Part I
 Deviance is the violation of norms
 Anything that falls outside of what is
considered “normal”
 Everyday norms based on custom,
tradition, etiquette
 Examples: fashion norms, table manners,
physical eye contact
 Violations are generally not seen as
serious but may cause one to be viewed as
odd or even avoided
 Moral norms based on social values
 Examples: interracial marriage, drug
addition, extramarital relation
 Violations seen as more of a threat to social
order, and the offender is seen as “bad” and
perhaps harmful to society and its
institutions
 Strongest norms since supported by formal
code of sanctions
 Examples: murder, assault, rape, child
pornography
 Violations may lead to imprisonment or
even death
 Smith & Pollack (1976) reformulate Sumner:
crime, sin and poor taste:
 Crime violates laws, sins are acts that
contravene religious values;
 Poor taste involves violations of informal
folkways
 First, some acts overlap such as crimes of
violence that are both deviant and illegal
 Second, much deviance such as obesity or
unwed pregnancy are non-criminal
 Third, certain criminal violations, such as
Martha Stewart’s case, or acts of civil
disobedience, do not bring moral censure.
 Conclusion: crime and deviance overlap with
independent dimensions
 Being branded deviant for alternative
attitudes or beliefs
 Examples: religious cult members,
Satanists or political extremists such as
terrorists.
 Mental illness also falls into this category.
 Overt acts that are regarded as deviant
 Examples: violating dress or speech
conventions, kinky sexual behavior, using
drugs, or violent acts
 Achieved deviant status: people cast into
deviant label for overt act
 Seen as deviant for condition or quality
that may be achieved or ascribed deviant
status:
 Based on condition from birth about which
the person can do nothing
 Examples: deviant socioeconomic status,
the extremely poor or the very rich or
having a congenital physical disability
 May also be achieved:
 Disfiguring oneself or getting full body
tattoo
 During middle ages when religious paradigm
prevailed, deviance viewed as religious
disorder and sin attributed to satanic
influence
 Exorcisms performed in order to exorcise
demons from individual
 Medicalization of deviance used to explain
drug use, sexual misbehavior,
homosexuality, etc:
 Use of medical treatment for responding to
deviance
 Certain behaviors seen as intentionally
selected lifestyle choices or forms of
recreation such as homosexuality, gambling,
obesity
 What are the differences between folkways
and mores? What distinguishes one from the
other?
 Discuss the ABCs of deviance in the context
of obesity and homosexuality.
Part 1
Chapter 1
Part 1: Ch. 1
 Every community occupies a specific space
in the world geographically and culturally,
which marks it as a special place, a reference
point for its members
 A community maintains boundaries in the
sense that its members tend to confine and
limit themselves to a certain range of
conduct and behavior
Part 1: Ch. 1
 Human communities maintain boundaries
for the following reasons, to:
 retain a given pattern of consistent activity
and behavior;
 make possible a degree of stability;
 retain cultural integrity
Part 1: Ch. 1
 How do people learn about boundaries?
How do they convey them to the next
generation?
 The only “material” for marking boundaries
is members’ behavior:
 The networks of social interaction and
relationships between members
 Several rituals or behaviors may mark
boundaries such as wars, religious or public
ceremonies
Part 1: Ch. 1
 But the most critical for publicizing
boundaries are those which take place
between deviant persons and official agents
of the community, including:
 Criminal trials & punishment (executions)
 Excommunication hearings
 Courts-martial
 Psychiatric determinations of sanity
Part 1: Ch. 1
Part 1: Ch. 1
 Over time there are changes in group
structure and leadership
 Changes in the surrounding environment
 The new generation may challenge the old
guard
Part 1: Ch. 1
 Every public censure of a deviant act provides
the community with opportunity to restate the
group’s boundaries
 Given the utility of deviance for marking and
reaffirming boundaries, does it make sense to
assume that communities are organized to
promote deviance?
 Consider that many of the institutions designed
to discourage deviant behavior actually
operate to perpetuate it:
 For example, prisons with high recidivism rates
Part 1: Ch. 1
 Commitment ceremonies such as trials are
rites of passage for the offender which make
it difficult for that person to avoid future
deviance
 Involve formal stage of confrontation between
society and the deviant
 Represent an announcement about the nature
and limits of deviance
 Represent a more or less permanent change in
a person’s status as deviant such as an exconvict who is not trustworthy
 This sets up a circularity, a “self-fulfilling
prophecy” (Merton)
Part 1: Ch. 1
 How does society’s expectations of deviants
lead to the “self-fulfilling prophecy”?
 What are some valuable functions of
deviants?
Part 1: Ch. 1