptions of Stigma Following Public Intervention for Delinquent Behavior

Abstract: The labelling hypothesis maintains that being publicly identified as deviant results in a “spoiled” public identity. It contends that being labelled “deviant” results in a degree of social liability (i.e., exclusion from participation in certain conventional groups or activities) which would not occur if the deviance were not made a matter of public knowledge. It further suggests that the social liability incurred by being labelled “deviant” has the ultimate effect of reinforcing the deviance. This study examines the extent to which delinquent boys perceive having incurred any social liability as a consequence of public intervention. The data indicate that only a very small proportion of the boys interviewed felt seriously handicapped by their encounter with the police or juvenile court. The subjects did not perceive any substantial change in interpersonal relationships with family, friends, or teachers. Greatest social liability was perceived in those situations of an impersonal nature in which one's character tends to be inferred from public documents like court or police records rather than through personal acquaintance with the person.

The Psychiatrist as a Conservative Agent of Social Control

Abstract: Examining the role of psychiatrists in criminal proceedings to commit or detain individuals as mentally ill demonstrates their conservative use of the state's police power more clearly than previous research on involuntary civil commitments. Comparing a group of criminally insane patients transferred against psychiatric advice because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision with a group of patients whose transfers were approved from the same two institutions, we found the unduly conservative psychiatric criteria were associated with patients' race, age, length of hospitalization, and length of criminal record. Our data show that the group transferred against psychiatric advice fared considerably better in civil hospitals and in the community than had been expected, was released at a rate higher than the approved transfers, and had only slightly more criminal activity after release. The level of success of both patient groups highlights the psychiatrists' ascendance into an expert role for which they have unproven skills.

Toward a Sociology of Secrecy and Security Systems

Abstract: Secrecy has become a major characteristic of most modern public and private organizations, partly as a result of bureaucratization and democratization and subsequent organizational dependence upon manipulation and persuasion. Though security and secrecy systems are seen as indispensable to the efficient functioning of modern organizations, they contain the seeds of their own destruction. Leaders utilize privileged information for self-enhancement purposes. Required information is denied within and between agencies. Secrecy systems take on latent functions leading to the protection of relatively useless and unreliable knowledge. The producers of such knowledge thereby maintain job security, and security systems become increasingly involved in matters of sensitivity. Analysis of these dysfunctions within the context of security conscious, military supported think-tanks suggests that secrecy functions to undermine the purposes for which it is utilized. Serious question, therefore, must be raised about the maintenance of secrecy systems in any form, and where they are necessary for obvious security purposes, about their modification and control.

Deviance Avowal as Neutralization of Commitment

Abstract: In order to understand the special class of situations in which a potential deviant initiates the labeling process against himself, it is useful to conceive of deviance as a role rather than behavior thought to violate a single norm. Five important implications of role theory for deviance theory are specified. It is then explained and illustrated how deviance avowal can be adopted as the lesser evil in three kinds of situations: forced choice between group loyalties, the necessity to neutralize social pressures, and the necessity to neutralize personal commitment to conventional values. Deviance avowal is usually accompanied by deviant-role reorientation.

Residential Segregation of Blacks and Racial Inequality in Southern Cities: Toward a Causal Model

Abstract: This paper examines the relation of non-white residential segregation to black-white differentials in education, occupation, and income for southern cities as of 1960. Utilizing van den Berghe's paternalistic-to-competitive theory of race relations in an industrializing society, a causal model is postulated and empirically examined which views the black ghetto as instrumental in institutionalizing inequalities. The 1960 census data for a sample of southern cities provide some support for conceptualizing residential segregation as an “intervening” variable, between age of city and percent non-white, on the one hand, and the status inequality measures, on the other. A discussion of the theoretical significance of the residential factor, and of the methodological complexities involved in such research, follows.

