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Chap. 7 & 8
Introduction to Sociology
Question | Answer |
---|---|
deviance | the recognized violation of cultural norms |
crime | the violation of a society's formally enacted criminal law |
social control | attempts by society to regulate peoples thoughts and behavior |
crimnal justice system | the organizations - police, courts, prison officals - that respond to alledged violations of the law |
labeling theory | the idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions |
stigma | a powerfully negative label that greatly changes a persons self-concept and social identity |
medicalization of deviance | the transformation of moral and legal deviance into a medical condition |
white-collar crime | crime committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations |
corporate crime | the illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf |
organized crime | a business supplying illegal goods or services |
hate crime | a criminal act against a person or a persons property by an offender motivated by racial or other bias |
crimes against the person (violent crimes) | crimes that direct violence or the threat of violence against others |
crimes against property (property crimes) | crimes that involve theft of money or property belonging to others |
victimless crimes | violations of law in which there are no obvious victims |
plea bargaining | a legal negotiation in which a prosecutor reduces a charge in exchange for a defendents guilty plea |
retribution | an act of moral vengeance by which society makes the offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime |
deterrence | the attempt to discourage criminality through the use of punishment |
rehabilitation | a program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses |
societal protection | rendering an offender incapable of further offenses temporarily through imprisonment or permanently by execution |
criminal recidivism | later offenses by people previously convicted of crimes |
community-based corrections | correctional programs operating within society at large rather than behind prison walls |
social stratification | a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy |
social mobility | a change in position within the social hierarchy |
caste system | social stratification based on ascription, or birth |
class system | social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement |
meritocracy | social stratification based on social merit |
status consistency | the degree of uniformity in a persons social standing across various dimensions of social inequality |
structural social mobility | a shift in the social position of large numbers of people due to changes in society itself then to individual numbers |
ideology | cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality |
Davis-Moore thesis | the assertion that social stratification exists in every society because it has beneficial consequences for the operation of society |
capitalists | people who own and operate factories and other businesses in pursuit of profits |
proletarians | people who sell their labor for wages |
alienation | the experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness |
blue-collar occupations | lower-prestige jobs that involve mostly manual labor |
white-collar occupations | higher-prestige jobs that involve mostly mental activity |
socioeconomic status (SES) | a composite ranking based in various dimensions of social inequality |
conspicuous consumption | buying and using products because of the "statement" they make about social position |
income | earnings from work or investments |
wealth | the total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts |
intragenerational social mobility | a change in social position occuring during a person's lifetime |
intergenerational social mobility | upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents |
relative poverty | the lack of resources of some people in relation to those who have more |
absolute poverty | a lack of resources that is life-threatening |
feminization of poverty | the trend of women making up increasing proportion of the poor |