Deviance refers to violations of cultural norms and can take various forms such as crime. Societies attempt to regulate behavior through social control mechanisms like criminal justice systems. Deviance is influenced by both nature and nurture - biological and personality factors. However, what is defined as deviant varies by culture, and people are labeled deviant based on how others perceive and respond to their actions. Labeling theory holds that deviance results more from social reactions than actions themselves. Sociological theories of deviance like functionalism, strain theory, and labeling theory examine how deviance is socially constructed and tied to issues of power.
2. What is
Deviance?
• The recognized violation of
cultural norms
• Biased towards the positive
• Biased towards the negative
• “Different” or “unexpected”
are words often used to
describe deviance from a
sociological perspective
• Distinct areas
• Crime (laws)
• Violation of a society’s
formally enacted criminal
law
3. Social
Control
The attempts a society
makes at regulating
thought and behavior
Criminal justice system
• A formal response by police, courts
and prison officials to alleged
violations of the law
Biological context Nature
• Biological factors may have a real but
modest effect on whether a person
becomes a criminal
Personality factors Nurture
• Deviance is viewed as unsuccessful
“socialization”
4. Social
Foundations
of Deviance
Deviance varies
according to cultural
norms
No thought or
action is
inherently deviant
People become deviant
because others define
them as such
How others
perceive and label
us
Deviance involves
social power
Rule-makers, rule-
breakers, and rule-
enforcers
Norms and
applying them are
linked to social
position
5. Functionalism and Deviance:
Emile Durkheim
• Believed deviance performed certain functions in society:
• Affirms cultural values
• Clarifies moral boundaries
• Promotes social unity
• Encourages social change
6. Functionalism
and Deviance:
Robert Merton
• Strain theory
• The “strain” between our
culture’s emphasis on wealth
and the limited opportunity
to get rich gives rise,
especially among the poor,
to theft, the sale of drugs, or
other street crime.
• Questions whether or not
society provides the means
(education, opportunity) to
achieve cultural goals
(financial success)
7. Robert Merton
• Strain is the gap between what
“ought to be” and “what is”;
people generally react in one of
these ways:
• Conformity: Pursuing
conventional goals through
normal means (working hard
at a legitimate job)
• Innovation: Unconventional
means to achieve approved
goals (drug dealing)
• Ritualism: Accept institutional
means; Reject goals
• Retreatism: Rejects both the
goals and means (drops out
of society)
• Rebellion: Define new goals
and means to achieve goals
8. Symbolic-
Interaction
and
Labeling
Theory
Labeling theory is the idea that
deviance and conformity result, not
so much from what people do, but
from how others respond to what
they do.
Primary and secondary deviance
•Primary deviance refers to passing episodes
of norm violation
•Secondary deviance is when an individual
repeatedly violates a norm and begins to
take on a deviant identity (they begin to
internalize the label that has been applied
to them).
9. Labeling
Theory
A stigma is a powerfully
negative social label that
radically changes a person’s
self-concept and social
identity, operating as a
master status.
Stigmas are often attached in
formal rituals called status
degradation ceremonies (like
going to court).
Stigmas are deepened by
retrospective labeling, the
interpretation of someone’s
past consistent with present
deviance (like saying “Once a
criminal, always a criminal”).
10. Labeling
Difference
as
Deviance
• Thomas Szasz argues that “mentally ill” is
a label we attach to people who are only
different and concludes that we should
abandon the concept of mental illness
entirely
• The medicalization of deviance is the
transformation of moral and legal issues
into a medical condition.
• Whether deviance is defined morally or
medically has three profound
consequences
• It affects who responds to deviance
• It affects how people respond to
deviance
• It affects whether the deviant is
regarded as being personally
competent
11. Edwin Sutherland:
Differential
Association
• Deviant behavior is learned in
associations with deviant others
• Frequency of association with
deviant others is central to the
development of deviant behavior
• If friends are prone to norm
violation, the person is more
likely to take part in these
acts
• Conformity reaps rewards while
lack of it reaps punishment
12. Travis Hirschi:
Control Theory
• Social control depends on imagining
the consequences of one’s behavior
• Conformity arises from four types of
social controls:
• Attachment
• Commitment
• Involvement
• Belief
13. Conflict
Theory
and
Deviance
• Deviance and power
• Norms or laws reflect interests of
rich and powerful
• Powerful have resources to
resist deviant labels
• Belief that norms and laws are
natural and good masks political
character
