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Exam 2
Key Concepts
97
Sociology
Undergraduate 3
11/03/2010

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Term
Anomie
Definition
a concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Durkheim, referring to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior
Term
Community Policing
Definition
a renewed emphasis on crime prevention rather than law enforcement to reintegrate policing within the community
Term
Conflict Theory
Definition
argument that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature
Term
Control Theory
Definition
a theory that views crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and controls that deter it.  Control theorists hold that criminals are rational beings who will act to maximize their own reward unless they are rendered unable to do so through either social or physical controls.
Term
Corporate Crime
Definition
offenses committed by large corporations in society.  Examples include pollution, false advertising, and violations of health and safety regulations
Term
Crimes
Definition
any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority.  Although we may think of criminals as a distinct subsection of the population, there are few people who have not broken the law in one way or another during their lives.  While laws are formulated by state authorities, it is not unknown for those authorities to engage in criminal behavior in certain situations
Term
Deviance
Definition
modes of action that do not conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society.  What is regarded as deviant is as variable as the norms and values that distinguish different cultures and subcultures from one another.  Forms of behavior that are highly esteemed by one group are regarded negatively by others
Term
Deviant Subculture
Definition
a subculture whose members hold valuues that differ substantially from those of the majority
Term
Differential Association
Definition
an interpretation of the development of crimianl behavior proposed by Edwin H. Sutherland, according to whom criminal behavior is learned through association with others who regularly engage in crime
Term
Labeling Theory
Definition
an approach to the study of deviance that suggests that people become "deviant" because certain labels are attached to their behavior by political authorities and others
Term
Laws
Definition
a rule of behavior established by a political authority and backed by state power
Term
New Criminology
Definition
a branch of criminological thought, prominent in Britain in the 1970s, that regarded deviance as deliberately chosen and often political in nature.  The new criminologists argued that crime and deviance could only be understood in the context of power and inequality within society
Term
Norms
Definition
rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations.  A norm either prescribes a given type of behavior or forbids it.  All groups follow definate norms, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another - varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment
Term
Organized Crime
Definition
criminal activities carried out by organizations established as businesses
Term
Primary Deviation
Definition
according to Edwin Lemert, the actions that cause other to label one as deviant
Term
Psychopaths
Definition
a specific personality type; such individuals lack the moral sense and concern for others held by most normal people
Term
Sanction
Definition
a mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior
Term
Secondary Deviation
Definition
according to Edwin Lemert, following the act of primary deviation, occurs when an individual accepts the label of deviant and acts accordingly
Term
Shaming
Definition
a way of punishing criminal and deviant behavior based on rituals of public disapproval rather than incarceration.  The goal is to maintain the ties of the offender to the community
Term
White-Collar Crime
Definition
criminal activities carried out by those in white-collar, or professional, jobs
Term
Absolute Poverty
Definition
the minimal requirements necessary to sustain a healthy existence
Term
Capitalists
Definition
people who own companies, land, or stock (shares) and use these to generate economic returns
Term
Caste Societies
Definition
a society in which different social levels are closed, so that all individuals must remain at the social level of their birth throught life
Term
Caste System
Definition
a social system in which one's social status is given for life
Term
Class
Definition
although it is one of the most frequently used concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the notion should be defined.  Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic variations between groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power
Term
Culture of Poverty
Definition
the thesis, popularized by Oscar Lewis, that poverty is not a result of individual inadequencies but is instead the outcome of a larger social and cultural atmosphere into which successive generations of children are socialized.  Refers to the values, beliefs, lifestyles, habits, and tradtions that are common among people living under conditions of material deprivation
Term
Dependency Culture
Definition
a term popularized by Charles Murray to describe individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labor market.  Is seen as the outcome of the "paternalistic" welfare state that undermines individual ambition and people's capacity for self-help
Term
Endogamy
Definition
the forbidding of marriage or sexaul relations outside one's social group
Term
Exchange Mobility
Definition
the exchange of positions on the socioeconomic scale such that talented people move up the economic hierarchy while the less talented move down
Term
Feminization of Poverty
Definition
an increase in the proportion of the poor who are female
Term
Homeless
Definition
people who have no place to sleep and either stay in free shelters or sleep in public places not meant for habitation
Term
Income
Definition
payment, usually derived from wages, salaries, or investments
Term
Intergenerational Mobility
Definition
movement up or down a social stratification hierarchy from one generation to another
Term
Intragenerational Mobility
Definition
movement up or down a social stratification hierarchy within the course of a personal career
Term
Kuznets Curve
Definition
a formula showing that inequality increases during the early stages of capitalist development, then declines, and eventually stabilizes at a relatively low level; advanced by the economist Simon Kuznets
Term
Life Chances
Definition
a term introduced by Max Weber to signify a person's opportunities for achieving economic prosperity
Term
Lower Class
Definition
a social class comprised of those who work part time or not at all and whose household income is typically lower than $17,000 a year
Term
Medicare
Definition
a program under the U.S. Social Security Administration the reimburses hospitals and physicians for medical care provided to qualifying people over sixty-five years old
Term
Means of Production
Definition
the means whereby the production of material goods is carried on in a society, including not just technology but the social relations between producers
Term
Middle Class
Definition
a social class composed broadly of those working in white-collar and lower managerial occupations
Term
Pariah Groups
Definition
groups who suffer from negative status discrimination - they are looked down on by most other members of society. The Jews, for example, have been a pariah group throughout much of European history
