Deviance and Social Control
What is Deviance?
• To move away or stray from a set of standards in
society
• Refers to a violation of norms
• According to Howards S. Becker, it isn’t the act
itself, but how society reacts to it, that makes an
action deviant
▫ Different groups have different norms
 What is deviant to some is not to others
What is Crime?
• Crime is a violation of rules that have been
written into law
• Punishments of crime are more serious that
punishments of deviance
Crime v. Deviance
• Deviance is a more general category than crime
• Crime is a smaller part of deviance
• All crime is deviance, but not all deviance is
crime
A criminal and deviant act
• Breaking both social and legal rules
▫ Murder, rape, theft, etc.
• May be more complex than that however,
▫ What happens if a killing occurs in wartime?
 The “killer” who in other contexts would be
condemned as a murderer, might be applauded and
called a “hero”
A deviant but non-criminal act
• Breaking social, but not legal rules
• Include acts that are seen as deviant when they
occur in a certain context
▫ Male manager, wearing a dress in a office,
someone talking loudly in the middle of a movie
Picture this…
• A man living in a dark room with the curtains
permanently drawn, spending his final years
lying naked in an armchair watching old movies
on TV. He has few personal contacts and he has
an intense fear of germs- to the extreme that he
places tissue paper on the floor to step on as he
walks.
• Is this Deviance??
This Man is….
• Howard Hughes who was a multimillionaire film
producer and aviator
Or
• Onthis….
August 2, 1943 Lt. John F. Kennedy’s PT-109
was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy
helped his crew members to safety and received
the Navy and Marine Corp Medal. He ran for
public office as a “war hero”
• Many critics however say that the whole reason
why they were attacked in the first place was bc
JFK had been inattentive as a commander. He
was literally asleep at the wheel and didn’t see the
destroyer
How do we now see JFK?
• A hero, or a deviant who was responsible for the
only PT boat to ever be rammed and the loss of 2
lives?
• These 2 cases show the complexity of how w
arrive at definitions of heroism and deviance
Criminal acts but not deviant?
• Is this possible??
• Think about these cases:
▫ Going 5 miles over the speed limit– a crime but
“everyone does it”
Not all deviance is negative
• It is possible for someone to deviate in a positive
action
▫ Standing up for injustices
▫ Contributing outstanding and original sciences
Social Construction of Deviance
• Norms are the product of social construction
• Behavior can be normal or abnormal depending
on the situation the social actor is in
• Norms can vary across time and space
▫ Vary within a society historically and between
societies
▫ Can you think of an example??
Sociological explanation of deviance
• Explains deviance by looking outside the
individual
• Social Influences
▫ Socialization
▫ Subculture group membership
▫ Social class
 Education
 Occupation
 Income and wealth