DEVIANCE
DEVIANCE: WHAT IS…?
All deviant actions or attitudes have in common some element of
difference that causes us to think of another person as an “outsider”
SOCIAL CONTROL: WHAT IS…?
EXPLANATIONS FOR DEVIANCE
EXPLANATIONS FOR DEVIANCE:
BIOLOGICAL CONTEXT
SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEVIANCE
All behavior – deviance as well as conformity – is shaped by
society.
Deviance varies
according to cultural
norms.
People become deviant
as others define them
that way.
•No thought or action
is inherently deviant.
•How others perceive
and label us.
Both rule making and
rule breaking involve
social power.
•Norms and applying
them are linked to
social position.
THE FUNCTIONS OF DEVIANCE:
STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL THEORIES
Emile
Durkheim's
basic insight
• Deviance is a necessary
element of social
organization
• The functions of deviance:
• Deviance affirms cultural
values and norms.
• Responding to deviance
clarifies moral boundaries.
• Responding to deviance
promotes social unity.
• Deviance encourages social
change.
Deviance may be found in every society,
but the kind of deviance people generate
depends on the moral issues they seek to
clarify.
MERTON'S STRAIN THEORY
Merton
• Extent and type of
deviance depend on
whether a society
provides the means
to achieve cultural
goals.
• Conformity lies in
pursuing cultural
goals through
approved means.
IMAGE BANK
DEVIANT SUBCULTURES
Cloward
and Ohlin
Cohen
• Extended Merton's
theory
• Deviance or conformity
depends on the relativeopportunity structure
that frames a person’s
life
• Delinquency is most common
among lower-class youths
because they have the least
opportunity for conventional
success.
DEVIANT SUBCULTURES
Miller
Anderson
• Delinquent subcultures
• Trouble, toughness,
smartness, need for
excitement, belief in fate,
desire for freedom
• In poor urban neighborhoods,
most people conform to
conventional values.
LABELING DEVIANCE: SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION
ANALYSIS
Labeling
theory
• Main contribution
of symbolicinteraction analysis
is labeling theory.
• Deviance and
conformity result
not from what
people do but how
others respond to
those actions.
LABELING THEORY…WHAT IS…?
LABELING DEVIANCE:
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION ANALYSIS
 Stigma

A powerful negative label that greatly
changes a person’s self-concept and
social identity
Operates as a master status
Person is discredited in the minds of others and becomes
socially isolated
 Stigmas are often attached in formal rituals called
degradation ceremonies

LABELING DEVIANCE: WHAT IS…?
LABELING DEVIANCE:
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION ANALYSIS
 LABELING DIFFERENCE AS DEVIANCE
Treating behavior that is irritating or threatening not
as “difference” but as deviance or mental illness
 Important to think carefully about defining
“difference”

Mentally ill are not to be blamed for their problem
 Avoid applying such labels just to make people conform to
our own standards of behavior
 Enforces conformity to the standards of those powerful
enough to impose their will on others

LABELING DEVIANCE
Medicalization of
deviance
Transform
moral
Transforms
moral
andand
legal
legal
deviance
into
a
deviance into a medical
condition
medical
condition
It affects
how people
respond
How people
respond
and who responds.
It affectscompetence
whether the of
Personal
deviant
is regarded
as being
the deviant
person
personally competent.
SUTHERLAND'S DIFFERENTIAL
ASSOCIATION
• Deviant behavior is learned.
• Frequency of association /
amount of contact is central
to the development of
deviance or conformity.
Sutherland
• If associates are prone to
violation of norms, one is
also more likely to take part.
• Conformity reaps rewards
while the lack of it reaps
punishment.
HIRSCHI'S CONTROL THEORY
Hirschi
• Social control depends on people
anticipating /imagining the
consequences of their behavior
SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION THEORIES
DEVIANCE AND INEQUALITY:
SOCIAL-CONFLICT ANALYSIS
 Links deviance to social inequality
 Who or what is labeled deviant depends on which
categories of people hold power in a society
 People labeled as deviant are typically those who
share the trait of powerlessness
 The norms of any society generally reflect the
interests of the rich and powerful.
 The powerful have the resources to resist deviant
labeling.
 The laws may be inherently unfair.
DEVIANCE AND CAPITALISM
• Deviant labels are
applied to the people
who interfere with
capitalism
Steven
Spitzer’s likely
targets of
labeling:
• Capitalist system tries
to control those who do
not fit into the system
• People who resist
authority
• Anyone who directly
challenges the status
quo
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME
 Crime committed by people of high social
position in the course of their occupations

