Week 6 · Readings & resources

Week 6 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Sociology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 6 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 78–98 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–23 min total)

① What counts as breaking the rules? Deviance, crime, and control

Chapter 6, Section “Define deviance: the rules, the setting, and the law” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Deviance, crime, and social control” · Remember: deviance breaks a group's norm, crime breaks a law, and the same act can be judged differently in a different setting.

Deviance: Crash Course Sociology #18 — CrashCourse — what deviance is, why it is not the same as crime or as "bad," and how stares and penalties work as social control. This builds on Week 5's work on how a group pulls people toward conformity. Use it while working through the Week-6 module overview. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)

② Why do people break the rules? Durkheim, Merton, and power

Chapter 6, Section “Read the gap between goals and means: Merton's strain theory” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Functionalist and conflict accounts of deviance” · Remember: Durkheim described what deviance does for a group, Merton sorted responses to a gap between goals and means, and the conflict view asks who writes the rules.

Durkheim and the Functions of Crime — chris livesey — a short film on Durkheim's argument that crime is normal and that reacting to it marks a group's moral boundaries; notice that describing a function is not the same as approving of crime. (video, 9 min) (captions: automatic)
Merton's Strain Theory Explained — Social Theory on Film — a brief film that walks through cultural goals, approved means, and the five responses to the gap between them. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Merton's Strain Theory of Deviance — ReviseSociology — a sociology revision site's overview of the five responses and the main criticisms of the model; read the parts on the five adaptations and the criticisms. Stop here before the article's points about class and unequal opportunity; next week's stratification topic takes those up. (reading, 8–12 min)
Theory & Deviance: Crash Course Sociology #19 — CrashCourse — the three perspectives applied to deviance in turn, a good review once you have read the chapter's sections on Durkheim, Merton, and the conflict account. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)

③ How does a label stick? Labeling and secondary deviance

Chapter 6, Section “Follow the label: labeling, learning, and bonds” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Labeling, learning, and social bonds” · Remember: the first act comes before any label, and labeling theory explains what can follow once a label sticks.

Are You What They Say You Are? Labeling Theory Explained — Doodle Sociology — an animated explainer of Becker's labeling idea and Lemert's primary and secondary deviance, with school and everyday examples. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Labeling Theory — Simply Psychology — a long overview; read the opening definition and the sections on Becker's main argument in Outsiders and on how labeling encourages further deviance, and treat the rest as optional. Some of its summaries are broader than the chapter's definitions, so keep the chapter's wording for primary and secondary deviance. (reading, 10–15 min)

④ What does a crime number measure? Police records, surveys, and reporting

Chapter 6, Section “Read crime data carefully: rates, surveys, and the reporting effect” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Reading crime data” · Remember: police records count what reached the police, a victimization survey asks people directly, and neither one is the true number.

Episode 8: UCR v. NCVS — Crime Index — a short explainer comparing the police-reported program with the victimization survey and the crime that never reaches police records. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
The Nation's Two Crime Measures, 2015–2024 — Bureau of Justice Statistics — the federal statistics agency's own summary of how its victimization survey and the police-reported data differ and why both are kept; read the summary and highlights on the page. (reading, 6–10 min)
What the data says about crime in the U.S. — Pew Research Center — a research center's short guide to the two national crime sources; read the opening section on how much crime there is and the section on what percentage of crimes are reported to police. Its figures come from earlier years than this week's 2024 survey, so they will not match the chapter's numbers exactly. (reading, 8–12 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Criminal Victimization, 2024 — Bureau of Justice Statistics — the report page behind this week's 23.3 and 11.2 per 1,000 figures; read the summary and the highlights about victimizations reported to police, and skip the detailed tables unless you want more. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com