Deviance and Social Control YouTube

Summary

This video script explores the concept of deviance, which varies across cultures and time. It discusses how societies define and control deviance through formal and informal social controls. The script also covers sociological perspectives on deviance, including functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views. It examines the effectiveness of incarceration for controlling deviance, addressing issues like deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution, and raises questions about societal attitudes towards ex-convicts.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Deviance is culturally relative; what's considered deviant in one society may be normal in another.
• 📉 Societal norms and attitudes can change over time, affecting what is seen as deviant behavior.
• 🚫 Deviance can be enforced through both formal (laws) and informal (social disapproval) social controls.
• 👥 People can be labeled as deviant not by choice but due to inherent characteristics like obesity.
• 👮‍♂️ Formal social control agents, such as police, courts, and prisons, are used to impose sanctions on deviant behavior.
• 🏆 Degradation ceremonies are public events that impose severe penalties to humiliate and deter deviance.
• 🧬 Early theories of deviance were influenced by biological explanations, but today sociologists consider social factors.
• 🔄 Functionalist perspective sees deviance as a reaction to social structure failure and a way to reinforce societal norms.
• 🆚 Conflict perspective attributes deviance to cultural and class conflict, with laws used to maintain power of the privileged.
• 👥 Interactionist perspective focuses on how individuals learn to be deviant and the impact of being labeled as such.
• 🔒 Incarceration aims for incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution of criminals, but effectiveness is debated.

Q & A

What is considered deviant behavior?

Deviant behavior is any act, attribute, or belief that violates a cultural norm and elicits a reaction from others. It can vary over time and from one society to another.

How does the definition of deviance change across different cultures?

The definition of deviance can change based on cultural norms, as what is considered deviant in one society may be acceptable in another. For example, attitudes towards alcohol consumption vary widely among different societies.

What role does social control play in managing deviance?

Social control enforces societal norms through both formal and informal means. Informal social control includes everyday social interactions, while formal social control involves official authority figures like police and courts.

Can you provide an example of a degradation ceremony?

A degradation ceremony is an event that publicly humiliates someone for violating a norm. Historical examples include the use of stockades, the Scarlet Letter, the Salem Witch Trials, and public executions.

How do sociologists view deviance?

Sociologists view deviance non-judgmentally, recognizing that society judges certain acts negatively without necessarily agreeing that the act is inherently bad.

What is the functionalist perspective on criminal deviance?

The functionalist perspective sees criminal deviance as resulting from the failure of social structures to function properly. It also suggests that criminal behavior can reinforce social norms and promote social unity and change.

How does the conflict perspective explain criminal deviance?

The conflict perspective views criminal deviance as caused by cultural and class conflict, with laws used to maintain the power and privilege of the few over the many. It argues that social inequality is key to understanding criminal behavior.

What is the interactionist perspective on deviance?

The interactionist perspective focuses on how individuals learn to be criminal and the consequences of being labeled as such. It emphasizes the influence of social interactions and group affiliations on deviant behavior.

What are the four primary reasons for incarcerating criminals?

The four primary reasons for incarcerating criminals are incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. Incarceration aims to prevent further harm, deter future criminal behavior, reform offenders, and punish them for their crimes.

What is the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of lengthy prison sentences?

The effectiveness of lengthy prison sentences is debated because some argue that prisons can nurture deviant behavior rather than reform it. Additionally, the societal reintegration of ex-convicts is challenging due to the stigma they face.

How do plea bargaining and mandatory sentencing affect the criminal justice system?

Plea bargaining allows criminals to shorten their sentences by pleading guilty in exchange for reduced charges or sentences, reducing costs in the criminal justice system. Mandatory sentencing, such as three-strikes laws, imposes long sentences for repeat offenders to deter recidivism. However, both practices have been criticized for undermining justice and fairness.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Understanding Deviance

This paragraph discusses the concept of deviance, which is any behavior, attribute, or belief that goes against societal norms. Deviance can be subjective and varies across different societies and time periods. For instance, attitudes towards alcohol consumption differ significantly among the United States, France, Brazil, and Muslim countries. The paragraph also touches on how societal norms can change, using the evolution of attitudes towards swimwear as an example. It emphasizes that deviance is not just about choice; sometimes, people are labeled as deviant due to uncontrollable factors such as genetics or biology.