Term
Poverty Line
Definition
an official government measure to define those living in poverty in the United States
Term
Relative Poverty
Definition
poverty defined according to the living standards of the majority in any given society
Term
Short-Range Downward Mobility
Definition
social mobility that occurs when an idividual moves from one position in the class structure to another of nearly equal status
Term
Slavery
Definition
a form of social stratification in which some people are literally owned by others as their property
Term
Social Exclusion
Definition
the outcome of multiple deprivations that prevent individuals or groups from participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live
Term
Social Mobility
Definition
movement of individuals or groups between different social positions
Term
Social Security
Definition
a government program that provides economic assistance to persons faced with unemployment, disability, or agedness
Term
Social Stratification
Definition
the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards
Term
Status
Definition
the social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society
Term
Structural Mobility
Definition
mobility resulting from change in the number and kinds of jobs available in a society
Term
Structured Inequalities
Definition
social inequalities that result from patterns in the social structure
Term
Surplus Value
Definition
the value of a workers's labor power, in Marxist theory, left over when an employer has repaid the cost of hiring the worker
Term
Underclass
Definition
a class of individuals situated at the bottom of the class system, normally composed of people from ethnic minority backgrounds
Term
Upper Class
Definition
a social class broadly composed of the more affluent members of society, especially those who have inherited wealth, own businesses, or hold large numbers of stocks (shares)
Term
Vertical Mobility
Definition
movement up or down a hierarchy of positions in a social stratification system
Term
Wealth
Definition
money and material possessions held by an individual or group
Term
Working Class
Definition
a social class broadly composed of people working in blue-collar, or manual, occupations
Term
Working Poor
Definition
people who work, but whose earnings are not enough to lift them above the poverty line
Term
Black Feminism
Definition
a strand of feminist theory that highlights the multiple disadvantanges of gender, class, and race that shape the experiences of nonwhite women
Term
Comparable Worth
Definition
policies that attempt to remedy pay gap by adjusting pay so that those in female dominated jobs are not paid less for equvialent work
Term
Feminist Theories
Definition
a sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyizing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women
Term
Gender
Definition
social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex
Term
Gender Inequality
Definition
the inequality bewteen men and women in terms of wealth, income, and status
Term
Gender Socialization
Definition
the learning of gender roles through social factors such as schooling, the media, and family
Term
Gender Typing
Definition
women holding occupations of lower status and pay, such as secretarial and retail positions, and men holding jobs of higher status and pay, such as managerial and professional positions
Term
Glass Ceiling
Definition
a promotion barrier that prevents a woman's upward mobility within an organization
Term
Glass Escalator
Definition
the process by which men in traditionally female professions benefit from an unfair rapid rise within an organization
Term
Liberal Feminism
Definition
form of feminist theory that believes that gender inequality is produced by unequal acces to civil rights and certain social resources, such as education and employment, based on sex
Term
Patriarchy
Definition
the dominance of men over women
Term
Radical Feminism
Definition
form of feminist theory that believes the gender inequality is the result of male domination in all aspects of social and economic life
Term
Rape
Definition
the forcing of nonconsensual vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse
Term
Sex
Definition
the biological and anatomical differences distinguishing females from males
Term
Sexual Harassment
Definition
the making of unwanted sexual advances by one individual toward another, in which the first person persists even though it is clear that the other party is resistant
Term
Social Construction of Gender
Definition
the learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others
Term
Apartheid
Definition
the system of racial segregation established in South Africa
Term
Assimilation
Definition
the acceptance of minority group by a majority population, in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture
Term
Diaspora
Definition
the dispersal of an ethnic population from an original homeland into foreign areas, often in a forced manner or under traumatic circumstances
Term
Discrimination
Definition
behavior that denies to the members of a particular group resources or rewards that can be obtained by others
Term
Displacement
Definition
the transferring of ideas or emotions from their true source to another object
Term
Emigration
Definition
the movement of people out of one country in order to settle in another
Term
Ethnic Cleansing
Definition
the creation of ethnically homogeneous territories through the mass expulsion of other ethnic populations
Term
Ethnicity
Definition
cultural values and norms that distinguish the members of a given group from others
Term
Genocide
Definition
the systematic, planned destruction of a radical, political, or cultural group
Term
Immigration
Definition
the movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement
Term
Institutional Racism
Definition
patterns of discrimination based on ethnicity that have become structured into existing social institutions
Term
Melting Pot
Definition
the idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behavior drawing on diverse cultural sources
Term
Minority Group
Definition
a group of people in a minority in a given society who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality within that society
Term
Multiculturalism
Definition
ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life
Term
Pluralism
Definition
a model for ethnic relations in which all ethnic groups in the United States retain their independent and separate identities, yet share equally in the rights and powers of citizenship
Term
Prejudice
Definition
the holding of preconceived ideas about an individual or group, ideas that are resistant to change even in the face of new information
Term
Race
Definition
differences in human physical characteristics used to catergorize large numbers of individuals
Term
"Racial Literacy"
Definition
the skills taught to children of multicultural families to help them cope with racial hierarchies and to integrate multiple ethnic identities
Term
Racialization
Definition
the process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people
Term
Racism
Definition
the attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics
Term
Scapegoats
Definition
an individual or group blamed for wrongs that were not of their doing
Term
Segregation
Definition
the practices of keeping racial and ethnic groups physically separate, thereby maintaining the superior position of the dominant group
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