The United States held 1,860,520 inmates in 1999. That was an increase of 58,333 from 1998 meaning an increase of 1,122 inmates a week. Locking up adult men against their will, in circumstances which take them away from normal personal and sexual relationships and home, family, and community responsibilities, and throw them together with a…
Sex and Gender Roles Sex – a determination of male or female on the basis of a set of socially agreed-upon biological criteria Gender – social distinctions between masculinity and femininity The Biological Female and Male? Problematizing the sex/gender distinction, and the category of sex itself, is the assertion that our bodies are absolutely separate…
What is Culture? Culture is generally regarded as a complex collection of values, beliefs, behaviours, and material objects shared by a group and passed on from one generation to the next There is nothing good or bad about culture – it just is what it is Origins of Culture and Its Defining Features No one…
Theories in sociology are abstract, general ideas that help organize and make sense of the social world Epistemology Philosophical Roots of Classical Sociological Theory Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Suggested that people are responsible for creating the social world around them, and thus society could be changed through conscious reflection Was one of the first theorists to…