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Тема 15: The Role of Culture
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Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted behaviour. It includes ideas, values, and customs of people. Members of a society learn this culture and transmit it from one generation to another.
The aspects of culture are called cultural universals. Cultural universals include language, norms, sports, cooking, dancing, family, folklore, games, law, medicine, names, religion, sexual restrictions and so on.
Every culture is of great interest. It is possible to study the culture through such aspects as language, norms, and values. We can understand how people think, behave and live. Besides, all these aspects help to regulate and organize the people.
Sociologists distinguish formal and informal norms of behaviour in any culture. Formal norms are written down and involve strict rules for punishment of violators. They are known as laws.
By contrast, informal norms are generally understood but not precisely recorded. An example of informal norm is standards of proper dress.
All cultures change and expand through discoveries, inventions and diffusions. A discovery involves making known the existence of an aspect of reality. An invention is a combination of existing cultural items. And diffusion is the process of spreading a cultural item from group to group or from society to society.
Words and word combinations
totality – общее количество
custom - традиция
informal norms – неформальные нормы
strict rules – строгие правила
punishment of violators – наказание нарушителей
law - закон
discovery - открытие
invention - изобретение
diffusion - распространение
Тема 16: Deviance and Crime
Deviance is behaviour that violates the standards of a group or society. Alcoholics, gamblers, persons with mental illnesses are the typical representatives of deviants. Each of us violates common social norms in certain situations.
Deviance is an action, which is not a subject to prosecution. Standards of deviance vary from one group, society, and culture to another. In our society it is generally acceptable to sing along at a rock or folk concert, but not at the opera.
The highest form of deviation is crime, which is a violation of criminal laws. Sociologists distinguish five types of crime.
Index crime is the most common case such as murder, rape, robbery, theft and so on.
Professional crime involves people who make a career of illegal activities. The examples are burglary, safecracking, pick pocketing and shoplifting.
Organized crime refers to the work of a group that regulates relations between various criminal enterprises.
White-collar crime includes crimes, which are committed by “respectable” people. For example, these are income tax evasion, stock manipulation, bribery and so on.
Victimless crime includes gambling, prostitution, public drunkenness and drug taking.
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Words and word combinations
deviance - правонарушение
gambler – азартный игрок
mental illnesses – душевные заболевания
typical representative – типичный представитель
prosecution – уголовное наказание
criminal laws – уголовные законы
index crime – бытовое преступление
murder - убийство
rape - изнасилование
robbery - грабеж
theft - кража
professional crime – профессиональное преступление
burglary – кража со взломом
safecracking – взлом сейфа
pick pocketing – карманная кража
shoplifting – налет на магазин, кража
organized crime – организованное преступление
criminal enterprise – криминальная группировка
white-collar crime – преступление чиновника
income tax evasion – укрытие доходов от налогов
stock manipulation – биржевая манипуляция
bribery - взяточничество
victimless crime – преступление без жертвы
gambling - шулерство
prostitution - проституция
public drunkenness – пьянство в общественных местах
drug taking – употребление наркотиков
Тема 17: Juvenile Delinquency
Since ancient times the legal system have distinguished between juvenile and adult delinquents. The first institution for juveniles, the House of Refuge, was founded in New York City in 1824.
Nowadays the public appears much more aware of juvenile crime than in the past. Common offences include vandalism, shoplifting, underage drinking, and using marijuana.
Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children commit crime because they were not sufficiently panelized for previous offences. Theories focusing on the role of society suggest that children become delinquents in response to their low socioeconomic status. The major factors that have influence on the rate of juvenile crime are the lack of adequate parental control, fewer job opportunities for the youth, frustration or failure in school, the increased availability of drugs and alcohol.
The juvenile justice system tries to treat and rehabilitate youngsters who become involved in delinquency. It can be community treatment, residential treatment, nonresidential treatment, and institutionalization. Community treatment involves placing the child on probation under the supervision of an officer of the juvenile court. Residential treatment takes place in a group home with psychological and vocational counseling. Nonresidential community treatment allows the child to live at home and receive treatment from mental health clinics. Institutionalization is the most severe form of treatment because the child is denied freedom to come and go in the community.
Words and word combinations
juvenile - детский
dult - взрослый
delinquent - правонарушитель
commit crime – совершить преступление
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offence - проступок
parental control – родительский контроль
community treatment – общественное лечение
residential treatment – стационарное лечение
nonresidential treatment – амбулаторное лечение
institutionalization – институализация
Тема 18: Values
Several definitions of the term “value” are useful for developing an understanding of the term. Values are formulations of preferred behavior held by individuals or social groups. Value is a standard or standards held by a society reflected in patterns of institutionalized behavior, and predisposing the participants to act in relation to one another within the framework of commonly understood although not consciously controlled or logically consistent referential system.
The literature of value clarification sees values as: 1) guides to behavior, 2) growing out of personal experiences, 3) modified as experiences accumulate, and 4) evolving in nature. This literature provides additional understanding about the nature of values by noting that the conditions in which values operate often have conflicting demands; that is, several values are functioning in the same situation, and each calls for conflicting modes of functioning or end states.
There are several types of values. Ultimate values are the most abstract and tend to be those most easily agreed upon by large groups of people. They include such values as liberty, worth and dignity of people, progress, and justice.
Proximate values are more specific as to the desired end state. The right to an abortion on demand, freedom to determine how one will do the assignments in a course, and the right to punish one's child in a specific manner are examples of proximate values.
Instrumental values are those values that specify the desired means to the ends; they are modes of conduct. Self-determination and confidentiality are examples of instrumental values. They are means for regarding the worth and dignity of individuals.
Social work practice is based on a set of values that is often expressed in such principles as the worth and dignity of the individual, the right to self-determination, and the right to confidentiality.
Тема 19: Skill
Skill is the practice component that brings knowledge and values together and converts them to action as a response to concern and need. A sociological definition of skill is also useful in understanding the meaning of the term: a complex organization of behavior (physical or verbal) developed through learning and directed toward a particular goal or centered on a particular activity.
Skill is the social worker's capacity to set in motion-in a relationship with the client (individual, group, community)-guided psychosocial intervention processes of change based on social work values and knowledge in a specific situation relevant to the client.
Social work does not have one skill but a wide variety of skills useful for many different situations.
Several attempts have been made to organized the skills component of practice into four areas: 1) information gathering and assessment; 2) the development and use of the professional self; 3) practice activities with individuals, groups, and communities; and 4) evaluations. They listed the needed skill cluster in each of these areas.
The "Curriculum Policy Statement" of the Council on Social Work Education provides the official statement of the skill level expected of baccalaureate and masters-level social work graduates. This is a complex document, but two types of skills are called for (although it is impossible to completely separate them): cognitive skills and interactive or relationship skills. Cognitive skills are those used in thinking about persons in situations, in developing understanding about the person and the situation, in identifying the knowledge to be used, in planning for intervention, and in performing evaluation. Interactive skills are those used in working jointly with individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities; in communicating and developing understanding; in joint planning; and in carrying out the plans of action. A social worker must be proficient in both types of skills.
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