The “Family” as a Sociological Problem: Conceptualization of the Taken-for-Granted as Prologue to Social Problems Analysis

Abstract: Definitions of the family are considered as a source of familial social problems, and the conceptual distinction between families and households is examined. Families are ordinarily conceptualized in terms of kinship, and may involve at least three kinds of kin: conventional, discretionary, and fictive; households are constituted by residential propinquity and domestic functions, and not necessarily kinsmen. An alternative focus, people living together in domestic and sexually consequential relationships is proposed as more empirically useful. Whether families or households, a central social problem for people living together involves the division of labor, and the commitments and attachments of persons socially differentiated on the axes of age and sex. The question of just what constitutes the generic categpry of "social problems" has continued to occupy the attention of sociologists, if not perplex them for an extended period (Mills, 1943; Bend and Vogelfanger, 1964; Merton, 1961; Douglas, 1971, and forthcoming). This definitional issue

An Obituary for “Alienation”

Abstract: In many intellectual circles, “alienation” has become the all-explaining catchword. Its popularity resembles those previously of “progress,” “evolution,” “trends,” and “identity.” It helps formula-peddling counselors rationalize their services. It becomes a device for convincing the individual that he alone or even working with others can do little about his social situation. Many assertions of “alienation” are simply and accurately translated as contentions that members of some “problem” group are at odds with the spokesman's value orientation or conception of societal legitimacy or ideas about appropriate social-action procedures. Some of the phenomena interpreted as “alienation” are more precisely seen in other lights that require greater knowledge of societal processes and of social history. Such terms as “relative isolation,” “relative deprivation,” and “marginality” explicitly suggest process rather than the static “alienated” category.

Institutional Living and Self-Esteem

Abstract: Data gathered at a Federal narcotic hospital are analysed for categories of inmates at various stages in their institutional careers. They are consistent with the argument that total institutions affect self-evaluation in a negative way, although the effect is apparently not linear. Alternative explanations of such an effect are considered and some support is found for the hypothesis that institutional problems of self-esteem stem from reinforcement of societal rejection through subordination to custodial authorities. But reference group data suggest that this explanation is not completely adequate. In general the findings challenge the idea that institutional experiences have a pervasive effect on the self. However, variations in self-esteem are found to be linked to participation in inmate society.

Work and the Welfare Cadillac: The Function of and Commitment to Work Among the Hard-Core Unemployed

Abstract: Interviews were conducted with 275 chronically unemployed persons to ascertain the extent of their commitment to work and the functions it performed for them. It was found that work was viewed as the legitimate source of sustenance; their commitment to it was as strong as that of employed white-and blue-collar workers who had been investigated in other studies using the same methodological technique. While the economic function of work appeared to be paramount among them, there was a marked tendency to prize work for the social function that it provided by conferring respectability on the employed individual. Despite the extreme deprivation which characterized their lives, most accepted the dominant work ethic prevalent in this country and frequently evidenced negative attitudes toward recipients of public assistance and persons who did not want to work.

Stigma and deviant careers in school

Abstract: Academic and non-academic grades of two groups of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade pupils were compared. One was a publically “deviant,” or delinquent, group; the other had no known history of delinquency. These comparisons were designed to test certain claims of the “labelling theory” approach to deviance. Findings were not entirely consistent with the theoretical claims. Further areas of research to assess these claims more rigorously are suggested.

Alienation and Knowledge-Seeking: A Note on Attitude and Action

Abstract: A two-step survey procedure was used to obtain an unobtrusive measure of knowledge-seeking behavior on the part of workers whose prior alienation had been determined. Two forms of alienation (the sense of powerlessness, and engagement in intrinsically unrewarding work) were at issue as potential instigators of “search” behavior. The prediction was that these alienations operate independently—high work alienation being an index of “need” for information, and powerlessness an index of low “expectancy” concerning its likely utility. Respondents were provided with a controlled occasion for seeking information about improved work opportunities. The evidence indicates that: (1) the two forms of alienation relate to “search” behavior in different ways (most especially, high work alienation goes with greater search); (2) the effort to show an interaction effect for the two alienations (greatest search where need is high and expectancy for control is also high) was only modestly successful; and (3) seeking information about work, and being low in powerlessness, both correlate as expected with high scores on objective political knowledge. The data are interpreted in the light of prevalent notions concerning the unity of various urban alienations and prevalent concerns about the relation between alienated attitudes and individual behavior.