05:00

👮‍♂️ Social Control and Deviance

The second paragraph explores the mechanisms of social control that societies use to enforce norms, including both formal and informal methods. Informal social controls are everyday actions like gossip or ridicule, while formal controls involve official authority figures like police and courts. The concept of the 'degradation ceremony' is introduced as a historical method of social control used to publicly humiliate and penalize those who violate norms. The paragraph also highlights how societal views on what is considered deviant can evolve, using the changing perception of tattoos in the United States as an example.

10:02

🔎 Theoretical Perspectives on Deviance

This paragraph delves into early theories of deviance, which were influenced by biological explanations for criminal behavior. It then contrasts these with modern sociological perspectives, including functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views. The functionalist perspective sees deviance as a natural outcome of social structure failure, serving to reinforce social norms and unity. The conflict perspective attributes deviance to cultural and class conflicts, arguing that the law is used to maintain power imbalances. Interactionism focuses on how individuals learn and internalize criminal labels, and how this affects their behavior.

15:05

🏢 Incarceration and its Purposes

The fourth paragraph examines the reasons societies incarcerate criminals, including incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. Incapacitation aims to prevent further crime by removing the offender from society. Deterrence is based on the idea that punishment will discourage future criminal behavior. Rehabilitation is about transforming offenders into law-abiding citizens, although the paragraph suggests that prisons often fail at this task. Retribution is about exacting payment for wrongdoing, and the paragraph discusses how societal attitudes towards ex-convicts can hinder their reintegration.

20:07

🚫 The Challenges of Rehabilitation

This paragraph focuses on the challenges of rehabilitating criminals within the prison system. It suggests that prisons can sometimes foster deviant behavior rather than reduce it, as offenders learn from one another. The effectiveness of deterrence is questioned, with the paragraph arguing that the threat of prison may not be a significant factor in preventing initial crimes. It also discusses how societal views on crime and punishment can perpetuate criminal behavior, turning prison time into a status symbol rather than a deterrent.

25:08

⚖️ The Justice System and its Impact

The final paragraph discusses the role of the justice system in controlling deviance, including the use of plea bargaining and mandatory sentencing laws. Plea bargaining is presented as a way to reduce costs and caseloads within the system, but it is criticized for pressuring individuals to forgo their right to a jury trial. Mandatory sentencing, such as 'three strikes' laws, is intended to deter repeat offenses but can result in excessively harsh sentences for minor infractions. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing that there is no absolute definition of deviance, as it is society's reaction to an act that ultimately defines it as such.

Keywords

💡Deviant

Deviant refers to any act, attribute, or belief that violates a cultural norm and elicits a reaction from others. In the video, deviance is explored as a relative concept that varies across societies and time periods. For instance, attitudes towards alcohol consumption differ significantly among the United States, France, Brazil, and Muslim countries, illustrating how the same behavior can be deviant in one culture and normal in another.

💡Social Norms

Social norms are the unwritten rules that govern behavior within a society. The script discusses how these norms are enforced through formal and informal social controls. An example of this is the societal acceptance of swimwear that would have been considered deviant in the early 1900s, showing how norms evolve.

💡Social Control

Social control refers to the mechanisms by which society influences and directs individual behavior. The video outlines both formal (e.g., laws, police) and informal (e.g., gossip, social pressure) controls. It's noted that informal social control can be as simple as a smile or frown, while formal control might involve legal punishments.

💡Sanctions

Sanctions are penalties or consequences applied to those who violate social norms. The video explains how societies use sanctions to enforce conformity, ranging from informal reactions like ridicule to formal punishments like imprisonment.

