Soc 319
Sociological Approaches to Social Psychology
Tuesday April 28, 2009: Deviance
I. What is Deviant Behavior?
A. Deviant behavior is behavior that violates the norms that apply in a given
situation.
1. Two different views of deviance exist:
a. Absolutist view:
 Deviance in the nature of the act itself.
 Deviance intrinsic to certain actions.
 What is deviant is not decided by the social customs of a group right and wrong exist independently of arbitrary, human-created
social judgments.
 Standards of right and wrong apply to all cultures at all points in
history. Deviant behavior is something abnormal or wrong that
should be corrected or punished.
 Relatively few behaviors that are considered deviant across all
contexts (incest may be one exception).
b. Culturally relative: accepted by most sociologists.
 Judgments of right and wrong, abnormal and normal, vary across
place, culture, time period, context, etc.
 What one group, in one culture, and at one point in time views as
sinful or criminal may be perfectly acceptable to others in another
context.
 Symbolic interactionists: deviance is socially constructed or culturally
relative. How do we know whether an act is “deviant”? We assess the
behavior against the backdrop of the context in which it occurs. (e.g.
drinking excessive alcoholic beverages in the privacy of one’s home is
deviant, but may be considered “normal” in some college party
settings)
2. Where do these behavioral norms come from?
a. “Local” and group norms:
 those that are handed down by one’s primary group, or the people with whom one
is closest, and interacts most.
 Think of the behavior that you engage in regularly with college friends. Now
think what would happen if you did that same behavior with your family. How
might your parents react?
 diversity in local norms.
b. Subcultural norms: apply to large numbers of individuals who share a given
characteristic.
 Think about some of the guidelines or traditions that mold the behavior of various
ethnic and religious groups in the United States. Eating certain food, for instance,
might be considered a “deviant” act by some groups, but not others.
c. Societal norms are the broad norms that are widely adhered to in a given society.
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Generally speaking, violations of societal norms are more often subject to
“official” punishment. When sociologists study deviance, they most often focus
on violation of societal norms.
II. Why do people behave in a deviant fashion: early perspectives
A. Medicalization of deviance
1. Deviant behavior is result of individual pathology or sickness. Many
perspectives argued that people were “bad since birth,” and were born
with a biological predisposition to do wrong.
Historical examples of “medicalization”
1. Phrenology (Franz Gall – 19th century)
a. shape of brain and skull revealed important aspects about one’s
personality, including criminal tendencies.
2. Facial features (Cesare Lombroso – late 19th early 20th c.)
a. facial features and physical build determined criminality
b. receding hairlines, fleshy lips, broad noses, and long arms were
associated with criminality.
c. Adherents believed that criminals were similar to primitive man
d. No evidence to support claims; observations were based on prison
populations only
3. Bodyshaping (William Sheldon – early to mid 20th c.)
a. physique determined criminality.
b. Mesomorphs (stocky, muscular builds) were believed to be more
crime-prone than endomorphs (soft, round builds) or ectomorphs
(thin builds).
c. Mesomorphs were believed to have high blood pressure, were
quick to anger, and were very aggressive with little impulse
control.
d. Data were weak; studies were based on prison populations only,
and did not consider not-criminal mesomorphs.
III. Why do people behave in deviant fashion? Sociological Explanations
(These theories are generally used to understand the most commonly recognized
form of deviance, criminal behavior. Some are also suitable for studying interpersonal
deviance or mental health problems.)
A. Anomie or structural strain theory (Robert Merton)
1. Merton: deviance is a reaction to the discrepancy between socially
engendered goals and the availability of legitimate means to achieve those goals.
 Aspirations are cultural artifacts, and the assumption is that all members of
culture should subscribe to these goals.
 In the U.S. that cultural goal is occupational and financial success. Individuals
who do not or CANNOT meet these goals are defined as deviant. An important
point is that not all individuals have equal access to (or the legitimate means
for achieving) those goals, however (crime by race chart).
a. Legitimate means refers to the socially acceptable pathways for
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reaching a social acceptable goal, such as education, or connections to help secure a good
job.
b. Merton’s typology. Those who do not have legitimate means must still
strive to achieve the socially acceptable goals, yet often they must devise their own
strategy for reaching that goal. The five adaptation strategies help us to define what is
deviant.
c. Merton’s typology emphasizes the different adaptations that people
may make to the contradiction between cultural goals and means of attaining goals.
Conformist
 experience in society leads to the acceptance of both culturally prescribed goals
and the socially legitimate means for reaching those goals.
 “accept” the goals of one’s society, such as the goals of receiving an education
and finding a good job.
 same time, these people have access to reaching those goals; perhaps they have
the family background which allows for them to afford college.
 most common adaptation to socially structured goals and means, and is the one
path that adheres to SOCIETAL level norms.
 Conformists are not viewed as deviants, although the remaining strategies are
generally viewed as deviant.
Innovator
 adheres to the goals of economic success, yet does not have the legitimate means
of achieving those goals.
 devise new ways in order to reach those goals.
 Drug dealers, prostitutes, thieves.
 I.e. joining a gang may be a rational act because it provides a structured way for
an individual to procure social and economic resources.
