Deviance- What is it?
Two Types of Deviance: any behavior
that violates cultural norms
Social (informal)
• Unwritten norms/rules
are broken
Criminal (formal)
Enacted laws are broken
Conformity
• Behavior that matches group expectations
e.g. Come to work or school on time
Use a fork to eat peas
Don’t steal other people’s things
Deviance
• Deviance is the violation of social norms
• A behavior that departs from societal or group
norms
• It can range from criminal behavior to wearing
heavy make-up
• It is difficult to define because not everyone
agrees what should be considered deviant
behavior
Deviance
• Some examples are clear cut—murder,
robbery
• Others acts vary from group to group and/or
change over time
e.g. Tattoos & body piercing are now common
but 25 years ago it would have been deviant
to have a tattoo or for a man to have pierced
ears
Deviance
• A deviant is someone who has violated one or
more of society’s highly valued norms
• Reactions to deviants are usually negative &
involve attempts to change or control the
deviant behavior
Deviance
• Who decides who and what behavior is
deviant? How?
• Is deviance determined by the act or the
individual?
Social Control
• Society uses Social Control to promote
conformity to norms
• Without Social Control, social life would be
unpredictable and chaotic
• Social Control can be internal or external
Social Control
• Internal
People have learned the social
norms and believe that an
action is wrong (socialization)
e.g. Most people do not steal
because they believe it is
wrong not because they fear
arrest
• External
Some people are not successfully
socialized and require external
sanctions to encourage
appropriate behavior
e.g. Criticism, fines, and
imprisonment, low grades,
awards,
High School Deviance
Project-25 pts
Using SHS as your laboratory- you are going to identify and analyze how and why Formal
And Informal deviant behavior occurs at your place of education.
Directions:
Part A- Go to the computer lab and create a powerpoint which lists 5 types of formal
and informal deviant behaviors which you believe occurs at SHS. One Slide per. We will
discuss these in class prior to going to the computer lab.
- Go online to lifestyle pages and cut and paste at least one large visual depicting
the behavior. It can be or random person, still scenes from tv and movies, etc.
- For each slide , briefly discuss how prevalent this form of deviant behavior
probably is at SHS
Part B- Come to class next week to listen to Mr. McDonald discuss crime statistic rates
at SHS.
Part C- You will carry out a 3 day long observational study in which you identify/
quantify any/all INFORMAL deviant behavior which you actually SEE or can actually
varify.