White-collar criminals use their powerful offices to
illegally enrich themselves or others
 Cause considerable harm

White-collar offenses typically end up in a civil hearing
rather than criminal courtroom
 Corporate crime

The illegal actions of a corporation or people on its
behalf
 Organized Crime

A business supplying illegal goods or services
CRIME
Hate Crime : A criminal
act against a person or a
person’s property by an
offender motivated by
racial or other bias
Crime : The violation of
criminal laws enacted
by a locality, state, or
the federal government
Two elements
• The act itself
• Criminal intent
Race-Conflict Theory
TYPES OF CRIME
Crimes against
the person
• Violent crimes
• Direct violence or
threat of it against
others
Crimes against
property
• Property crimes
• Involves theft of
property
belonging to
others
Victimless crimes
(crimes without
complaint)
• Violations of law
in which there are
no obvious victims
• Illegal drug use,
prostitution,
gambling
THE RISK OF VIOLENT CRIME ACROSS THE
UNITED STATES
CRIMINAL STATISTICS
CRIMINAL STATISTICS
 Include only crimes known to the police
 Researchers check crime statistics
Victimization surveys
 Demonstrates that the overall crime rate is more
than twice as high than official reports indicate

 Criminal statistics show crime rising from 1960
to 1990 and then declining after that. Police
count more than 9 million serious crimes each
year. Victimization surveys may provide more
accurate data.
THE STREET CRIMINAL: A PROFILE
 categories of people are most likely to be arrested for
violent and property crimes
 Gender
Men are arrested almost twice as often as women for
property crimes
 Even greater difference for violent crimes
 Age
 Criminal activity rises sharply during adolescence,
peaks in late teens, falls with age

: Both race and ethnicity are strongly
 Race and ethnicity
correlated to crime rates
THE POWER OF SOCIETY
Does everyone—
regardless of race—
run the same risk of
being sent to prison if
they engage in illegal
drug use?
THE STREET CRIMINAL: A PROFILE
 Social Class
 Street crime is more widespread among people of
lower social position. Violent crime is more likely
committed in poor neighborhood
 Most violent crimes in inner-city communities are
committed by a few hard-core offenders
 Majority of people in inner-city neighborhoods have no
criminal record
 White-collar and corporate crime committed by
more affluent
CRIME IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
 Crime in Global Perspective
 By world standards, the U.S. crime rate is high.
Crime arises from culture’s emphasis on individual
economic success
 Extensive private ownership of guns

 Drug trade
Demand issue of the drug trade in the U.S.
 Supply side in South America

 Different countries have different
strategies for dealing with crime.

Death penalty
Due Process
The U.S. Criminal Justice
System
The criminal justice system is a
society’s formal response to
crime.
The criminal justice system
must operate within the law.
Offers protection to any person
charged with a crime.
Due process limits the
government’s power .
Eye towards nation’s cultural
support of individual rights and
freedoms.
Police
Serve as point-of-contact
between people and the
criminal justice system.
Courts
After arrest, a court determines
the guilt or innocence of the
accused. In practice, about 97
percent of criminal cases are
resolved through plea
bargaining, a legal
negotiation in which the
prosecutor reduces a
defendant’s charge in exchange
for a guilty plea.
PUNISHMENT: FOUR BASIC REASONS TO
PUNISH
Retribution
The act of moral vengeance by which
society makes the offender suffer as much
as the suffering caused by the crime
Deterrence
•The attempt to discourage criminality
through the use of punishment
Rehabilitation
•A program for reforming the offender to
prevent later offenses
Societal protection
•Rendering an offender incapable of
further offenses temporarily through
imprisonment or permanently by
execution
Punishment deters
some crime, yet our
society has a high
rate of criminal
recidivism –
subsequent offenses
by people convicted
of crimes.
The death penalty
has limited value as
a general deterrent.
Prisons do little to
reshape attitudes or
behavior in the long
run.
COMMUNITY-BASED CORRECTIONS
Advantages
-Reduce costs
Correctional
programs operating
within society
rather than behind
prison walls
-Supervision of
convicts while
eliminating
hardships of prison
life and stigma of
jail
-Not so much to
punish as to reform
• Probation
• Shock probation
• Parole
• Recidivism is high