7.6 Conclusion
Let’s return to the original discussion of marijuana. This chapter has given us a new lens through which to understand marijuana. It is not only a question of whether it is legal and where it is legal, but also a question that must be informed by race and class. Given the vast racial disparities in the criminal justice system, it is important that policies related to marijuana legalization address the harm that the War on Drugs has done to black and Latino communities. At the same time, there are clear class issues at play too; when wealthy individuals open recreational dispensaries they are entrepreneurial, but when poor individuals sell marijuana on the underground market they are criminals.
There are a few ways that communities and governments have tried to address the equity issues we looked at related to marijuana. In some cities, such as San Francisco, the district attorney has automatically expunged all marijuana charges from individuals’ records now that marijuana is recreationally legal in California (Serna 2019). In other places, such as Los Angeles, community groups have offered free expungement clinics (My Prop 47 2011). At these clinics, free legal services are provided so that people who were previously charged with marijuana crimes can also expunge them from their records.
Other ways that governments have tried to address this is through marijuana equity programs. The goal of programs like these are to provide opportunities for marginalized groups to participate in the legal marijuana market. An example of this can be seen in the City of Los Angeles’ Social Equity program. Their mission is to “to promote equitable ownership and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry in order to decrease disparities in life outcomes for marginalized communities, and to address the disproportionate impacts of the War on Drugs in those communities” (City of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation 2022). This mission clearly takes into account the systemic inequalities in the criminal justice system that we discussed in this chapter.
All considered, questions of equity around marijuana (and the criminal justice system more broadly) are ones that don’t have easy solutions. But, if we use our sociological imagination, we can critically think about how policies impact communities in different ways. It was through communities, governments, and individuals identifying issues with marijuana legalization that these innovative approaches to equity were developed. There are likely many more challenges that will come to the criminal justice system in our lifetimes. With each new reform, we should continue to ask how we can make our society more equitable and address injustices of the past.
7.6.1 hReview of Learning Objectives
What do a gay rights activist of the 1960s, a student who screams out curse words in class, a man who gets into a fight at a bar, and a businessman who engages in financial fraud have in common? After reading this chapter, you know that they all are engaging in deviance. Often when people think of deviance, they think of crime, but deviance is a broader concept. This chapter has shown that deviance includes any violation of social norms, not just the breaking of formal laws. Because social norms change over time, whether an action is seen as deviant or not can also change.
In this chapter, we explored the concept of deviance and crime in greater detail, highlighting the ways that deviance is socially constructed and how society responds to different kinds of deviance and crime. Both of these concepts are socially constructed, varying across time periods and societies. By looking at the criminal justice system in the United States and abroad, you should begin to see the ways that groups have vastly different experiences within social institutions. Now that you have a better sense of the basics of sociology, we’ll dive deeper into learning about social inequality, highlighting how individuals have different life opportunities based on their class, gender, race, and sexuality. In the next chapter, we’ll begin by learning about social stratification and social class.
7.6.2 Key Terms
Crime: a behavior that violates official law and is punishable through formal sanctions
Criminal justice system: an organization that exists to enforce a legal code, which in the United States includes the police, courts, and corrections system
Cultural deviance theory: a theory that suggests conformity to the prevailing cultural norms of lower-class society causes crime
Deviance: a violation of contextual, cultural, or social norms
Differential association theory: a theory that states individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance
Labeling theory: the ascribing of a deviant behavior to another person by members of society
Mass Incarceration: the overwhelming size and scale of the U.S. prison population
The New Jim Crow: the network of laws and practices that disproportionately funnel black Americans into the criminal justice system, stripping them of their constitutional rights as a punishment for their offenses in the same way that Jim Crow laws did in previous eras
Power Elite Theory: theory that argues that deviance arises from the ability of those in power to define deviance in ways that maintain the status quo
Primary deviance: a violation of norms that does not result in any long-term effects on the individual’s self-image or interactions with others
Private prisons: for-profit incarceration facilities run by private companies who contract with local, state, and federal governments
Restorative Justice: a set of practices that bring together the person who committed the act, those who were harmed by the action, and other relevant community stakeholders to identify ways to heal the harm caused by an offense and prevent it from occurring again, rather than engaging in punitive punishment
Secondary deviance: deviance that occurs when a person’s self-concept and behavior begin to change after his or her actions are labeled as deviant by members of society
Social control: the regulation and enforcement of norms
Social disorganization theory: a theory that asserts crime occurs in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control
Southern strategy: a Republican party political strategy to get white voter support through explicitly or implicity coded racism against black Americans
Strain theory: a theory that addresses the relationship between having socially acceptable goals and having socially acceptable means to reach those goals
Unequal system theory: a theory that argues that the bourgeois centralized their power and influence through government, laws, and other authority agencies in order to maintain and expand their positions of power in society
White collar crime: a nonviolent crime of opportunity, often involving money
7.6.3 Discussion Questions
- Which theory of crime and deviance do you find to be most believable? What about it do you find particularly compelling?
- What are some of the barriers to addressing racism in the criminal justice system?
- How does institutional racism in the criminal justice system impact the lives of Americans and their families?
- Pretend that you have a meeting with your local representative to encourage them to make a positive change to the criminal justice system. What issues in the criminal justice system would you want them to address? What evidence would you use to persuade them that there are issues with our current system?
- If you could make one reform to the criminal justice system, what would it be? Do you think that there is anything useful that the United States could learn from other countries’ criminal justice systems?
7.6.4 Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
“Key Terms” modified and added to from “Ch.7 Key Terms” by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang in Openstax Sociology 3e, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/7-key-terms
All other content in this section is original content by Alexandra Olsen and licensed under CC BY 4.0.
7.6.5 Chapter Bibliography
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