CHAPTER 4: DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL 42A

SECTION A: KEY WORDS

Match the words or phrases provided in the box with their definitions that follow.

(A) bypass (B) fiduciary (C) impassioned (D) outrage

(E) dislodge (F) exemplary (G) intricacies (H) death row
(I) recess (J) revolt (K) a slap on the wrist

1. to make someone feel very angry and shocked

2. to take strong and often violent action against the government, usually with the aim of
taking power away from them
3. to avoid obeying a rule, system, or someone in an official position:
4. the complicated details of something
5. involving an arrangement by which someone has legal control of someone else’s money or
property
6. to make someone leave a place or lose a position of power
7. full of strong feeling and emotion
8. the part of a prison where prisoners who will be punished by being killed are kept
9. excellent and providing a good example for people to follow
10. the inner hidden part
11. a punishment that you think is not severe enough

WRITE YOUR ANSWERS HERE.

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D J A G B E C H F I K

SECTION B: VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

Choose the option that corresponds to the underlined word or phrase in each of
the following sentences.

1. Yet, the most common route to success, the school system, presents a bewildering world.
(A) ever-changing (B) imaginary (C) natural (D) perplexing
2. Yet, the most common route to success, the school system, presents a bewildering world.
Run by the middle class, schools are at odds with the background of the poor.
(A) are in conflict (B) are parallel
(C) are in disagreement (D) are incompatible
3. The poor’s speech, for example, is built around nonstandard grammar and is often laced
with what the middle class considers obscenities.
(A) offend (B) disagree (C) violate (D) include
4. Under federal law, causing the death of a worker by willfully violating safety rules is a
misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Yet to harass a wild burro on
federal lands is punishable by a year in prison.
(A) vicious crime (B) blue-collar crime (C) petty crime (D) victimless crime

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 5. To prevent revolt, a flagrant violation by a member of the capitalist class is occasionally
prosecuted. The publicity given to the case helps to stabilize the social system by providing
evidence of the “fairness” of the criminal justice system
(A) grave (B) massive (C) widespread (D) blatant
6. What do you think would happen if groups that have been denied access to power gain that
access? You might surmise that one of the things they would change would be the legal
system.
(A) guess (B) ascertain (C) affirm (D) assert
7. Social class funnels some people into the criminal justice system and diverts others away
from it.
(A) dislodges (B) channels (C) propels (D) induces
8. When someone is convicted of a third felony, judges are required to give a mandatory
sentence, sometimes life imprisonment.
(A) custodial (B) stiff (C) lenient (D) compulsory
9. If a goal of prisons is to teach their clients to stay away from crime, they are colossal
failures.
(A) extremely big (B) painfully apparent
(C) absolutely catastrophic (D) very ignominious
10. In the absence of fundamental changes that would bring about an equitable social system,
most efforts are, unfortunately, like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.
(A) balanced (B) reasonable (C) even-handed (D) accountable

WRITE YOUR ANSWERS HERE.

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D A D C D A D A A C

SECTION C: KEY TERMS

Supply the following definitions with appropriate terms.

1. Criminal justice system__________ is the system of police, courts, and prisons set up to
deal with people who are accused of having
committed a crime
2. Recidivism rate________________ is the proportion of released convicts who are
rearrested.
3. Capital punishment_____________ is the punishment of being killed that is used in
some countries for very serious crimes.
4. Serial murder_________________ is the killing of several victims in three or more
separate events.
5. Hate crime___________________ is a crime that is punished more severely because it
is motivated by hatred (dislike, hostility,
animosity) of someone’s race–ethnicity, religion,
sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.
6. Police discretion_______________ is the practice of the police, in the normal course of
their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for
an offense or to overlook the matter.
7. Medicalization of deviance________ means to make deviance a medical matter, a
symptom of some underlying illness that needs to
be treated by physicians.

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SECTION D: GAP-FILLING
Complete each gap with an appropriate expression found in this chapter.

1. How can a legal system that proudly boasts “justice for all” be so inconsistent? According
to conflict theory, this question is central to the analysis of crime and the
criminal__________ justice____________ system____________ —the police,
courts, and prisons that deal with people who are accused of having committed crimes.
2. Conflict theorists point out that the law is really an instrument_______________
of____ oppression____________, a tool designed by the powerful to maintain
their privileged position.
3. Not able to build prisons fast enough to hold all of their incoming prisoners, the states
and federal government have hired private companies to operate additional prisons for
them. About 120,000 prisoners are held in these “for-profit” prisons____________.
4. If a goal of prisons is to teach their clients to stay away from crime, they are colossal
failures. We can measure their failure by the recidivism____________
rate_______—the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested.
5. Capital____________ punishment_______________, also known as the death
penalty, is the most extreme measure the state takes.
6. Police____________ discretion____________, the decision whether to arrest
someone or even to ignore a matter, is a routine part of police work. Consequently,
official crime statistics reflect these and many other biases.
7. There has been a growing tendency toward the
medicalization__________________ of_____ deviance____________. In
this view, deviance, including crime, is a sign of mental sickness. Rape, murder, stealing,
cheating, and so on are external symptoms of internal disorders, consequences of a
confused or tortured mind.
8. Thomas Szasz, a renegade in his profession of psychiatry, argues that
mental____________ illnesses____________ are neither mental nor illnesses.
They are simply problem behaviors.

SECTION E: COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Answer the following questions based on the information in the textbook. WRITE
(NOT TYPE) your answers (in complete sentences) on the back of this paper
(and/or on A4 paper and staple it to this worksheet).

1. How do conflict theorists explain deviance?

2. Not only does the United States have more prisoners than any other nation in the world,
but it also has a larger percentage of its population in prison as well. Who are these
prisoners?
3. What are common reactions to deviance in the United States?
4. Are official statistics on crime reliable?
5. What is the medicalization of deviance?
6. What is a “more humane approach”?

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 Answer

1. Conflict theorists take the position that the group in power imposes its definition of
deviance on other groups. From this perspective, the law is an instrument of oppression
used by powerful to maintain their position of privilege. The ruling class uses the criminal
justice system to punish the crime of the poor while diverting its own criminal activities
away from this punitive system.
2. United States not only have more prisoners than any other nation in the world, but it also
has a larger percentage of its population in prison as well. As for the prisoners, they are
younger than 35, and almost all prisoner are men that never married and low power of
education.
3. The common reactions to deviance in the United States are that following a “get-tough”
policy. As the U.S has imprisoned millions of people, African Americans and Latinos make up a
disproportionate percentage of U.S. Prisoners. The death penalty shows biases by geography, social
class, gender, and race-ethnicity. In the line with conflict theory, as the groups gain political power,
their views are reflected in criminal code. Hate crime legislation was considered in this context.
4. The official statistics on crime is unreliable. The conclusions of both symbolic interactionists
(that police operate with a large measure of discretion) and conflict theorists (that a power elite
controls the legal system) indicate that we must be cautious when using crime statistics.
5. The medical profession has attempted to medicalize many forms of deviance, claiming that they
represent mental illnesses. Thomas Szasz disagrees, asserting that these are problem behaviors, not
mental illnesses. The situation of homeless people indicates that problems in living can lead to
bizarre behavior and thinking.
6. Deviance is inevitable, so the larger issues are to find ways to protect people from deviance that
harms themselves and others, to tolerate deviance that is not harmful, and to develop systems of
fairer treatment for deviants.

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