Approaches to Defining Deviance
4 Primary Approaches:
1) Absolutist:
Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are in
violation of a universal morality.
By morality sociologists mean a belief system
for distinguishing right/good from wrong/bad.
Fails to take into account situational or
contextual factors (cultural differences; historical
factors)
Western Judeo-Christian Absolutism
Ten Commandments (Exodus)
• Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
• Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image …
• Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy God in vain
• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
• Honor thy father and thy mother
• Thou shalt not kill
• Thou shalt not commit adultery
• Thou shalt not steal
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, Etc.
Approaches to Defining Deviance
2) Statistical:
Deviant behavior constitutes actions that are a
numerical minority. Conformity is defined by
majority behavior.
Majority rule, minority deviance
Criticism: What may be otherwise thought of as
deviant behavior is from the statistical view is
behavior in which a numerical majority engages
(e.g. pre-marital sex; minor delinquency;
speeding)
Approaches to Defining Deviance
3) Reactivist:
Deviance is any behavior which produces
a “negative” reaction. This puts the focus
on those reacting rather than the “deviant”.
Highly situational/contextual (subjectivist).
Criticism: A norm violation is necessary
before any reaction to deviance takes
place.
Approaches to Defining Deviance
4) Normative (objective):
Deviance is defined by violation of a social norm.
Social norms can be identified in an objective way.
Contextual, but less so than the Reactivist approach
Deviance hinges on a group notion of:
a) what “ought” to be (Prescriptions)
b) What “should” not be (Proscriptions)
Norms require a significant level of group consensus
Issues to be Aware of in Defining Deviance
• Individual properties relevant to a deviant status
• Attitudes, Beliefs
• Behavior
• Conditional characteristics
– Ascribed characteristics
– Achieved
– Choices or “agency”
• Structural influences on deviance
• Structural differences in life chances
• Power differences in defining deviance
• Cultural frameworks, which provide meaning to interpreting behavior
• We will examine both levels and try to make connections
(Structuration – Giddens)
How Distinct is Deviance?
Deviance
Immorality
Crime
Ch 2 (Tittle & Paternoster) makes this point.
They focus on middle class norms because society is too fractured from their view to
hold a single set of norms applicable to all members of society.
Do you agree?
More on Norms
Three dimensions of social norms:
1) Folkways - concerned with minor,
everyday conventions of behavior:
etiquette, tradition, etc.
2) Mores - based upon larger societal level
standards of morality.
3) Laws – strongest set of norms: formally
codified, sanctioned, etc.
Folkways, Mores, and Law
Emile Durkheim on Deviance: Part Reactivist, part Normative
What distinguishes different behaviors from one another?
Crime: Acts that violate collective sentiments
Collective Sentiments:
Beliefs shared by social groups; all social groups can be
thought of as cultural communities
Culture: the distinctive way of life for a group of people
Altruistic Sentiment: Respect for that which is another’s
Durkheim’s Assumptions about Human Nature
Durkheim on Deviance/Crime
Defining characteristic of crime is
punishment that follows a criminal act
The defining element is the social reaction to
the act, especially the intensity of reaction.
Altruistic Sentiment Scale
Durkheim wants
to know “What
distinguishes
crime from poor
taste?”
Poor taste
low
Robbery
High
Moral boundaries
Formal Negative Sanctions are applied when a threshold of
collective sentiments is violated
Notes on Moral Boundaries
• Variable according to changes in collective sentiments
– Definitions change over time
– Change over social space (audiences vary)
• Amount of deviance, however is relatively stable
• Subculture:
A group with a distinctive way of life that maintains some ties to
larger the society/culture
• Sanctions:
Positive & Negative
Formal & Informal
Sanctions are social devices to produce conformity