Page 247 - Sociology and You

Chapter 7 Deviance and Social Control
may be true for a person with a disability or an unem- ployed person.
The words of a forty-three-year-old bricklayer, who was unemployed during the Depression, illustrate this point.
How hard and humiliating it is to bear the name of an unemployed man. When I go out, I cast down my eyes because I feel myself wholly inferior. When I go along the street, it seems to me that I can’t be com- pared with an average citizen, that everybody is pointing at me with his finger. I instinctively avoid meeting anyone. Former acquaintances and friends of better times are no longer so cordial. They greet me indifferently when we meet. They no longer offer me a cigarette and their eyes seem to say, “You are not worth it, you don’t work.”
Section 3 Assessment
1. Which of the following describes what is meant by differential association?
a. Crime is more likely to occur among individuals
who have been treated differently.
b. People may become criminals through close
association with criminals.
c. Crime is not transmitted culturally.
d. Crime comes from conflict between two
cultures.
2. Name the sociological theory that takes into account
the relativity of deviance.
3. What is secondary deviance?
4. What are the social consequences of labeling?
Critical Thinking
5. AnalyzingInformation Thinkofsomeoneyouknoworknowof who has been labeled as deviant by some members of society. Analyze the consequences of this labeling for the person identified as a deviant.
6. Drawing Conclusions What actions could be taken against students who are viewed as secondary deviants?
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This young man in New York City in the 1940s probably felt the stigma of being unemployed. How does this stigma relate to the labeling of deviants?