💡Degradation Ceremony

A degradation ceremony is a public event that imposes a severe penalty on someone for violating a norm, often to humiliate the offender. Historical examples include the Salem Witch Trials and the use of the Scarlet Letter. The video suggests these ceremonies are intended to deter future deviance.

💡Cultural Relativity

Cultural relativity is the idea that a person's beliefs and actions should be understood within the context of their own culture. The video uses the example of attitudes towards tattoos to illustrate how what is considered deviant can vary widely among cultures.

💡Functionalist Perspective

The functionalist perspective views society as a system where each part contributes to stability. In the context of deviance, functionalists argue that criminal behavior can reinforce social norms and unity by highlighting boundaries of acceptable behavior. The video mentions how seeing the consequences of criminal acts can reinforce conformity among law-abiding citizens.

💡Conflict Perspective

The conflict perspective suggests that criminal deviance is a result of cultural and class conflicts, and that laws often serve to maintain the power of the privileged. The video argues that those in power can avoid criminal labels and that the law can be used to oppress the less powerful.

💡Interactionist Perspective

The interactionist perspective focuses on how individuals learn to be criminals and the impact of being labeled as such. The video discusses how once labeled as criminal, people are treated differently, which can reinforce deviant behavior. It also emphasizes the role of social groups in shaping individual behavior.

💡Incapacitation

Incapacitation is the practice of imprisoning criminals to prevent them from committing further crimes. The video questions the effectiveness of prisons in changing behavior, suggesting that prisons may simply remove offenders from society without addressing the root causes of their actions.

💡Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation refers to the process of helping offenders reintegrate into society as law-abiding citizens. The video discusses the challenges of rehabilitation in prisons, noting that success often depends on the individual's willingness to participate in programs and change.

💡Retribution

Retribution is the act of punishing offenders as a form of revenge or to achieve justice. The video highlights the societal tendency to continue punishing ex-convicts even after they have served their time, making it difficult for them to reintegrate and leading to high recidivism rates.

Highlights

Deviance is defined as any act, attribute, or belief that violates a cultural norm and elicits a reaction.

Society's definition of deviance can vary over time and between different societies.

Sociologists view deviance non-judgmentally, recognizing society's negative judgment of certain acts.

Cultural norms on behaviors like alcohol consumption can differ significantly between societies.

Deviance can be a result of choice, circumstance, or inherent characteristics such as obesity.

Society enforces norms through both formal and informal social controls.

Formal social controls include official authority figures like police, courts, and the correctional system.

Informal social controls are everyday social interactions that encourage conformity.

Degradation ceremonies are public events that impose severe penalties to humiliate offenders.

Tattoos, once a symbol of deviance, have become mainstream fashion statements for some.

Early theories of deviance were influenced by biological explanations for criminal behavior.

Functionalist perspective sees criminal deviance as a result of social structure failure.

Conflict perspective attributes criminal deviance to cultural and class conflict.

Interactionist perspective focuses on how individuals learn to be criminal and the impact of the criminal label.

Prisons aim to incapacitate, deter, rehabilitate, and exact retribution from criminals.

The effectiveness of prison systems in controlling deviance and achieving rehabilitation is debated.

Critics argue that prisons can nurture deviant behavior rather than rehabilitate offenders.

Plea bargaining allows criminals to shorten prison sentences in exchange for a guilty plea.

Mandatory sentencing laws require long sentences for repeat offenders, which can be controversial.

Society's reaction to an act, rather than the act itself, defines deviance.

