On the Sociology of Deviance - Deviance & Social Pathology
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The Production of Deviance in Capitalist Society Ch. 5, Steven Spitzer
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Deviance within capitalist society the capitalist mode of production has two key features: it forms the foundation or infrastructure of society it contains internal contradictions
Marxist theory illustrates the relationship between specific contradictions, the problems of capitalist development, and the production of a “deviant class” 2
Infrastructure & Superstructure superstructure: the ideologies that dominate a particular era, all that "men say, imagine, conceive," including such things as "politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc." emerges from and reflects the ongoing development of economic forces (infrastructure) in class societies, the superstructure preserves the hegemony of the ruling class through a system of class controls, which are institutionalized in: family, church, private associations, media, schools & the state
key function of the superstructure is the regulation and management of “problem populations” 3
Problem populations become eligible for management as deviant when they disturb, hinder, or call into question:
capitalist modes of appropriation social conditions of production patterns of distribution & consumption capitalist socialization processes ideology which supports capitalism 4
problem populations tend to share social characteristics most important is the fact that their behavior, personal qualities, and/or position threaten the social relations of production in capitalist societies
are not synonymous w/deviant populations some members of problem populations are successfully transformed into supporters it capitalist order; the rest are “candidates for deviance processing” (68) 5
Problem populations are created in 2 ways directly, as a product of the contradictions of capitalism by creating a “relative surplus population,” i.e., people who are unemployed and disposable, whose labor is not required for the system
indirectly, through disturbances in the system of class rule when institutions, e.g., mass education, fails to promote the values of bourgeois/capitalist society 6
Official social control creates two kinds of problem populations
social junk social dynamite
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social junk a group that fails to participate in the roles supportive of capitalist society they are viewed as costly yet relatively harmless by the dominant class e.g., the officially administered aged, the handicapped, the mentally ill and mentally disabled social control is managed by the therapeutic & welfare state, i.e., programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid 8
social dynamite a group with the potential to call into question established relationships, esp. relations of production and domination poses a more acute problem that requires rapid and focused expenditures tends to be more youthful, alienated, and politically more volatile than social junk Social control is handled by the legal/criminal justice system 9
Ch. 4: Blowing Smoke: Status Politics and the Shasta County Smoking Ban Ch. 4, Justin L. Tuggle and Malcom D. Holmes, pp. 53-66.
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Is the association of tobacco with lowerstatus persons a factor in the crusade against smoking in public places? Historically, attempts to control psychoactive substances have linked their use to categories of relatively powerless people: marijuana & Mexican Americans opiates & Asians alcohol & immigrant Catholics
Recent evidence has shown that occupational status, education, and family income are related negatively to current smoking Relationship of occupation & education to smoking have become stronger 11
Moral entrepreneurs vs status quo defenders Moral entrepreneurs crusading for ban argued that secondhand smoke damages public health and that people have a right to a smoke-free environment Status quo defenders countered that smokers have a constitutional right to indulge wherever and whenever they see fit 12
Differential Punishing of African Americans and Whites Who Possess Drugs: A Just Policy or a Continuation of the Past? Ch. 10, Rudolph Alexander, Jr. and Jacquelyn Gyamerah 13
The origins & course of differential punishing of African Americans Under slavery in the US, controlling slaves
required slave owners to subject slaves to sanctions for behaviors that were not offenses if committed by Whites, e.g., leaving the plantation without a pass being out of one’s quarters after curfew being in a group of more than 5 slaves without a White man present owning firearms or animals, buying alcohol, giving medicine to Whites, working in a drugstore, working in a print shop 14
Differential punishing, post-Slavery Wanting to increase the #s of Africans in prisons in order to control them more effectively, Southern states enacted a series of laws, e.g., several states increased penalties for stealing livestock, making it grand larceny
To counter this trend, Congress passed the 14th Amendment,
specifically, its “equal protection clause” adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Supreme Court decision that precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation in US
also contains a Citizenship Clause and Due Process Clause
But differential punishing continued 15
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