Deviance and Social Control
Read chapter 13 of Knuttila’s text, and pay particular note to Merton’s
anomie theory of deviance (see pp. 297-99, 307).
According to Merton deviance results from the malintegration of a society’s
success goals the institutionalized means for achieving those goals. This discrepancy
between goals and means creates a condition of anomie or normlessness, leading to
deviant behaviour. In other words, a structural flaw in the social system generates
deviant behaviour.
Individuals facing this discrepancy – i.e., embracing the success goals but
having very limited access to the means of achieving those goals – can engage in five
adaptive strategies, four of which are deviant. These are conformity (accept goals
and means – non-deviant adaptation); innovation (accept goals but innovate by
using deviant means – deviant adaptation); ritualism (gives up on the goals but
keeps carrying out the approved behaviours – deviant adaptation); retreatism
(rejects goals and means, drops out – deviant adaptation); rebellion (rejects goals
and means, but proposes alternative goals and means – deviant adaptation).
Also you should understand the term, “agent of social control” – defined as
“someone who occupies a role that has to do with the imposition of restraint on
individual and/or collective behaviour, and is charged with motivating others to
adhere to traditions and patterns of behaviour important to social stability and
continuity” – examples: cops, judges, social workers, teachers etc. Contrast this
concept with “agent of socialization” – see page 89 of Knuttila’s text.
You should also reflect on the role of violence in social order and efforts at
social change, which are sometimes labelled as deviant. Force used as a means of
social change by groups is rarely successful because powerful agents of social
control come into play. Indeed, force is a commonly employed mechanism of social
order, controlling and repressing individual and collective political/social/ economic
deviance. Individuals and groups suffering from oppression and inequality
frequently engage in forms and collective and individual deviance, including
violence, sometimes to act out individual anger and despair, sometimes to seek
illegal access to wealth, and sometimes to effect economic and political change.
They typically meet the legal violence of the state at the individual and/or collective
level.