Transcripts

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fire

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deviant that which departs from

society's Norms whether by

choice by

circumstance or by

Design all of us violate the Norms at

one time or

another how we Define deviant can vary

over time and from one Society to

another societies enforce their version

of accepted Norms through social

controls both formal and

informal deviant can bring about social

change but it also results in major

social problems like

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crime

what is deviant ask a 100 people in your

hometown and you may get similar answers

but ask that same question in Holland

Thailand or Uganda and you may get a

very different set of responses so how

do we Define

deviant deviant is any act attribute or

belief that violates a cultural norm and

elicits from others a positive or

negative reaction deviance is what

people Define as in any given group so

it's impossible to define deviant

without understanding the social fabric

of the group Abraham

Lincoln R sociologists use the term

deviance

non-judgmentally they don't necessarily

agree that an act is bad they just

recognize that Society judges the ACT

negatively behavior that might be

considered quite deviant in one Society

might be totally acceptable in another

Society an example of this is the wide

range of attitudes toward alcohol

consumption among different societies

the minimum drinking age in the United

States is 21 but it's 16 in France and

18 in Brazil in Jamaica there is no

minimum drinking age but in most Muslim

countries alcohol consumption is

forbidden at any age behavior that you

would consider to be deviant at one time

and in one place will not be the case at

another time and in another

place

an example of how a society's definition

of deviant can change over time is our

attitude towards

swimwear in the early 1900s wearing a

swimming suit that revealed much more

than face hands and feet would have been

deviants today attitudes have

changed regardless of what Society seems

normal some people will choose to defy

those

Norms in other cases deviance is not a

matter of

choice people can be uh labeled deviant

for doing nothing at all simply because

they possess a particular

characteristic obesity is a good example

research shows that obesity is often

caused by biological or genetic factors

over which the individual has no

control in order to address deviant

sociey set up systems of formal and

informal social control N9 and 10 of the

sanctions that we experience in the

course of a hour a day are informal the

way in which we frown or smile way in

which we ridicule or try to get people

to engage us in a conversation is a

controlling mechanism if you think about

it almost all of your social life is

spent trying to read the cues of people

around you and we begin as young

children trying to read the cues of our

parents if you live in a small town and

one way to get you to conform to

normality in that town is to gossip

about that person or the fear of Gossip

would make you

conform when laws are broken Society

turns to formal social control formal

control what we mean sociologically is

um uh official authority figures who

have been vested with the power to

impose particular sanctions on people so

formal social control agents would be

the police and the courts and the

correctional system and formal social

controls would be those kinds of

official punishments to get people to

stop doing what they're

doing the degradation ceremony is

another type of social control that has

historically taken a number of forms a

degradation ceremony is um an event that

imposes a severe penalty on someone for

violating a norm it's often done in some

sort of public setting so that inflicts

the greatest amount of humiliation on

the offender every now and again a

society will decide to have a ceremony

in which they formally tell its members

that unless you behave in certain ways

you will be literally degraded so we've

had people put into stockades we've had

The Scarlet Letter we've had the Salem

Witch Trials we've had officers lose

their medals and of course we've had

people execute

it from body language to imprisonment

societies attempt to control deviant a

constant presence in our changing

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world

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hey

suus girls biting a snake in the United

States tattoos were once considered to

be a symbol of a deviant lifestyle but

for some people today tattoos have

become fashion statements it's my newest

tattoo right here in this general

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area

my mama right

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there

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hello the early theories of deviant were

