Deviance
Deviance And
Social Control
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Deviance
Norms allow social order.
How we play our roles and how we interact
with others?
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Deviance
Why human groups need norms to exist,
develop a system of social control?
Formal and informal social control?
3
Deviance
Some of the sanctions human groups use
to enforce norms such as shaming,
degredation ceremonies…
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Deviance
Everyone breaks the rules from time to time.
Why people break(violate) norms?
Biologicalists:
Intelligence – Y choromosom – Body type
Psychologicolists
Personinality disorder – Suffocating mothers Bad
toilet training
Sociologicalists
Social influence–Socialization – Subcultural group
membership – education – Occupation - Income 5
Deviance
Disapproval of deviance:
Negative sanctions
Frawns
Gossip
Imprisonment
Capital punishment
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Deviance
Street crime
White-collar crime?
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Deviance
How can be deviance rates declined?
Is there any recidivist here?
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Deviance
Symbolic Interaction Perspective:
A) Association Theory: Family-Neighborhood
B) Control Theory: Inner and Outher systems
C) Labelling Theory: Some resist being labelling.
Denial of responsibility – I did not do it
Denial of injury: Who really got hurt
Denial of victims: She deserve it
Condemnation of condemner: Who you are
Appeal to a higher loyalty: I had to help my friend 9
Deviance
Fuctionalist Perspective:
Deviance clarifies moral boundaries
It promotes social unity
It promotes social change
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Deviance
Robert Merton - Strain Theory
What happens when people are socialized to desire
a cultural goal but are denied the institutionalized
(legitimate)
•Anomie
•Strain people
5 reactions:
Conformity Innovation Ritualism
Retreatism Rebellion
According to this theory deviants are the products of
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their society.
Deviance
Social clasess crime types?
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Is it Deviance?
• In the following 10 slides, determine if
what you see constitutes Deviance.
• You may base your decisions on behavior,
beliefs, or the condition of the person.
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
Deviance?
I’m single, I
have a career,
and I’m happy
with my life.
Deviance?
Deviance?
What is Deviance?
• Any behavior, belief, or condition that
violates significant social norms in the
society or group in which it occurs.
• Interestingly – one who is considered
“deviant” by one category of people may
be seen as “conformist” in another group
Who Defines Deviance?
• Common Sense Thinking
– Inherent in certain kinds of behavior or people
• Sociologists
– Formal property of social situations and
structures
Variations in Deviance
• Time to Time
–
–
• Place to Place
–
–
• Group to Group
–
–
• Degrees of Seriousness
–
–
What Do we want to Know
• How is deviance defined and who defines it
– Is it the person or the action?
• How is deviance distributed in society and how do
we know
• What causes deviance
• How is deviance controlled
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“Deviance is not a property inherent in
certain forms of behavior; it is a
property conferred upon these
forms by the audiences which
directly or indirectly witness them.
The critical variable in the study of
deviance, then, is the social audience
rather than the individual actor”.
- Kai T. Erikson (1964)
Informal and
Formal Social Control
• Informal social control: used casually to enforce
norms
• Formal social control: carried out by authorized
agents
• Interplay between formal and informal social
control can be complicated because we have to
balance one source of control against another
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Law and Society
• Some norms are so important to a society that they
are formalized into laws
• Law: governmental social control
• Control theory: our connection to other members of
society leads us to systematically conform to
society’s norms
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Defining Deviance
• Deviance is the violation of Norms, especially widely held
norms
• Crime is an action declared illegal by some government or
agency
– Usually, by a legislative body
– Sometimes by administrative actions
• Is all deviance criminal ?
– Pushing children into fashion shows, sports ?
– Subcultures and deviance
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Defining Deviance
• Not all crimes are deviant
–
–
–
–
–
PETA
Bullying
Speeding
Gambling
White Collar crime
• Non Criminal Deviance
– Music preferences
– Body piercing
– Marrying someone
• Your parents disapprove of
• Your parents want you to
– Being a Geek or a Nerd
• Where do “rolling Stops” and other trivial driving violations
go?
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Distribution of Deviance
• Crime Rates vs Crime Statistics
– Variance in Reporting Issues
• To Police
• To FBI
– By Type of Crime
• By nature of offender and victim
• Blaming the Victim
• Location
• Organized Crime
• White Collar Crime
• Non Criminal Deviance… What do we Know
– Not much
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Explanations of Deviance
• Historical non Social-scientific explanations
–
–
–
–
Patterns of Bumps on head
The Devil made me do it
Mental issues
Bad Seed
• Sociological Explanations
– Functionalist:
• Deviance provides an example of what must be avoided because it
is wrong
• Some deviance can lead to positive social change
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Controlling Deviance
• Is all deviance controlled?