The Significance of Extremism in the Black Revolution

Abstract: This paper examines the connotations of the term “extremism” as used with reference to the Black Protest Movement. An heuristic definition of contemporary black extremism is derived from Gary Marx' review of opinion surveys which identify modal attitudes towards values, tactics and leaders among putative members of the movement. Propositions concerning the possible significance of extremist leaders are then advanced. They may: 1) increase the bargaining power of moderate leaders; 2) provide a corrective to illusions of progress by, 3) identifying unresolved issues and defining new ones; 4) radicalize a growing segment of the movement membership and increase the polarization between the movement and its opposition; 5) focus the attention of the opposition and the bystander public on new issues; and 6) evoke extreme repressive measures from the opposition.

Hidden Deviance and the Labelling Approach: The Case for Drinking and Driving

Abstract: In this study we attempt to explain the over-representation of certain social categories—such as blacks or lower-class males—in official conviction statistics for drinking-driving. Two alternative perspectives are examined. The first, or “impartial” model, suggests that the probability of conviction is determined primarily by the degree and/or frequency of deviance. According to the second, or “labelling” model, this probability is at least partly independent of degree or frequency. In general, our findings are consistent with the latter model, although some support is also given to the “impartial” model as well.

Race and the Treatment of Alcoholism in a Southern State

Abstract: This study of the relationship between race and the delivery of services to patients in a state facility for alcoholic rehabilitation found some differences as hypothesized. However, the repeated under-representation of black alcoholics compelled changes in the research question from (1) how were black alcoholics treated within the state's most highly regarded program, to (2) where were they treated, and to (3) why were they not found in treatment programs. The explanation that the low admission rates were due to low rates of alcoholism or to treatment under other diagnoses seemed improbable. The explanation that local communities have alternatives with deviant drinkers and disproportionately channel whites toward treatment and blacks to prison was given support by a comparison of commitment and incarceration rates. The possibility that the black community reacts to this with mechanisms that inhibit the intervention of white (especially health and welfare) officials into the lives of black alcoholics is advanced. Labelling theory suggests that the absence of intervention by mandated labellers would be a “benign neglect.” The medical model predicts the opposite outcome. Differential rates of deaths related to alcohol were in line with the latter prediction.

The Working Class, Authoritarianism, and The War in Vietnam

Abstract: Support for escalation in Vietnam is used to address Lipset's (1959) theory of working-class authoritarianism. According to Lipset's original formulation, support for escalation should be disproportionate among the low-status groups. The data (from the Survey Research Center's [University of Michigan] 1964 and 1968 Election Studies) do not support this expectation. Lipset's and others' respecifications of the class authoritarianism thesis point to several intermediary variables (organizational affiliations, low education, little reading, low levels of political interest, etc.) which “interpret” the presumed relationship between social class and authoritarianism. Examining these variables within levels of social class for their effects on support for escalation shows them to be either unrelated or related in the opposite direction of that predicted by the theory: as a group, workers were no more hawkish than those in white collar occupations, but the most hawkish segments of the working class were those most, not least, integrated into the middleclass political culture, especially those high in media attention and those high in political knowledge and interest.

Black Ghetto Violence: A Case Study Inquiry into the Spatial Pattern of Four Los Angeles Riot Event-Types

Abstract: A riot is not “all hell breaking loose,” but a complex sociopolitical process. Patterns not apparent on the surface characterize different forms of riotous behavior, can be uncovered through systematic analysis, and do shed new light on the rioting phenomenon. Nearly 2,000 Los Angeles riot events of four discrete classes have been coded by census tract location. Stepwise multiple regression analysis employing sociodemographic and retail-establishment-location variables has revealed remarkably ordered and structured patterns. Looting emerges as a qualitatively different phenomenon from the other riot event-types considered, calling into question the simplistic characterization of “rioting mainly for fun and profit” drawn by Banfield, and suggesting that what is needed are studies which address rioting in some measure of its true complexity. Two sociodemographic variables consistently emerge as highly predictive of riot event spatial patterns, allowing speculation concerning the sociodemographic fertile ground for violent political protest.

