![]() ![]() However, at the same time that Fallon was conducting research on psychopaths, he was studying the brain scans of Alzheimer’s patients. The popular rhyme of the time went, “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks.When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. Lizzie Borden was tried but not convicted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. An individual’s genes determine whether they are psychopathic or not (Fallon, 2013). Fallon’s premise was that psychopathy is genetically determined. In turn, this lack of brain activity has been linked with specific genetic markers suggesting that psychopathy or sociopathy was passed down genetically. He found that areas of the frontal and temporal lobes associated with empathy, morality, and self-control are “shut off” in serial killers. His research involved analyzing brain scans of serial killers. 1947), a neuroscientist at the University of California. In a much more sophisticated way, this was also the premise of James Fallon (b. This is a tradition that goes back to 19th century positivist approaches to deviance, which attempted to find a biological cause for criminality and other types of deviant behaviour.Ĭesare Lombroso (1835–1909), an Italian professor of legal psychiatry, was a key figure in positivist criminology who thought he had isolated specific physiological characteristics of “degeneracy” that could distinguish “born criminals” from normal individuals (Rimke, 2011). Contemporary approaches to psychopathy and sociopathy have focused on biological and genetic causes. In this sense, the sociopath is a very modern sort of deviant. ![]() In many ways the sociopath is a cypher for many of the anxieties we have about the loss of community and living among people we do not know. The sociopath is like the nice neighbour next door who one day “goes off” or is revealed to have had a sinister second life. In a modern society characterized by the predominance of secondary rather than primary relationships, the sociopath or psychopath functions, in popular culture at least, as a prime index of contemporary social unease. It entails an incapacity for companionship ( socius), yet many accounts of sociopaths describe them as being charming, attractively confident, and outgoing (Hare, 1999). In this sense sociopathy would be the sociological disease par excellence. The term psychopathy is often used to emphasize that the source of the disorder is internal, based on psychological, biological, or genetic factors, whereas sociopathy is used to emphasize predominant social factors in the disorder: The social or familial sources of its development and the inability to be social or abide by societal rules (Hare, 1999). Psychopaths and sociopaths are often able to manage their condition and pass as “normal” citizens, although their capacity for manipulation and cruelty can have devastating consequences for people around them. In clinical analysis, these analytical categories should be distinguished from psychosis, which is a condition involving a debilitating break with reality. Psychopathy and sociopathy both refer to personality disorders that involve anti-social behaviour, diminished empathy, and lack of inhibitions. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs to Dexter Morgan in Dexter, the figure of the dangerous individual who lives among us provides a fascinating fictional figure. From Patrick Bateman in American Psycho to Dr. Psychopaths and sociopaths are some of the favourite “deviants” in contemporary popular culture. Introduction to Deviance, Crime, and Social Control Examine the overrepresentation of different minorities in the corrections system in Canada.Differentiate the different sources of crime statistics, and examine the falling rate of crime in Canada.Identify and differentiate between different types of crimes.Describe the symbolic interactionist approach to deviance, including differential association theory and labelling theory.Explain feminist theory’s unique contributions to the critical perspective on crime and deviance.Define how critical sociology understands the relationship between deviance, crime, and class inequality.Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society including social disorganization theory, control theory, and strain theory.Understand social control as forms of government including penal social control, discipline, and risk management.ħ.2.Differentiate between different methods of social control.Determine why certain behaviours are defined as deviant while others are not.Define deviance and categorize different types of deviant behaviour. ![]()
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