Sociology
Social Problems
Social conditions percieved to be problematic by geoups of people
Social Constructions
Social Problems based on social perceptions that vary from society to society and overtime
Auguste Comte
Believed that sociology could help make sense of tremedous social changes
Jane Addams
Rebuffed Gender expections, founder of the Hull House
W.E.B. Du Bois
Focus: Calling attention to racial injustic and proposing solutions
The philadelphia negro
Sociological Perspectives
Developing and using a sociological eye
Social activism
Migration
The general movement of people from one geographical location to another with the intent of permanent settlement
Internal Migration
Movement of people from one place to another wihin a nation without crossing international borders
Immigration
Migration that crosses international borders with the intent of permanent settlement
Emigration
Same thing as immigration, but from the perspective of the origin nation
Assimilation
The process through which immigrant populations adop the culture of the host society and eventually shed their own
Behavorial Assimilation
members of immigrant population adopt culture of host society (acculturation)
Structural Assimilation
Immigrants enter primary groups of host society
- relationships between immigrants and native -born
- requires host society to open-up
Martial Assimilation
high levels of intermarriage and procreation between native-borns and immigrants
- with high rates, any difference between groups will crease to exist over time
Indentification Assimilation
When immigrants wiew themselves as members of the host society, rather than their origin country
Transnationalism
focus on the ways that immigrants maintain ties with their origin country rather than assimilating as they integrate into host country
Push-Pull Framework
Helps organize the entire process through a cost-benefit analysis
- do the benefits outwieght the costs?
Four Factors
Personal factors, orign("push"), destination ("pull factors"), and intervening obstacles
Segmented Assimilation Theory
Developed in the 1990s and 2000s, attempts to incorporate these diverse experiences into our understanding of assimilations. Predicts scenarios where assimilation is desirable, dangerous, or not occur at all.
Dissonant Accultration
When children adopt the host society culture fater than their parents. This could possibly destabilize and immigrant families.
Consonant Acculturation
Parents and children acculturate simultaneously
- achieveable for wealtheir families
- access to higher-quality neighborhoods and schools.
Selective acculturation
This strategy involves maintaining much of the immigrant culture while strategically adopting some mainstream cultural elements and rejecting others.
Reactive ethnicity
when second gen people crystalize their identiy as ___ american. Emerges when the immigrant population feels threatened and persecuted.
Undocumented Immigration
unauthorized entry of continued presence of foregin nationals in a host country. A hot-button issue in many nations today.
- issue stems from policy decisions with unintedned consequences
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
Provided legal status for many undocumented immigrants, but also increased border enforcement, resulting in a more militarized border
Circular Migration
Immigrants coming to the U.S. during the harvest seasons & then returning to Mexico when jobs were less available.
- "IRCA" made it more risky and costly, so eventually immigrants brought their families and settled permantly
Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Delayed deportation of DREAMERS and made them eligible for work permits
Forcibly Displaced People
those attempting to seek refuge from violence and gang activity
Refugees
have fled their country and cannot return because they would face persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group
Asylum Seekers
have fled their country and applied for official protected status and material assistance within a host country
Dreamers
Undocumented children who grew up in American and want the american dream, but lack legal status through no fault of their own
Natural vs Built
Natural: nature, streams, mountains, forests, and bunny rabbits
Built: surrondings built by humans
Treadmills of Production
the social process that dirve continous production of goods
- increasing and automating production typically reduces the costs of producing a single unit of an item, allowing for more profit per unit
Consumerisms
the idea that people and their values are defined by the products and services they consume.
Conspicous Conspumption
We place value on goods that we can display to others as a symbol of our status and economic power
Planned Obsulescence
the business practie of designing products to retain their worth for only a short time
ex: phone batteries
Percieved Obsolescence
when presented with attractice new styles or designs, consumers view their current products as "not good enought" , even if they are perfectly useful
ex: buying new clothes
E-waste
discarded electronic devices or pieces of electronic devices
Virtual Environmentalism
making environmentally friendly choices less expensive and more convenient than other options
Renewable energy
energy sources that aren't depleted with use
ex: photovoltaic Arrays (solar panels)
Greenhouse gases
atmospheric gases that contribute to the warming of Earth by absorbing heat and directing it back toward the planet's surface
Mitigation
slowing down or reducing the serenity of climate change
ex: reducing demand of energy
Adaptation
Learning to deal with changes caused by increased global temperatures
ex: planting shade trees
Stabilization Wedges
Manageable concrete steps
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
chemicals that won't breakdown for a long time in the environement, enabling them to build up in body tissues of animals
- DDT (kills mosquitoes)
Monoculture
the practice of growing only one crop
- farms susceptible to both overproduction and failures of entire crops
Industrial live-stock operations (ILO)
animals growth in treated like any other commodity and built with an "assembly line"
ex: hogs
Environmental Justice
the negatice consequences of production disproportionately affect people of color and low-income individuals
Disproportiontely Sited
Intentionally placed, in predominantly low-income and non-white communitites because the residents have fewer resources and less influence to block such moves.
