CHAPTER 8
 Any
act that violates a social norm
 Criminal
Deviance: homicide,
robbery, & rape (involve violating
criminal law)
 Noncriminal
Deviance: homophobia,
using pornography, mental disorder, &
corporate crimes
EXAMPLES OF
VARIATIONS
 20%
of US adults suffer from problems
serious enough to need psychiatric help;
12% of adolescents suffer
Types of noncriminal deviance:
 Psychosis: loss of touch with reality
 Neurosis: persistent
fear, anxiety, or
worry about trivial matters
 Noncriminal
deviance: prejudice &
discrimination against gays & lesbians
(aka “heterosexism”)
 #1
excuse: says it’s wrong in the Bible &
those people are to be put to death
(Leviticus 20:13)
 #2 excuse: same-sex marriages “cannot
produce babies,” which is a “deviant” act
to them
Emile
Durkheim: “ deviance is an
integral part of all healthy societies”
He
came up with anomie = social
condition in which norms are absent,
weak, or in conflict (aka
“normlessness”)
 Robert
Merton agrees w/Durkheim
• anomie may occur when there’s an inconsistency
between goals & the socially approved ways of
achieving them
 Problem: too
much emphasis on success
of the goal & not enough means for
achieving it  creates a strain on people
(especially lower classes)
 Both
functionalists and conflict theorists
view deviance as a product of society
 Symbolic
Interactionists say it is learned
through interactions w/other people
• People learn how to perform & define these acts
• Ex: stealing if you’re hungry/poor = pro-deviant
definition;
wrong to steal = anti-deviant definition
 If
kids pick up on enough pro-deviant
definitions, then they will likely be
deviant
 This
is called differential association =
process of acquiring a deviant behavior
through interaction w/others
Looks
at societal reactions to rule
violation & impact of this reaction
Society
looks at a rule-breaking act
& labels it as deviant  can forever
label a person
 Before
being forever labeled, people go
through stages”
 1. primary
deviance = 1st time violations
(kids break windows, skip school, etc)
 2. leads
to possible secondary deviance =
if adults see these “pranks” as serious, they
label the kid…leads to continued violations
b/c it’s almost expected of them
 Almost
everyone deviates at a point in
their life from social norms  considered
deviant acts
 Therefore
control by others to limit
deviance & maintain order is known as
social control (people are pressured to
conform to social norms)
INFORMAL
 Relatives,
neighbors, peers,
strangers
 Enforce
control
through frowning,
gossip, ridicule,
etc.
FORMAL
 Police, judges, prison
guards, educational
institutions, welfare,
media, & medicine
 Controlled
through
our criminal justice
system