sociology

Escalation:
Increase frequency, seriousness (high speed chase, runaway->probation->new violation->delinquent)
new categories(carjacking)
increases skill level of 'criminal'
violations linked to enforcement ("buy money," 'scared straight,' "the usual s

And, when we define someone or some group as deviant- we strengthen our own position and simplify our response to the "other": ignore, expunge, destroy, or rehabilitate them.

Definition of abuse has broadened, and need for treatment has become a preventive reality.

It is problematic because it disrupts; it is essential because it defines the confines of our shared reality; and it is intrinsic to a conception of order in that defining what is real and expected, defining what is acceptable, and defining who we are- always is done in opposition to what is unreal, unexpected, unacceptable, and who we are not ("We defines They").

It is problematic because it disrupts; it is essential because it defines the confines of our shared reality; and it is intrinsic to a conception of order in that defining what is real and expected, defining what is acceptable, and defining who we are- always is done in opposition to what is unreal, unexpected, unacceptable, and who we are not ("We defines They").

Winners: Organize social life

Losers: Are controlled (executed, shamed, jailed, hospitalized, cared for).

Deviance is problematic, yet essential and intrinsic to any conception of Social Order.

Escalation:
Increase frequency, seriousness (high speed chase, runaway->probation->new violation->delinquent)
new categories(carjacking)
increases skill level of 'criminal'
violations linked to enforcement ("buy money," 'scared straight,' "the usual suspects")
Non-Enforcement
Covert Facilitation


Robert Scott: "The Making of Blind Men" (in Pontell, 1993)

The problem of blindness does not stem from preconceptions about blindness, it is an effect of introducing the factor of blind...

Deviance is problematic, yet essential and intrinsic to any conception of Social Order.

Stephan Pfohl: "The 'Discovery' of Child Abuse" (in Pontell, 2005)

Societal reaction to (and therefore individual reaction o) deviance is a complex social-cultural-historical process based on shifting definitions, organizational interests and professional expertise.

Rule Enforcers

Once a new rule (law): Then institutionalization- an Agency (police, FBN, etc)
Agency's interest and motives?

Definition of abuse has broadened, and need for treatment has become a preventive reality.

Deviance is not a matter of the cost or consequences of a particular behavior, or the behavior itself.

In the discovery of child abuse we see the culmination of these processes in the production of a new medical syndrome in 1962: Battered Child Syndrome.

We perceive and understand the physical and social world based on a shared sense of order (predictability): the meanings we attach to people, things, and actions.

3, 4, and 5: Provide further evidence of 'differentness,' deny feedback, and relegates the blind to a subordinate position.

Net result: Heterogeneous population becomes homogeneous.