How Suburban Families View the Work Orientations of the Welfare Poor: Problems in Social Stratification and Social Policy

Abstract: Middle-class suburbanites, including adults and teenagers, draw sharp distinctions between themselves and the lower-class welfare poor with respect to work orientations. Certain distinctions are appropriate. The poor reveal less confidence in themselves and greater acceptance of welfare than the middle class. But middle-class respondents mistakenly deny that the work ethic is strong among the poor, fundamentally misunderstand how high work ethic leads to increased feelings of insecurity, and mistakenly project for the poor a strong identification of welfare income with income from quasi-illegal sources. These misperceptions encourage middle-class political leaders and their constituents to support so-called welfare reform which emphasizes a strong work requirement and below-poverty level base payments. A better understanding of interclass perceptions should lead to better public policies and programs regarding the poor.

Alternative Views of the Psychiatrist's Role

Abstract: Two views of the inpatient psychiatrist's role are examined using data from a study of discharges from a mental hospital. One view of the psychiatrist sees him in the traditional professional role using his skills to advise and direct patients. Another view of the psychiatrist pictures him rationalizing and legitimizing in medical-psychiatric terms actions taken toward patients, such as discharges, which occur neither for professionally acknowledged medical nor psychiatric reasons. The desires regarding discharge timing held by the patient and a member of his family are found strongly and positively related to the actual timing of release. These desires account for almost all of the relationship between the psychiatrist's medical-psychiatric evaluation of the patient and the timing of discharge, suggesting, along with other supporting data, that the psychiatrist's professional judgments are at best indirect determinants of the discharge decision. Observations of psychiatrist-patient relationships over time also suggest that psychiatrists sometimes alter their evaluations of a patient's psychiatric condition in response to pressures from the family and patient, allowing professional prescription of discharge or retention as the family or patient demands. Implications of these findings are briefly explored.

Ideological and Interpersonal Change in the Radical Protest Movement

Abstract: The social organization necessary for a cohesive and effective radical protest movement may create considerable political and social distance between the movement and its recruitment base. However, if attempts at expanding membership do succeed, a large influx of new people has the potential for undermining the radical character of the movement unless processes are present which lead to political socialization and social incorporation. Should these processes be present, substantial transformation in the ideological and interpersonal identities of the newcomers is expected. The American draft resistance movement of the late 1960'S is examined with these issues in mind. Interviews with nearly 100 draft resisters reveal that those lacking prior association with the radical student movement underwent extensive change in their political beliefs and communities of identification, shifting toward a much more radical perspective on American society, increasing their estrangement from pre-resistance milieus, and becoming more involved in protest movement networks. The incorporation processes are briefly discussed.

Marital Instability Among Mexican Americans: Following the Patterns of Blacks?

Abstract: While existing literature repeatedly states that rates of marital instability are low among Mexican Americans, data from the 1960 Census suggest otherwise. Furthermore, a comparison of subgroups defined by generation and place of residence indicates a trend toward rapidly increasing rates of marital instability for this population. Third-generation Mexican Americans living in California, the most rapidly growing segment of the minority, have a level of marital instability closely resembling that of blacks. As among blacks, the inability of many Mexican American males to adequately provide for their families at the level they deem necessary, due to low wages and widespread unemployment, appears to be an important source of marital strain. While increasing marital instability may be viewed as an adaptation to their currently deprived circumstances, it is also possible that this may hinder the group's future economic advancement.

Centralization in Female Organizations: Reassessing the Evidence

Abstract: This analysis examines the argument sometimes made that female predominance in complex organizations encourages centralization. Because of the attitudes and values as well as non-work commitments of women the organizations in which they participate, it is maintained, have limited staff involvement in the decision making process. But additional studies on work attitudes and labor force turnover suggest that sex may not have any significant influence on centralization. The paper suggests that the problem deserves more systematic study than thus far has been undertaken.

Structural Conditions of Achievement Among Whites and Blacks in the Rural South.

Abstract: Achievement motives and value orientations among black and white adolescent males were studied in eight small communities in the rural South. Significant differences between white and black achievement scores were observed, leading to a search for the structural conditions best accounting for these differences. The generally low achievement among blacks was attributed to general patterns of community oppression. Low achievement motives were linked to the caste-like occupational structure as it apparently influenced black family socialization, whereas low achievement value orientations were associated with perceptions of opportunities for mobility among blacks. These conclusions were felt to have implications for the general literature on achievement, as well as for the current “culture of poverty” controversy.