SOCIETIES CREATE
DEVIANCE….How?
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Deviant Act
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Society creates deviance in a few ways:
• societal arrangements create conditions for deviant acts
• Societies create rules and sanctions for rule violation
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Self-Concept/labeling
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Formed in relation to other people because we identify with
institutions in society and significant others
Internalize subtle cues and overt cues
Power to deflect a deviant label is unequally distributed
Differential Social Power
 Power
to apply or deflect a deviant label is
not equally available
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Saints and roughnecks article
Police & the black male article
Homicide victims by race:
49% are white
49% are African American
2% other
Perspectives
 FUNCTIONALISM
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Socialization is the primary mechanism for
integrating people into society
Much socialization is successful; sometimes it
does not work properly, which leads to
deviance
Deviance is result of role and value conflicts,
societal dysfunction
• We need conformity for society to function
• We need social control to function
Conflict Perspective
 Harm
is the injustice done to large groups
of marginalized people
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Socialization & laws support the interests of
the dominant order or class
Socialization can be coercive or subtle (mass
media)
Socialization is a way to ensure that the
unequal divisions in society remain
Symbolic Interactionist

Socialization is how we get our self-concepts
 We learn who we are through our interactions
with others
 We learn to be deviant or learn our deviant
identities from others
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Much deviant behavior is learned in a social process
(learning theory)
Deviant labels effect our self-concepts (labeling
theory)
LABELING THEORY
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Howard Becker and Edwin Lemert (1960s)
Combines Conflict and Symbolic Interaction
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How so?
Deviance is not something in the act itself but in the labeling of
the act and the actor
• Labels involve social power
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Deviance is dependent upon audience interpretation
Most deviance undetected (so does that deviance even exist?)
Deviant labels have consequences for individual self-identity
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Labeling Theory says:
 Everyone deviates
• So “why” is not important question
 The categories of deviant/non-deviant are
socially constructed (i.e. made up by people,
not intrinsically real)
 Labeling
theory argues that a negative
label will enhance one’s deviance by
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Exacting consequences that affect life
chances
Changing self-concept in such a way as to
make deviant status one’s “master status”
• Primary deviance
• Secondary deviance

Labeling creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
Assumptions of Labeling Theory
 Variety
of causes or influences lead to
initial (primary) deviance
 Official label after detection
 Labeling changes self-concept/identity
 Continued involvement in deviance

Amplification of deviance (secondary
deviance)
Becker’s Typology
NOT
LABELED
RULE
ABIDING
LABELED
Conforming Falsely
Citizen
Accused
RULE
Secret
BREAKING Deviant
“Pure”
Deviant
Evidence?
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What does labeling theory explain?
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Those formally processed
What does it not explain?
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Lots!
Deviant careers can develop without labeling
• embezzlement, secret sexual lives, white collar crime
• Applies mostly to lower income crimes
• Tertiary deviance= social movement formation, political
activism, resistance
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Evidence re: juveniles
Question…
Which do you think is true? If there are two kids who get
picked up by police for knocking over a mailbox. Kid A
gets released to his parents; Kid B gets processed in
juvenile court.
1.Kid A is more likely to become an adult
criminal
2. Kid B is more likely to become an adult
criminal
Learning theory
 Differential Association

Theory
Deviance is learned
• Face to face interaction with others
• “excess of definitions favorable to committing
crimes”
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Opposes biological models
• Opposes idea that deviance caused by mental
illness