influenced by the belief that the roots

of criminal Behavior were

biological today sociologists use

sociological perspectives to explore

criminal deviant and its many causes

including socialization cultural

conflict and the failure of social

structures according to the

functionalist perspective criminal

deviant results from the failure of

social structures to function properly

functionalism sees all the pieces of

society working together to create

Harmony and when some of the pieces

don't work there's disharmony and

something has to be done to correct the

situation Polie search for open door so

criminal behavior and deviant behavior

is causing the system to go AR and then

those people then have to be sort of

taken out of the system to make things

go back at the balance again

functionalism views criminal deviants as

affirming Norms in a society as well as

promoting social unity and social

change essentially functionist believe

that criminal Behavior reinforces the

moral boundaries of the society in other

words by breaking the the law by

breaking the norm people get to see uh

what the actual boundaries of behavior

are criminal Behavior can serve the

function of actually reinforcing

Conformity on the face of it this

doesn't make sense but what

functionalists argue is that by seeing

the negative reactions to the criminal

Behavior law-abiding citizens have their

own conformity reinforced it unifies

them and it reinforces their bonds to

one

another and finally criminal Behavior

can introduce social change into a

society for instance Steven boo in South

Africa was labeled a criminal because of

his work against apartheid and he was

imprisoned for this this behavior and

actually died in prison but he became a

hero to Black southa Africans and

actually was a moving force in bringing

about the end to apartheid in South

Africa critics of the functionalist

perspective claim it doesn't explain why

most people do not turn to Crime when

they can't afford the things they

want according to the conflict

perspective criminal deviance is caused

by cultural and class conflict and the

law is used to maintain the power and

privilege of the few over the many

conflict theorists begin their work on

criminal Behavior with the assumption

that a person's place in the social

hierarchy affects their life chances as

well as their opportunities including

their opportunities to commit a crime to

uh their chances of getting caught and

their chances of being arrested see some

hands put your hands up they see those

people sometimes as being victims of a

social structure that has caused them to

be victimized

and so that those in power have made the

rules and the rules are there to support

the powerful and the weak are the ones

who are then the victims of those rules

conflict theorists also argue that

people who are in privileged powerful

positions in society have a much greater

chance of escaping being labeled a

criminal regardless of their behavior I

respectfully decline to answer the

questions based on also have a greater

chance of not being arrested not being

convicted and not being imprisoned when

compared to people who are in less

powerful and more disadvantaged groups

in society so for a conflict theorist

the key to understanding criminal

behavior is social

inequality from the interactionist

perspective neither functionalism nor

the conflict perspective account for why

some people become deviant While others

in the same social situation do not

interactionists are interested in how

people learn to be criminal and also the

consequences for individuals of having

the criminal label applied to them one

is labeled criminal other people then

act on the basis of that label and treat

the person as a criminal the

interactionist would view deviant and

criminal Behavior more as like what

happens in terms of the groups that

you're a part of so for inst like if

you're a teenager and you happen to be

in an environment where you hang around

with lots of other teenagers who are

getting in trouble and you live in a

community where there are lots of people

who have problems with the law that

those types of interactions that are

helping to push you into that

direction while each sociological

perspective has merits no single

perspective can fully explain criminal

deviance each perspective focuses on a

different aspect of criminal Behavior or

a criminality so it's like looking

through a prism when you look through a

prism if you turn it you see different

colors or you see things a different way

and that's essentially what combining

the perspectives does for us in

understanding criminal Behavior it lets

us understand different dimensions of

the problem and then by putting it

together we get a much Fuller

picture

as societies become more complex they

develop formal institutions to control

criminal devience police forces courts

and prisons these institutions enforce

formal sanctions in an effort to curb

the Deviant behavior of its members

formal sanctions is when the formal

organizations of the state come in and

use that considerable power to control

your behavior and that starts with

simply detainment you can be arrested

put into a jail cell or prison uh

detained for period it escalates to the

point where there are obviously longer

sentences of 2 5 10 15 years and finally

there is the ultimate sanction of the

death

penalty there is a debate in our society

about the reasons why we put criminals

behind bars as well as the ultimate

goals we hope to achieve Society has

four primary reasons for incarcerating

criminals incapacitation deterrence

Rehabilitation and

retribution incapacitation is the

attempt on the part of the society to

remove the person from the possibility

