Unit 2 of Sociology (syllabus: Module II — deviance and conformity; theories of deviance; crime and its kinds; and the agencies and forms of social control). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.
What this unit covers
- What is deviance, and why does the same act count as deviance in one place and not in another?
- What are the two ways of studying deviance, and what is wrong with treating deviance as objectively given?
- What is Merton's typology of deviance, and why is the innovator not a rebel?
- What factors facilitate deviance, and how many of them are failures of the legal system itself?
- What is white-collar crime, and does Sutherland's definition fit the Indian caseload?
- What are the theories of deviance, and what remedy does each one contain?
- What does labelling theory say, and what does it prescribe?
- What is social control, and when is informal control stronger than formal control?
Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.