– What choices does society have in controlling deviance?
• Internal
• External
• Who controls Deviance
– Under what circumstances some forms of deviance not controlled
– What is required to control deviant behavior?
• How about deviant thoughts?
– Presidential Candidate who admitted “Lusting in his thoughts”
• How does the nature of society impact the nature, extent and
control of deviance?
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Explanations of Deviance
• Anomie The norms are weak or are in conflict. This is the
basis for Strain theory
– Social structure limits the abilities of certain groups to satisfy culturally
dictated goals and aspirations and means to achieve them.
• Cultural goals which are acceptable in our society
– Wealth
– Power
– Status
– Material Goods
• Acceptable means to achieve them
– Education
– Jobs
– Some talents
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Explanations of Deviance
• Conflict or Strain between goals and means produce "anomie”
and possibly a high level of maladaptive behavior due to
cultural imbalance between goals and means.
• Social structure explains differences in upper and lower class
crime rates.
–
Distribution of legitimate opportunities to achieve wealth through
legitimate means.
• Since goals are not always achieved, means become valuable in
themselves.
– Often times, means are placed under severe stress.
– Little reward in means alone.
•
Strain falls on a wide variety of people:
– mostly concentrated in lower-classes.
– because of differential emphasis placed on ability to attain goals.
– Goals "open to all."
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• Anomie created by disjunction of goals and means causes
great discomfort. To overcome sense of anomie, different
modes of adaptation are used:
Source http://www.indiana.edu/~theory/Kip/Strain.htm#Strain
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Symbolic Interactionist Theories
• Social control or Social Bonding
– Doesn’t ask why people are deviant, but why they aren’t.
• http:\\faculty.ccc.edu\aberger\It's Not A Crime If I Can't be Caught
.pdf
– Strong Interpersonal ties often lead to strong commitment to the norms
• Cultural Transmission, Differential association and subcultures
– Who you associate with
– Learned behaviors
– Interaction with other groups with other norms
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White-Collar Crime
• White-collar crime: illegal acts committed in the
course of business activities, often by affluent,
“respectable” people
– Corporate crime: any act by a corporation that is
punishable by the government
– Computer crime: use of high technology to carry
out embezzlement or electronic fraud
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Victimless Crimes
• Victimless crime: willing exchange among
adults of widely desired, but illegal, goods and
services
– Supporters of decriminalization are
troubled by attempts to legislate moral code
for adults
– Critics object to notion that these crimes
are “victimless”
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Social Order, Deviance,
and Crime
• Durkheim’s Theory of Deviance
– Nothing inherently deviant or criminal in any act
– Society identifies criminals for the sake of social
order
– When societies experience anomie, social
integration is weak and people are free to pursue
deviant paths
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Social Order, Deviance,
and Crime
• Merton’s Theory of Deviance
– Anomie theory of deviance: five basic forms of
adaptation to cultural expectations
• Conformist
• Innovator
• Ritualist
• Retreatist
• Rebel
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Interpersonal Interaction
and Local Context
• Cultural transmission: individuals learn
criminal behavior by interacting with others
• Differential association: process through
which exposure to attitudes favorable to
criminal acts leads to the violation of rules
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Interpersonal Interaction
and Local Context
• Social disorganization theory: attributes increases in
crime and deviance to the absence or breakdown of
communal relationships and social institutions
• Labeling theory: attempts to explain why certain
people are viewed as deviants while others engaged in
the same behavior are not
– Also known as the societal-reaction approach
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Power and Inequality
• Criminal justice system serves the
interests of the powerful; protect their own
interests and define deviance to suit their
own needs
• Race and Class
– Suspects are treated differently based on their
race, ethnicity, and social class
– Differential justice: differences in the way
social control is exercised over different
groups
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Power and Inequality
• Gender
– Existing approaches to deviance developed
with only men in mind
– Society tends to treat women in stereotypical
fashion
– Cultural views and attitudes toward women
influence how they are perceived and labeled
– As women take on more active and powerful
roles both in the household and in business,
gender differences in deviance and crime have
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narrowed
The Criminal Justice System
• Based on Adversarial system, Conflict
• Only available for crimes, not for non criminal deviance
– Religious laws deal with some of the non criminal deviance
• Made up of
– Courts
– Police
– Corrections
• How else is deviance sanctioned?
– Hiring practices
– Public Opinion
– ?
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