of doing further harm so imprisonment is

a device to incapacitate the person from

further deviant

I think prisons are most effective at

taking an individual out of society that

can't uh follow the rules or conform to

the the uh guidelines of society and

taking them out of society away from

their families away from their loved

ones in a hope that that they'll look at

what they're doing and maybe make a

change in themselves prisons are

effective in controlling deviant in that

people while they're in prison are not

out there committing crimes prisons are

not affected in terms of changing any of

these

people sociologists argue that one

reason criminals don't change in prison

is because a prison environment actually

nurtures deviant Behavior you have in

prison offenders alog together who are

interacting with one another on a daily

basis so many sociologists argue that

prisons instead of reducing crime um

actually are Learning Centers for

criminal Behavior when individuals go

into the prison system the very first

thing people want to know is what did

you do and once they find out what you

did now they want to tell you how to do

that better so you come out of the

prison system knowing how to commit the

crime that you did

better the second reason for

incarcerating criminals is

deterrence the idea is that by being

punished for their crime they will be

deterred from repeating that behavior

once they're released but at the same

time their example um by them being

incarcerated that will serve as a

deterrent to others in the society that

if they engage in that behavior they'll

meet the same fate the deterrent factor

is important not only for the person who

is personally deterred but because it is

a statement to those who are

watching but the effectiveness of

deterrence is questionable

I think when the offenders are out in

society and they're making decisions of

committing crimes or not I don't know

that they look far enough ahead to see

that prisons are something in their

future I think that they make bad

decisions and then as an afterthought uh

prisons into their mind so I don't see

that they're a huge deterrent in initial

crimes it didn't have any Factor at all

in in uh me committing the crime I

committed never entered my mind and from

the general population know what I see

and here I don't think anybody pays any

attention to the time at all who has a

an imminent release date one most of the

time when I committed a crime I was

under the influence of alcohol or drugs

and I didn't think uh of the

consequences at all I just went ahead

and did it speaking for my own

self being on the street and never being

in prison at that time I would I don't

think that it would scared

me with our younger generation now

coming in who aren't afraid it becomes

more of a status symbol for them that I

have been to the big house and they go

back into their neighborhoods and

they're looked up to that they've been

to prison and that's the kind of culture

we're coming into now to where it's a

status symbol to go to prison and so

it's not deterring crime it in some ways

it perpetuates and enhances crime and

the criminal element within our

society

the third reason for incarceration is

Rehabilitation this is the idea that we

can take an offender take them out of

the environment in which they were

offending and with the proper care and

treatment we can change them into a

law-abiding citizen the penitentiary

comes from the term penitence the idea

was that you would put the person in

this Penitentiary and they would be

reformed they would have penitence

only since the 1950s has the concept of

Rehabilitation been considered a task of

the prison system by most accounts

little Rehabilitation is taking place we

don't know how to rehabilitate them all

the methods of Rehabilitation that we've

tried really don't don't work and so

that leaves us with the current

situation of where we are just geared

toward locking them up keeping them out

of society and essentially punishing

them for their crime you just can't

bring them in here and expect them

through osmosis to be rehabilitated you

have to look at their their level of

Education are they being educated in the

proper way are they learning a skill are

they learning to read right are they

learning to work within Society if you

take a car that's been wrecked and you

just stick it in the garage get it fixed

it's still

wrecked uh and that's that's mostly what

we are we're just stuck inside a

building and just nothing ever happens

it's really Insanity to think that just

because you lock a man up for 3 four

five years and he come out he's going to

get better when the environment he's in

is really a terrible environment and

where he can pick up bad habits worse

than what he was when he first came in

if he's not rehabilitating is to have

many experts agree that Rehabilitation

can work if prisoners commit themselves

to it in terms of Rehabilitation the

prison are only as effective as the

offenders themselves we offer substance

abuse programming we offer educational

opportunities vocational opportunities

but it always comes back to the

individual whether they're willing to

accept that knowledge or take that

knowledge and use it toward betterment

of themselves if they choose to do so

then it it's certainly effective for

them but if they choose not to then uh

again they're right back where they

started when they got here by us doing

that and complying with that and doing

it openly I do not believe that prison

rehabilitation individual I believe that

individuals rehabilitate themselves by

being active in the programs that the

the prison systems offer I've learned a

lot about myself and a lot about why I

