Lecture 8:

Question 1

What is Kai T. Erikson’s view on deviance?

Answer 1

• Deviance and conformity are very much alike.
• Values and crimes are compatible.
  - What is considered the norm and what is considered heresy are part of the same point. Need to have the same vocabulary. We must see deviance and conformity as coming from the same kind of cultural vocabulary.

Question 2

What does empirical evidence show about times of crisis and deviance?

Answer 2

• Empirical observation: In times of crises, when boundaries are shifting/unclear, specific types of deviance appear.
• Erikson believes that deviance is necessary to create norms.

Question 3

What is the link between deviance and fear?

Answer 3

Deviance breeds fear or fear breeds deviance?
- Is it the social fear that breeds the deviance or the other way around?
- In situations of increased instability, we need to affirm our values. This is when we start to see more deviant behaviour. Is this a real product of crisis? Does deviance form in a time of crisis

Question 4

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Answer 4

Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled in 1630
* Colonial project started by puritans
* Trade and colonize New England.
* Puritans were part of the protestant movement.
* The goal was to transform society into a godly society.
* Purified society of saints - religion is super important
* New wave of crime appeared - witchcraft

Question 5

Salem Witch Trials

Answer 5

• Feb. 1962-May. 1963
• More then 200 people are accused
• 30 found guilty
• 19 executed by hanging

Question 6

What occured during the Europen Witch Craze?

Answer 6

• From the early decades of the 14th century until 1650, continental
• Europeans executed between 200,000 and 500,000 witches
  85% or more of whom were women
• King takes a charter away - everyone is allowed to build a church

Question 7

Crises of boundaries

Answer 7

• Collapse of the unity from within (threats from within and threats from outside).
• Girls began with strange behaviours: screaming on knees –> doctors determine the girls are “bewitched”
• 3 girls are associated with the even: a slave and two elderly “sarahs”

Question 8

What is considered evidence of being bewitched?

Answer 8

• Testimony - a vision spirit of the accused.
• Physical signs of satan - molls
• Ability to read a prayer from beginning to end without error
• Confessions. “I am a witch”

Question 9

When did the witch craze stop?

Answer 9

When they started pointing out “elite” or rich people, the process stopped.
Suddenly, the deviance stopped and never returned again

Question 10

What is the point of the witch craze for Kai T Erikson?

Answer 10

• Kai Erikson thinks this is interesting - how boundary-making is the main object in creating what is deviant.
• The community was satisfied because they found the solution. They identified that the behaviour is dangerous and unwanted. Hung a few people. And now can move on knowing that this behaviour is bad.
• This clarified what is not tolerated.
• Our institutions are capable of identifying bad movements and preventing them from ruining society. Our society is still capable of creating leaders that swiftly act to create order in our society.
• Strengthen the idea that institutions can reinstate + control society. Take care of things.

Question 11

Critiques to the functionalist approach

Answer 11

1) Circular explanations (tautology) → logical problem.
- Argues that certain phenomena’s exist because they serve social function (but we know they serve social function because they exist - circular explanation)
2) Often non-falsifiable
3) Does crime really increase solidarity? → massive crime waves, people hide and retrieve from society, and we don’t actually see the correlation between social cohesion and crime. We actually see less social cohesion in societies with high crime.
4) A rigid view of societies as holistic and monolithic (ignoring sub-cultures)
Ignores the fact that there are many subcultures (not just one value in society)

Question 12

What is Merton’s Strain theory?

Answer 12

• Sits somewhere between functionalist theory and conflict theory.
• Touches on a basic notion – Meritocracy
• Anomie – Lack of social norms; disorder in the social world

Question 13

What are the two building blocks at each society has?

Answer 13

• Goals – The targets and purposes set up for us by our culture.
• Means – The socially legitimate resources available to us for obtaining our goal.
• Strain – The disparity between personal goals and personal means
• We get anomine when these two do not allign. When the means are not getting us the goals, we change our actions so that we will get the goal.
• Crime starts when we have a narrative that tells us we can achieve a goal → american dream → we are all capable to arrive to the same goal.

Question 14

What are the different types of mismatch that lead to which behaviours (table)?

Answer 14

• Conformity: Accepting the goals and having the means to achieve them
• Innovation: Accepting the goals but lacking the means to achieve them (stuck in a society of social class that does not allow them to go above their class). → explains certain types of crime (ie: organized crime)
• Ritualism: Abandoning the cultural goals of success/wealth but continuing to use legitimate means to make a living.
• Retreatism: Giving up on both the cultural goals and the legitimate means to attain them (not part of the social fabric)
• Rebellion: Rejection of both the goals and the means in favor of other goals and other means

Question 15

What does Merton’s theory share with functionalism?

Answer 15

• Shares the vision of functionalism → there is a role to deviance
• Different groups in society have different norms.
• Lends itself to some empirical evidence

Question 16

What are the critiques of strain theory?

Answer 16

1) Influenced by specific historical events
2) Assumptions of rationality and well-calculated decision making
3) There is no universal set of norms (goals)
4) Time order and confusing cause and effect
5) Focuses on the lower socio-economic classes