Norms
roles that are generally agreed upon by most members of society
Folkway
breaking an informal rule
Mores
Breaking norms that rule our moral and ethical behaviors
ex: Jan 6th Riots
Taboos
the most serious of all rules, breaking one of these could result in expulsion from society
ex: incest, canaibalism
crime
"an intentional act in violation of the criminal law commintted without defense or excuse, and penalized by the state"
- deviant act becomes criminal when the sanction prohibiting the behavior becomes formalized, or codified in law
Thomas Theorem
if [people] define situation as real, they are real in their consequences
Basic point
if people think that there is an issue, they will act as if it is true
ex: Rasor blades in candy bags
The two reasons why people worry about crime that is not occuring
the media and "wound culture"
"Wound Culture"
"The public fasination with torn and open bodies and torn and opened persons, a collective gathering around shock, trama, and wound."
- violent crimes is cheep and easier to report
Implicit Bias
"attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner
ex: people of color committing most crimies
Dark Figure of Crimes
criminal acts that go unreported and undiscovered
Univorm Crime Report (UCR)
Violent crime data released by the FBI
Part 1 crimes
the top 8 crimes that the FBI consider most serious
- violent crimes: homicide, rape, aggravted assult, robbery
- Property crimes: burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson
part 2 crimes
data from 21 other crimes
ex: fraud, embezzlement, vagrancy, and drunkness
National crime victimization survey (NOUS)
An annual surrvey of a random selection of U.S. Households
-proved domestic violence is a social problem
Critical Theory Perspective
How social structures constrain opportunities for the individuals within them
- all theories maintain that those with the most power use the criminal justic system to maintain their powerful positions by criminalizing other groups
Street crimes
part 1 crimes
White-collar Crimes
crimes committed by high-status individuals in the course of their occupation
- far more harmful
- more die from white-collar crimes than homicide
Criminology
the study of crime and its underlying causes
Classical Theory
crime is a rational decision
Hedonistic Calculus
People weigh the potential costs against benefit
- system has to be just and transparent
Social Disorganization Theory
larger-scale social-structural (macro) factors, rather than individual-level (micro) proensities, have the most impact on crime (neighborhood problems)
Strain theory
People experience strain when they can't succed while following the norms of society
- mismatch between culture goals and institutionalized means (anomic imbalance)
Criminal Justice Funnel
1. Law enforcement
2. courts
3. corrections
Law enforcement
police identify potential criminal offenders and enter them into criminal justice funnel
Courts
Prosecutors make the decision of whether to file criminal charges
Corrections
if founded or pleads guilty, then they more to the sentencing phase. They recieve some for of punishment
Criminalization
the process of making an action a criminal one, or a person a criminal, by creating a law
Decriminalization
the process of changing the law so that an action is no longer considered a criminal offense
Felonies
Serious offenses
Misdemeanors
less serious offenses with punishment of fines, community service, probation, and jail terms of under a year
Broken Windows Policing
Idea that minor crimes lead to more serious crimes in increasing resident's fear and causing them to withdraw from public life
Disorder
a social problem that reduces quality of life for residents and contributes to serious violent crimes
Terry Stops
a practice that permits police to temporarily detain a person, question them, and search them for weapons or another contraband if they have "reasonable suspicion" that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime.
Police Brutality
Excessive Use of Force-constitute a social problem
- police use force that is greater than required
Legal Cynicism
the belieft that the legal system and police are "illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public saftey".
Community Policing
the philosophy that police and the public are partners in crime prevention, and it emphasizes giving citizens a voice and treating with dignity and respect
5 main purposes of punishment
- deterrence
- retribution
- rehabilitation
- restoration
Prision
houses people convicted of felonies
Jail
short-term holding facilites, typically under jursidiction of a city or country, that house people awaiting case disposition or sentencing, or serving a short-term sentence
Bail
a set amount of money that a prson is eligible to pay for a pretrial release
The Bail Project
raises money to pay poor people's bail amount in an effort to close the wealth gap injustice
Recidivism
the percentage of people convicted and punished for a crime who get rearrested for committing a similar crime
Collateral Consequenes
the lasting effects that continue to shape lives long after people serve their sentences
Expungment of Criminal Records
provide a fresh start for someone with criminal records
- involves the sealing or physical destruction of arrest and/or criminal records