use drugs and have taken the initiative

myself to uh to turn myself around

because of this stuff was available to

me if it hadn't been available to me I

don't think I would have ever got to the

root of the problem why I committed the

crimes I

did the the fourth reason for

incarcerating criminals is the reason

that is given the most support nowadays

and that's retribution and another way

of saying that is simply Revenge this is

to punish the offender for what they've

done wrong retribution is based in our

other kind of spiritual understandings

of Vengeance and the role of society and

exacting some

payment some experts argue that

retribution can continues even after an

individual has served his or her time

our society is not very forgiving of

people who have been incarcerated

theoretically once a person has done

their time they're supposed to be

reintegrated into society but in

practice our society gives

ex-convicts very few opportunities to

lead law-abiding lives they are going to

have a very hard time getting a job that

pays enough uh for them to support

themselves and their family if they have

one most employers have rules about

telling the truth about

your past in terms of your imprisonment

so if you lie and say you've not been a

prisoner you're in danger if you tell

the truth and say that you have been a

prisoner your chance of employment are

minimal it's this this extraordinary

interaction that makes the Exelon so

vulnerable to a life of continued

felonious Behavior many people simply

don't trust people who have been

convicted of a crime you come out and

you are still viewed as a criminal once

a criminal is always a criminal it's

hard for them to rent rent a house it's

hard for them to get a job it's hard for

them to uh to travel it's hard for them

to do things because of that stigma that

I'm an excon and so we don't welcome

them back into society as someone who

has paid their dues has paid for their

crime and is back out to try again we

don't give them a second

chance while Society has a number of

reasons for controlling deviant these

reasons as well as the effectiveness of

prison systems as a type of formal

social control remain

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controversial

many of the decisions regarding how much

jail time criminals serve are the result

of plea bargaining agreements and

mandatory sentencing laws the so-called

three strikes and your Outlaws require

mandatory sentences for repeat offenders

three strikes laws were enacted to try

to deter people from repeating serious

offenses the underlying philosophy is

that once an individual has committed

three usually felony offenses they are

given long mandatory sentences it is

your duty to follow the law there are

some judges and some juries which refuse

to convict on the third strike because

of the what they regard as the Draconian

implications of the third strike being

an imprisonment for let's say 25 or 30

years there was a case here in

California where someone stole uh candy

bar as his third strike and the courts

decided the jury and the judge decided

that they would not convict because if

they did convict they would be forced to

put the person in prison for an

additional 30 years you be 3 years of

formal probation also would be five

months in the county jail in contrast to

mandatory sentencing plea bargaining

allows criminals to shorten their prison

sentences further ple bargaining is the

process whereby the accused agrees to

guilty in exchange for lowering of the

charges a reduction of the charges

against him or her or um a more lenient

sentence so for inst like if you're

being charged with murder and it was

first-degree murder it was premeditated

murder you plead guilty to Second

deegree murder which would be murder

that just happen spontaneously out of an

argument you're hereby waving those

rights and you're giving up these rights

in order to enter your plea of guilty

plea bargaining reduces costs in the

criminal justice system because the

further one goes in the criminal justice

process the more expensive the process

becomes to the state and by entering

this plea today you would be giving up

that right probably the most serious

criticism against plea bargaining is

that it's subverts one of the central

principles of our justice system that is

plea bargaining places a lot of pressure

on a person to forgo their

constitutional right to a jury trial

just to get the charges reduced

or the sentence reded poor people in

particular are most vulnerable to this

problem because they can't afford

private attorneys they have to rely on

overworked and underpaid public

defenders and the research shows that

private attorneys are much more

successful in securing acquittals for

their clients than public defenders

are as long as our society wants to

control offenders while also trying to

lighten the load of an overworked

Judicial System mandatory sentencing and

plea bargaining will continue to help

determine how much jail time criminals

serve our behavior is influenced by

norms and all of us at some time or

another depart from these Norms Society

sees deviance whether it's in the form

of a tattoo or a felony crime as a

threat and uses informal and formal

means of controlling it police in the

United States Society tries to control

criminal deviant by focusing on

incarceration but the effectiveness of

lengthy prison sentences is frequently

debated in the end there is no absolute

definition of deviant for it is

society's reaction to an act not the act

itself that defines

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[Applause]

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deviant

[Music]

[Applause]

oh