Ritualists give up the goal of economic success, but do abide by
legitimate means. For instance, an hourly worker who works hard yet gives up the goal of
wealth...
Retreatist does not want the goal, nor do they strive for it. Those who live
on communes, dropouts from society, substance abusers are retreatists.
Rebels devise both their own valued goals and their own means to achieve
them. One who wants a new social order, religious zealots, Unibomber, cults, terrorists.
d. Strengths of anomie theory
1. It takes blame off of individual for deviant behavior, and recognizes that
unfair distribution of resources is associated with deviant behavior. This is in sharp
contrast to early theories of deviance which viewed deviance as a pathological trait of the
individual.
e. Recent additions to theory
1. Cloward & Ohlin: The social structure must provide accessibility to
illegal means. This concept helps us to understand why people choose different
“innovative” paths.
 E.G. Persons with education and access to business knowledge may engage in
insider trading, while persons without access to such resources may innovate by
selling drugs or committing robbery.
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B. Control theory.
The premise: social ties influence our tendency to engage in deviant behavior.
Delinquency or deviance can be understood in terms of the processes which set
people free from bonds of normative constraint.
 Travis Hirschi: “delinquent acts result when an individual’s bond to society is
weak or broken.”
 Social bonding - both inner and outer dimensions. The inner is characterized by
socialization into a set of conventional beliefs about how one should act.
Socialization into a society’s conventional belief system is a central feature of
bonding or social control. Internalization is important; one takes on mainstream
societal beliefs as their own, even in absence of constant reinforcement.
 Outer dimensions of social bonding may also operate as controls against deviant
behavior.
Attachment - This refers to the strength of a person’s ties to others,
particularly to other persons who conform to society’s normative standard.
 Ties to parents and conventional peers are among the most important sources of
attachments.
 Strongly attached people are viewed as sensitive to the opinions of others, and
they have a great investment in achieving or maintaining the respect of others. If
someone’s associates are conventionally oriented, then the greater the attachment
to them, the less likely a person is to deviate from conventionality.
Commitment. This refers to the degree to which a person is tied to
conventional ways of behaving by virtue of the social rewards one obtains from acting in
accordance with prevailing norms.
 The logic: the more one gains by acting conventionally, the more that person
stands to lose by deviating, and thus the less likely one will break from the
prevailing norms. For instance, the costs of committing a crime are much higher
to a person in college, or a person with a high-paying job (compared to a “drifter”
or an unemployed person).
Involvement - This refers to the proportion of a person’s time engaged in
the pursuit of conventionality.
 The logic: that if a great percentage of someone’s time and energy is taken up by
work and family commitments, then there is little time left over for deviance.
Think of community programs to have “after school centers” for teens. Part of the
plan is that if the teens’ time is occupied, they will be less likely to have the
opportunity to act out.
 Empirical assessments?
o Age crime curve data: crime rates decline at precisely the point in the life
course when individuals go to college, get jobs, marry, and start families.
These are indicators of one’s ties to other persons, social institutions, and
relative rewards and costs of engaging in deviant behavior.
o Sampson and Laub (1990) tracked a sample 1,000 white males from
childhood to age 32. Their sample included 500 boys who were in a
correctional school, and 500 who were in a public school. They found that
boys who had engaged in anti-social behavior during childhood had
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substantially more arrests as adults. Yet the relationship was hardly
perfect. Some males who exhibited antisocial behavior during childhood
did not have arrest records as adults, while some who had clean childhood
records went on to commit criminal acts. Sampson and Laub use social
control theory as an explanation. They predicted that changes
strengthening social bonds to society in adulthood would lead to less
crime, whereas changes weakening social bonds would lead to more
crime. During childhood, parents, school, and peer groups are the sources
of social bonds. During young adulthood, work and marriage or other
romantic relationships are the source of social bonds.
The researchers found support for social control theory. Among males who
had earlier been in the correctional school, those who as young adults had strong
attachments to their jobs or spouses had lower arrest records. Among the young
adults who attended regular school, those without adult bonds had higher arrest
records.
C. Differential association- Hirschi’s control theory had originally proposed that social
bonds would protect against delinquency. But what if someone’s social ties were with
those who were delinquent? Is it possible that deviant behavior might be learned by one’s
peer group?
1. Sutherland’s differential association theory: we learn deviant behavior the
same way we learn conventional behavior. The term “differential” emphasizes the
significance of the ratio of deviant to conventional contacts. We become deviant when
exposed to an overabundance of deviant behavior patterns, compared with conventional
behavior patterns. The extent to which we learn the behavior of others depends upon:
a. the point in the life course when we interact with the group.
Associations earlier in life are more important.
b. the degree to which we are emotionally attached to
the group
c. we have more frequent and longer associations with
group members
2. Application: This theory (in addition to Merton’s anomie) has been used to
explain high recidivism rates in the United States. An estimated 70 percent of all persons
who leave prison go on to be arrested again within three years following their release.
Critics of the prison system say the current system creates a situation where a prisoner’s
social worlds are made up solely of other prisoners, thus individuals are socialized to
further behave in a deviant/criminal way upon their release.
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