Class: Law
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Class Notes
Delinquent acts occur when an individual's bond to society is weak or broken (Newman 78). Social control are the informal and formal mechanisms that encourage people to abide by society's norms or follow the rules of group life.
Crime is a more formal sort of deviance than what we discussed earlier in class and is punishable by law. "Street crime" is crime committed in public, usually associated with violence, gangs, and poverty (differential opportunity theory). "White Collar Crime" is an offense committed by a professional against a corporation, agency or other business (corporate crime).
Required Reading:
"There Ought to Be a Law," Ruane and Cerulo (Second Thoughts, pp. 185-194)
"The Saints and the Roughnecks," Chambliss (Electronic Reserves)
"Watching the Canary," Guinier and Torres (Sociology Reader, pp. 185-188)
Recommended Reading:
Review "Constructing Difference: Social Deviance," Newman (Sociology, pp. 218-252)
Keywords: social control, crime, street crime, differential opportunity theory, white collar crime, corporate crime, demographics and crime, conflict theory, crime rate, incarceration rate, anomie, labeling theory, total institution, Stanford Prison Experiment.
