Deviance

_______ is any behavior or appearance that is socially challenged because it departs from the norms and expectations of the group.

• Deviance

• Conformity

• Social control

• Corporate power

The sociological contribution to understanding deviant behavior is the emphasis on

• the individual as a deviant.

• universal ideas about what is deviance.

• the context under which deviant behavior takes place.

• obedience to authority.

Which one of the following statements about norms is considered false?

• Norms exist for virtually every kind of situation.

• Norms vary by group.

• In general, norms exist to prevent harm to self and others.

• Norms vary according to many factors, including whether they are enforced uniformly.

The only characteristic common to all forms of deviance is the fact that

• they invoke formal sanctions.

• everyone in the society is offended by the act considered deviant.

• the behaviors are considered deviant across time and place.

• some social audience regards the act or appearance as deviant.

Durkheim argued that deviance would be present, even in a “community of saints.” This statement suggests that

• deviance and crime are distinct concepts.

• those in power define what is deviant.

• there are some societies in which deviance does not exist.

• deviance is present in all societies.

Which one of the following statements best corresponds with Durkheim’s perspective on deviance?

• It is impossible for any society, even a community of saints, to be entirely free of deviance.

• Behavior that is unthinkable when an individual is acting on his or her own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders.

• When people become criminals, they do so because of contacts with criminal patterns and because of isolation from non-criminal patterns.

• Deviance is a consequence not of a particular behavior, but of the application of rules and sanctions.

To understand why, in 1900, arguments indicating cigarettes were a health hazard were essentially ignored, sociologists would look to

• smokers’ wrong assessments.

• claims making activities.

• nonsmokers.

• subcultures.

When sociologists study the process by which a group or behavior is defined as a problem to society, they focus on

• the valued goals and the means to achieve those goals.

• the rule breaker, rule maker, and rule enforcers.

• responses to structural strain.

• who makes the claims the problem, whose claims are heard, and how audiences respond.